What has happened to common sense

Fair enough.

My angle was more work related OH&S.

I miss cracker night soooooooooooooooooooooooo much

 

You're quite welcome. But take heart. Common sense is my fave weapon in debate.
It's a pleasure to use it on a daily basis. Try it, you'll like it.

 

I try to use common sense all the time, hence my thread.

 

Cha bhi fios aire math an tobair gus an tràigh e. Gaelic proverb

agus, Bíonn dhá insint ar scéal agus dhá leagan déag ar amhrán

 

Um ... two sides to every story, and I think 12 songs????

 

The thing is, with debate, the truth is not known. That is to say, one can have the truth, with the limited amount of information they have. True debate, and politics, comes when both sides are open to hear what the other has and consider it with the information the other has.

Common sense in a debate tells all that the debate is to bring as much information to the table to draw out the best conclusion. One must be humble enough to consider the information provided by both parties.

The truth lies somewhere between, for sure. However, it can only come in consideration of the entire information to be at hand. Common sense, if your at each others throats, your not debating, your just arguing.

 

Logic and common sense are absent in any political extremists debate. Both exaggerate the truth, demonize, and mislead the facts to gain the advantage. Truth is rarely the goal.

 

I`ll go with that. Anyone with rusted on, unthingly permanent, one eyed political bias, is dysfunctional the to purpose of democracy.

 

Id go the other way. Parties are so heavily biased that you only get to vote for the one you agree with. So as long as labor allies itself with the greens i dont have a choice.

 

And logic like that is why we are doomed. It's that follow the herd mentality that made it easy for the American Indians to drive buffalo off cliffs so they were easily slaughtered.
　
Metaphorically speaking that is what the rich/elites two party system does routinely.

 

No, there really isn't.

No "common sense" certainly does not tell us this.

Again, no, it really doesn't.

This is arrogant beyond belief. Because two people cannot come to an agreement on an issue they must not be using common sense. What utter bollucks.

No.

Not necessarily.

What has happened to common sense? Absolutely nothing. The only reason that we might appear to have more "stupid" people is that we have a bigger population.

Baby boomers have no more or less "common sense" than any other generation.

This thread is just ridiculous. You do not have a monopoly on "common sense". The world is not as black and white as you make it out to be and there is not an easy or obvious answer to every question.

And willful ignorance is not the same thing as a lack of common sense.

You seem to be just using "common sense" as a buzz term to elevate your personal opinion above that of others.

What is the "common sense" solution to the abortion debate? Or to gun control? Please don't answer.

 

This is a good post.

I remember back in my undergraduate days I did an essay on "common sense" which touched on some of the things you've discussed here.

I wish I could find that essay now. Pretty sure I got an 'HD' for it

 

I dont follow the herd off of a cliff. i follow the herd that is least likely to screw me.
i dont post very well. i also meant to make the point that the greens are also heavily biased. doesnt that make them dysfuntional too. and no good for democracy ?

 

Political parties are corrupt by nature and anybody who follows them blindly (maybe that isn't you, but...), is being lead the wrong direction, and that is the buffalo analogy in a nut shell. You may actually believe that there are some commonality, but they all have agendas that will never be disclosed. At the moment some folks believe about half but IMO it is well over half who continue to follow a political ideology they don't even fully understand.

 

Australian politics isn't even in the same league as American, we're no where near as partisan as you lot.

 

No, people make people stupid.

It is a combination of bad genetics and the elitists trying to keep the average Joe in their place. This involves the media, but it also involves public education by in large. For example, kids in the US rank about 48th in the world in terms of science and math, but are sure to watch Al Gores "Inconvenient truth" and read the book, "Heather has two Mommies" while trying to successfully place a rubber on a bannana. If you ask me, a stupid populace is far easier to control than an informed one and is perhaps intentional in that respect.

Then there is the public university where you can learn how Big Government can solve all our problems and free trade or free anything else is "bad" for society. Then you learn that God is really dead and all you have is Big Government to "save" us all.

Then we hit the streets preprogrammed for more of the same.

 

And social prejudice, the corporate media/two party system (both one in the same), the manipulated public school system (as you point out designed to dumb down the populace from the get-go), and the best government corporate money can buy makes this all possible in this country and most likely yours too. Maybe to different levels or degrees but we are all a controlled society one way or the other.
　
　
The sooner people in general start coming to this realization, the sooner the rich/elite domination on this planet, not just the USofA, will end and internationally the world will become a much better place. We as a race are still dominated by the monarchy mentality whether we wish to admit it or not.

 

I don`t know what it`s like in Texas, but here in Australia, the populace generally, has become more egocentric, more shallow, narrow minded, and selfish. Self interest groups are prolific, and fanatically self centred, with no regard for anyone, or anything else outside their own agendas. Elections here are becoming progressively more like bribery auctions, with too many people only concerned about themselves, not the good of the country.

 

Over a billion dollars (with a B) will be spent to assure that the rich elite still maintain the control of the White House, and what is scary is, it doesn't matter if it is a republican or a democrat who takes the oath. They both work for the same rich/elitists.
　
　
Texas is no different any other state her in the US, when it comes to the governing body. All are ran/controlled by the two party scam.
　
Obummer took the reins and continued the exact same path as Bush. Oh sure he stirred up the political landscape, by creating Obamacare (but it will never be implemented, since it is unconstitutional as they already knew it would), but he finished the stimulus packages Bush started, we still torture, and he rode out the wars in the middle east so far exactly the way Bush laid them out to be ran. In fact we are finally leaving Iraq on Bush’s schedule not Obummers..
　
Politics here is one giant scam, and it has business as usual since the early 1970's. The people are perfect marks, and the two party scam is cooperating shills.

 

Thanks Bucknaked,
for being that open and outspoken when it comes to a lesser beautiful side of your nation. We hardly see people criticizing their own that way, well done!
Cheers mate

 

Nothing in this post I can disagree with (unusual for me, I know).

Selfishness seems to be the accepted norm in Australia.
I see it in all states and cities, however, Perth (where I live most of the year) seems to be the worst. Thankfully, the city I spend the rest of my year in - Hobart - seems to be the least affected.

 

Not so much criticism as it is an honest logical/common sense observation.

 

It`s not possible to solve a problem unless it`s identified & recognised. Over here, working people are fleeced by Govt, banks, big business, and the unions.

 

They call pointing out the reality of the situation, identifying the problem, proving factual evidence as to why things are longer working for the majority, etc... "whining" over here.

 

The same can be applied here....substitute a few words. I agree. Common sense seems to be AWOL.