Civil Discourse

I don't mind discussing politics with those who disagree with me. I don't. I don't as long they're the type who can treat you with respect and recognize your right to your opinion. Unfortunately, those are in short supply. And we have the worst role models in the popular media and online. A few horrid examples: Jon Stewart, Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter, Jeanine Garafalo, Rush Limbaugh, Zero, Robert McClelland, but I digress.

What is the problem? How can anyone be so wrapped up in their own viewpoint that they are unable to so much as consider the salient points of an opposing view. Their conversations quickly dissolve to expletives and insults. They're all output, no input. Opposing viewpoints aren't necessarily wrong or right. Sure, there are some: racism, NAMBLA, Country Music; those are wrong, just wrong.

Most viewpoints are in opposition because they are based on different priorities. Every person's values are a system of priorities. Everybody wants to protect women and babies. For some, their priority is the interest of the woman and her right to choose. For others, the life of the child, born or unborn, takes precedence. Both are good, but what is more important? Nobody will ever convince me that it is okay to take the life of an unborn child, especially for the convenience of the woman, who's just not ready for a child right now. But if I am to express my opinion, I must be able to converse civilly with a person who feels the individual right of a woman to determine the fate of all parts of her body and everything therein are unassailable. If the two of us cannot have a civil discourse, then we are not worthy of the conversation to begin with and ought to simply shut our traps.