Intro

I am not an outgoing personality. Call it an overactive inner-monologue. Now that is not to say I believe I'm incapable of making a statement. Quite the contrary, there is still the written word.

But do people today care about the written word? Are we so over-stimulated with media, information and entertainment that we never ponder a thought more than 30 seconds at a time? This may be true, but if you can keep your statements bold, to the point and clear you have a chance at keeping people’s attention.

What else though? What do people respond to? There has to be more than conflicting ideologies and adjusting to new social-norms. My opinions are obviously influenced by my life experience. I also tend to come back to the places where people agree with my opinions.

In life, I like to frame arguments with a slight humor or sarcasm, being careful not to alienate the person or insult their opinion. I try to speak for my case rather than against theirs. People respond to negative reinforcement from a peer often by shutting you out or ending discussion.

If you are actually funny (see Patton Oswald), you can deliver an argument I might not regularly agree with (see everything Patton Oswald says politically) and still be considered a person of value to my own sensibilities. (Patton Oswald's Pandora channel is my go to for comedy.)

If I can step back from my own pride enough to separate the argument from the fact that it is "my argument," maybe I will learn something.

Having recently shed the teenage angst that seems to follow people into their mid-twenties now-a-days, I believe that humor can work, being careful not to turn into snark (snark is close to sarcasm, but is meant to ridicule the people who don’t agree). Humor can be the lubricant to help people get through an opposing view without blowing a gasket or downloading the most relevant opinion piece from their mind to fire back.

This is why comedy seems to be last beacon of free speech left.

There are no objective news sources. People provide the news, and people bring their opinions wherever they go. I have to hat tip Breitbart.com because, although they tilt one way (of which they are open about) they focus on the facts of the case. I believe they are blowing up like ska in the nineties because of that integrity.

Comment section coming.