…that my last post, talking about a guy catching crap for posting his political opinions to his own blog, would generate a comment from a conservative, wanting the argue the point.
Shoot me now.
The Meme-Mandated, Semi-Regularly-Updated, Occasionally Coherent Thoughts of G.M. Skarka
My dear, as I said to said conservative, when you choose to articulate your opinions, you must be prepared for those who do not agree with you to disagree.
Either side of the debate can find their own statistics to back their stance, both extremes in the debate sound only shrill to the adherents of the other side.
You’re never going to convert the converted so to speak, but I would think it would be fun to utterly poke holes in someone else’s proof by the preponderance of the information on the other side of the debate.
Speaking as a fairly rabid liberal myself, who has taken great umbrage to certain points of view espoused by said conservative, I can well identify with your frustration.
D.
My frustration stems primarily from three sources:
1) My absolute gobsmacked disbelief that any reasonable person could in good conscience willingly side with the American Taliban.
2) The fact that I don’t post to my OWN FUCKING BLOG to “debate.” My P.O.V. is, if you don’t like what you’re reading here….DON’T FUCKING READ IT. Trying somehow to sway me, or, more likely, to sway your fellow readers, seems a bit rude….a little bit like walking into somebody’s living room and setting up your soap-box.
3) I don’t shit where they eat. I could, just as easily, bring my opinions to conservative’s blogs, quoting Salon, the HuffPost, or other left-wing sources…..BUT I DON’T. I try to respect them a bit more than that. Shame it doesn’t go both ways.
Ah, I see. You are quite used to the general Blog idea rather than the interactive nature of the LJ community. My dear, it would seem to me that if you are not interested in people commenting to a particular post, you should just disable comments to it. That would ultimately save you from such frustration.
Now as to why anyone chooses to “side” with our current administration? It has been my experience that those who have done so either do so out of an ideological agreement (meaning they actually believe the same things that our government is spouting) or they are woefully misinformed. The latter might come around. The former…those will do what they can to elect someone just like W, because they agree with what he has done.
D.
Uhm….
*BANG*
tee-hee-hee :)
There are some who vote to agree with the administration for solely economic reasons; taxation being the bottom line for them. They can be amazingly smart and well-read and well-informed. They may also simultaneously be social liberals and theologically liberated. They may also be loathe to bring any politics into their LJ at all.
There are all sides to this whole thing. My love and I agree on almost everything except for whom to vote and why. But we don’t let it get in the way of the rest of our lives and our love. We have some very interesting discussions sometimes but in the end, we respect one another’s opinions. To some extent, I don’t argue for the simple reason that, well, to be entirely honest, it’s his money that pays all the bills and he’s entitles to his opinion, just as I am. We work together pretty damned well.
It ain’t always perfect but it beats the hell outa living in hostility and tension. We love each other devotedly and we’re happy with it.
Oh, I’m more than familiar with interactivity, and I fully expect comments. What I don’t expect is somebody trying to refute/debate something that I don’t consider up for debate.
To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure what he was thinking. I posted a quote about culture war, and he responded with right-wing sourced “evidence” of media bias against Bush. That doesn’t even match what I was talking about! Makes it seem all the more like an annoying drive-by.
I’ve heard the economic argument before….and it contributes to my afore-mentioned gobsmackedness. I can’t place taxes on one side, and my social/theological/environmental/legal/etc. concerns on the other and have taxes decide the issue….and I’m honestly stunned that there are people, who are otherwise intelligent and worthwhile human beings, for whom that trumps all.
I truly and deeply just Don’t Get It.
Generally I find such disconnects to be quite amusing…as general proof that the individual who comments back is not really getting what you’re getting at.
The funniest thing is that such people rarely understand that they’ve completely missed the point in the first place.
D.
Oh, I getcha, believe me. But it’s an issue here where since he’s the one who pays the taxes (and raised 7 children doing so) and we both simply refuse to spend the energy on it that we need to use for other, more (to us!) practical daily matters. I just can’t spend my energy that way.
But I respect others who do on both sides of it, so there we are.
Apologies
I’m sorry for offending you. I had assumed we could discuss issues in a reasonable manner without getting personal. I had assumed by posting to a public blog indicated you were open to comment. Both of the assumptions were incoorect on my part. While I disagree with you politically I respect you greatly as a person. Therefor as per your request I will un-friend you and not comment further. My heartfelt apologies for causing problems.
Setting posts to friends-only will give you more of a living-room analog. Frankly, posting publicly with comments enabled is such an invitation to debate, I’m suprised you still do it after the bulltish you were getting in public forums while you were still on that other blog of yours.
Re: Apologies
Open to comment? Sure. Keep in mind, though, that in response to a post about “culture war” and right-wingers dumping shit on a friend’s blog, you decided, bizarrely, to respond with “evidence” about media bias against Bush.
Are you noticing the disconnect?
Plus, as pointed out to me last night, you did sorta get the whole fucking thing off on a bad foot by giving your post the title “*sigh* Whatever”….which doesn’t exactly seem to match your claim of “discussing issues in a reasonable manner.”
Having now read your LJ (which is something I hadn’t done before your comment), I now see that you’ve decided to be all “out there” and stuff…..so, as near as I can see, you decided to go looking for a fight. Again….it doesn’t seem to match your desire to “discuss”.
But hey, it wouldn’t be the first time that an attack-dog conservative played the victim card.