Conforming to political parties

Although I don't actively engage in online discussion regarding politics, I read a lot of what people have to say. One of the most remarkable things is how most people are blindly loyal to one of our two corrupt political parties.


Neither party's views make much sense when you really think about it. If you care about future generations, which party should you side with? The Democrats are saddling future generations with debt (although Republicans also have not done well in addressing this problem) that they won't be able to pay back while Republicans refuse to address any environmental concerns. Neither party cares about future generations, and they both justify their actions by talking about benefits that we will see today.

How about the conservative versus liberal component that is considered to be the primary difference between the parties? The parties conveniently swap sides when it comes to the military.

In some cases, the parties even reverse their beliefs. Government surveillance is a good example of this. During George W. Bush's presidency, we saw the misguided Patriot Act become law. Republicans consistently defended it while Democrats referred to it as one of the worst pieces of legislation in history. The following president, Barack Obama, extended the Patriot Act. Now, Democrats are defending what they once considered to be among the worst legislation by criticizing the Republicans for their undeniable change in position.

Spending is another area where the parties change their views. Bush broke the debt clock. Democrats called him out for his overspending. When Obama took over, our deficits increased. Suddenly, the debt became meaningless. The same people who ridiculed Bush's spending insisted that there are no consequences to spending money that we don't have.

A lot of online political discussions get quite heated. If you attack a party, a supporter of that party will return the attack. I'm going to go back to the Patriot Act on this one. If someone says that they don't believe in the government collecting data on law-abiding citizens, the Democrats will attack the hypocrisy of the Republicans. They do not bother to establish that the person they are criticizing is a Republican. They just assume.

While there are a lot of people who are officially independent, most people clearly pick a side based on which party they feel better supports their beliefs. Once they pick a side, they change their views to better fit that party. They will embrace contradictory beliefs within the party, and they will change their views if their party changes its views. They will automatically and mindlessly defend policies that originate in the party of their preference while automatically and mindlessly ridiculing any policies of the opposing party.

It sickens me that the mainstream has to turn to political leaders to tell them what to think. We should be thinking for ourselves. This is one of many pieces of evidence that I have looked at over the years when I came to the conclusion that we are living in the most mindless era in human history. As long as we continue supporting the political parties, we are proving that we are morons with an inability to form our own beliefs and opinions.