Why do people read the Daily Mail

[TwigTwoolett]

why oh why oh why?

no no no, Jools I really don't think people are having subtle digs at you (though I can see why you think that)

I would give you a big hug but it's so not my style and I doubt it's yours either so I'll give you a nice cold beer and a pat on the back instead

and if you see anyone having digs at you, send them my way - I'm in a foul mood today and will dispose of any troublemakers forthwith.

I read everything, from Maxim, to People's Friend. The Mail does not faze me a jot.

joolstoo - if you object to my stereotyping, can you explain why you read the DM? Do you just beleive in some of it's values? Does some of it reduce you to the incoherent fury it does me? Of the DM readers I know, their values match those regularly displayed in the pages of the paper. Probably not all of them but enough for them to find it a comforting read. I read the Independent as I feel comfortable with that. My dad reads the Torygraph for the same reason.

And whoever it was that said that it was wrong to define someone by the kind of paper they read, no one is doing that here? The question was 'why do people read it' , not 'who reads it'.

MN has many shades of opinions. Often making judgements. Why does the liberal vaguely left-wing one piss so many people off?

Speaking form my dp point of view the leftie liberal point of view pisses others off as it tends to be portrayed as the only right view that everyone else would have if they were as decent and open minded as those holding that view. I know that my leftie pontificating often leaves dp wishing he could batter me about the head with the nearest Murdoch newspaper were it not for the fact I would then want to discuss with him where that anger comes from.

ts&p - my DH is more left-wing than I am so we rarely have that row. His views often end up making me feel that I'm somewhere right of Mrs Thatcher....

I think virtually everyone who has very deeply held views tends to assume that other people would agree with them if they were decent/intelligent/open-minded enough, be they lefties, Tories or any other affiliation.

Dp says I make him feel slightly to the right of Mussolini whereas to annoy him I end up slighttly to the left of Karl Marx.

WE try not to discuss politics anymore as I do find some of his views quite abhorent, I am sure tbh if he could be bothered to read a paper it would be the DM. Infactw whenever he quotes a news story it tend to come from the DM and he is also obsessed with property prices.

You are probably right but I think there is something about lefies that is ultra annoying, I can't quite put it into words though, am struggling to think through a blocked nose. I could ask dp, he could definelty tell you, but I don;t have the energy for a row.

Hmmm, I don't agree. I find spoiled ignorant Young Conservatives to be by far the most irritating and pontificating types. It's highly subjective and depends on one's own views, I supoose.

I just want to point out that I do not find my self irritating, I am actually always right and if everyone else was a decent thoughtful citizen like me that would all share my political stance.

But don't young conservatives ( and I have to admit I don't know any and i don't think I ahve met one for a least a decade!) realise that their views are self motivated and witht he aim of making the rich richer in the hope it may trickle down whereas us lefties think we are goodness and decency personified. (out come those prejudices again.)

Sadly not, I met many young viciously right-wing, highly intelligent people at university who believed in the moral rectitude of their views as passionately as I did in mine. It's a popular misconception that devoted capitalists know "deep down" that their views are really based on selfishness and greed and are just creating arguments to help them "get away with it". It ain't so. I had many a blazing row with very clever and interesting right-wingers who believed that socialism was a backward-looking, renegade programme which would return society to the dark ages and stifle progress - they really believe that the way to encourage positive growth was to feed the young capitalists, reward entrepreneurialism and "enterprise", while cutting right back on outdated "paternalistic" institutions such as nationalised public services and the welfare state. Scary people.

Oh I so am irritating I am sure to people who think they shouldn't pay taxes to help support people less fortunate than themselves and who moan about immigrants taking our jobs all the time and are happy paying slave labour wages to people for childcare etc etc.

And they are irritating to me!

I wouldn't stop being friends with someone because of these but I do feel sad when people whose sole source of news and views is the Daily Mail and they then spout forth its articles virtually word for word - that is NOT a balanced view. They need to broaden their horizons! I read left, right and middle of the road press on a daily basis because I am interested in the varying takes on it and differing views.

I'm the same, leftie liberal but I have manged to convert DH- unintentionally, the difference is though that rather than being considered political opinions most of his were handed down from the in laws- especially lots of anti gay rancid stuff. Amazing how quickly he came round when he met some gay people / met council house dwellers / got sick and relied on benefits etc etc

So I think he's a natural liberal with the wrong parents, really LOL.

All politics are worthy imo, as long as it's not the politics of hate- anti- gypsy, anti- gay, anti- immigrant (so many people I meet can't tell me the difference between economic migrant and asylum seeker). yes there are people in all these groupds who are a pain (and I wish one particular group of travellers would stop nicking our kids carnival club but we shouldn't generalise about the whole grouping from that.

Peachy gets down off her soapbox and places it on her head to deflect the barrage of rotten tomatoes heading her way from the rightie brigade

(Can I just emphasize that there please, LOL)

Interesting post Peachy, particularly like this

"but we shouldn't generalise about the whole grouping from that."

to me, liberal is about being open mionded about [people (sometimes hard) and remembering that the vast majority of people are generally good and that one characteristic that you don't like doesn't make a bad person

it's about being understanding and accepting (don't like the word tolerant; I TOLERATE Dh's smelly feet. I don't TOLERATE Muslims, I ACCEPT them).

It's also about a shared sense of social reponsibility, but that's a natural extension of valuing everyone I think.

(I should probably emphasize that there are people in ALL groups whoa re pains shouldn't I?

before the MN deluge hits

I missed a ) again

I "accept" Muslims too, but I only "tolerate" Tories

(Peachy PHSL, but quietly so she doesn'tr seem intolerant of them)

Define a 'tory' then. I'm pretty sure I'm all the things you put under 'liberal' so I'd be interested to know!

Just as importantly

define the difference between Tory and New Labour

Coz lots of us would like to know LOL

I guess for me Tory harks back in the main to my Thatcherite memories of first time around studenthood

I couldn't give a toss if you are a Tory

I could give a toss if all your opinions are based on the Daily Mail!

A working definition would be "person who consistently votes for the Tory party", but in a broader sense I think most of the differences between socialism and conservatism are pretty stark and most of us are fairly familiar with them, so I think I'll pass on that particular red herring, if it's all the same to you

I think all this political correctness is a bit unnecessary. I prefer robust open debate to everyone tiptoeing around trying not to tread on anyone else's sensibilities. I am a socialist, always have been - so of course I think people who vote for the Tories or subscribe to the conservative ethos are wrong!! Very wrong. And they think I'm a fool. I don't hate them, or want to exterminate them, but I do think they are wrong, and I don't see why I shouldn't say so. Joolstoo knows I like her (I think!), but why can't we disagree about politics?

Pretty soon if we carry on like this we are going to end up like a roomful of people sitting drumming their fingers, lookging embarrassed and saying "Nice weather we're having!" because nobody dares to say anything that might offend someone else.

Bollocks to that, I say.

No dear, that's passive, not liberal ()

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you are right of course Greensleeves

I bow down to thee

doing a lot of ing today

gonna get arrested for virtual; kerb crawling soon if I don't watch it