[drcy]

With the great "Us and Them" divide, I'm reminded of the story:

During the Cold War 1960s, a group of Midwestern American citizens went on a trip to the Soviet Union. After returning, they were asked by the press for their impressions. They said their biggest surprise was to learn that the Russians citizens were "just normal people, like us."

Most political arguments are stupid and embarrassing to watch, which is why I completely skip them, and few, even in person, know my politics. Reasonable, reasoned debates with intelligent people of other political viewpoints are welcome with me. I like to hear different takes and reasonings-- and I know there are different legitimate ways to look at issues and problems, often based on different but legitimate priorities. However, I have an allergy to strawman arguments, cognitive biases and fallacies, zealotry, schoolyard namecalling, predetermined conclusions looking for evidence, etc-- and, yes, they come equally from both sides.

I was raised that the first person to call the other a name lost the debate, because, in a debate, you resort to name calling when you can't think of a legitimate counter-argument.