This is a great thought, but I have found that many coming to JU don't really want to exchange ideas or hear the opinions of others at all - they only want to tell you theirs and have you agree with it and will call you names and use other propaganda (like changing the topic to question minute details) if you don't (Dr. Guy is just one good example of someone who repeats the academically deficient namecalling heard from the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly). If you post something that strays from the majority "group-thought" on any given article, it will be labeled "irrelevant" and removed before others even get to see or respond to it. Maybe this is why you see more articles and responses dealing with petty issues. JU has become a place where name-calling is rampant and "winning" a discussion seems to be the most important thing. I say this as an outsider and only as an observation that I judge to be neither good or bad; it just is - and it is certainly not the case with EVERY article, but many of the political ones. I have lurked around JU for several years - once in a great while I'll post something (if I'm allowed without being a member), but usually I just come here to see what the far right is thinking on any given day - just one of the approximately 30 sites I like to visit on a regular basis. I certainly find things that are all over the political spectrum too - not just far right. But, the far right mentatlity ("us against them") seems to be the most represented here.
My suggestion if you want focus on what you may consider real issues and a real exchange of thought is to blog on a different site - go find one that fits your tastes and where open debates are had without using fractional-english and name-calling in every other sentence. I have found that places like the Memoryhole.org, Mises.org, lewrockwell.com, etc. to just name a few, ususally seem to have crowds that are much more open to exchanging thoughts without being quite as critical as many of the members here seem to be if you challenge their view of the world. Not only do you not get the namecalling and a lot of other propaganda techniques, but you won't find any articles on topics that may have no interest to you - like me writing something about my dad's birthday or something that is a little too personal for almost anyone else to really get anything out of.
Now, if I was Dr. Guy or ShadowWar or Bakerstreet (or a number of others), I would remove this post immediately so no one else could see or respond to it (positively or negatively)... And that's the point - I thought it was about exchanging ideas and learning about the perceptions of others (agree or disagree), not about whether everyone agreed with each other or who can come up with the best name-calling for those they don't agree with. It seems this change in the "reason" for people using JU has a direct correllation with how much time is spent on "fluff" instead of real issues. Seriously, how much venom can be spit when exchanging ideas about issues everyone knows are truly petty issues to begin with?
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