Politics and the need to Discuss Them

Discussion and discourse have allways been a hallmark of the human expereince. We spend most of our time from the moment we learn how to speak telling people how we feel, whether they want to hear it or not. Curiously enough by the time we hit middle school those feelings shift from imagination fueled adventures to pragmatic arguments based on the world around us. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it signals our growth out of the eternal daze that is elementary school. A casual leaning toward practical matters. We continue on in this way commenting on broader and broader topics until we find ourselves old enough to stop regurgitating our parents opinions and decide we need to find  our own. So we look, gather up a few, and set about telling everyone about them instead.

Of all the topics people like to latch to, politics seem to be the most popular. Which is inherently due to humanities other fascination with labels. Just like we price our food, we like stab little monikers onto ourselves to seem more interesting. We want people to know who we are and why we do what we do. Politics provide an easy label. Saying your a democrat, republican, or even a communist, conjures up a long list of monikers that automatically attach themselves to you. Of course there are people who don't prescribe to everything behind a party but they're still willing to be seen with it, and therefore agree with it enough to ignore the bad points.  One word and people more or less know everything they need to know about you. They know exactly where you stand more or less. Or rather, whether or not they want to be seen with you.

Our own two party system and all the advertisers that come with it, know this system and use it to pull people under their wing, "You're this type of American, come with us!". they gain thier supporters by keeping the masses polarized. If we all took a step back and did some research we might find we're not all so different after all.