Vitriolic Pundits/Columnists

It's a big turnoff if the vitrol gets intense. If I disagreed before, it hardens me - if I'm in agreement with that POV, I'm ashamed of their "support".

I'm sort of jumping to a comment I made on the Rapture thread - if you attempt to win people to your viewpoint vitrol will backfire - even if it's not personal. Think about commercials - many more are friendly to their prospects than adversial.

If arguements get really intense, it tends to crowd out reason and people get defensive and it's over. It seems a lot of people have this idea if they pimp slap someone hard enough, they come over to their POV. The truth is many convictions occur over time.

 

I fear that the American public is so gullible that it will believe anything. When people who are pro-military vote for a draft dodger against a soldier decorated by that same military; when people with no access to basic health care oppose a national health plan; when people working full time for less than the rent on an apartment oppose unions; when people believe in astrology, crystal power, creationism, accupuncture, reflexology, Nostradamus, and all the rest of the bull***t floating around out there, it would not surprise me if they believed the hate mongers also.

 

Look at the last couple of Presidential elections and you tell me...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(livelychick @ Mar 3 2007, 08:34 PM) [snapback]399752[/snapback]</div>

This is the same Ann Coulter whose most recent book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,†said: that a group of New Jersey widows whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act “as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them.â€

She also wrote, “I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.â€

How can she be considered credible enough to have anything of value to contribute to current political discourse?

 

It absolutely helps them. Nobody takes them seriously, of course. That's not the point. But they serve an important purpose for their cause. They take media attention away from real issues that are negative to their party. And whenever someone in their own party says they are wrong, that person ends up looking good.

Except sometimes it backfires - like with Limbaugh's attack on Michael J Fox.