What I've been doing - thanks NYC_SKP

[motocicleta2]

This is what I posted in GD, NYC_SKP told me I should post it here:

Somebody asked me to post when this sucker got done, so here goes.

Back in August 2012, I reconnected with a friend from high school in person. Over the preceding couple of years, we had engaged in some spirited conversations with his conservative family members and with some of our mutual conservative friends on Facebook. We regularly had each other's back in these moments, and came to realize that we were among the very few liberals/progressives to come out of our small home town in the late 80s. So when we hung out briefly in Seattle last year, he showed me something he was thinking about.

He had found an app aimed at conservatives, supposedly giving them help in debating the liberals in their lives. It was ugly. In every sense. Completely factless, no citations, no links, visually unpleasant, it simply contained a huge list of issues, from ACORN to birth certificate to AGW hoax to every inane right-wing conspiracy theory. Super unpleasant to view.

Long story short, he found that there was no corresponding app for people like he and I, and for people like us. He convinced me to join him in making one.

By the time this happened, even though Obama was in the WH, I had definitely lost a lot of hope that the divides between Americans could ever be bridged. I used to post on DU as motocicleta back in the early 2000s, paid a ton of attention to what was going on in 2000-about 2005. But I became so disillusioned with our country's rightward surge and Bush's reelection that frankly I was worn out and kinda gave up. Then I lost my password and closed the email account I used to login as motocicleta, so I had to return with this new username.

In August 2012, I was intrigued by my friend's optimism. Somehow he had remained positive and believed that not only could things get better but was also convinced we could make a difference. That we could help. And I went along with the app project because I wanted hope.

We were joined by another friend of his, and the three of us have spent 15 months working our butts off to get the thing done - frankly they have worked a lot harder than I have, but we all put in a ton of effort. We've worked with dozens of writers and researchers who have done phenomenal work to build the thing out. Through the process I have definitely gotten some of the hope back. I have heard from people who have gotten through to their conservative family and friends, in little ways and big. I have seen my mother-in-law change her position on marriage equality. I have heard of parents of friends changing their position on military spending, gun control. It is possible. I am incredibly excited to be a part of what I now see is a huge movement of people saying enough is enough.

The app is predicated on the idea that a vast swath of the American electorate is caught in a bubble of right wing misinformation spewed out 24/7 by the likes of Fox News, Rush, Drudge, etc, but that if we approach them with love and respect and citations, over time we can chip away at that bubble and let the light in, and the truth will win out eventually.

I am proud that the app went live this week. It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn cool, very meaty with tons of information on 8 issues - climate change, the death penalty, gun control, health care reform, income inequality, legalizing marijuana, marriage equality, and military spending - and have plans to add many more in the coming months. Each issue contains many facts and stats slides, ways to make points with folks trapped in the bubble, quotes from conservatives in support of our positions, useful analogies, that sort of thing. Everything is linked and cited.

You can find it on iTunes as Bubble Busters the app, or go to our website http://www.bubblebusters.com. We're charging $3.99 for it in the hopes of recouping our investment and to fund making an android version since we only have one for Apple at this point.

Thanks for reading. Hope you all have a great evening, I'm kinda walking on cloud 9 right now, I really am super happy and proud of what we've managed to do with this thing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024111171