People, Politics and Politeness

Due to recent events (i.e. President Obama's re-election), there have been a spate of political status updates on Facebook. While some were generic and others were melodramatic, there was one that caught my eye because it basically became a flame war when someone commented on this status complaining about Obama's re-election.

Without going into too much detail, Person X (a friend) posted a status about how Romney losing meant that World War III had been averted. Person Y (a friend of X) commented with a complaint about how Obama's re-election would mean that the United States would slide further into debt and unemployment rates would inevitably rise. In response, X launched a scathing response calling for Y to run for the Presidency since he was so smart and had all the right answers. The thread continued with Y responding politely before Person Z (another friend of mine) jumped in with what I thought was a very fair and well-detailed argument regarding Obama's successes. From then on, though, the thread descended into a farce. Y responded again, politely, which seemed to infuriate X and Z who basically went on insulting his intelligence on the grounds that he was an American who didn't support Obama.

Now, I'm an avid follower of politics and world events and as a result, I enjoy discussing politics. What really irks me though is when people are unable to keep discussions civil. Yes, I realise that politics is a deeply divisive subject and controversial at the best of times, but I feel that people should be able to discuss politics in a polite and intelligent manner as a means of developing their knowledge and exposure to alternate worldviews. When I saw this thread, I felt immensely disappointed in X and Z as they were people who I had known for quite a while and who I thought were great people.

Understandably, people tend to get emotional when politics is discussed because their views are extremely important to them, but that doesn't justify insulting and denigrating someone on the internet. Why resort to the classic fallacy of attacking the man rather than attacking the argument? If you want to demonstrate that you have the better argument, don't slander your opponent, instead, consider their argument and counter the points you find weak. From my point of view, when someone starts hurling insults around instead of making a proper argument, they lose a hell of a lot of credibility and respect in my eyes. Frankly, I don't see the point of dumbing down an opponent. I realise some people think that it makes them look smarter but I reckon that it makes them look arrogant.

So, to sum up this incredibly pointless and long-winded post, I basically have two points. One, I believe that people should be polite when discussing politics (well, actually, I believe people should be polite at all times, but for this post specifically). Two, don't insult people when arguing with them. It makes you look arrogant.