Tag Archives: team politics

The Importance of the Right of Free Association : Defending ourselves from the Shithead Hypothesis

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Meet the ShitheadsOK here is the soon to be tremendously famous Shithead Hypothesis or The Simple Shithead Hypothesis for short:

“There are 3 groups of people in life 

      1. The largest are those we don’t know, then 

      2. The people we like, and finally 

      3. The people we’ve decided are shitheads.”  

You might come up with “friendlier” terms but in the end it’s really the same groupings….

The hypothesis came to mind when a very good friend asked me what could I do to make our current political system work better.  You’re probably wondering the same thing I was at the time what the hell does my thought have to do with the question?  Well, having “Madman” in my title you should expect some less than direct thinking.

The Shithead Hypothesis quickly turns into a problem when we get lazy and bucket people we don’t know as shitheads just because they are associated with a given group.  I mean what could go wrong assuming all people in a group are shitheads?  Don’t get me wrong there are some groups who truly support horrific ideas, e.g. hurting people, killing people, .…  But I’m talking about political parties here, not Boko Haram, the Aryan Brotherhood or NAMBLA.  And yeah parties are not in the same league! I mean don’t be a shithead…

Yet rhetoric, noise and money is aimed behind these artificial teams called political parties specially to make us think the “other side” is just a seeming pile of shitheads.  The sad things these teams are simply groups of Americans that would like to make life better but they see different problems and approaches.  Yeah that person you don’t know and can’t stand because of what “team” they’re on is trying to make your life better. But, since they’re shitheads we don’t listen to them at all.  In fact it is very effective to get an idea dismissed simply by associating it with the “shitheads”…

Ok great I see how this is a problem…  But Madman what is a step toward a solution?  Funny you should ask that (ok in my head you asked).  One of the main reasons this crazy rhetoric and division works is we divide people into political parties.  That is as far as our auspicious government is concerned you can only officially register with one party.  This forces people to choose a team (or not play at all).  However as Americans we all have the right to freely associate any and all groups we want at least those groups that will have us. And if we joined multiple parties we’re likely to understand they’re just groups of Americans rather than the worst shitheads ever.

So the solution? We need to sue states that do not allow us to register in multiple parties.  This won’t end political parties, just make us all more motivated o listen to each other a little bit more. Parties are of course allowed to reject people if they want to, but states simply need to respect our right to participate in any and as many parties as we want!

A Madman has spoken….

Destroying America One Lie at a Time : Why we should value truth

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Politcal fighting is never the answer

I love a good competition, sometimes even a shouting match but the amount of lies that permeate the remains of political discourse is just disgusting.  America stands for freedom and democracy, we control our destiny.  I am proud of that to my core.

But that also depends on all of us being informed.  As we vote it is hard enough to understand different points of views and arguments to cast that vote. As an American I feel a responsibility to do my best each time a vote comes up.  To make it my choice not to be led by some sticking talking point even if I like the person its coming from.

But the pure amount of lies being generated everyday now tears the heart out of me.  Those political leaders that lie to the US public are the most despicable un-American, un-patriotic politicians. They are simply avoiding or trying to change the truth to be more successful.  Even if they thin it forwards and agenda best for us it destroys our ability as Americans to make that choice.  I am sorry if they don’t have the balls to tell us the truth.  If they feel so week that lying is necessary it is simply wrong in a democracy.

As Americans we can tell lies are happening based on the disagreement over basic facts.  I’m not trying to tell you  how to believe.  But we must expect and hold our leaders responsible for then the truth.  If we catch them in lies or don’t believe them we simply must vote them out.  We can make up our minds who are the liars and who trusts us with the truth.

In this case political boundaries don’t matter.  Our American democracy thrives under truth and falters under lies.  So there are two sides the the American side and the lias’ side, lets Throw the Liars Out!!

A Madman has spoken….

Are We Half Crazy? : What's broken in American Elections

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what-happenedWell here we are after the election, and no matter who won you were going to end up with half the country with a huge pit in their stomach wondering what went wrong why did the other side win.  And the other half breathing a sigh of relief.  But no matter what side you we’re on the world is not coming to and end.  Of that I am relatively sure…

But having these elections where we have such a polarizing feeling portraying total destruction by either side is a real problem.  We really need an election where we feel like multiple candidates could do the job are running for. There are a few real problems in our elections:

One is a natural tendency people to want to gather tougher and support “their team” no matter what.  Basically we don’t have political parties that represent policy opinions, we have “teams” that we rally around. Unfortunately given our American tenacity in pursuing winning at all costs we eat ourselves alive.  Rather than looking at how to make the country and American’s thrive we get caught up in brining the other team down.  And losing sight of the fact that “other team”, well it is made up of another set of Americans.

Making this tendency worse is how money gets used in politics.  Money itself isn’t the issue, but that the vast majority gets spent in ad campaigns.  Ad campaigns by their nature are trying to find the most effective way to get one candidate / team to win.  Trying to present what the issues are, weigh multiple points of view and pick the best option is simply too long, tedious and uncertain for a political campaign,  It is far more effective to tie your candidate / team to a brand and make it a right / wrong choice.  So basically money in politics today is trying to make us all stupid…

Finally money in politics today has gone dark. The biggest problem I see with the Citizens United Ruling is not how much money is allows to flow into politics its that is misses the very important difference between free speech and money.  When I speak out on a subject you know it is me speaking, even if I use a megaphone.  But now people can “talk” via money and leave no trace.

We simply need to find a way to counteract this and work toward real information, discussion and debate on what is best for our country.

 

A Madman has Spoken…