I’m a WW2 buff, so I’ve got a lot of Hitler material, and am also intrigued by religious and national ideology, and particularly the Zionism debate, so I’ve got books on both sides for those.

I’ve read Noam Chomsky in the past just because he’s a decent reporter about all the bad stuff we did, even if his solutions aren’t really that sound. I find that I can learn from people who I don’t agree with. Your linkedin friend clearly has not found this yet.

I’ve also realized that someone’s political compass is more determined by what they think the most important issues are….than, where they stand on all the issues.

For instance, a moderate democrat and a moderate republican who both feel financial aspects of government are the most important are likely to have more in common than a moderate rebublican, and an ideological republican.

So, in this case, republican could be more similar to a democrat than his own party based on his PRIORITIES.

This dude you encountered has clearly made his priorities of ostracising potential business partners clear, and doing nothing to advance the debate, or civility.

As a social scientist, don’t discount the fact that he might expect to lose most of his friends on LinkedIn if he was outed as having a friend who read Glenn Beck. If he was in such a tenuous situation, his behaviour might be understandable.

Well, Jaime, look on the bright side – if you ever do have a change of heart, and want to start a book burning crusade, I think might have made your first contact!

What you wrote is enough to make anyone a centrist. It’s a good thing I already am. I would gladly call myself a Democrat or Republican if either party were fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Both parties remain fiscally irresponsible.

-David

I’m willing to bet that on many issues we agree. Sad.

I think you actually put it in better perspective than I did Big Dog. I’m sure that “Brian” has a few friends that read that book or eat asparagus and he doesn’t even know.

You’ve absolutely nailed it. Like we talked about over the weekend, it’s all partisan B.S. from both sides these days. I wasn’t familiar with the book so I checked it out on Amazon. Of 954 reviews it received 626 “5 star” ratings, 214 “1 star” ratings, and 57 “4 star” ratings. I think that helps illustrate the divide. Brian, I’ve known Jamie for about a year now. I didn’t even know his political slant for the first 3 or 4 months that I knew him. I just moved from San Francisco (where I was way right of the norm) to Spokane (where I’m way left of the norm) and we’ve become good friends regardless of our political differences. Though it was recently noted the I didn’t eat any of my potatoes and he didn’t eat his aparagus. You know, Brian… that might be the deal breaker. There is no way I’m gonna associate with an asparagus hating jerk.