Mirror Test

I like POETV. It's an entertaining site that has links to strange videos and is a great filter of the mass that is YouTube.

However, like much of the internet, you don't want to go there for politics.
For example they have a creepy level of raw hate for "Joe the Plumber". I mean... really, why care that much?

In between the mindless trolls that pass for "conservative" viewpoints, and the prevailing liberal-hipster mindset it's quite annoying.

One thing that stuck out on the commentary to the Obama is starting a draft video.

Sure it has the expected trolling but the mindless "The One" support got me.

Here's a theory, say McCain won, or this was 4 years ago and Bush was proposing exactly such a mandetory "civi" service. One, of many, worries I had about McCain was that he seemed to like such "draft" idea too.

Would the bulk of these posters be so for the idea, then?

The concept is exactly the same, only the person proposing it is different.

This shows either a disturbing mindless herd mentality (Obama can do no wrong!), a cynical shifting of your political views to the prevailing winds (Sure, I hated Bush's expansion of power and worry about Obama being the same, but we have to hurt those Republicans), or a beleif that the people in power matter more than the laws (We can trust Obama).

For the last one, that requires faith in the continued rule of Obama and like minded people.


This is why the "Mirror Test" is useful.

Take a political idea and flip it. If it's proposed by the party you dislike think if it were proposed by the one you, well, dislike less and vice versa.

This gives a bit more thought to it. Do you dislike a politician's plan merely because he's "the enemy"? Do you think his idea is great simply because he's "The One"?

For simplicity's sake (and to take advantage of the massive dislike) many can go "What if Bush said it?" Again, if this were Bush's idea, would people be so for it?

This is less to complain about comments to internet videos being dumb (but again much better than on YouTube) and more the sense that people are putting their ideology into a person instead of an idea.