"Political" Discussions

[FIREshrink]

If these stats can be believed, we can guess some posters’ politics just by their handles:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html

 

In my anecdotal experience, the data is correct, but not for the reasons claimed (income inequality). The personalities of surgeons and psychiatrists are really and truly different. And ‘personalities’ are only a half step away from ‘values.’ And I’ll just leave it at that.

[wideopenspaces]

FIREshrink wrote:

If these stats can be believed, we can guess some posters’ politics just by their handles:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html

 

In my anecdotal experience, the data is correct, but not for the reasons claimed (income inequality). The personalities of surgeons and psychiatrists are really and truly different. And ‘personalities’ are only a half step away from ‘values.’ And I’ll just leave it at that.

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I always laugh at myself when I see that.

Psychiatrist . . . check

Democrat . . . check

:-)

 

Overall, I don't see the issue with these political discussions. I can't get riled up about potential changes to law. The current environment is just way too unpredictable. So I haven't read a lot of these threads about "what if . . . (in relation to potential tax code changes) ". I have still gotten a lot out of this forum as the vast majority of threads are not political. If folks don't want to listen to people go back and forth, then don't! Or read them while enjoying a bucket of popcorn, or wine ;-)

[Antares]

MPMD wrote:

Well this has been a fairly interesting exercise. I’m going to type out one more post and then never post again about politics on this forum again or reply to this thread.

1. First of all, I am genuinely sorry and apologize if anything I have posted or discussed has materially altered other reader’s experience of these fora.

2. Others have correctly pointed out that I shouldn’t have “dragged” another forum member into this and they are correct about that. We don’t know each other and I don’t really know much about his politics other than what has played out on a very limited # of threads. I honestly put that on there a bit tongue-in-cheek and have been surprised by how this thread has played out. Apologies specifically to Zaphod.

3. Honestly I still find it a little bit hard to believe that these 4-5 threads over the last month have poisoned the well so much but I will retract prior statements and take people at their word. I still suspect that this is because of specific left-right dynamics rather than a general distaste for anything political, but I feel fairly bad if it had truly affected traffic to the forums. I think this a on the whole a right-of-center community and I realize I am probably out of that mainstream.

4. I don’t think it’s helpful for posters (as some have done on this thread) to act like I need some sort of rehabilitation or careful examination of my beliefs or sources. Unlike the vast majority of even fairly regular posters here I am not anonymous and have never really tried to be. You can surf over to my twitter or any of my guest posts and learn whatever you want. We are in a crazy, divisive, and dangerous time. You’ll never get me to pretend otherwise. I have never found virtue in being silent in the face of horrible behavior. This forum was not the venue for that though and I do realize that.

5. I genuinely remain totally mystified as to how to have a productive conservative about specific partisan legislation while pretending like it has appeared out of a vacuum. But I acknowledge that others are seeing this as churlishness rather than genuine confusion and I won’t participate in further discussions of that kind.

6. I repeat my apology, and while no place is worse than the internet for tone, I mean it sincerely.

 

MJP, MD

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I for one am sorry to hear nothing more from you here about politics. Your posts are intelligent. You’ve made me feel less of an anomaly.