Koan, I have to disagree. I know the left thinks the right can't debate, and the right thinks the left can't, but the truth is that the two sides don't want the same things, don't put the same construction on things, and both sides mostly look only at the facts they cherish- and they hug those facts, without realizing their are other facts.
Take abortion. On one side you have some every sperm is sacred folks, who don't even like contraception. Then you have people who don't like killing "babies" (and who would define even a potential baby, a cluster of cells, as a baby.) Then you have the more reasonable folks who just don't want actual viable fetuses killed- which makes a certain amount of sense if you have an aversion to killing in general. Then on the left you have people uncomfortable with late term abortions, people comfortable with all abortions, and even people who have no problem with irresponsible women using abortion as birth control.
The middle ground folks might be able to hold a conversation, but there is no way to bring the two outlying flanks together. They each "believe" the other side to be horrible. And that is why left or right, it makes no sense to bring the sides together when there is nothing to be gained by hurled positions. We all know what the positions are, and we have all adopted what we are comfortable with. |
