Why do people reduce themselves to name calling instead of debating the issue at hand?

Question

It seems as though everytime I have a conversation with someone about my views on our government & GW, I get called a "Leftist". I am an American with questions and opinions.

Answer 1

Its really quite simple. When people run out of facts and I don't care if it is a left-leaning or a right-leaning person, they tend to resort to name-calling because they know their argument holds little or no water with anyone who looks at things logically and decides for his or herself.

Also, if you look at debating politics on a national level, say in a Presidential debate, insults are flung at opposing candidates all the time. And unfortunately in this country, a lot of times anyway, the one who has the nastiest message about his counterpart or opponent is usually the one who wins because the American people by and large don't want to hear facts and try to understand something, they want to be led by someone who can come up with better slurs than their opponent.

Its happened in the past and will happen in the future and none of these clean-campaign promises or whatever the hell that is supposed to mean will change it. Good luck finding people who are intelligent enough to argue facts and numbers vs. name-calling and slurs. And if you do happen upon some of those people let me know because I am always up for a rousing debate on either side of a given issue. Thanks and have a nice day.

Answer 2

If you get called a leftist most of the time that you have a conversation with someone, maybe you ARE a leftist! Is there anything wrong with that? If you are a person that has political views that reflect a left wing ideology, you should not be ASHAMED of it and think someone is calling you names if they say you are a leftist. There cetainly are other names thay could call you that indicate the left wing that ARE insulting. But, to have a decent conversation on political views requires people that are not fanatics and are courteous to others and are REAL listeners and many other good traits that most people do not have. That's the reason most political discussions end up as shouting matches.

Answer 3

There is a short lived perception of self superiority when someone insults or name calls. In some cases a name helps quickly, and effectively sum up an objectionable behavior. Clearly it is a low level emotional approach and not a basis for quality civilized adult debate.

Most folks do less of it when they are out of their toddler years, but some with poor upbringing or low self esteem ( or in politics :-)) retain that approach as their primary method of countering ideas different from their own.

A large segment of the US and world are dissatisfied with GWs performance, so I suspect you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Go to a university or large city and you may be considered open minded.

The anti-liberal population has a significant voice on Yahoo answers; which shows that at least these folks have access to information that may enlighten their children:-)

Answer 4

Yes, YOU are SO Right i.e. Staying with The Issues. It is such a Shame, and a COMPLETE WASTE of TIME, when Name Calling is used, Mostly about the Ever Sickening "Two Party Electorial System" Truth is The "Vote", The "Election" is ALL a Bunch of B.S. But I Myself don't believe it's All due to B.S. I like to think of as more like BIG, HUGE, Very Smelly, Rather Runny, Really REEKy, Mountainous Piles of RHINO DUNG !! This Left/Right Dem/Rep is A HUGE DIVERSION to The Critical Issues.. Well The ONLY REAL ISSUE is the FACT that OUR U.S. Govt. is UNDER the CONTROL of Neither Democrat nor Republican Ideals... These BushCrime Syndicate "Appointees" were PLACED into HIGH Govt. Positions for THE SOLE BENEFIT and Purpose of The State of Israel !! These SLIMEBUCKETS could Care a SQUAT Less about The People of AMERICA.. To Name only SOME of These SCUMBAGS (Do The Research Yourself) shall we begin with Paul "The Worm" Wolfowitz .. howz about William "Queen Bee" Kristol, or Richard Perle, or Elliot Abrams, Richard Pipes, Douglas Feith, Phillip "The Director of 9/11 COVER-UP" Zelikow, John "Big Boy" Bolton, Michael Ledeen, Robert Zoellick, and The List goes On and On ALL THE ABOVE are Ashkenazi ZIONISTS !! Thats A Whole Lotta JEWISH INTEREST , Ruling Over The People of AMERICA, Huh ?? The LINK Below is not ONLY IMPORTANT, IT IS CRITICAL

Answer 5

Yeah, but bear in mind that both Democrats and Republicans on this very board resort to name calling.

However, that really doesn't answer your question, which is why folks do that.

Well, it's simple for an independent observer to notice, and here it is.

I've had countless conversations over the past decade and a half with official representatives of both parties. Where I disagree with either, I seek to find the underlying principle or belief that makes their position correct. I haven't had much success finding these principles, I usually get no farther than a platform full of specific positions, which philosophically SHOULD be the result of articulable principles, but no one can tell me what they are.

The fact is neither party has any principles. They have a goal to get elected, and their methodology is to make the platform say whatever they think will get them votes, or at least donations of MONEY to buy advertising to get people to vote for things they really don't want at all. I'm not pointing fingers at either of them, that's BOTH of them doing that.

So given that neither party has any principles to defend their conclusions, and when faced with an opponent who does not assume the same facts, you get.....

name calling.

Answer 6

I'm from the other side of the spectrum and believe me I get called a lot worse than 'leftist'. But I agree with you too few (even in Congress) actually want to debate. They just want to see how much more hate and discontent they can cause. Or they don't have enough intellect to discuss a topic at a higher level than Elementary School Playground.

Feel free to E-mail me with ANY topic you would like to discuss and I PROMISE not to call you names.

Answer 7

Leftist isn't a bad name. It's what you are just like when the liberals call me a con or a "Neo-Con" It's what I am and I'm proud of it. Some people don't respond to normal discussion and those people are called names to get their attention. Some are trolls who love it when they get called names others prod you into calling them names just so they can report you and have you kicked off the board then there are those who are children and don't care what type of language they use. You know, kids will be kids.

Answer 8

because of the fact whilst human beings have no longer something to assert to help their view, it kind of feels as though they are incorrect and a very good kind of persons hate admitting that they are incorrect, so that they think of that the final thank you to get out of the placement is to insult the different person. additionally, if others are resorting to such measures, then they are no longer having a debate with you. A debate is a communicate and demands the two events to make factors/comments, help those with info and retaliate the factors made by using the different party with out insulting the different party in any way.

Answer 9

I have found that may leftists and rightests are simply lazy. It is much easier to call people names like neocon or bleeding heart than it is to logically discuss the issues in a mature manner.

Answer 10

Unfair argumentation is a tactic used by people regardless of their political leanings. The reason they do it over and over is because they get away with it. My philosophy is that if someone wants to state their opinion, I will listen with an open mind and process the information before arriving at my own conclusion. Keep in mind that we are all shaped in our way of thinking by our parents, our teachers and the media, who all have their own agenda, not all of which is with our best interests in mind. We can only begin to empower ourselves when we learn to think critically on our own.