Thank You...

[Dahlsim]

I know people don't come here for politics. I get that. Historical I've been fairly apolitical.  But I'm starting to think that talking about this stuff is important.  But we need conversations that are different from what we've become accustomed to.

Wouldn't be cool if we could have political conversations more like we discuss the Mavs? We have the One Big party,  and the Two Big party. We have the Net Rating Party and the Watch The Game Party. But we don't start different forums and only talk to the folks that think like us! We stick it out with each other, hash it out, respect each other, and keep talking Mavs.

I think Kam got surprised a couple years ago when I called him a friend. I consider Dahl a brother. IGT and I have helped each other understand one another more, recently,  which is really cool.

Political talk can be like that!

Would love to hear what everyone at mavsforum thinks about this stuff. Would love to have conversations involving wildly different ideas, done respectfully.

Yeah, 15th, its extremely difficult to discuss politics in today's USA unless you're in one or the other of the 2 echo chambers, leftward or rightward biased locations for public expression.  Warning, this is a bit lengthy reply post, skim if you must ... 

We certainly are brothers in my book.  I'm African American not sure about your ethnicity 15th, if you ever referenced it either publicly or in our messaging I don't remember.  Wouldn't matter a bit because I view family on other levels, especially the way Jesus taught us when he said 

[b]46 [/b]While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. [b]47 [/b]Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

[b]48 [/b]He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” [b]49 [/b]Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. [b]50 [/b]For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:46-50 

The truth of this teaching can be seen not only in a spiritual context but also in a political context.  
What connects people even more than blood is a degree of shared values and beliefs. 
The political landscape in the Divided States of America now stems from the fact that the most core shared values that once were agreed upon are no longer agreed on.  A massive line can now be drawn between 2 segments of the country based on core beliefs.   

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all is simply no longer the case.  
What's happened in the US is that fundamental values changed to the point where now even political givens like the 1st amendment  being dismantled based on differing views and values.  

Wouldn't be cool if we could have political conversations more like we discuss the Mavs?

Yeah, the problem with political discussion now is that with News and Media sources taking a clear side in politics people have entirely different "facts" that they base their understanding on.   As I said you can't hold politicians responsible for something without knowing about it.   

Just go watch the reporting of the news, especially election news, on a small but growing conservative YT channel like NTD and compare it to what is reported on every major outlet.  They are not even reporting the same set of facts as main stream sources!  

Personally I go out of my way to find and read sources on both sides of the spectrum because unbiased sources are almost non-existent today.  Compare the political news of the day in that video to literally every USA based mainstream outlet and you get a completely different facts as wall as spin. Nothing unbiased. 
Scroll down the page on CNN YT articles or CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, MSN and its been almost non-stop Trump bash dominated as if that's the only News that is important or relevant and the only political leader that matters.  
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cnn   
I still read the USA today newspaper almost every day and can tell you that the news there has been all Trump bashing all time since before he entered office.  That newspaper openly published they broke with their prior longstanding tradition of attempted neutrality and dedicated themselves to openly opposing his Presidency. 
As I said, we get that paper almost daily and they absolutely lived up to that every single issue with blatant spin on every politically oriented story.   
Sports other matters, ok but for political facts USA Today stopped being objective news if the stories were political and didn't really pretend to be. The same true for the vast majority sources. 

No wonder millions of people think all the problems in country revolved around this one man. That's pretty convenient if you're other politicians isn't it.  No one's holding you accountable for anything because its hardly being reported what you do if its negative.   
Its as though some critical events didn't even happen and as far as millions of people are concerned, they didn't because they never heard or saw it or barely saw a story and have almost no details on the matter.  
If they get anything at all it is with clear and obvious spin words inserted.  

The role of the public media in a free society was to make sure people know about important things and particularly things that involve holding politicians accountable for their actions.  That can't happen if the Media is one-sided which the vast majority in the US are.  That's why non-free societies have "state run" media. If the Media freely becomes biased its essentially the same result as a government run media for one side.  Free speech and free press, and freedom of religion and assembly and petition is an absolute limit on their power so they simply don't allow it.  They suppress, persecute, imprison and kill to control expression.   

The tipping point in 2020 came when the Tech Giants joined with the "News" media and "Entertainment" media to leverage its power and literally suppress expression.  Twitter and Facebook led the way now finally colluding with no less powerful a force than Amazon who literally shutdown an independently owned platform.  

Following up one Federal Judge has already dismissed their case to get a restraining order so they could continue running their business. 
Interestingly enough Media is spinning the platform as conservative platform despite the fact that they were never formed that way but quite the contrary, were formed as a platform for open debate. 
They have at least begun blogging the status of the fight they are in, including threats personal life of the company's CEO, who was never even a conservative. 
https://parler.com 

Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform. We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both.
...
 Parler has been repeatedly mischaracterized and treated unjustly. But the recent personal attacks on our CEO John, his wife Alina, and their family are reprehensible.

Alina, whose working-class family lived in the former Soviet Union, came to America to start her own multi-racial, interfaith family with John.

If it sounds like I'm really coming down on one side I get it, but I'm really not.  I don't have a party affiliation and I have issues with both parties, as a Christian and as an African American but mostly as an American that appreciates something of our history.

Political discussion now is actually being punished in the Divided States of America.  Maybe we could get away with a non-echo chamber discussion in a small sports forum like this, but even then I wouldn't count on it.