Toxic political climate

[BeakyMinder]

Anyone else out there upset by the tone of political debate atm? Maybe it's just a Labour Party thing, but the Syria debate has been vicious too - seems either you're a terrorist sympathiser or a baby killer.

I genuinely don't know what to think about some of these issues (Corbyn, good or bad? Bomb Syria or not? I don't know) - I care, but it all seems very complicated. The more strident people get, the more uncertain and ambivalent I feel.

And saying this on Facebook has just got me unfriended by someone I liked and respected. Feel surprisingly upset about it. I do realise that my feelings are not that important in context of what's happening in Syria but ... anyone else not enjoying the 'debate'?

I am not in favour of the bombing campaign, but the way some groups and individuals have gone about vilifying MPs who backed David Cameron has really left me disappointed.

I'm sorry but the moment you start sending death threats and pictures of dead children to people you start to lose the moral high ground.

And it's not just Syria it's the rent-a-mob who not so long ago smashed up that cafe in East London as some kind of anti-establishment protest. Im sure somewhere deep down they may have had a point but it's got completely lost and I've got no interest in getting behind and supporting anyone who wants to do anything other than peacefully protest. Bullying and fear tactics should have no place in our democracy whether from the right or left.

Btw I think it's a bit like the miners strike in the 80s when the Notts miners stood up to Scargill for taking away their right to decide whether to strike or not. People who go off the deep end claiming to speak for everyone on 'their' side, and then turn on their former supporters because they don't want to go to as extreme lengths as they do. Nasty.

YY about the moral high ground. Too many people staking out that particular territory atm.

I think most reasonable people agree that killing children is wrong and terrorists need to be stopped. But I can't stand the way that disagreements over tactics and strategy gets turned into a battle over who is the most moral.

If you were unfriended by this person for saying there are no easy answers then perhaps this person isn't as deserving of your respect as you'd thought. All the stuff about Tony Benn spinning in his grave is giving me the rage - they voted differently on Iraq without their relationship suffering. Families can survive political difference. Especially those which value debate about world views...

Well, it seems that there are some who think that drowning out debate is a good tactic, so they can then say 'but no-one supported that', without having realising that it is unpersuasive, alienating and makes politics much more toxic.

They don't realise this, because they are utterly convinced of their rightness.

It does seem there are people very closely identified with Corbyn who do this.

And it happened all the time on MN pre-election. It's why MN cannot ever be considered representative.

I think the echo chamber of Facebook makes things worse too - like-minded people just reinforcing each other's beliefs. The older I get, the more I want to listen to contrary views - FB consensus makes me feel suspicious that I'm not hearing the whole story.