Much easier to find fault, than to find functional solutions, isn't it?
Which gets near closing this little circle... the depressing thought that so many people don't seem to want "solutions," they just want to have an eternal cycle of arguments with some perceived "enemy."

I realize I take a contrarian bent in most of my replies, and I would just like you to know that it is only because I feel like you appreciate it more than if I were to just echo you :D I have great respect for you and your opinions and most of the time it is just me playing devil's advocate a bit.

That said, let me try and offer an alternative explanation for the behavior you've analyzed here. Hopefully it's just a sad thought and not how you truly feel :)

I will allow that there are many people whose only passion is to hate on the other side. My comment isn't about those people. This is about the (hopefully) majority of arguers who are truly passionate about the issue at hand.

I think the reason why you will often find these people resorting to finding fault instead of offering solutions is because they realize that there are no perfect solutions, and the best strategy to come out ahead is to prove that the other side's alternative is worse than yours. It tints every argument with a negative aura and I hate it just as much as you, but I don't think it's done because the people don't want "solutions." I think it's done because they see the fight as more of an issue of the choice between the lesser of two evils.

I wrote a couple weeks ago that the reason things have ground to a halt when it comes to politics and the national dialogue is because everything is basically a linear tug-of-war. You lose, and a inch of territory goes from your side to the other side. So the most important thing is to preserve the status quo at the very least, because if you can't actually win, then next best thing is to ensure the other side can't either.

In the actual analogy from my post, I likened it to the argument over where to set a thermostat. If you want it warmer and I want it colder, then how on earth can we compromise? Much easier to resort to just saying how bad the warm is rather than the benefits of cold, because even if I don't convince anyone to lower the temperature, at least no one will consider raising it.

Where you and I agree though is that this is all very frustrating and sometimes it's something you just have to walk away from. That's part of the reason I spend time on Steemit instead of reading the news like I was doing a year ago.