Why are so many people so mean when it comes to politics?

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Sometime's i say my opinion's on politic's but i try to keep it simple because i never understood politic's much.
People tried to teach me about them but it never seemed to truly get into my brain to me it made no scent's.
But i still try to understand and put my own opinions out in the world the best i can because i feel i should.
I am not mean about it or wording it mean but people come back mean or i believe there coming back (mean)
I don't know if it's because i am a easy target for them or if it's because i did something wrong i didn't see or mean to do.
But whatever it is i did why can't people just speak nicely about it? and not blast it into your face? I ask on site's that are not here.
But maybe i should start asking here were people understand me more! because i hate feeling like someone's yelling on the other end.
but i allwes feel like there yelling if there's no simile's involved. similes help me understand that there not yelling. but sometime's even without them i do think they are yelling because it sound's in there word's like they hate me or something crazy.

why are people mean over this?
that's the question.

For many people, politics is very personal. It usually represents an aspect of who they are and some of their deepest belief systems. Some people believe in abortion. Some don't. Some believe in Gay Marriage. Some don't. So, politics is about issues really important to people and that can cause them get very personal and emotional about it.

Because it's tied to morals (e.g. ideas like justice and fairness) and people tend to be very dogmatic about their core beliefs and aggressive in defending them against perceived attacks (they think you're attacking them if you have a different world view). They can't tolerate another position, because they perceive it as "obviously wrong".

For many people, politics is not just personal; it takes on religious proportions, with their favorite candidate as their 'god' and their favorite propositions as their 'doctrine'.

The only people that I've seen more angry than the supporters of a losing candidate are jihadists; neither of which deserve my sympathy.

Often times politics represent deeply held beliefs and convictions.

It's a manifestation of our personal world view.

... a most apt description of religion, if I've ever seen one ...

Political parties can be a form of religion.

I defriended someone for saying that they considered Obama the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

But still, politics are something that impacts every aspect of our lives.

Because it's a very strong topic due to bringing out strong feelings. People have strong feelings about it so their emotions get in the way. People are pretty much black and white in it. It's best to avoid the topic and not discuss it and to stay away from it. It pretty much gets ugly when you have a different point of view.

Last edited by League_Girl on 10 Nov 2012, 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Belief is a very strong thing. If you believe in something strong enough, you will commit the most vile of atrocities, especially against people whose beliefs conflict with yours. I've seen people come to blows over which brand of shoes looks better.

Once you understand how belief systems work, you'll see that there is very little difference between religion and politics.

Politics is secular religion, with an otherwise ordinary person as the "Messiah", the party platform as the "Doctrine", and the supporters acting as "Worshippers" and "Evangelists".

Once you know history, you'll see how religion and politics have been intertwined for millennia, and you'll also see how violence and intimidation have been used to spread and enforce specific belief systems.

Well, online people are judgmental about poor grammar, which you have, and people may focus on that rather than what you are saying. People like a well presented argument.

[Moved from Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation to PPR]

You can't speak nicely about politics because politics is the human dynamic. When you perceive humans are working well together, politics is great, and when they are not, politics is immoral. Since there are sides that are vying for control and attempting to shape the way things are viewed, there will be battles, and our positions and alliances will harden us.

Politics has now become a religion. An example: for one side, it is always moral air on the side of high taxes. And for the other, the principle is to cut it as often as you can. Sometimes either side puts the principle ahead of people, and people then suffer because of it.

It is becoming a religion on the Right, especially amongst libertarians, Neocons, and absolutists of any sort. The same is true of the left, but the left has been religious pre-Marx. Dogma's, such as the wealthy or our military are inherently immoral are thrown around liberally have been echoed through the ages.

I have seen multiple posts on FB saying something like, "Anyone who voted for X is an idiot".
Seriously? Almost everyone has a friend or family member who voted for the other guy. Why would you call your friends and family names?? I defriended one person who was posting nasty things DAILY despite several people asking her to stop, including her own sister.
Nut jobs.

Political convictions are akin to religious convictions. Which is to say that both are irrational and guided by passion rather than logic. Which is why politics is so nasty.

If people could understand that reasonable folk can disagree given the same set of facts, then they can disagree agreeably. But such does not seem to be the case. Alas.

ruveyn

People are "mean" when it comes to politics because all politics are rooted in emotion, more specifically the fear of death.

How so, you ask?

"Politics" is just the system we use to decide who gets what resources and when. People essentially pick their political positions based on which philosophy they think will get them the "biggest piece of the pie," so to speak. Granted, some people are better than others at assembling "facts" and logic by which to prop-up their viewpoints, but it doesn't change the inherently emotional nature of "political opinions." There are all kinds of "facts" and it's out emotional biases that dictate which "facts" we choose to pay attention to.

To summarize: humans are primates. Primates compete for resources via social maneuvering. Humans just happen to have a more powerful computer than most other primates; therefore, when we're flinging poop at each other and screaming about who should get the best position in the fruit tree, we think it's more sophisticated than what it actually is, and we call it "politics."

Hence, why I generally avoid political discussions.

I've been saying, "Religion is the politics of faith; politics is the religion of society" for a few decades now, and it is gratifying to finally see other people making similar statements.