Originally Posted by TheSquealer

I used to be a great deal more considerate, compassionate or empathetic than I am today. I used to want to understand everyone, their views and so on. I used to enjoy learning or understanding what makes each individual tick. I realized the flaw in that however... and that is that, personal views, character or behavior are rarely unique to the individual. They are the largely the result of personality types and traits of those personality types. There are no individuals when it comes to human behavior. We all believe ourselves to be unique, intelligent, thoughtful and considerate of the views of others. However, a junkie is a junkie. A junkies behavior (baring any other mental disorders) is actually very consistent with that of a junkie. Any junkie. Any addict.

So I began asking myself more and more "why am I trying to understand this individual when his behavior is textbook and will be until he stops using and gets treatment?" A democrat has a liberal view and believes he's right more than wrong. His world view is consistent with that of a Liberal. That is a product of brain function, namely ones favoring of either the left/right hemisphere of their brain. A conservative has a conservative view of things and believes he's more right than wrong, but again, the product of brain function and the resulting perception/interpretation of a highly subjective reality.

I reminded [Labret] many years ago as he droned on and on trying to convey the fact that he is an individual and everyone else is sheep,.... that he is no different than the other 10,000,000 short haired, tattoo'ed, anti-social dickheads that are mad at the world, all sharing the same views, same personality traits, the same anger, the same disdain for others, same tastes in music etc. He's unique,... unique like everyone else in that rather large group of individuals who believe themselves to be unique.

Now, I am more careful to put people into groups and deal with them accordingly. An addict is an addict and I don't expect any behavior other than that consistent with that of an addict. A conservative is conservative and I don't expect any behavior, not consistent with a conservative. A morbidly obese woman is morbidly obese. When the discussion of diet and exercise comes up, I don't expect any view or behavior not consistent with that of a morbidly obese women and so on. A person with severe ADD is going to always act consistent as a person with severe ADD. I set my expectations of people accordingly and am rarely surprised.

My GF started telling me I was a bit negative. I started pointing out her interactions with others (she's a real estate broker dealing almost exclusively with institutional investors, chains of people, personalities etc). After many "i can't believe he did this..." kind of conversations, i would simply point out "this is his personality type... he will be the person who does XY & Z, he will be the person that needs this and that, that plays this game and that game etc and this is what you have to expect from your interactions with him".... as I gloated more and more in being right as I hear conversation after conversation with certain individuals, I think began asking "Look, you knew what to expect from this person. You know who and what he is. You know he's insecure and a narcissistic personality. He's behaved in perfect accordance with a person possessing those traits. You are frustrated. But the thing is, you are frustrated because you expect something different. You expect him to see the world as you see it. You expect him to act as you would. That's not going to happen. So who is to blame for your frustration? You? Or him? When you learn to calibrate your expectations correctly, you're frustration in dealing with others will simply melt away". That is how I deal with people now.

So who's mind gets changed in political debate? Only those who either are capable of more or less equal left/right use as they are able to give the appropriate weight and careful consideration of the view points of others, or those in the center or those who don't (for whatever reason) have a strong opinion. Those groups, do not represent the majority. the majority are more hardened in their views as they tie very tightly into ones own sense of self and identity. Furthermore, we are hobbled by basic tricks of the mind, such as the driving urge to continue to be consistent with decisions we've made and dismissive of any info to the contrary and so on. Political discussions aren't about "opinions" as much as they are about people expressing/affirming ones own identity and belief systems.