I'm relatively liberal with mostly left leaning views. I get into some of the threads, I certainly read almost all of the Study threads, but I really have little desire to post there unless I have a particularly strong opinion or it is something that I feel that I have some knowledge in.
I do believe that most of the Martial Arts community is more right leaning and I have noticed a fairly strong inclination for Martial Artists to share certain views. In general they are on the political right and many have "security concerns." Which makes sense, because security is a reason to get into MA. I see many martial artists who are conspiracy theorists and who are much more concerned about personal and government security than your average person. I tend to see more concern from the MA community about the government being corrupt or somehow "out to get" the average citizen.
My reasons for largely staying away from posting are two-fold.
First, I am in the Military. As such, I am prohibited by law from being too vocal about my views. There are things that you can say, but I think that many members know what I do. Though I know personally that the members here would not try to equate my views with that of the military, but the rule exists to prevent service members from being perceived as speaking on behalf of the military. We are prohibited from publicly renouncing or "denigrating" the government, particularly when our occupation is general knowledge (nothing in uniform, etc). Some of these issues, I also have knowledge that would be security violations or I have "inside" info based on security clearance and experience, so those I REALLY try to stay away from.
Second, the right minded individuals around here are pretty opinioned and out spoken. Not a bad thing at all and completely within people's rights. But in my time here, I really haven't seen a reason to post opposing opinions in most cases. Many of our discussions in the study go quickly to political bashing of one side or another. There are many sweeping generalizations (in the real world also) made, which honestly, I just don't have time for. Once you label yourself, you get stereotyped and pigeon holed. NO ONE'S views are completely one way or the other, people exist in a world of grays, not black and white.
I hear a lot of it off the boards too and I know that my perspective is skewed (even though I technically consider myself independent, I have more liberal views than conservative), but I seem to hear more attacks and generalized disparaging comments coming from the more conservative people about liberals than the other way. That is the nature of the beast though - liberals tend to be less confrontational and less likely to judge a group based on the actions of some members. There are very long standing stereo types of both sides and I've grown tired of the way that politics are viewed among the population. I've been personally attacked entirely too many times in person for my views by people that can't debate an issue without losing their cool, I am not about to do that in my leisure time sitting in front of a computer.
I tell my troops regularly that if they are overly emotional about a topic or have some vested personal interest, take a few steps back. Getting emotional and worked up over something doesn't solve the problem, it only makes it worse. Politics is a VERY emotional topic for everyone because it plays into the human nature of wanting to have control over their environment. Unfortunately, my person opinion is that you CANNOT have control over the vast majority of your environment and in a system as large and complex as politics and government - have an opinion, do your part and vote, contact your congressman for major issues, but other than that....there isn't much that you can do. Plus, I'm a bit of an idealist in that I truly believe that the government in general IS NOT out to get us and that most polititians, which liars, have our best interests at heart. I dont' see the sky falling any time soon.
Was that too much?
.
