Reply #14: I don't think the blame for the divide can be laid at one set of feet. [View All]

I've seen plenty of liberals/progressives with the same--albeit mirror--attitudes.

Sad, really, when you read a post in which the poster gloats about being an irritating asshole. I saw a few of them over at FP before I knew about DU. I found them usually annoying, most often close-minded. At DU I find that tolerance is enforced. I attribute most of the difference to Skinner et al. and his policies, with a salute to the mods.

That *doesn't* mean that the rigid conformity that I didn't display when my post count was under 250 or so didn't produce all kinds of demands that I prove my "liberalness" or accusations of being some sort of freeper spy (?) or troll.

Years ago, pre-FP and pre-DU, I occupied a student government office next to two other student government officers. One was on the opposite side of the political spectrum. We fought--ok, mostly he attacked. Finally he realized we wanted the same things, had the same hopes and aspirations for people, and so he was convinced I'd join his politics any moment. Over a year later it didn't happen, and so I finally let him in on the secret: We agreed in our goals--there were a few differences, but over 90% of them matched up really well. A superb education for all, long life with no disease, productive happy citizens, peace instead of war, low military expenditures as a desideratum, freedom of speech, tolerance and racial harmony, etc., etc., etc. But we disagreed on the probabilities of a given approach achieving the goal, what policies were best, because we disagreed about how people behave, the causes of some problems, etc., etc. We lost touch in '03, I think it was, but we'd probably still disagree on the hows and whys, but not the goals.