Why I think Europeans can't understand conservative US views

[downnola]

I'm not going to argue the semantics of an opinion with you though. It's an opinion and therefore can't be right or wrong inherently. It doesn't detract from the rest of the statement. If I had said "in our lifetimes" does that mean all of a sudden everything I said before it is more in line with your opinion?

Well, that would transform the sentence from an incorrect statement to an arguable position, and one that I would even agree with, I might add.

I certainly don't want to get into an argument about the validity of opinions, only that I'd say they're assessments based on incomplete knowledge. Not all opinions are equal, as some tend to be based on absolute nonsense, while others have some valid structure of knowledge to back them up.

To your point in the original post: I actually agree with you. Your last sentence stood out to me so I decided to comment on it, more out of fun than seriousness really. Staying on topic, there's a certain arrogance often on display in these kinds of threads. I often meet people that are hesitant to admit they're conservative because of that arrogance, and it makes people not want to discuss politics in general. To treat people in that way because they think differently than you do is fucking shameful. As an example, there's a thread on the front page right now of someone "losing" people in their family over politics. I'm about as anti-Trump as you can get, but still consider myself a Republican at heart. My grandparents are avid Trump supporters and I argue with them relentlessly about his antics. The difference is that I can disagree with them sharply about politics, but would never want them out of my life over something as petty as who they voted for; family means too much to me for that nonsense.

Regardless, you're right, petty arrogance is the reason why political dialog is occupied by spoiled children right now while all the real adults are left scratching their heads wondering where it all went wrong. I think where we might differ, though, is that I see conservatives doing it too, and think they own just as much blame for why politics is in the shitter.