Uneducated person here; sites that will help inform me on political subject matter?

Greetings, first post here. I wasted away an education due to family abuse and depression. After this crazy election year, I've been really interested in politics. However, I cannot find any reliable sites that will teach me on issues such as civil rights, how the branches of government work, world history and politics, and economics (socialism vs capitalism). I've had trouble finding unbiased sources. I would prefer if people led me to YouTube vloggers that explained this stuff in depth. Don't like vlogbrothers style or any type of slideshow - too simplistic for me; I learn better with straightforward presentation.

Also, I'm posting it on this forum because it will get more responses, increasing the chance of a decent source, If it is necessary, move to the appropriate forum. Thanks

 

Welcome. The self taught always have an advantage over those who rely primarily on teachers. Wiki is often a good place to start from scratch. The articles usually contain many links to more detailed sources. Review the active threads and post several replies on threads that interest you. Read the rules - especially before starting your own threads. Good luck

 

Agree with Ddyad. I use wikipedia all the time to learn. As you read, there will be embedded links that allow you to go off on branches to whatever depth you want.

 

I'm actually looking for something besides Wikipedia, just for reference.

 

I was looking for something other than Wikipedia, just for reference.

 

After you read the short Wiki page you can start refining your Google and Youtube searches.

Whenever I want to really dig into a subject I go to a library and check out the serious detailed history sources. The next step is often a trip to the used book stores where they give away or practically give away the most credible source books dealing with history, politics, philosophy and every other issue that might come up. Whenever I read a credible source I dictate and file notes for quick retrieval.

Free online searchable copies of many books are now available online. Check the Gutenberg Project, and similar sites for texts that interest you and download them.

 

Good for you mate, big complicated answers are no good to anybody..
Sadly kids today are taught rubbish like- "there's no easy answer to anything, we must always look at things from different angles and viewpoints because there are grey areas to everything blah-blah-blah"

 

'We asked to speak to a minister but none was available.' and 'We never comment on individual cases.' are two of the most commonly-heard examples of getting-off-the-hook bureaucrat-speak. It's their way of saying 'Go and talk to someone who gives a (*)(*)(*)(*).' God how I loathe bureaucrats.

By Jove I feel better for that! Welcome, Noided.

 

Sadly, a straightforward presentation & politics are 2 sides to a coin.

It will suck, but specific searches, & wading through all the information in my opinion, are the best options that will allow you to formulate your own opinion.

EDIT:

Oh, & welcome!

 

I go to the one place that produces honest and fair politics.

Facebook

 

Why not just go to Half Price and find a textbook on national and your local state government there are always some on the shelf, and on a variety of topics you may not even know exist if all you know is random searching on the innernetz. College bookstores are also good for finding advanced texts. You can browse through them and if you like one or another you can get online and find cheaper copies. You can find all kinds of out of print books at archive.org or Google's free books also.

Web pages don't replace reference books in paper or pdf format.

 

Politics, a Treatise on Government, by Aristotle

Two Treatises on Government, by John Locke

Both available from Gutenberg, and may be found at other places.

Several others, but I believe the best way for you to find them is to follow whatever paths of research your reading of the two above might suggest. Politics is, in the end, a very personal thing, and I believe this may be largely why you can't seem to find nonpartisan sources on the Net.

The two above will give you more instruction in what constitutes good politics than most Congresscritters have and were the texts the Founding Fathers used. Even internationally they have considerable influence in the modern world.

As the Brexiteer would approve these works are both models of simple concepts and straightforward presentation. They are, however, thorough in their treatment of their subject matter. You should definitely read the prefaces which explain misunderstandings that might come about from their use of language where it differs from our own

 

Welcome. This might be a fairly fast and easy overview of our government:

http://www.sparknotes.com/us-government-and-politics/

Socialism (in China, Germany, North Korea or anywhere else that Socialism is put into practice) says 'The government knows best, and citizens have little right or legal power to ask for or demand change. We will ALL do what the Central Committee planned for the nation.''

In contrast, a free market using 'capitalist' dynamics allows, protects and encourages INDIVIDUALISM... individual, personal responsibility, personal creativity and freedom of thought, all of which help create a robust market that rewards risk and humane values. In such a market, there is no place for a Central Planning Committee because the free, shared understanding is that the people closest to the opportunity/problem are the people best-equipped to take advantage of or deal with the situation.

Socialist nations have been failures globally. China has allowed personal initiative and capitalist nations have intruded on the entrepreneurial mindset. Things are getting mixed up, hazy, unclear as we move from a national loyalty to a global, humanist system based on justice and compassion.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-socialism-in-China-and-capitalism

Socialism = Income Redistribution.

 

Good post. And to put it in good context for our new autodidact here is an interesting nugget from Lenin:

"'The eradication of state power' which was a 'parasitic excrescence'; it's 'amputation'; it's 'destruction'; 'state power is now becoming outmoded'; these are the expressions used by Marx about the state when appraising and analyzing the experience of the commune." All this was written a little less than half a century ago; and now it is like having to carry out excavations in order to bring a knowledge of undistorted Marxism to the broad masses." "The State and Revolution", VI Lenin, Penguin, 1992p, p. 49.

The real Communists were very hostile to the concept of a socialist leviathan state. They viewed socialism as a temporary expedient, to be carefully checked by armed workers, elections, recall, and careful accounting oversight.

Their checks failed.

 

Yes, but we all know that it's lazy poor people causing all the problems in all these ideological fantasies; they just won't work long enough hours and cheap enough to keep their betters in the lifestyles they deserve. They're ungrateful and uppity.

Just go get a textbook and start from the basics. Forget all the sophistry and hubris and ideological BS for now, it's mostly drivel anyway.

lol @ 'Aristotle' and 'Locke'.

 

Aristotle was reputed to have written a work on comedy, but it was lost

 

If you want information about the original intentions of the founders of the US, you might want to take a free course from Hillsdale College about the Constitution.

http://info.hillsdale.edu/constitut...rce=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=con101

If you want first hand knowledge about how and why Socialism always fails, just read current event articles about Venezuela, Brazil, Romania, Spain, Greece, etc...

 

I would suggest researching critical thinking and objectivity as once you understand the basics of the preceding you can then come to your own informed conclusion on the matter. Learn how to vet a source with as much objectivity as humanly possible. Learn the difference between anecdotal evidence and facts as they are not synonymous. Understand that opinion, speculation, assumption, conjecture, inference, etc., are OK but also not synonymous with fact. Study logical fallacies so you can better seen and avoid them. Bias is the bane of knowledge thus avoid it to the highest extent possible. Ego is your enemy, do all you can to mitigate ego's corrosive effect. Do not rely upon others to tell you what political view to take, do the research yourself and come to your own conclusion.

The forums are a great place to test out your ideas and conclusions. When posting to the forums do not look to set others right, look for what there is to learn from what others say, and that the lesson learned is not always the lesson another is trying to teach you. Lastly, knowledge is power.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

This might be a stupid question, but based on this - are you pro-capitalism, or do you believe both are flawed systems, and there's another system that we need to develop?

 

Then I strongly suggest you find a different hobby to politics!

Actually, I reckon a troubled background puts you in a good place to address cynical double-speak and to find the good in the lying sacks of sht that make up the political class.

have fun!

 

I would recommend listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching MSNBC for a month.

 

Go read history books from historians.

 

I could say Communism are the better than Socialism.

 

Haha.