Comments on: On talking politics

By: Sennacherib

Sennacherib — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:53:08 +0000

I watched the end of the Mamdani/Trump meeting. Generally there is a show of liking each other this seemed so genuine it surprised me.

By: Cappy

Cappy — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 14:26:58 +0000

Drive by ad hoc non sequitur temper tantrum.

By: Eeyore (Is, Eum)

Eeyore (Is, Eum) — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 22:17:31 +0000

It’s not really a matter of one’s politics, but of one’s temperament. I knew Grayboyes a little, in college. We used to get a beer after class. Back then he was further on the Left. I was already far-Right. But it was never acrimonious. And this was in the 70s – not a time of great across-the-board amity. It’s really a matter of attitude.

By: YoungHegelian

YoungHegelian — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 22:15:21 +0000

My FB feed is full of liberals/lefties venting their political spleen. What amazes me is how bad & puerile almost all of it is.

I was a liberal for years. I had a subscription to The New Republic from 1982 to 2004. I listened to NPR every day even after I turned to the conservative dark side up until Trump’s election in 11/2016, when they lost their collective minds. I can talk liberal. I can even talk Lefty because I know Marx/Marxism and French Postmodernism fairly well. What I can’t and won’t do is join in on collective vituperation of entire groups of the electorate in terms barely worthy of school yard taunts.

The various groups that make up the electorate have interests. They all have foundational assumptions. Understand what they are and then tell me how a given politician is appealing to them in words other than simple moral judgementalism (e.g. Racism).

And, for God’s sake, if you’ve never read Mussolini/Gentile’s The Doctrine of Fascism, don’t tell me so and so is “Fascist”.

By: Ackler

Ackler — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:56:45 +0000

Substitute ‘Ackler’ for Bob Graboyes, and that article could have been written by me.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 22:25:46 +0000

Political activism can be a convenient excuse for unleashing hatred while feeling virtuous about doing so. See my post Conformity, Cruelty, and Political Activism

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/70696.html

By: steve walsh

steve walsh — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 21:25:17 +0000

Anyone that would shun or disown me because of something as superficial as politics is doing me a favor. Many of my family members are liberals, some are far, far left liberals. Because of where I was born and have chosen to live (the Northeastern United States) many of the people in my community and my friends are liberals. None of them have abandoned me or let our differences affect our relationship. What we do do is refrain from talking about politics.

By: Gringo

Gringo — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:16:17 +0000

My NYC cousins are insufferably liberal. One will bring up politics and then shut up when she finds out that not everyone agrees with her. The other will also bring up politics, but it is a waste of my time to discuss politics with him—1)hyperpartisan, 2) more interested in winning instead of getting the facts right (spare the examples), 3) antagonistic, 4) BSer–often shuts up when asked to document his claim.

As a result, when they are in on a cousins’ conference call, they are requested to not bring up politics.

By: sdferr

sdferr — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:32:37 +0000

I can relish talking about politics, but it isn’t the deracinated drek of contemporary partisan fervor I’m interested in, but the stuff of human doings found in such as Homer, Torah, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, the Gospels, Plutarch, Aurelius, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, the Declaration, Madison’s Notes, The Federalist, de Tocqueville, Lincoln and so on. Enough to keep anyone busy for more than a few lunches, I’d reckon. Few takers though.