Reply #39: Thanks for discussing your thoughts with me

[jpgray]

As I said to ProSense below, I don't doubt those numbers on support for Obama at all, and I think a lot of the really nasty stuff directed at Obama comes from those who use these boards more as an outlet for frustration than as a place to express all the nuances of their opinions. Also, it is the internet, and I know I catch myself being nastier or more dismissive in my opinions if I've run afoul of one particularly nasty and dismissive person who disagrees with me on an issue. After such an experience, it gets tempting to lump more reasonable folk in with the nastiness and never express any agreement with that "side" of the issue at all.

Add in the tendency in all internet debates to retrench rather than reexamine or retreat, and you get some seemingly one-sided posting histories from people whose actual views are not at all that way.

(It's been true for me at times, anyway. :hide:)