Abso-fucking-lutely.
Yelling at clouds, especially for those of us here.
For society at large, the “value” of “political opinion” is the effect Fox News and co. have had on the minds of millions over the past decades. To pollute and corrupt into endorsing madness. To tell lies and convince people that up is down and down is up. The value is power. Oft derived from propaganda. Speech, given effect, has a powerful purpose. Just… not our speech here. Due to its format and limited nature, and even more limited audience.
State TV, that is the naked value of political opinion. Where its value is most obvious. That sure as hell is not nothing, and it is not directed inward for self reflection.
I reflected in the past, when I was yet mired in a Republican upbringing.
Convinced the Iraq War was righteous. Convinced Democrat economic policy would be catastrophic. So many topics, so many times. Lessons learned upon self reflection. The Republican position, when challenged, offered nothing in its own defense. Merely argumentative tools and deflection. Never facts. At least, none that were real upon further examination. It was all lies. Imagine a person who stopped to reflect on that, and found it troubling.
I also reflected in 2015, and 2016. Upon the rise of naked and unseemly fascism in the guise of a bloated orange husk. An inhuman monster that promised everyone everything, and would offer nothing. Past experience taught me to see through those lies. So the offer of an “outsider to disrupt the status quo” lost all appeal upon the debate stage. Honesty then forced my hand. To renounce them as they accepted the devil’s bargain. To sell their souls and surrender to hate… merely to harm others.
Self Reflection made me the Democrat voter I am today. And the story does not end there.
You keep speaking of profoundly ridiculous views. I have shared many over the years. And yes, news is processed differently based on one’s Ego and its political affiliation.
But not everything in the world is ridiculous. Not every position is wrong. Nor all contradictory “facts” true. There is a right and a wrong. There is one objective reality. But we all exist at different distances from knowing it. Not all of our beliefs are equal, and we all likely hold some that are wrong. Some more than others. To be determined by educated rigor and the scientific method, as best we understand them.
You loaded that statement, with nearly all you have said before, over the years.
People are not equal dreamers.