Are your views influenced mostly by emotion or reason?

[Divitaen]

Reason. Sometimes I have certain emotional inclinations on issues, but generally I try and rationalise them or imagine their origin, and many times I end up rejecting those emotions. I use to have an emotional reaction of shock or mild disgust at the idea of public nudity, or pre-marital sex, but I thought through it and concluded that these emotions were merely the result of social convention rather than any objectively beneficial origin, so I discarded those beliefs.

[New Frenco Empire]

I have emotions to choose my views and reason to back them up. Why not both?

[Ancient Humans]

It Depends on what Emotional State I'm in, If I'm angry my View can change rapidly.

[Kilobugya]

Both. Emotions drive me to care for my fellow humans, to be revolted against suffering, death, poverty. Reason explains to me why it's like that, how can fix it, how we can progressively eliminate those from the society. We need emotions to give a goal to our reason, and we need reason to find ways to reach that goal. Reason without emotions is aimless, but emotions without reason are as likely to do harm as good.

[Dalcaria]

Both frankly. I'm very emotional and passionate about many of my beliefs, but at the core, I want there to be a logical reason for things, and a genuine moral reason too if need be. For instance, I support gay marriage even though I'm a Christian, and this is very much influenced by the fact that the Bible DOES NOT call for us to infringe on other people's personal decisions like this, and their personal moral beliefs. It's not my business to tell them their business in this case. That said, I'm also against drugs, mostly because it's such a massive drain on the global economy, and because some drugs can be very dangerous. On the flip side of that, I do think marijuana should be looked at for potential medical uses, because it's I'd rather people get high on pot than get addicted to morphine.

So, to summarize as well, I suppose "emotion", or rather morals, are at the core of my beliefs, because my core belief is to do what is in he best interest of EVERYONE on Earth, not just the rich, the poor, or the middle class, or for whatever other groups you can mention.

Probably the one thing, however, that I get particularly emotional on is things to do with child abuse, especially the murder of children, child sex slavery, and other serious forms of child sexual abuse and other abuses as well. For some of these crimes, I wholeheartedly support the death penalty. I was once told that the death penalty was "uncivilized" or "barbaric". Well, nothing on all this Earth seems more barbaric than the sexual abuse and murder of children, so I think I'll stick with the death penalty as the more positive alternative.

[Apparatchikstan]

I act on reason fueled by emotion.
I strive for a philosophical balance that avoids the two roads to fundamentalism; faithless reason and unreasonable faith.

[Greater North American Confederacy]

reason

[Wombocombo]

Normally reason.
Though sometimes I act on reason on touchy subjects, I try not to.

[Bojikami]

Mine are mostly influenced by reason, with some emotion in there as I am not a very emotional person.

[Calimera II]

My views are completely influenced by reason.

How is white supremacism based on reason..?

[Alizeria]

A little from column A, a little from column B.

Reason is the main driving factor these days - it's certainly been responsible for my conversation from left-wing politics to the centre-right.

But I would never deny the role that emotion plays not just in the formation of viewpoints, but also in the formation of the underlying values that these viewpoints stem from.

So to put it another way - my emotions dictate my underlying values (the outcome I hope to achieve) while reason dictates the means by which I would hope to achieve these outcomes.

[Corrian]

I tend to prefer my views to be influenced by reason, though I can't say that there hasn't been some emotion involved in some as well. But for the most part, reason for certain. I like to look at things rationally and reasonably, then develop my opinion from there.

[Ifreann]

I consult a magic 8-ball for all my views, so neither.

[Hannibal Lector Society]

I consult a magic 8-ball for all my views, so neither.

[New Kvenland]

I try to not let emotion get in the way, but when I'm angry... you may need to correct some of the facts I have provided.

[Fortschritte]

I'd like to think that my views are influenced primarily by reason, but I'd be in denial if I claimed that emotions didn't influence my views a tiny bit. For instance, when I first started developing political views, my views were influenced by emotions, since I figured social services and extensive government spending are good to help those in need. While I still believe in a well funded safety net, I used to ignore the problems of "overspending" and I'd get "warm fuzzy feelings" when I rallied against the "ebul corporations and bankers."

But, as I've done research on economics, I can confidently say that my views are primarily influenced by reason. However, on some issues, I, like many others, may develop a knee jerk reaction influenced by my emotions. Whenever that happens, I try to tell myself "am I being pragmatic, objective, and reasonable, or am I being ideologically stubborn?" If I find that I'm the latter, I then re-evaluate my views. Ultimately, we should view our opinions as things we hold in a box that we change when we're provided with more rational, reasonable opinions. But, if we view our opinions as part of our identity, we'll be stubborn, and we'll never accept new opinions.

...Shit, that was a rant.

[Old Tyrannia]

It is impossible for anyone to base their beliefs entirely on reason. You have to have some basic values or goals to work from before you can start to build a rational worldview. Even if someone was completely apathetic to any political decision that did not directly affect them, they'd still be motivated by an instinctual, emotional desire to survive and feel safe and secure. People who claim their views are based on "reason" have simply failed to look deep enough into those views to see the underlying assumptions their rational worldview is built around. For my part, I'm rational in dealing with and compromising with others and in the way I approach my goals, but I recognise that to a degree, my goals are no more rational than anyone else's, politically speaking. Case in point- I value history, art and culture for no other reason than that I think it makes the world a richer place in which to live. I feel the same way about the natural environment. I don't need any more reason to preserve a piece of artwork or protect the habitat of the ivory-billed woodpecker than that I like living in a world where these things exist. Likewise, there is no especially rational reason for me to care if the poorest members of society cannot access healthcare or if people in another country are suffering in order to produce goods for consumption in my own, but I do, because I empathise with these people on some level. I'm not the most selfless or empathetic person in the world, but I do care enough about others that it factors into my viewpoint.

[Brettany]

No idea actually (sorry if too long or writing things where they shouldn't be).

My views on democracy are quite hostile mostly because I currently reside in a quite corrupt country in which technically a lot of things are ridiculed and technically it is on the news daily yet there is little to change that. Whereas the country in which most of my dad's family lives on is seemingly devoid of corruption because the current president abolished parliament and even though it he is socialist, which I despise due its lack to provide at the expense of others (personal view here feel free to correct me, but I don't think that would change my views at all), his regime is the only socialist state I respect because it cleaned corruption (so hard that if you say someone is corrupt you must prove it or go to jail) and regulated economy properly, so his country can have more without risking an economic crisis (plus I like how funny it got: if you are interviewed you can only say what you know, which is you can only talk about things you have a degree on, if you talk about things you don't have a degree for, you get bashed or something).

I support monarchies because most of the are going quite good, constitutional or absolute (the only mix of both worlds is Swaziland and they are not going quite well) and because quality of life is better than on democracies (I normally don't count Commonwealth Realms as monarchies per se, just some fancy colony).

My views on LGTB are more quite emotional, which are anti by the way, mostly because I prefer the old homosexuals: discrete and well dressed, compared to the naked pride marches in America and the buzz they do. So unless we get back to discretion regarding LGTB, I am not going to back it up. Regarding gender identity, I find it incredibly stupid mostly for it's lack of reason and logic (applies to feminism as well, at least modern feminism, oh, and also social justice) to happen.

On immigration, I quite live in the liberals dream: a multicultural nation that is not bashed (unlike the conservatives in Europe and US), sure, it doesn't not seem to back LGTB wholly (hell, I have seen trans on telly and my mates say there are a lot of gays around here and I haven't run into one, so I will assume they are tourists, but mostly because the folk here is Catholic and Protestant). Other races outnumber the whites (which seemingly always end up in the leadership roles, all presidents here have been white, the two dictators this place had where stereotypical Latino-looking, and I belong to this ''privileged'' cast ), and has successfully influenced the street culture, at the expense of the intelligence of the local populace. But it becomes clear that this place is multicultural at the expense of safety: this place has high levels of crime even in my neighbourhood (my dad was walking at night and some taxi driver pointed a gun at him without talking, and he, my father, just gave him his phone and ran way, and funny I mention that because he got that phone back, my front neighbourhood got a car stolen at gunpoint too but I don't remember which car, and all I have seen in the news of this place is the amount of drug traffickers residing here). Rape happens here a lot, and all the rapers are either black or mestizo. But seemingly I got the nice part: I had quite good friends who where black, and I was only bullied in school for my skin colour and head shape (which appears to be common for those of Celtic descent) and accused of homosexuality, to the point of having a near-rape experience, having a fat black kid on top of me moaning and such, they stopped because I accidentally was pushed and hit myself with a chair leg. So you can guess I also developed a hatred of immigration, but it only applies to illegals (plus what I've heard of my friend that lived in Spain: the illegals are the problem, coming there to do drug traffic and rape and say their country of origin is superior plus not leaving the host country) for some strange reason.

Feel free to say whatever you want but please do so on telegram, it is likely I just post this and leave the thread (because even if I am on holiday my dad doesn't not want me in NationStates, this site is actually blocked). Thank you for reading and telegramming if you really do so. Have a nice day and God bless.

[Lalaki]

With a lot of both, actually.

[Nervium]

Is cynicism rational or emotional?

[The Sons of Adam]

Humans are emotional creatures, our emotions have been honed to perfection through evolution, with reason much more recent on the scene. Despite our unique capacity to apply complex reasoning, emotion tends to overtake us with relative ease. In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. It is impossible to deny that most of the time, emotions play a big role in politics.

So, I ask you, NSG? I'm sure most will say they didn't aquire their views emotionally, but please, be honest with yourselves and others. Have you sometimes brushed off well-established facts that collide with your worldview as nonsense? Has something bad that happened to yourself, country or family made you think the way you do, without bothering to check facts? If so, then it's safe to say emotion plays a big role in your political worldview. As for me, I have no shame in admitting my views — especially on social issues — have been greatly influenced by events and emotions.

I love reason. Emotional arguments suck no matter which sides.

[Fortschritte]

Humans are emotional creatures, our emotions have been honed to perfection through evolution, with reason much more recent on the scene. Despite our unique capacity to apply complex reasoning, emotion tends to overtake us with relative ease. In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. It is impossible to deny that most of the time, emotions play a big role in politics.

So, I ask you, NSG? I'm sure most will say they didn't aquire their views emotionally, but please, be honest with yourselves and others. Have you sometimes brushed off well-established facts that collide with your worldview as nonsense? Has something bad that happened to yourself, country or family made you think the way you do, without bothering to check facts? If so, then it's safe to say emotion plays a big role in your political worldview. As for me, I have no shame in admitting my views — especially on social issues — have been greatly influenced by events and emotions.

I love reason. Emotional arguments suck no matter which sides.

While reason is great, it's incredibly stubborn to refuse to admit that you've never resorted to emotional arguments.

[Lalaki]

With a lot of both, actually.

If we are to be honest, the basis of my political views are founded on emotions such as empathy, and altruism.

I then formulate my political beliefs, combining my emotions with reasonable and pragmatic solutions.

[Dainer]

Ideally, I strive to take rational decisions informed by emotion.

In practice, I know I'm not that smart. In my experience, the people who insist most vehemently in pure reason-based views are just convinced their emotional point of view is "logical" and everyone who disagrees with them is arguing from emotion.

[Bolnoa]

Reason