The problem with how Liberals, Progressives and Greens currently discuss politics.

I've noticed a tendency lately when left leaning people, including myself discuss politics, that can be quite counter-productive.

First off, we divide it into "us" and "them."  I know conservatives do this too, but progressives should be better than that.  Rather than seeing the right wing as an aggressive and evil enemy, we should realize that most of them are simply misguided.   They are caught up in the aggressive antagonistic cycle in a system that encourages hatred and then provides an outlet  for it in politics.   If we encourage this pattern of antagonistic politics, we will only be playing into the hands of the Right Wing.   This goes for all Progressives regardless of political affiliation.

Second, we then respond to antagonism with antagonism.  I'm sure you think, "what's wrong with that?"  Well, I will tell you what's wrong.   The Right wing is fueled by antagonism.   We need to instead provide a different type of forum.   Sure a little trollish meme is OK when preaching to the choir.  It's a good way to vent your anger, and we all need to do that.  However, we shouldn't get caught up in doing that.  It shouldn't be our primary political method, just a way to relieve stress and have a little laugh.

Third, when we present facts, we tend to overwhelm the other side of the argument.  Instead of taking a few facts to frame what we don't want in reply, we simply flood them with facts to counter every single right wing talking point.   We instead want to use a handful of facts to frame the debate, than ask questions that will force them to explain away the flaws in their arguments.   Rather than taking on the burden of proof ourselves, which is honestly downright insulting to the other person, as well as antagonizing, we should give them the chance to fulfill it before we knock down their arguments. 

This starts to get into how we should be discussing politics.   First, we should focus on solutions not problems.   To be really honest, finding the source of a problem has little to do with fixing it, so much as finger pointing.  Finger pointing is not productive.  It's just a waste of time.

Instead, we should start by framing the situation.   We should provide small counter arguments for any initial arguments, but not too agressively, it's better to draw out the counter-arguments, as the need for them may disappear as you continue to the next step, which is moving from the problem to the solution.

Yes, I just pointed out the most obvious thing everyone is ignoring in politics, that we should be focusing on solutions, not problems.   When someone argues with you, it is far more effective to find solutions if you aren't arguing about exactly what the problem is, and the one way to stop looking for a solution is to start looking for who to blame.   We should leave blame for history or at least once the problem right in front of us is resolved.

So, to go about doing this you first of all lead them to frame the problem in real terms, not right wing conspiracies.  As always, give them a chance, you can lead them a little, but don't be too aggressive.   This will give you a common ground to start from.  Once you see their view of the problem, then and only then can you frame it in a manner that you both agree on.

After this, comes the more difficult part.   I know it is tempting to go and spout why the right wing solution is wrong and the progressive solution you favor is right.  However, this is insulting their intelligence.  Give them a chance to tell you their favored solution.  They might actually surprise you, then again they may not.   Then you should have them try and justify this theory, with only a little guidance from you to steer them away from hate-mongering or false assumptions that you would just strike down in your next sentence.  If at all possible, try to phrase it in a non-confrontational question, without insulting their core theories.   After all, people only change their mind on their own, no matter how much evidence they have to the contrary of their set belief, the only thing you can do is provide the right situation for them to actually accept the evidence, and that is what the goal is here.  If they see the evidence as a confrontation that they have to defeat, then you are simply doing it wrong.  You instead must ask questions in an attentive manner, slowly molding the dialog towards reasonable terms that you both can agree on.

You then continue until they have set on their solution.  Then and only then do you give them your solution.   In this case you will pick the solution you find acceptable that they will be most likely to accept.  This is the point where you can start discussing facts that back up your view.  As, if you are successful, you have opened the door and they are now actually listening to what you have to say.   Furthermore, you can show reasonability and moderate nature by chosing the solution that implements the most of what they discussed, and directly addresses their concerns.  This shows you were in fact listening.

Let me step back here and go into detail on the most important point.  I will compare stating a fact to a common confrontational question, and then to a non-confrontational one.  

If someone is claiming that minimum wages cut jobs because it will raise the cost of labor and thus reduce incentive to hire there are two facts to the contrary you need to provide.  However, how you provide them will greatly change how likely the person is to accept them.   You could just flat out say "Well, jobs are created when there is a demand for products and a hire minimum wage will create more customers who can afford the product, thus more demand."  Think about this response from the viewpoint of the person receiving it.  In this way you would be confirming all the right-wing stereotypes about the arrogant "liberals."  You will be insulting their intelligence, you won't be addressing their concerns, and you appear to be just giving a bottled reply.   It doesn't matter how true your statement is, the person won't listen, as you insulted their intelligence, even if you didn't realize it.

Let's now move on to see how someone who is using flawed method would commonly approach it.  This is another thing you shouldn't do.   If you phrase the question "Aren't these same people that you want to deny a raise the same people who buy the products?  If they can't afford the products how is there suppose to be any demand for jobs?"   Notice three things confrontational about these questions, which I will explain in turn. 

First is the tone.  The tone is starting from a point that you are assuming they are wrong.  I know both people who disagree know they both think the other is wrong.  Unlike liberals who appreciate blatant and unrepentant honesty on this, conservatives don't like being reminded of this fact.  It makes them nervous as they have not been trained to be curious about those they disagree with like those of a liberal education and upbringing have.  Instead you should try to avoid a confrontational tone, even when the discussion is confrontational.  This leads away from confrontation instead of compounding it.  Remember, it's not a contest, you are just trying to get them to understand why you see things the way you do.

Second, is that these questions have the answers right in them.  This basically implies that you don't trust them to come up with the answer on their own.  Once again, this tendency to accidentally insult the intelligence of the other person surfaces.

Third, these questions have completely framed the conclusion without letting them come to a conclusion first.  In addition to insulting the person's intelligence, this feels very aggressive.  The questions, or statements as they might as well be, even go so far as to state the conclusion before the argument that leads to it.   This would imply that you don't trust the person to reach a conclusion on their own.

The proper way to bring up these points is to ask them as questions that aren't confronting and don't provide facts.   This takes longer, but it actually works well.  If they don't know the answers, feel free to answer for them, but do it nicely and informatively.    For instance, you need to ask them "Why are people hired in the first place?"  Wait for them to reply.  The person is likely going to give the same conclusion as anyone else: that someone wants to sell a product or service.   This is where you ask.  "Who is going to buy the product or service?"  Then in reply to that, you can ask "How are they going to buy the product or service?"  Finally, ask "If more people can afford to buy the product or service, wouldn't the owner of the business hire more people, not less, even if it costs more money to hire each person?"   This is where you can draw the conclusion.  They likely answered it themselves, and even pointed out all the little details.  The only conclusion left then is the inconclusive matter of what the ideal minimum wage should be, to which there is quite a bit of disagreement.  That is normal, and you should accept that.  However, these questions have justified a minimum wage that gives people a little bit of extra pocket change, and have liberated the person from the trickle down dogma that people hire because they have extra money, something that the person won't forget in other political issues.

I guess I decided to start blogging again.

I decided to start blogging again.

This post will be a quick note about the reasons why and will be quickly followed by a post or two.

I have lately had a lot of ideas and opinions on topics ranging from Current Events, Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Politics and Science, and to be honest, Facebook has proven an ineffective medium to express them.

I do feel I have ideas to contribute to society, and I would like to share them.  If even one person listens it would be worth it, and even if nobody does, it will get the things off my chest.

So I guess I'm going to be posting again,
Robert Wm. Francis Ruedii

Presidential Debate

The political debate was last night, strangely the most angering thing McCain said was not when he claimed he had such great tactical decision making, but when he started calling Obama "That one."

In case you didn't know, while 2nd person use of "one" is a respectful gender nutral pronoun, as in "taking care of One's own" using it attached to a objective pronoun such as "that" is considered dehumanization. often used as a form of prejudice propaganda.

For example, contrast these statements:

The blind person walked down the street.
OR
That one walked down the street.

A person with autism requires special attention.
OR
That one requires special attention

A devout Jewish man was praying at the temple.
OR
That one was praying at the temple.

The Shiite cleric said the time for war was over and we should make peace.
OR
That one said the time for war was over and we should make peace.

And finally:
The opposing candidate voted for that bill.
OR
Who voted for that bill? That one!

The reason for this is that if you analize each of those sentances, the person is refered to by "That" which is an object form pronoun, like in "that suit doesn't seem to fit you right" or "that house needs some work done before it will sell for full value."

Such derogatory patterns of speech such as dehumanization don't belong on the podium in a formal presidential debate, in fact they should hardly be tolerated when made by shock jocks, or in some blogger's rant.

Disappointed . . .

Not only could McCain not keep his promise for a 24 hours, and Obama quickly followed. Furthermore, Nobody in Washington was willing to admit that a perfect bill would take over a year to write, likely 5 years, and we only have a few weeks of a window of opertunity to stop this plunge in the economy, and every day we take it hurts the economy.

NO bill could be perfect. This is a fact that cannot be emphesized enough.

Truely, I would have added provisions mandating that "toxic assets" be bought paying no more than 60% of the market value, thus making banks very reluctant to use the program unless they truely have to cut their losses, and practically guarenteeing some return on investments by taxpayers. This "40% deductable" would eliminate profit for banks in using the program, and make it more an additional insurance for any US bank, than an actual program.

An additional program, I would provide is a national credit counseling service, provided to all americans for free of charge.

Additionally laws taxing loaner's income based on APR including all fees would be good incentives to intercept preditory lending habits by credit card companies.

Obviously, however, Congress is too busy thinking about what a few people think of them, and fighting ammongst themselves to satisfy both the lobbiests and the people, when neither can be done if this bill was to be made. Frankly Obama and McCain's initial view of the bill had to make understatement of the year.

The fact is, the lending market crises is a stain on America's economy, and it will take an equally harsh bleach to get it out. Washington, as usual is too afraid to admit just how bad the problem is, or the fact that it's not going to be easy to fix a problem, instead they stick to wanting impossible cures, and to deny the situation ever existed.

This doesn't change my opinion, just verifies my pesimism, but the fact that the presidential candiates could even admit they agree on one thing, has to be at least one uplooking moment on this, and maybe shines a little spot of light in an otherwise dark time for our nation.

I could never be prouder to be an American.

After all of the fighting, bickering and downright nasty politics going between the two sides these past few months, Obama and McCain decide to call off their campaigns to get key bills related to the economy passed in congress.

This is something that is normally unheard of in any politics, let alone in the dirty world of US Presidential politics. I think both candidates are showing that they are the "mavericks of change" that they have dubbed themselves, and are clearly not "Politics as usual"

I have never in my lifetime seen the spirit of democracy shine brighter, than when two people can set asside their differences to get what needs to be done passed through congress at the expense of their own political campaigns. This is truely a rare bright day in American politics

Lots of stuff hanging over my head

Well first with the good stuff on my mind.

I became a Mod at LinuxTracker.org. This makes me feel that at least some people appreciate my intelligence.

Second, I'm working on a job adjustment program. The person working with me actually likes my ideas and the way I present them in a moderate and rational manner. I'm slowly reconsidering several careers that involve public speaking, and/or journalism. There are an aweful lot out there that an independent thinker, especially considering all of my unique personal life experience to draw from.

As of the negatives:
First the stress of the election is driving me and my wife crazy.

Me and my wife like Obama, and several of the third party candidates, but are mostly backing Obama, simply because it's rare to see even a decent, let alone good primary candiate even if he pales in comparison to the excellence of one or two of the third party candidates. It's also rare to see someone with both good morals and judgement of Carter, and the ability to be a good leader and surround himself with other good leaders of Clinton.

It doesn't help that several people in my wife's family are big McCain backers, despite the fact that the guy's a complete ignoramus who doesn't understand what the average person is going through, or anything much about the information age, for that matter. (The fact that eBay was the best example of a successful Internet company he could come up with says something, and the fact that he didn't even know the name it was founded under says more.)

Second, My wife's great grandmother had to go to the hospital earlier and despite being released is still not too well. My wife and I need to head down to the nursing home to check on her.

Third it's been so hot out, I can't do anything outside. Fortunately the grass slowed it's growth to a crawl, so i don't have to worry much about cutting it, but it's still boring being around the house, my legs feel idle, and I'm loosing my endurance.

Finally I have a bad migrain, I guess there's not much to say about that one, except that it sucks.

Well I guess that's all for today, a lot of bad stuff, some good stuff, all of it stressful, but I guess I can make the best of it, and gain something from all of it.

Linux hard to use?

I've constantly been told by people how hard to use Linux is, when I've recently been looking at my wife. My wife has very little computer experience, yet is able to do virtually everything on a Linux computer that she needs to do, and quickly learns new tasks.

Since I've introduced her to Linux, she's learned how to do many functions on the computer herself.

As a testament to her technological limitations: she still plugged the speakers into the microphone jack when she hooked them up. This is not an insult, just a typical computer newbie mistake. In fact, I still do it occasionally, the difference being that I realize it, and fix it as soon as I hear that the sound does not work.

Yet, with this limitation, Linux is easy to use. In fact, it is probably easier than Windows. She has no problem finding and using the word processor or web brower, and I'm even managing to teach her how to handle the automated updates.

Any company that uses "linux is difficult to use" as an excuse is obviously just covering up that they don't want to admit to shareholders that they waisted thousands or sometimes millions of dollars on software, when they could have probably spent less on Linux service contracts.

Of course, I may be biased, considering that doing something "just for fun" and then getting paid to provide services for it sounds like an ideal job for me.

"You are not spam"

Blogger recently posted "You are not spam, You knew this, and now we do too" about their recent bug in their spam reporting system. They then gave a full explination and what ammounted to an appology for inconvience.

Blogger, I'm glad someone can finally take a humorous approach to admitting system defect, while not demeaning the issue. This is a good example of the good customer relations that more companies need.

For years companies have been bitching and moaning every time they have to report a bug, or even denying it ever existed to prevent lawsuits. It seems someone got it right for the change!

I guess I can't be cynical all the time with a few companies run by good people.

Church and life

A week ago, I started attending a new church: Christian Central Church, Disciples of Christ. It seems to be surprisingly hard to find open and friendly churches these days.

My wife is going to be baptized soon. Something she's been wanting for much of her wife, but arguements between her parents/step-parents has prevented. Both of us are going to be getting

There is an overly regressive pattern in churches in my area that people shouldn't think in church, you shouldn't treat Non-Christians as your equal, not to mention the whole eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth fire and brimstone Old Testament style teaching.

Frankly the hypocrisy makes me sick, and it is everywhere not just locally, but on the Internet as well. I know that I should try and not judge people for it, but it's hard. Usually I try to treat such people with the same respect I would anyone else, but I feel they are dragging the name of Christ and Christianity through the mud. It is so hard to turn the other cheek when they treat me like a sinner for doing what I believe is the right thing. I know that when I give them a tung-lashing for it; doing so only makes me a sinner in the same way. I instead have to simply set a good example and find the chances to point out when they do things right. I guess I just need to learn to be more meek at times.

As of my life outside of church (as "secular life" is an oxymoron to me but I won't go into it.) My job has encountered some bumps but I'm still doing OK.

My garden and yard are taking a beating while my foots injured I had to call my father over to mow the lawn and finished a chickenwire fence for my peas. I need to go through and thin them later, as well as do some minor weeding.

I only remove actually harmful weeds from my garden, things that do actual damage to the crop at the stage it's in. Anything else is a self-planted cover crop IMO. God made a wide variety of plant types: if you learn what types coexist, at what stages of growth, you can actually let nature provide you with plants that will fight off less desirable invaders while securing up the soil and reducing water loss to sunlight.

My wife has been doing well, and her stress level is way down. She had decided to quit the local MR/DD work program and just wait until she can find a job through BVR. The fact that the poor economy has lead MR/DD to have little to no work for them largely has to do with this, as instead of getting cabin fever at home where she feels safe, she gets it there instead.

I'm probably going to be useless around the house for the next week, which is a shame, because I recently got a few new garden tools that I wanted to try out, including a nice garden mattock, which is the first cultivation tool I've found that can actually break through the grass roots in my back yard.

I also need to use the trimmer edge the patio and put fine mulch between the bricks to prevent regrowth, and then use the trimmer to remove the grass around a tree in the front yard where I want to add another flower bed next year.

Than there is a whole bunch of other work to be done both indoors and out. Including incredible amounts of weeding in the back yard, fixing a few chairs, and a complete overhaul of my old futon.

Twisted ankle

about a week ago I twisted my ankle.

It still hurts pretty bad when it flairs up every night. I have to stay off of it until friday, and then have to continue wearing a brace most of the time for a few more weeks after that.

The doctor said it was a strained tendon. One of the outside tendons on the left foot. Tomorrow, I have to go get a brace she prescribed.

Finally another update. Linux related this time!

Well I got my computer together and installed Linux.

I did a little tinkering to try and get the graphics card to run 3D, but alas it given me nothing but trouble so I put it in 2D mode now, and will either do so "when I get around to it" or just buy a better card which has good drivers.

I checked the web sites of various drivers, and it turns out they are making rapid progress on stablizing the issues I was experiencing.

Also the open source driver project for the card I plan to get, the RadeonHD 2x00 (R500+), just got near complete spec data when AMD released the info publicly. It also seems that the card's regular driver has fewer bugs. I also noted the workarounds for fixing the bug I had encountered. I could implement it last resort, if the bug wasn't fixed when they claimed it was (they already had the bug reappear once before.)

On a more positive note, I got Wine running FireFox perfectly on Linux. It's the first step. I'm also going to set up Windows on a Virtual machine.

I possibly may run two versions in VM due to repetitive issues with Windows XP 64bit edition and the fact that I hate Vista with a passion. I may end up getting Vista and just modding the setup until it runs like a hybrid of Windows 2003 server and Windows XP.