I think I think too much... I think

I have made an Internet observation: the less intelligent stuff you write the more readers you get to your blog and the more comments you get.

Now, this is not always the case, but it's something I'm starting to lean toward as a general rule of thumb.

Consider the following cases:

Case #1:

I spend hours doing research and then write a well educated article about politics that is completely based on fact, and then I go to another blog where someone simply chants partisan bickering while stating no proof that what they are blabbing about is true.

My post: Zero comments. The blab: 16 comments.

Case #2:

I spend days reading and doing research for my medical blog about how asthma is not really a fatal disease and why. I go to another RT blogger's site who wrote a post about what kind of shoes he's thinking of buying.

My post: Zero comments. The shoe post: 72 comments.

Case #3:

I write a quality post on the aformentioned shoe medblog about how a common med that helps asthmatics catch their breath in an instant is abused not by patients but by doctors. He asked me to write a post for his readers and I did. And, because he usually gets a lot of comments, I thought perhaps my post on his blog would get me some comments.

The next day he wrote a post about... well, the shoes.

My post: 2 comments. His post about shoes: 72 comments.

Okay, you get my drift. My wife has a myspace page and she gets hundreds of comments on a daily basis. She writes nothing significant, just gossip and stuff like: "I am feeling Great today."

Hmmm, perhaps my problem is I am thinking too much. Perhaps I need to stop thinking and just write based on emotion like most other people do.

And maybe I need to stop voting for the person who makes the most sense and has the most common sense approach to politics, and vote for the person who is popular.

But that's not who I am. That would bore me. So I'll continue to use my brain and continue writing intelligent stuff, and you can continue to ignore my blog.

That, my friends, is the thought of the day.

Comments? Anyone?

It's easier to take the simple answer, than think

This really wasn't meant to be a political blog, but it seems that's what it has turned in to. And the majority of the people (all three) who read my blog on a regular basis seem to expect me to write about politics.

But I still insist this is not a political blog. This, as my banner states, is a place for me to write about anything not medical.

It's just that this election is so important to me and to so many like me that it's taken up 40% of my creative energy. The other 60% has gone to my med-blog the RT Cave and my asthma blog over at Health Central.

Still, once this election is over, it is my hope that I will be able to think of some other things to write about -- philosophical perhaps. Yet, if politics stays as hot as it is right now, then that is where my creative juices will flow. Who knows. And who really cares anyway?

People should understand that this blog is mearly entertainment for myself more than anything else. However, one of the main focuses of this blog is that it is far easier just to go with the flow of the majority than it is to think for yourself.

Not me. Even before the new media and the Internet and blogs came about, I still never really believed everything I heard in the media. My college buddies would often say during one of our debates, "If you don't believe me, look it up in the newspaper."

I'd say, "The newspaper is wrong."

They'd say, "Then prove it."

They had a good point. How was I going to prove they were wrong. Back then (this was in 1988 when I started college at Ferris State University), there was no way to prove the media wrong unless I knew exactly where to look up the information, and that took time.

So, it is far easier to join the ranks of the majority than to think for oneself.

Now, even though we have the Internet and all the information we could ever want at our fingertips, I think that saying still holds true.

My friend Glenna provided me with a good example of this as a comment to my last post, "Ignore polls, Obama & McCain still neck & neck." I wrote that McCain needs to show that liberalism is the cause of the financial crisis and he will win. Glenna wrote:

"I agree but part of the problem of the economic crisis is that most people don't seem to realize or want to realize how this all came about. At work the other night I listened to a room full of people excoriate Bush for "this mess". When I explained how Pres Clinton signed the legislation from Democrats for the loose loans, and how that all collapsed on itself I had a room full of stares and then questions. People always want the easy answers instead of looking at the history for what it is."

I wrote in response that that room full of stares were from people stunned at how brilliant she was. I get that a lot where I work: "Wow, I never would have thought of that," independents say.

Back in 1988 the truth that Glenna revealed to the people in that room may never have gotten out. By 1988 media standards, George W. Bush would be 100% at fault for this economic crisis, true or not true. By 2008 media standards, the other side has gotten it's story out. And I suppose you can add here: "Be it true or not true."

Still, both sides get the story out. I have been so impressed on many occasions during this financial crisis that I have not had to explain the true cause of this mess, because the people I've been discussing politics with TOLD ME INSTEAD.

MAN, does that impress me.

That's why we folks who are the purveyors of the truth get so many blank stares. Half those people are thinking, "Duh, Bush is the cause because he is president." The other half is thinking, "Doh, how did the truth get out. Damn the Internet. Damn the free press. Damn the blogosphere for telling the truth."

In the past, as I mentioned in my last post that I link to above, a president stayed in office until the economy went bad, and the sitting president was always blamed. Today, with the 2008 media, the truth is out there -- ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MAKE AN EFFORT TO FIND IT.

A lifelong democrat is going to believe what the democrats and their surrogates in the media say every time. And a lifelong republican is going to believe the republicans and the new media when it tells the truth every time.

But those in the middle, those people who are really truly undecided independents (and not democrats in disguise) for some reason fail to make that effort. They don't have the time, or don't make the time to really truly understand the economy and politics. It's boring. It's too complicated.

And that is the exact reason why all the news needs to be told, whether it is from the liberal or conservative camp (note I did not say republican or democrat). The more news that gets out there whether you like it or not, the better America will be in the future. The better chance the right leader will be elected.

And that's why people like me end up blogging about politics, even though that's not our true intention. I'm more of a thinker than a political blogger. Yet politics is something really cool to think about, hence this post.

Even if you hear the truth and you give out those blank stares, the goal here is that even though it is obvious that you are taking "the simple answer" as opposed to taking history for what it is, when you go into the voting booth you will vote for the right man in the end -- anyway.

Likewise, what I just wrote is exactly the reason I don't think this election is over. All those people who have no clue who they want to vote for need people like me and you.

(and I still don't understand how people could have no clue, but I talk to them every day. It's irritating in a way when people like us take so much time researching and making sure we vote for the RIGHT PERSON).

So it's easier to take the simple route, it's easier to be an independent, than it is to think.

Regardless, as Pat Buchanan wrote, all those people who want to blame Bush and replace him with the most liberal candidate for president in the history of United States politics may be up for a little backlash. They may be punished for their own vote.

But if you make the effort and read the news (I applaud you if you just read the news) on a daily basis and really think about what you are reading rather than take it all in as fact, then you will not be punished for voting for the wrong person because you will not vote for Obama.

Still, it's easier to go with the flow of the majority that it is to think. And any person who goes to this blog is a thinker because otherwise you wouldn't be here.

It irritates me to no end all these undecided independent voters who never pick up the paper, never watch the news, never read a blog, never form an opinion on politics. And then when it comes time to elect the president of the United States in a very important time in history, they have no clue who they want to vote for.

Ahhhhh. It's so frustrating. It's so easy to want to lecture these people. And it's not that they are stupid, it's just that they don't take interest in politics. They don't care about anything outside their own lives.

Then again, maybe they are the smart ones. Maybe life would be so much better if we just didn't care about anything. Maybe if I had no clue who the president was, then I wouldn't become irritated when he raised my taxes. No care, no stress. No mind, no matter.

So this is not a political blog. It's a thinking blog. And that's why I write about politics so much lately. Hopefully, though, I'll stop thinking about politics and something else will pop into my mind soon enough, like being a dad, like Socrates, like anything.

Speaking of dad, I'm going to be a father again soon. Perhaps thoughts about fatherhood will flow through my mind and I'll get frickin politics out of my head.