Topic: It is important. Vote. (U.S. Citizens)

[TechPro]

If you're a U.S. citizen and of voting age, please be sure to vote Nov. 6th.

Here is a video that gives a VERY good explanation why every eligible citizen should vote.  I don't particularly like the way the video starts (if it offends you, sorry.  Not intended to offend anyone), but endure through the beginning because the rest of the video explains the importance of voting quite well (in my opinion).

How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

This post is NOT supporting any particular candidate, only encouraging people to vote and thus be a part of helping the system to work the way it is intended to do.  To not vote is ... apathy. Apathy helps no one and hurts everyone.

As author of this thread, I reserve the right to:
1. Lock this thread if ANYONE tries to turn it into a discussion about who people should vote for (and I'll delete any offending posts).
2. If for any reason I feel this thread is getting derailed or going off topic, I will Lock this thread and delete offending posts.
3. If any of the posts start becoming offensive, this thread will be locked and the offending posts deleted.

[-<WillyP>-]

Even more than voting... IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE FULLY INFORMED. Watch the news? Good, but it's not enough... read blogs, papers, especially ones the you are told are 'bad' or 'wrong'... and form you own conclusions.

Only when you are fully informed of both sides of the issues can you make a good decision. Just voting at random because you have been told you 'should' vote is worse than not voting at all. Read my sig.

And this:

"Scientific fact," said Elise. "Part one: Idiots and incompetents grossly overestimate their intelligence and abilities. In fact, they're so stupid they're unable to see what complete morons they really are. So they end up with a false sense of superiority. which in turn creates a false sense of confidence, which perpetuates the cycle that constantly reinforces their fake superiority. Part two: Genuinely smart and skillful people chronically underestimate their own abilities and end up suffering from equally false feelings of self doubt and inferiority."
 No one responded for a moment.
 "I think I can speak on behalf of everyone," said Nick, "by saying . . . huh?"
 "She's saying ignorance encourages confidence," said Ajay. "Intelligence creates insecurity. Therefore, the stupid act with blind assurance, while the smart are crippled by self doubt."
 "And that's how the lizard brains end up in charge," said Elise. "How messed up is that?"
 "Totally," said Nick. "You can't teach 'stupid'."
 "No, it's a gift," said Elise, staring at Nick. "You're just born with it."

-- Excerpt from "The Paladin Prophecy", by Mark Frost

[PyroJockey]

Even more than voting... IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE FULLY INFORMED. Watch the news? Good, but it's not enough... read blogs, papers, especially ones the you are told are 'bad' or 'wrong'... and form you own conclusions.

Only when you are fully informed of both sides of the issues can you make a good decision. Just voting at random because you have been told you 'should' vote is worse than not voting at all.

I so agree with that and am dismayed that so many Americans today do not take the time to educate themselves on major issues or to even THINK for themselves. So many take what they see on the media at face value without question. It's easier to be spoon fed predigested information than pursue the truth. This is illustrated in a documentary by John Ziegler called Media Malpractice.



This film is not about Obama nor is it anti Obama. John Ziegler is a Democrat and voted for Obama himself. This film is about how the media presented him with extreme bias to get better ratings and how an uninformed portion of the population followed the media blindly. It's like watching Jay Walking on the Tonight Show but with voters.

The full version of the film can be viewed on hulu.

This is not an isolated case. The media also crucified George Zimmerman for ratings.



It's hard to find the facts when the media edits them for content.

[Scyphi]

This is part of the reason why I hate politics. You shouldn't HAVE to question everything you're told about the political candidates/issues, especially those on a nation-wide scale.

But nonetheless, I did vote, I feel like I made at least a fairly well informed vote. 

[VANGUARD]

My thing is, why vote if you don't know much about them? Education yourself well first. I haven't been keeping up to date for a good year or two.

[Matthew]

After 10 minutes of that video I still couldn't tell what the point of it was. At the end they start talking about how the media AVOIDED crucifying somebody running against Obama. How does that support their point that the media wanted Obama to win?

[PyroJockey]

After 10 minutes of that video I still couldn't tell what the point of it was. At the end they start talking about how the media AVOIDED crucifying somebody running against Obama. How does that support their point that the media wanted Obama to win?

It's about biased reporting of the mainstream media. At the time they were backing Edwards as a candidate and chose to ignore the infidelity story until long after it was printed by the National Enquirer. With Edwards out of the running they switched their focus to Obama.

[-<WillyP>-]

In the case of George Zimmerman The media really wanted... desperately even... a story about a white who killed a black. Everything they reported, photos of George and Treyvon were unabashedly slanted to push that story.

I won't go into how biased in favor of Obama the mass media is as it would get me banned if I truly spoke my mind on this matter.

In the years past, often one reporter or another would show some bias, after all they are entitled to opinions, and as long as the reporting was fair and honest, not a problem. Today we have major news stations editing videos, and distorting facts, not reporting unfavorable stories, it's far too frequent and consistently one sided to be mistakes or accidents.

[PyroJockey]

In the years past, often one reporter or another would show some bias, after all they are entitled to opinions, and as long as the reporting was fair and honest, not a problem. Today we have major news stations editing videos, and distorting facts, not reporting unfavorable stories, it's far too frequent and consistently one sided to be mistakes or accidents.

I try to derive some truth from the media by accessing multiple sources. I read newspapers and for TV news I watch CNN for the liberal left view and FOX News for the conservative right views. Forget about NBC for news. It is a sad fact that the most accurate information from NBC News is the weather forecast.

[TechPro]

That's funny (to me) because I do NOT use NBC for the weather forecast (or CBS, OR ABC, OR Fox for that matter).

 Intellicast is the best weather info source (IMO).

[Scyphi]

Only news I ever really listen to these days is NPR news on my radio when the alarm goes off every morning. Got fed up with just about everything else, because it either had it's priorities mixed up on what constituted headline news or not (I'm looking at you, Good Morning America) or other issues. NPR news isn't immune to this either, but at least with it, it's just people talking on the radio, and thus they're kind of forced to do some actual news stuff now and then.

My best source for weather is that thing that hangs outside called the sky. That, and Techpro and his Intellicast.

[PyroJockey]

That's funny (to me) because I do NOT use NBC for the weather forecast (or CBS, OR ABC, OR Fox for that matter).

 Intellicast is the best weather info source (IMO).

Uh....that was kind of my point. What a waste of perfectly good sarcasm. 

[Kaiaatzl]

I still prefer newspapers, even if they are a day late.  And occasionally the radio.
If something really big happens on a day, I hear about it anyway.  Anything else I can afford to wait a day.

I don't like the major news media because of their emphasis on sensationalism to the exclusion of anything else (which makes the world look like a much worse place than it actually is), so I prefer the smaller and less popular news media that thus have to get by on integrity (or at least a slightly higher amount of integrity)... though I would be biased and say that Canadian media in general tends to be somewhat less guilty than the big American stations, just by virtue of being so much smaller than the big American news media.  Still far from innocent though.

[TechPro]

That's funny (to me) because I do NOT use NBC for the weather forecast (or CBS, OR ABC, OR Fox for that matter).

 Intellicast is the best weather info source (IMO).

Uh....that was kind of my point. What a waste of perfectly good sarcasm. 

Ah. I see what you did.  Subtle you was.