[Khar]

Originally I was going to post it on Facebook a few weeks ago:

"According to my Facebook Wall, apparently I live in a corrupt fascist dictatorship run as a police state.

Oooookay people, let's calm down the political discourse a bit, because that's really off course. Plus, those people actually from police states, dictatorships or nations which are corrupt are probably really underwhelmed by us right now."

I was irritated at the time, and saved it as a draft to see if I still wanted to post it when I thought about who would feel villainized by it and respond. I ended up deciding not to post it.

However, today I logged in and saw one of my friends from Syria remarking on the current state of his home nation, with bloody pictures and discussion from a bunch of Syrians on what is going on. Another friend was commenting on his home nation of Russia and the voting issues currently going on.

Right above those posts, another person had just called Canada almost exactly what I had written in my quoted comment. It was a degree of magnitude more nasty and more accusatory in it's terminology, and my mind immediately flashed back to the moment of writing that Facebook wall post. I felt somewhat ashamed that my countrymen would say these sorts of things where those people could see it.

Is it just me, or has the current state of political discussion all over the place just become an arena of overstatement and irrational hyperbole? I may just have become more bugged by this because I have seen a few political figures speak in person over the last two weeks, but the trend of overstatements is just getting to me, on all sides, to the extent where I think I've defended every major party in the last two or three days, even for Alberta's politics.

I'd love to see it calmed down a bit, since I cannot think of a case where I would call someone in the major Canadian parties a fascist, a dictator, a communist, or compare them to a third world dictator. Hell, even things like massively incompetent, racist, or corrupt is difficult to drag to mind without suspending belief or encouraging a degree of hyperbole.

To be frank, I think those sorts of comments, and the moral sense of entitlement people get fro using them ("they deserve it," "you can't be angry at me for saying the truth," "it'll make them think twice before saying that again," "it's the only way they'll learn," "but the other side did it too!") has played a big role in reducing people's roles in government and increasing voter apathy, not to mention polarization and partisanship. Using that sort of talk only supports the sort of divisive rhetoric which has degraded the stature of modern parliaments into what they are now -- shouting matches, which often include snide comments, insults, and over the top commentary from all sides of the house to the rousing roar of their compatriots.

Sorry guys, needed to rant. This is all just my opinion. What do you think?

[PublicAnimalNo9]

I think you should smoke a joint and calm down a bit

I also think yer bang on