To think the tone of political debate is awful

[Bluelane]

AIBU to think that it seems people are increasingly incapable of disagreeing with someone agreeably?

If you disagree with a policy of Keir Starmer, it doesn’t mean Keir Starmer is scum, or evil, or a c*, or stupid, or a traitor. It means he has a policy that you disagree with (which it’s fine to criticise and protest about).

I have friends whose politics I disagree with but where we can agree to disagree, and remain friends.

The tone of political debate seems to be lower than ever.

Yes. Charitably, I'd say that the manipulation of online discussion by agitators and bots has dragged down the quality of debate, so that participants are increasingly trapped in a parody version of discussion and disagreement.

But I do think that individuals ought to take some responsibility and try to model the more informed, truth-sensitive and civil discussion that we need.

Too many people just seem happy to abandon the responsibilities of fact finding and wallow in the catharsis of righteous fury.

It started with Brexit I think, and social media since then has had a lot to do with it. I think if we had a better voting system instead of the current one where under 40% of the vote gets you a majority of seats, it would encourage co-operation across parties.

It's not just the tone, it's also the substance. There's no intellect anymore, from politicians as well as Joe Bloggs. We're subjected to soundbites and fact free bullshit. It's depressing.

Idiocracy

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😂😂😂

A lot of them aren't real people. They are bots designed to make you angry.

We have to recognise this and not play the game.