Something that kind of bugs me is that people on every side of an issue tend to gravitate away from the truth in any argument. People come up with an idea (or they were brought up the idea or acquired it in some other means) and try to support it by any means necessary. This is in opposition to a person that actually seeks the truth–a person who carefully examines the evidence and then makes a decision; a person who is able to admit when their theory has been disproved; a person that can decide on their own without relying on popular opinion and what is accepted by others (or rather, one who takes the opinions and testimonies of others for what they’re worth).
Could you imagine if politicians (in America, at least) actually had an interest in solving our nation’s problems as opposed to being right? I think the same goes for those of us with strong political opinions. People buy into political ideas simply because they’re represented by their political party and not because they’ve done the research on both sides of the issue and then reached a conclusion. However, that’s not to say that such a person hasn’t done the research on important issues–just that they come up with a conclusion, and then do research so they can argue about it. So they can be right. Ultimately, so they can exercise superiority over other people.