SHUT UP! You're both right...

The thing that bothers me the most about blogs is that they encourage disagreement and black and white thinking. This is the most obvious on political blogs, where those that line up on the other side of the aisle can never be right, and those on your side can never be wrong. I can't think of a less constructive way to have a conversation. And people say that blogs are a good thing for politics?

The fact is, while not every opinion is created equal, and blogs allow each other to evaluate and comment on those opinions, much of the dialogue online is of an unnecessarily combative nature. People go out of their way to not get the point. People quibble about details, remove context, and attack personalities and motives rather than ideas.

What is often missed is the fact that behind every blog entry is a person who feels strongly enough about something to write it down, whether they communicate it successfully or not. Whether what someone says is literally true, it is usually motivated by a position that has some value. In our polarized political climate, the valid underlying positions that people hold are rarely discussed, in favour of hyperbole and distortions. We would do well to realize that this happens on both sides of the political spectrum.