This forum dead or dying?

[Dark_Hater]

I also hardly ever outside of work use a PC. The phone is more convenient for me and most likely limits my engagement and depth of conversation. My personality also contributes as I typically don’t have much to say. Also life is busy and there is always work to be done on the property.
The younger generation has such a short attention span that is why I suppose a picture or short abbreviated text is all they care about and if it’s longer than a paragraph they move on. The format Reddit uses works for them. I believe that is why Snapchat and Instagram are popular with them.

 

[Candleometry]

A phone is a tool. It’s how you use that tool that determines what you get back. I limit their exposure especially apps on mine to only those that give me information I’m interested in or require. That works for me.

As far as Reddit I like how I’m able to have all my hobbies in one place. Watches, fountain pens, pocket knives and now flashlights. I’ve learned a lot from the variety of users from all over the world. New products pop up quickly. Lots of great pictures to give you a good idea what the item looks like or how it performs. For me it definitely has a place.

 

[Schokokeks]

I still often will leave my home without my phone for short trips. I never carry it on me when I do have it and it remains in my vehicle. I will check for missed calls and messages every now and then and I hate doing any type of transactions by phone. Weirdly enough I also hate drive through fast food and will almost always order inside.

On duty my shift knows to reach me by my radio as again if I am away from my vehicle I will not have a phone. It is actually very refreshing to not be stuck to my phone daily as I see so many others that are. I have trouble doing anything online if it is not from my desktop computer. I do not even have my email set up for my phone as it would just get on my nerves.

I actually remember not having a cell phone until the age of 27 I believe and the reason I got it then was my employer required me to have one. I very vividly remember using a public phone booth for quick calls on the road. I believe I am much more happy without any social media footprint and my cell phone bill is dirt cheap as again I never use it and only need a basic phone.

It is nice that phone plans are back to being cheap.

And, I'd agree; the less social media in life, the happier people are. There's pretty robust data to support that, too. Social media tends to MAKE us lonely, angry, anxious, and isolated.

Also didn’t get a mobile phone until in my 20’s.
No (anti) social media, no other forums (although I have been a member of other ones in the past).
I use a PC as little as possible these days and while I’m not glued to engaging with my phone constantly, I do carry it for various reasons most places I go.
If it wasn’t for my phone I’d likely not look at the forum at all.

Come to think of it I’d go back to life before phones (and all the other BS) without question.

I was actually a super early adopter of cell phones, because it was cheaper at the time for my family to get cell phones than have a house phone (my mom called long-distance a LOT).

I remember explaining to my friends at school (this was maybe the late 90s) that they couldn't call the house, and they'd have to call my phone, and I showed it to them. We were ALL so confused.
"Why do you need a phone with you?"
"I don't know..."

And then T9 texting became a thing, haha.
"Why would I want to send you a message?"
"I'm not sure..."

Mind you, this was coming from nerds who built PCs, played games, and were online all the time, haha. Back in the dial-up days, haha.
We loved technology and were fascinated by it, but just confused by mobile phones, haha.

I also hardly ever outside of work use a PC. The phone is more convenient for me and most likely limits my engagement and depth of conversation. My personality also contributes as I typically don’t have much to say. Also life is busy and there is always work to be done on the property.
The younger generation has such a short attention span that is why I suppose a picture or short abbreviated text is all they care about and if it’s longer than a paragraph they move on. The format Reddit uses works for them. I believe that is why Snapchat and Instagram are popular with them.

The attention span thing has gotten REALLY scary.

I was reading recently that a lot of young people struggle with multi-clause sentences, so anything using a comma is essentially unreadable, because by the time they get to the end of the sentence, they've already forgotten the beginning...
And then, because they axed phonics in favor of "sight reading" because "research shows..." the kids can't read.
I have a particular bone with that topic, because I hate how fad-driven education is (likely tied to the fact education is over 3/4 women, who seem to LOVE a new fad), and studies are often based around "ideal learners," or in the case of that study, fully literate adults. It's insane that we shifted the way we teach reading because no one stopped to ask, "Do LEARNERS do things the same way as the proficient!?"

So, I do partially feel bad for the kids these days, because their failures are also our failures. Parents don't help their kids, parents don't hold their kids accountable, parents scare off the good teachers with the help of the administrators, and then everyone blames them when they're incapable of doing basic things.

(And yes, some of it is cultural shifts as the demographics of the U.S. have changed; we have less people from education-focused cultural backgrounds than we did previously)

A phone is a tool. It’s how you use that tool that determines what you get back. I limit their exposure especially apps on mine to only those that give me information I’m interested in or require. That works for me.

As far as Reddit I like how I’m able to have all my hobbies in one place. Watches, fountain pens, pocket knives and now flashlights. I’ve learned a lot from the variety of users from all over the world. New products pop up quickly. Lots of great pictures to give you a good idea what the item looks like or how it performs. For me it definitely has a place.

If you're looking for the newest things, I would 100% agree Reddit excels at that.

Many of the "deal" subs are decent on account of that.

 

[Monocrom]

Ahh, WatchUSeek, a perfect example of how to destroy an online forum. What a shame.

They had a cafe. It was active, vibrant, it was its own online community.
Miss a day of not stopping by, and you had hours worth of new posts you could read through.

 

[Monocrom]

I remember a time we had at least 20 highly active modders making some very neat stuff all at the same time. Some of these projects were original items while others were improvements on existing designs. Everything was getting smaller and stronger and we had the hotwire guys as well as the new breed of LED technology. It was a fun time. I often wonder what happened to many fantastic modders that I remember that just kind of one day were gone.

I'm not going to name anyone specfically, except Scott. But only because he's the most well-known example of the following.... Old School CPF modders who were talented, gifted, and skilled enough that the rest of us turned to them for their custom creations. Usually with lights supplied by us. Scott used to hold Meet-ups and get-togethers at his house! Everyone who went, had a great time. Then....

Happened slowly, at first. One after the other. Old School modders (not all of them, but a shockingly large amount of them) started screwing over their customers (fellow CPF members). Stopped communications. Kept lights and money sent to them. Claimed to be flooded with orders. Everyone has to wait longer for lights that never arrived. Honestly, I got lucky. My last Milky-modded light arrived about 2 months before Scott completely flushed his reputation down the toilet. He was one of the last to do so. The last modder ANYONE would expect to do so. Scott is going to screw everyone over?!

No one's laughing now. That one was a gut punch.... from Santa Claus! Again, this happened a lot with the modders. No one wants to talk about it! As a classic INFJ personality type, sorry guys; I can't even lie to myself.

 

[iacchus]

And then, because they axed phonics in favor of "sight reading" because "research shows..." the kids can't read.

My state went back to teaching phonics for the young and went from 49th in the US in 2013 to 9th in 2024. All because we went back to what works. People were amazed that Mississippi was outscoring more liberal enclaves, but you can't ignore the numbers.

Sight reading was always balderdash. It was one of the worst things to ever happen to compulsory education in the US.

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220MS4.pdf

 

[Candleometry]

My state went back to teaching phonics for the young and went from 49th in the US in 2013 to 9th in 2024. All because we went back to what works. People were amazed that Mississippi was outscoring more liberal enclaves, but you can't ignore the numbers.

Sight reading was always balderdash. It was one of the worst things to ever happen to compulsory education in the US.

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220MS4.pdf

That’s quite impressive! Good for them to see something wasn’t working and have the courage to move back to what did. Hopefully more states will follow.

 

[turbodog]

My state went back to teaching phonics for the young and went from 49th in the US in 2013 to 9th in 2024. All because we went back to what works. People were amazed that Mississippi was outscoring more liberal enclaves, but you can't ignore the numbers.

Sight reading was always balderdash. It was one of the worst things to ever happen to compulsory education in the US.

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220MS4.pdf

And I know who was at the core of this, from ideas to execution... and MS can thank liberals for it happening.

That said, to address the OP, "yes". CPF management's complete and utter failure to address toxic members is a contributing factor. I'd even say those members are embraced.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

I always carry my smartphone. One never knows when he's going to want to take a picture or call the police.

 

[iacchus]

And I know who was at the core of this, from ideas to execution... and MS can thank liberals for it happening.

I'm not MAGA, and have plenty of liberal leanings, but nothing happens stateside in MS from liberal action. Not since 2004 anyway.

Phil Bryant signed the Literacy Based Promotion Act in 2013, the core of the changes. It was lauded at the time as a spearhead against liberal teaching policies. 34 Democrats voted against it's passing in the House, while only 3 Republicans voted against it. 72 Repubs voted yea, 9 Dems supported it.
In the Senate, 9 Dems were for it while 29 Republicans did. I'm not sure how you figure this was a Liberal win. It was certainly a win for the children.

Sight reading/whole language/balanced literacy was often seen and supported as progressive teaching curricula, and had a strong conservative push against it. The whole plan to bring phonics teaching back was touted as a return to values and what worked "in the good old days".

Credit where credit is due, Dr Carey Wright was the real architect of implementation, but she has always held a firm non-partisan stance. At least she did here, I haven't followed her work in Maryland.

 

[Monocrom]

I always carry my smartphone. One never knows when he's going to want to take a picture or call the police.

Nowadays, most folks are forced to. Absolutely need to make a phone call because something unexpected or important came up? Yeah, carrying around a couple of quarters, always; then looking for the nearest Pay-phone.... Not an option. No longer standard operating procedure.

 

[Schokokeks]

I feel maybe I should be a bit pedantic and specify that sight reading is real, as it's how all of us actually read. Taht's the wohle tihng werhe we can raed a sneetnce fnie, eevn tohugh tihgns isndie it are msiselpled. Literate English speakers actually just look at the first and last letter, and then the general shape.
It's interesting, because that's kind of how people read languages like Chinese. Despite our words being made up of individual letters, we still just process them essentially as shapes. Not much different than how people hieroglyphics. In some interesting ways, where Chinese might use specific brush strokes, we just use characters, but the way literate people process these is more similar than you'd expect.

The problem is, that is only how literate people read. Kids are frequently encountering words they don't know, and phonics allows them to at least take a stab at figuring out the word. The issue with teaching sight reading is that whenever they encountered a new word, they simply stopped reading. It turned reading into a grueling, demotivating, frustrating process, so they never got into reading for fun, which means they BARELY ever read. Fast forward, and now they're adults, and they have read about as much in their entire life as maybe a 3rd grader had even a generation prior. Politicians see that, and say, "Well, I learned Phonics! So, anyone who says it was bad is dumb!"

But, it's an imperfect system. This isn't our alphabet, it's the Latin alphabet. While both English and Latin are Indo-European languages, one is Germanic (base), and the other is a Romance (Roman) language. So, there's not a great correlation between the letters and our sounds. English has significantly more vowels than Latin offers in its alphabet, so this is part of the reason spelling in English is a bit of a hot mess (in addition to historical loanwords and fads as towards preferences across Latin, Greek, and French).

For example, we teach kids "S makes a sound like a snake!"
But, 'S' makes a LOT of sounds.
Sounds. That's two very different sounds. /s/ and /z/ in the same word!
I had a vision, and I saw a chic man named Sean shining his lights' beams across the sea.
_________ /ʒ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /z/ /s//z/ /z/ /s/ /s/
That's a whole lot of different sounds (four) for one letter, and a lot of letters for similar sounds (at least three combinations).

So, I don't think it's politicians causing - or saving - anyone from this.
It's well meaning people who see new, exciting research, but then extrapolate that into a context that doesn't work.

I don't see any of these changes as political failures or wins, but more tied to the fad nature of how people like to take new, exciting information, and just run with it.

 

[dc38]

I feel maybe I should be a bit pedantic and specify that sight reading is real, as it's how all of us actually read. Taht's the wohle tihng werhe we can raed a sneetnce fnie, eevn tohugh tihgns isndie it are msiselpled. Literate English speakers actually just look at the first and last letter, and then the general shape.
It's interesting, because that's kind of how people read languages like Chinese. Despite our words being made up of individual letters, we still just process them essentially as shapes. Not much different than how people hieroglyphics. In some interesting ways, where Chinese might use specific brush strokes, we just use characters, but the way literate people process these is more similar than you'd expect.

The problem is, that is only how literate people read. Kids are frequently encountering words they don't know, and phonics allows them to at least take a stab at figuring out the word. The issue with teaching sight reading is that whenever they encountered a new word, they simply stopped reading. It turned reading into a grueling, demotivating, frustrating process, so they never got into reading for fun, which means they BARELY ever read. Fast forward, and now they're adults, and they have read about as much in their entire life as maybe a 3rd grader had even a generation prior. Politicians see that, and say, "Well, I learned Phonics! So, anyone who says it was bad is dumb!"

But, it's an imperfect system. This isn't our alphabet, it's the Latin alphabet. While both English and Latin are Indo-European languages, one is Germanic (base), and the other is a Romance (Roman) language. So, there's not a great correlation between the letters and our sounds. English has significantly more vowels than Latin offers in its alphabet, so this is part of the reason spelling in English is a bit of a hot mess (in addition to historical loanwords and fads as towards preferences across Latin, Greek, and French).

For example, we teach kids "S makes a sound like a snake!"
But, 'S' makes a LOT of sounds.
Sounds. That's two very different sounds. /s/ and /z/ in the same word!
I had a vision, and I saw a chic man named Sean shining his lights' beams across the sea.
_________ /ʒ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /z/ /s//z/ /z/ /s/ /s/
That's a whole lot of different sounds (four) for one letter, and a lot of letters for similar sounds (at least three combinations).

So, I don't think it's politicians causing - or saving - anyone from this.
It's well meaning people who see new, exciting research, but then extrapolate that into a context that doesn't work.

I don't see any of these changes as political failures or wins, but more tied to the fad nature of how people like to take new, exciting information, and just run with it.

 

[Robocop]

I do understand that just like generations before me we each feel as if "our" generation is the best. Technology moves forward and it does bring some amazing improvements to our life. When I first started my Police career we had to use map books and everything was done on paper. We had to physically read a map to find an address and we had to do reports on paper using a pen and actual writing.

Fast forward to today and we can find an address within seconds and then have a voice on our phone actually direct us to the location. Reports are now typed on a computer while I sit in my patrol car. They are saved forever and can be located years later with a simple search. I remember resisting the change to an all digital police dept however must admit that now it is actually much better.

The first sign of problems kind of snuck up on us and it was during a sudden unexpected internet and phone signal outage. I suddenly found myself unable to complete an incident report, unable to complete an accident report, unable to make an arrest as the paperwork was all set up to be digitally transferred. We started scrambling to figure out how to get by until the service was restored. Some of us were ok as we still had a few paper reports stashed away however other younger officers were simply lost. Many of them also had no idea how to read a grid map and the older guys kind of helped them along. Without GPS they just could not function.

Although the modern way is no doubt much better it can sometimes be a crutch if you come to solely rely on it. We learned a valuable lesson and now have redundant back ups and can in an emergency use actual paper reports. One of the bigger problems when this all happened was that our magistrate and court systems were all set up for digital processing. When we turned in all the paper reports ,and paper citations, during the outage they had trouble processing all of it the old way. We also include old fashioned map navigation in our new recruit training as well as basic manual report writing.

Just imagine all the things the internet does these days and for the younger folks can you imagine never having it? I lived much of my life without it and in many ways it was a much more simple and happy life for me. Although no doubt we have some amazing creature comforts with each new generation I do believe the older generations would be ok if it all suddenly vanished.

 

[Candleometry]

I feel maybe I should be a bit pedantic and specify that sight reading is real, as it's how all of us actually read. Taht's the wohle tihng werhe we can raed a sneetnce fnie, eevn tohugh tihgns isndie it are msiselpled. Literate English speakers actually just look at the first and last letter, and then the general shape.
It's interesting, because that's kind of how people read languages like Chinese. Despite our words being made up of individual letters, we still just process them essentially as shapes. Not much different than how people hieroglyphics. In some interesting ways, where Chinese might use specific brush strokes, we just use characters, but the way literate people process these is more similar than you'd expect.

The problem is, that is only how literate people read. Kids are frequently encountering words they don't know, and phonics allows them to at least take a stab at figuring out the word. The issue with teaching sight reading is that whenever they encountered a new word, they simply stopped reading. It turned reading into a grueling, demotivating, frustrating process, so they never got into reading for fun, which means they BARELY ever read. Fast forward, and now they're adults, and they have read about as much in their entire life as maybe a 3rd grader had even a generation prior. Politicians see that, and say, "Well, I learned Phonics! So, anyone who says it was bad is dumb!"

But, it's an imperfect system. This isn't our alphabet, it's the Latin alphabet. While both English and Latin are Indo-European languages, one is Germanic (base), and the other is a Romance (Roman) language. So, there's not a great correlation between the letters and our sounds. English has significantly more vowels than Latin offers in its alphabet, so this is part of the reason spelling in English is a bit of a hot mess (in addition to historical loanwords and fads as towards preferences across Latin, Greek, and French).

For example, we teach kids "S makes a sound like a snake!"
But, 'S' makes a LOT of sounds.
Sounds. That's two very different sounds. /s/ and /z/ in the same word!
I had a vision, and I saw a chic man named Sean shining his lights' beams across the sea.
_________ /ʒ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /ʃ/ /z/ /s//z/ /z/ /s/ /s/
That's a whole lot of different sounds (four) for one letter, and a lot of letters for similar sounds (at least three combinations).

So, I don't think it's politicians causing - or saving - anyone from this.
It's well meaning people who see new, exciting research, but then extrapolate that into a context that doesn't work.

I don't see any of these changes as political failures or wins, but more tied to the fad nature of how people like to take new, exciting information, and just run with it.

So well said. Thank you.
We are so hyper-politicized right now that everything has to be blamed on one side or the other. Very sad really as we all aren’t that different except in our minds. Our minds are influenced by anything. It can lead us down a path that’s divisive and leads to the mess we are currently in.
I also agree that, most of the time, people who make these decisions are well intentioned. They are not evil or stupidity, they are attempting to improve an outcome. Sometimes it may not work. Attacking them is just our way of making ourselves seem smarter, which often isn’t the case.

 

[Candleometry]

I do understand that just like generations before me we each feel as if "our" generation is the best. Technology moves forward and it does bring some amazing improvements to our life. When I first started my Police career we had to use map books and everything was done on paper. We had to physically read a map to find an address and we had to do reports on paper using a pen and actual writing.

Fast forward to today and we can find an address within seconds and then have a voice on our phone actually direct us to the location. Reports are now typed on a computer while I sit in my patrol car. They are saved forever and can be located years later with a simple search. I remember resisting the change to an all digital police dept however must admit that now it is actually much better.

The first sign of problems kind of snuck up on us and it was during a sudden unexpected internet and phone signal outage. I suddenly found myself unable to complete an incident report, unable to complete an accident report, unable to make an arrest as the paperwork was all set up to be digitally transferred. We started scrambling to figure out how to get by until the service was restored. Some of us were ok as we still had a few paper reports stashed away however other younger officers were simply lost. Many of them also had no idea how to read a grid map and the older guys kind of helped them along. Without GPS they just could not function.

Although the modern way is no doubt much better it can sometimes be a crutch if you come to solely rely on it. We learned a valuable lesson and now have redundant back ups and can in an emergency use actual paper reports. One of the bigger problems when this all happened was that our magistrate and court systems were all set up for digital processing. When we turned in all the paper reports ,and paper citations, during the outage they had trouble processing all of it the old way. We also include old fashioned map navigation in our new recruit training as well as basic manual report writing.

Just imagine all the things the internet does these days and for the younger folks can you imagine never having it? I lived much of my life without it and in many ways it was a much more simple and happy life for me. Although no doubt we have some amazing creature comforts with each new generation I do believe the older generations would be ok if it all suddenly vanished.

When hospitals moved to electronic systems we knew there was a possibility that it could go down. We generally agreed if it was short- term, an hour or two, we would just catch up after the system came back online. If it was going to be longer, we had converted all necessary documentation, orders, etc. to paper like the old days. We had sets of all of these on every unit so they could be copied and used if necessary. Then they would be scanned into the record. It works pretty well.
As far as whether these advancements improve our quality of life I think it’s a mixed bag. We always want to look back fondly on the past as if it was some utopia. Life expectancy has improved because of medical innovations. At the same time people may spend their last 20 years in a nursing home. Is that living? We can obtain data faster but has it crippled our ability to think critically? I don’t think we can stop change so the best thing is to learn how to adapt in your own way. What more can we do?

 

[Robocop]

For the most part I like the fact that I am blissfully unaware of many advances in technology. Just a few months past I was watching a video of a woman feeding a huge bear on her front porch. It was crazy as the bear just walked up and she was talking to it softly and feeding it marshmallows. I was blown away thinking how in the world has this old woman made friends with a giant grizzly bear. I showed a younger officer the video and he started laughing like crazy. He politely informed me that it was not real and was made with A.I.

I had no idea how many videos online are not real and now that I know this I second guess every interesting video I may see. I liked it much better when I did not know.

 

[Monocrom]

For the most part I like the fact that I am blissfully unaware of many advances in technology. Just a few months past I was watching a video of a woman feeding a huge bear on her front porch. It was crazy as the bear just walked up and she was talking to it softly and feeding it marshmallows. I was blown away thinking how in the world has this old woman made friends with a giant grizzly bear. I showed a younger officer the video and he started laughing like crazy. He politely informed me that it was not real and was made with A.I.

I had no idea how many videos online are not real and now that I know this I second guess every interesting video I may see. I liked it much better when I did not know.

Well, that's one huge problem with technology. Video evidence! Oh, wait; that's A.I.
That video of Santa kicking Big Foot right in the Jimmy, sorry that's A.I. (looks real though.)

 

[Candleometry]

For the most part I like the fact that I am blissfully unaware of many advances in technology. Just a few months past I was watching a video of a woman feeding a huge bear on her front porch. It was crazy as the bear just walked up and she was talking to it softly and feeding it marshmallows. I was blown away thinking how in the world has this old woman made friends with a giant grizzly bear. I showed a younger officer the video and he started laughing like crazy. He politely informed me that it was not real and was made with A.I.

I had no idea how many videos online are not real and now that I know this I second guess every interesting video I may see. I liked it much better when I did not know.

Exactly why I laugh when people post videos as proof of something. Not just AI but everything. It’s just raw “information”. People fall for it in droves. I’m convinced if the internet didn’t exist this country (U.S.) wouldn’t be so divided.

 

[Schokokeks]

I do understand that just like generations before me we each feel as if "our" generation is the best. Technology moves forward and it does bring some amazing improvements to our life. When I first started my Police career we had to use map books and everything was done on paper. We had to physically read a map to find an address and we had to do reports on paper using a pen and actual writing.

Fast forward to today and we can find an address within seconds and then have a voice on our phone actually direct us to the location. Reports are now typed on a computer while I sit in my patrol car. They are saved forever and can be located years later with a simple search. I remember resisting the change to an all digital police dept however must admit that now it is actually much better.

The first sign of problems kind of snuck up on us and it was during a sudden unexpected internet and phone signal outage. I suddenly found myself unable to complete an incident report, unable to complete an accident report, unable to make an arrest as the paperwork was all set up to be digitally transferred. We started scrambling to figure out how to get by until the service was restored. Some of us were ok as we still had a few paper reports stashed away however other younger officers were simply lost. Many of them also had no idea how to read a grid map and the older guys kind of helped them along. Without GPS they just could not function.

Although the modern way is no doubt much better it can sometimes be a crutch if you come to solely rely on it. We learned a valuable lesson and now have redundant back ups and can in an emergency use actual paper reports. One of the bigger problems when this all happened was that our magistrate and court systems were all set up for digital processing. When we turned in all the paper reports ,and paper citations, during the outage they had trouble processing all of it the old way. We also include old fashioned map navigation in our new recruit training as well as basic manual report writing.

Just imagine all the things the internet does these days and for the younger folks can you imagine never having it? I lived much of my life without it and in many ways it was a much more simple and happy life for me. Although no doubt we have some amazing creature comforts with each new generation I do believe the older generations would be ok if it all suddenly vanished.

I remember there was some like Greek philosopher that had railed against writing because "no one would remember things, anymore."

So, of course we laugh at him, but also...he wasn't wrong. Many cultures have long traditions of memorizing their holy texts (Judaism and the Vedic texts are famous examples).

The internet has actually had this same effect; because people can look anything up, they cannot remember the answers to what they just looked up. In the academic research, this is referred to as "the Google effect."

So well said. Thank you.
We are so hyper-politicized right now that everything has to be blamed on one side or the other. Very sad really as we all aren’t that different except in our minds. Our minds are influenced by anything. It can lead us down a path that’s divisive and leads to the mess we are currently in.
I also agree that, most of the time, people who make these decisions are well intentioned. They are not evil or stupidity, they are attempting to improve an outcome. Sometimes it may not work. Attacking them is just our way of making ourselves seem smarter, which often isn’t the case.

Agreed. I think so much of the vitriol is about that feeling of superiority, because we now struggle with accepting differing opinions because we need to convince ourselves our political opponents are ontologically evil.

I think, especially as a politically independent person, I'm just so tired of the "team sports" two-party nonsense. Both sides are so tiring and hypocritical.
Instead of getting upset, I just laugh at this point.