It's rude to talk about politics because it becomes a divisive issue.
It's often worse with smart people. It's similar to my ideas on how people want to do hiring[1], since I've witnessed this pattern in person dozens of times
1. I am a smart person.
2. I have political idea X.
3. Therefore, other smart people should also have idea X.
4. If they don't, they aren't smart, or I need to spend a lot of time fixing their ignorance.
I'm not blind enough to exclude myself. I have lots of beliefs that I think are true in things like the economy, health care, and so on, but lots of smart people disagree with me. They might be right, and it's easy to lose track of that.
For lots of people, politics isn't about finding the best policy, but rather about signalling group status.
The point of this issue, campaign finance, is that it spans political issue and effects everyone. It's more about the type of government we want to have than any one particular issue.
The issue isn't campaign finance. It's regulation of speech about active political campaigns. The new money in politics does not belong to campaigns but superpacs.
Two solutions to that issue include:
1. Modify campaign finance laws so that people just give to candidates instead of third-party organizations.
2. Somehow restrict the funding levels or free speech rights of third-party organizations (and maybe campaigns too).
It's not really about what kind of government we want. It's about whether there's a right to buy a bigger megaphone.
My point above was that if people had normal conversations with normal people about politics, they would at least have more information about America and Americans outside of the giant megaphones of the world, helping to mitigate the effectiveness of cash in politics.
It's often worse with smart people. It's similar to my ideas on how people want to do hiring[1], since I've witnessed this pattern in person dozens of times
1. I am a smart person.
2. I have political idea X.
3. Therefore, other smart people should also have idea X.
4. If they don't, they aren't smart, or I need to spend a lot of time fixing their ignorance.
I'm not blind enough to exclude myself. I have lots of beliefs that I think are true in things like the economy, health care, and so on, but lots of smart people disagree with me. They might be right, and it's easy to lose track of that.
For lots of people, politics isn't about finding the best policy, but rather about signalling group status.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7515489