Dupe of this huge recent discussion:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13697771" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13697771</a>
It's hard to say from reading the article, and I may have a hair-trigger these days for left-wing hatred and intolerance, but it's genuinely hard to tell here whether Sam really wants to listen to people, or to convince them to adopt his political position. Questions like "What would convince you not to vote for him again?" come off as pushy and leading in this environment.<p>We have such a strong divide in our country these days. I think we should all ask ourselves if we're working to heal the divide or increase it. It's very easy to call others intolerant. It's not so easy to let go of the intolerance in your own heart.
Interesting. Even with the title, and some of the points he made around "seriously disagreeing with some of these people" I found this to be fairly well balanced and interesting.<p>This quote really scares me, and something I've considered true since Obama was first elected. Some people are truly scared to share their political opinions in public. We should be worried about that.<p>"Almost everyone I asked was willing to talk to me, but almost none of them wanted me to use their names — even people from very red states were worried about getting "targeted by those people in Silicon Valley if they knew I voted for him." One person in Silicon Valley even asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement before she would talk to me, as she worried she'd lose her job if people at her company knew she was a strong Trump supporter."
It seems like half these people are socially liberal. I wonder how they feel now that there have been orders to crack down on marijuana and moves towards making abortion illegal again.<p>The single issue voter is just impossible to even debate with or discuss with, they've already trapped themselves into voting for one particular party. Then again I suppose you could call me a strong single issue voter. Environment!<p>So seeing as the current party has actually disclaimed the majority of scientists on this matter saying its nonsense, its hard to debate the merits.
I like that he did this. The extreme polarization of the left vs. right is much more worrisome to me than anything Trump has done (I didn't vote for him.)<p>I would like to see more respect for people with different views. Much of the blame, I think, comes from polarization in the news media.
Interesting article. I like the raw quotes without any unnecessary commentary by the author, but like ufmace said I do think some of the prompts may have come across as pushy.<p>I am not a Trump supporter, but I am interested in the ferocity behind his supporters' feelings of (social? economical?) oppression. This quote in particular,<p>>"Over the last few years, the mainstream left has resorted to name-calling and character assassination, instead of debate, any time their positions are questioned. [...] Intelligent debate has become rare."<p>has me scratching my head somewhat because I personally recall the last eight years to be almost the exact opposite. Did the GOP not spend eight years under a 'No Compromise pledge'[1] while targeting Obama as their political punching bag?<p>With regard to the last sentence, was it not Donald Trump himself who devolved the debate to name calling (or 'character assassination', as this respondent might call it)? "Crooked Hillary", "Sleepy [Ben Carson]", "Little Marco", "Lyin' Ted" all come to mind. Or is this what the respondent might consider 'intelligent debate'?<p>Other responses allude to personal security, particularly this one,<p>>"We need borders at every level of our society."<p>and to responses like this I think there's a question of what the term 'conservative' has become in the last eight years. Would 'the party of small government' of the past dared utter this type of sentiment? Or has Obama's presidency (and Trump's campaign) been so damaging to the GOP that their mantra of 'limited government' as defined on their own website[2] has been unexpectedly dissolved.<p>Maybe this individual isn't a part of the GOP. Or maybe the GOP is out of touch. Or maybe I just live in an echo chamber. Either way, I'm going to be interested to see if the GOP evolves to fit Trump's message, or if it anchors itself with over a dozen fragile candidates whose campaigns are destroyed by a two word catchphrase from a reality TV star.<p>Either Trump is the strongest conservative in eight years, or the GOP and Democrats are the weakest they've ever been.[3]<p>1 <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2010/10/28/130895390/house-republicans-vow-no-compromise" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2010/10/28/130895...</a><p>2 <a href="https://www.gop.com/platform/we-the-people/" rel="nofollow">https://www.gop.com/platform/we-the-people/</a><p>3 <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-party/" rel="nofollow">http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-...</a>
This is the words of a TRUMP supporter!:<p>>“I'm a Jewish libertarian who's [sic] grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Over the last few years the mainstream left has resorted to name-calling and character assassination, instead of debate, any time their positions are questioned. This atmosphere became extremely oppressive and threatening to people, like myself, who disagreed with many of Obama's policies over the past several years. Intelligent debate has become rare.”<p>HOW BLIND ARE THESE PEOPLE? What reality are you creating where you cant see how your contradicting yourself with your own words? Trump did not generate one iota of "Intelligent Debate" throughout his campaign, and never rose above the dull level of "Character Assassination"!<p>Honestly, Please, Show me how Trump has done anything other than fight fire with fire here?<p>>"[We like him because] he's not politically correct!"<p>How spiteful! Just because you're beholden to acting with decency in your daily life doesn't mean electing an Indecent person is going to allow you to trample on other peoples rights. No one's going to lay down and be insulted because you're world-view is too narrow to encompass the actual diversity of the planet.