Health Care Reform and Closed-Mindedness

Do you know what I've noticed?

Most nearly everyone (including myself) are biased towards information in terms of political party.

This sounds so obvious (because it is) but it goes deeper than I thought.

We've all heard of the new health care reform thingie that's going through the senate right now. I've been curious about it, because I don't know much about it, and I know it would have huge consequences on many aspects of our country. So I've talked to a couple of people and read one or two articles, and all the information I've found has been given to me through the filter of bias, opinion, and past experience. I don't want this kind of information. I want pure facts, and in addition to that, I would like opinions from people on both sides of the issue. So I looked up the official website that is promoting the reform, and I looked up the text of the actual bill itself.

While I was looking over both of these, I found that I was viewing the information on the website that is promoting the reform in a negative light, already doubting the effectiveness of the reform, and the motives of Obama and his peoples. But then I tried looking at it in a different way, just for kicks. What if this is actually good? What do the people who I talk to know? What should it matter that they are democrats?

Here's some opinion for you:

In my opinion, I think that the majority of the people who talk about this reform know almost no facts. I think that the majority form their opinions from what they see on the news, what they hear from other people, and which party is promoting it. I think that a small amount of people have done some research, but that this research has been clouded by either positive thoughts or negative thoughts, depending on their political affiliation. I think that more democrats support this reform just because it is from Obama or because they are defending their party so they "have to" go with it (like loyalty to a sports team that you were raised with, even though they may suck); and I think that republicans have a problem with it because it's from Obama and because the democrats are supporting it. I think that the democrats look at the good that the reform will do, and ignore the harmful effects, and that the republicans look at the bad effects that the reform will have and downplay the good or pass it off as "fluffy democratic do-good-to-all irrational, wishful thinking".

I think that if people want to have a strong opinion on anything, and argue for or against something, they should do the research for themselves. I think that people should be smart. It annoys me when people strongly argue for or against something without having their facts founded on something solid. It annoys me when people are closed-minded, inflexible, and unwilling to admit that they may be wrong. And it very much annoys me that most of our political crap is all about pushing the names of the parties and the generalizations and stereotypes that go with them, rather than the actual, technical things that the parties are trying to do. Those who really understand what's going on and THEN formulate a strong opinion, and it's valid, are people I respect.

Sure, it's fine to say stuff, as long as you're willing to take in new information.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is: be open-minded, if you don't really know what you're talking about. You can't learn anything if you form a premature opinion on something, and won't accept any other information that contradicts your opinion.

That's just stupid.

But that's just my opinion.