Why are some people so ignorant in regards to opposing views in politics?

There are too many people, in my opinion, who are extremely ignorant, judgemental and stereotypical about those with opposing political views. They only look at one side of a argument and seek out news sources and other people who can back up this one-sided view. They then demonise anybody who thinks differently to them.

I've always thought that the idea of politics and democracy is to listen to all political discussion and encourage healthy debate to further develop your understanding of society and what you need as an individual. Not to yell in somebody's face because they voted for someone you didn't like or to actually physically harm somebody because they have different views to you.

I just don't understand why some people are so ingrained in their political views like this.

Edit: to clarify, I know that politics has always been like this but high-profile political movements like feminism and the other movements for equality that are so prevalent in the media and online seem to bring the bad out in people even more from all paths of politics. Universities and businesses have to cater to specific ideologies because they don't want to be met with argument or violence and it's so easy to spread ideas on social media that find their way onto mainstream media. People shouldn't be afraid to voice their opinion, but they are and that's not right.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

mojojojo101

17

I am always astounded by the amount of people ignorant of their own political views.

Like the Adam Smith Institute who like to ignore the fact that Smith was the one who came up with the Labour theory of value.

Reply 2

username1148663

21

Original post by jkz76

There are too many people, in my opinion, who are extremely ignorant, judgemental and stereotypical about those with opposing political views. They only look at one side of a argument and seek out news sources and other people who can back up this one-sided view. They then demonise anybody who thinks differently to them.

I've always thought that the idea of politics and democracy is to listen to all political discussion and encourage healthy debate to further develop your understanding of society and what you need as an individual. Not to yell in somebody's face because they voted for someone you didn't like or to actually physically harm somebody because they have different views to you.

I just don't understand why some people are so ingrained in their political views like this.

Edit: to clarify, I know that politics has always been like this but high-profile political movements like feminism and the other movements for equality that are so prevalent in the media and online seem to bring the bad out in people even more from all paths of politics. Universities and businesses have to cater to specific ideologies because they don't want to be met with argument or violence and it's so easy to spread ideas on social media that find their way onto mainstream media. People shouldn't be afraid to voice their opinion, but they are and that's not right.

It’s a good point you make in this post.

The amount of people who have deleted a friend off Facebook for voting leave or conservative has become a joke.

It’s even effects places like tinder where you can see people say they don’t want to match with a Tory or leave voter.

The protagonists of this behaviour is usually people of the opposite view point to leave and Tory.

Reply 3

HateOCR

22

I think political debates are more about trying to convince others rather than learn something from the opposition these days.

Reply 4

mojojojo101

17

Original post by paul514

It’s a good point you make in this post.

The amount of people who have deleted a friend off Facebook for voting leave or conservative has become a joke.

It’s even effects places like tinder where you can see people say they don’t want to match with a Tory or leave voter.

The protagonists of this behaviour is usually people of the opposite view point to leave and Tory.

Jeez. Victim Complex much.

Reply 5

username1148663

21

Original post by mojojojo101

Jeez. Victim Complex much.

Well no, because it is happening and for me personally I don’t care even a little bit.

Personally I find it funny

Reply 6

MagentaNavy

14

I think the problem is that there are so many people with this attitude that they make others who aren't like this, to think this way. Personally, I didn't think I was like this a few years ago, but with more and more people forcing their opinion on me, I find myself doing it to others.

If I sit down with someone who is calm with their opinions, typically I am fine with it. If someone were to post on Facebook and discuss their formulated opinions on the Brexit process, rather than just posting 'Stop the immigrants taking our jobs' or alternatively 'Those idiots should have believed brexit would be this bad', without any justification, then I would cope with it far better. My problem typically, if I were to argue with someone, is when somebody is arguing something which they are not fully educated on.

I hate the thought of people shoving their own opinions down other people's throats, but I know I do it sometimes too. I want to blame the lack of education in the fields people are arguing, but that may also simply be a defence for my argumentitive, forceful nature.

Reply 7

Kenneth56

6

To be fair I think most people do listen and engage and only a minority do not.

What I do dislike is when someone assumes a politician is a "bad person" or wishes ill will on others.

I do believe nearly all politicians want the best for us all. It's just that they have different methods of achieving that.

Reply 8

Anna Nicole

2

I did four years in Uni to get a Masters' and am now returning to do a Phd.

Left wingers are the least compassionate people. They consider compassion not a personal attribute but rather a governmental one. Having abdicated responsibility for compassion, delegating it instead to beaurocats, they need not exhibit compassion in their personal interactions. They can be as intolerant as they please to other students.

Conservatives donate a higher percentage of their wealth to charity, volunteer more for charitable causes and are more likely to succeed in the workplace. I felt depressed (and still occasionally feel insecure about it now) by the immediate loathing of right wingers in my former Uni days. When my daughter grows up I'll make sure she knows what she's in for. Even strangers who hear that you're right wing or middle class will be unkind and stigmatise you before any other interaction has taken place.

My family came to the UK as asylum seekers and worked their way up to being middle class, abandoning most of what they knew back home to fit in and progress.

It must be exhausting for British left wingers to carry around the baggage of hate but as they only associate with each other they only hear their own ideas. They are losers and bigots by their own making. In Uni they thrive because they're reasonably intelligent, young and think they've got the world ahead of them and at eighteen they have. When they actually leave Uni and act on their defeatist, 'f**k the rich' mentality they don't go far. Or rather they have tattoos, babies out of wedlock and expect the government to give them life on a plate and compensate them for poor decisions.

Remember who it was that deleted you from Facebook, check up on them in ten years time when you're twenty-eight. Really do it. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.