ASU2003

Is it your parents and family that have the biggest influence?
Is it your education and how teachers present certain info?
Is it your socio-economic standing either growing up or currently?
Does the media and who you feel you can trust to tell you what is really going on influence people?
Do your friends or religion impact your feelings on issues?
Could anonymous people on the Internet change your mind, or make it easier to find more people that agree with you?
Is it a few life experiences either positive or negative that change how you think government should be run?
Is it your interactions and feelings towards other people that make you think they should be responsible for themselves or should get helped out?


And the big question, do you think the DNC and GOP (in the USA) know this info and are implementing policy to try and get more voters?


I thought of this question while listening to someone talk about charter schools and why public schools that had unions weren't as good in America as the charter school model. Now that is a debate for another thread, but I felt if they were trying to convince me, why wouldn't they try and convince the kids that are going to the charter school that they are better than the public school kids. It appears that once people define who they are, it takes a lot to change that. They listen and watch news reporting that re-enforces their beliefs, they make friends easier with people who share their beliefs, and they don't want to be wrong.



For me, even though I was 5 or 6, I knew my parents and grandparents didn't like Reagan. They had pictures of Kennedy still. My Dad was neutral and kpt his politics to himself, but I would say he is a Bill O'Reilly kind of guy on the middle-right, but left on some issues. I've had friends with various views on all the issues, but I usually keep my views to myself.

I don't feel like I fit in with any one political party. I look like a republican, live like a green, and feel that the democrats have the right ideas for running the government. I still listen to multiple news sources, but I think some of them are trying to warp the news to what they think their viewers want to hear instead of the simple truth. They have too many people with lots of opinions instead of facts on what is actually happening. But as I get older, I feel stronger about what I think is the right direction for this country to go in. However if I had a business, or had a trust fund, I may feel differently.

Willravel

Visa versa, generally.
Some yes, some no. I had several incredibly talented and skilled teachers, but it was the arguments they presented along with solid evidence that I try to let speak to my given understanding of the world.
No. I didn't identify with "poor" when I was younger and I don't really identify with "comfortable" (or however you'd put it) now. I simply have a given amount of money.
There are very tiny elements of media that I've learned to trust, but generally I find that the media is a hinderance to freedom from irrational biases, not a boon.
My irreligion does to a certain degree. I've found that, without intentionally doing so, I've become automatically distrustful of anything associated with fundamentalist or devout religion. Part of leaving religion—which can take a lifetime—is learning to put religion in its proper context. I may view religion as simply a misinterpretation, but that does not necessarily mean that things which are associates with religion are automatically a misinterpretation. It's a bias that I'm still dealing with.

As for friends, I do have discussions about politics, religion, and philosophy, but I don't have any undue sway over my friends nor them me. In other words, they don't impact my feelings on issues so much as information they convey.
Occasionally, yes, but anonymous people in the internet change my mind, but I've found such faux-societal constructs to be severely limiting. As useful as hyperliniking is, it doesn't take the place of real face-to-face conversation with real friends. There are a lot of drawbacks to things like bulletin boards and forums.
Absolutely not. You cannot responsibly determine the overall effectiveness of anything, be it government or market, without taking into account as much data as possible. And then some. Personal experience cannot possibly compare to the actual data available. My personal experience with FEMA is that they're an incredibly efficient agency, but people in New Orleans would have very different personal stories to tell. Who's right? We can't know without looking at the entire history of FEMA, and how well it's learned from past mistakes, and how it may continue to improve.
No, this would be a form of bias.

Charlatan

I don't think any one thing can possibly account for why anyone sees the world as they do. It can only be a combination of life-long experience. Though I would suggest that at different parts of your life different elements can have a stronger influence (depending on your circumstances). For example, a child can be hugely influenced by their parents or other important adults (teachers, religious leaders, etc.).

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Derwood

Grew up with parents who voted Republican (though mostly out of habit, I think. They weren't super religious or socially conservative).

I identified as conservative in high school, but moving from small town PA to Chicago for college opened my eyes to many different kinds of people and situations that skewed me more liberal.

I'm not a text book liberal/democrat, though many here (and on other boards) like to paint me that way.

mixedmedia

eyes, ears, brain. it's pretty simple, really.

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PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Tully Mars

^ Yeah, what she said.

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Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Poppinjay

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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

Xerxys

^^ Olberman? Don't you mean Colbert Report?

Socio economic status. Need more be said?

roachboy

i dont think this is a straightforward matter at all.
take for example the first parameter in the op--parents. think about the number of ways in which "influence" can be defined. think about the range of reactions that such influence can engender. think about the many ways in which a response which begins, say, as a reaction against can modulate over time.

where does the notion of "the world" that people have come from? what conditions the sense of "fit" that might obtain between that sense/those senses (because they are not necessarily internally consistent) of "the world" and political statements?
(and what is a political statement? is it normative? descriptive? is there a difference? what is it?)

what makes you think that socio-economic situation is some kind of objectivity? situation in relation to what?
do you imagine socio-economic situation is measurable by, say, income level taken in isolation?
on what possible basis?
does that mean income level is not relevant?
on what possible basis?

it just gets worse.

thinking about this tho.
maybe something will occur to me.
or someone else, really.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

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dc_dux

On the lighter side.

Its simple...ask yourself one question....is there a rep for that?

YouTube - Republicans in Congress

YouTube - Republicans in Congress

Do you want to belong to a party with these reps?

__________________
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire

Derwood

The GOP has issued a survey to ask what you think about important issues in the country.

I promise, the questions aren't slanted or biased in any way whatsoever.

RNC | 2009 REPUBLICAN PARTY CENSUS DOCUMENT

Yep, totally objective.

Willravel

HA! not bad.


BTW, love the motorboating avatar.

dc_dux

I was in a kinda mood, but he was before your time.

__________________
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
~ Voltaire

Ce'Nedra

Maybe not the biggest, but certainly a sizeable influence was my upbringing and my parents' views. My Dad is a small business owner in the medical field and an ultra-conservative Republican. Of course that influences how I view politics today. I was raised in a devout Catholic family, which also plays a major role in my political views, even if I've since fallen away from the Church. On the other hand, my family has always been big on Sunday dinner table discussions and expressing and exploring personal views, so my siblings and I are free to find our own ways and develop our own views, even if they go against what my parents believe. The important thing is backing up your opinions with facts and reasons. So while many of my political views are the same as my parents, especially my Dad, I never felt like I was blindly following his lead.

Yes, but maybe to a lesser extent. Going to college in Austin was a huge change from the small, mostly conservative town in which I grew up! But rather than completely change my views, they grew stronger every time I defended or explained my point of view to professors or fellow students. As a teacher I try my absolute best to remain completely unbiased in the classroom, hard though it may be at times. And it's important that my students understand history is very much politically slanted, and it's their job to separate the fact from the opinion, even when reading from their textbooks. (Especially then, actually!)

Never thought about that, but probably. Again, my Dad owning his own business has certainly made an impact.

No. Like a high school textbook, the news media today is completely politically slanted.

Sure. I'd say the same as my family and upbringing, since the religion is such a major part of my childhood.

This is interesting! What's the difference between a random person on the internet, who presents logic and facts to back up their point of view, and a newspaper? Either way you have to be cautious and do your own research. But random people on the internet can bring up new ideas or points of view you haven't considered before.

Absolutely. I changed tremendously in my thinking about politics after my then boyfriend joined the Army. You can't not change from something like that, I think.

I honestly believe that everyone should be given a chance. But once they've blown that chance, then it's up to them to make a change.