I’ve been trying to keep some reason into a disagreement on facebook with a “friend”. He posts a news story, I respond with the other facts. He responds by saying I don’t understand, I show that I do and etc, etc, etc.
Then he posts this completely idiotic article. And suggests it’s worthy and that he’s going to keep on reading this guy. ?!!!
I have to give up. I let him know as much by quoting a few idiotic lines from the piece and letting him know that if he sincerely feels this article is worthy I really can’t engage anymore.
Another “friend” of his takes note how these exchanges prove how one sided people view the world!!!! Essentially pointing at me as the one sided one!
I have to give up. Working hard not to respond, yet again…….focus, focus, focus.
The basis of our democracy is empathy???? Seriously? Pensions are a guaranteed right? This writer is a total communist/socialist, but more so is a total idiot.
I know!!!! It is SOOO over the top I just can’t stand it!
If some dumb ass thinks this is good writing then there can be no real conversation, no engagement and a person HAS to give up!
He’s a freaking moron. I need to be patting him on the head with a “there, there”, and not discuss collective bargaining or the press with him.
In other words I HAVE to give up! I hate that.
If even an iota of what that guy was claiming was true, why are the Unions the ones running around beating people up? Why are they the ones holding up signs that literally say, “show us the money”, why this, that…it goes on and on.
Unfortunately, Jonah Goldberg is absolutely right in Liberal Fascism: Liberalism is a religion, plain and simple. You can show fact after fact, behavior after behavior that clearly illustrates the hypocrisy and failure of their position, of their views, and yet they will consistently claim that their views must be correct, everything else must be wrong, and everyone opposed to those must be purely evil.
I just started Liberal Fascism. I’m looking forward to the meat because I have no idea how to deal with these people. If you never engage – then they think everyone agrees with them.
If you do – there is no “conversation”, just bizarreness or name calling or made up facts.
Facebook is of course not the place for it, but unless people realize that there is another side and it’s in half the population and not just on Rush’s show, then how will they ever know?
That guy is just crazy. And to think he “understands” conservative thought? Proving how delusional some folks are!!
Empathy — citizens caring for each other, both social and personal responsibility—acting on that care, and an ethic of excellence. From these, our freedoms and our way of life follow, as does the role of government: to protect and empower everyone equally.
Just that bit in bold, I’d like to subject to the good ol’ Socratic method. Equally, huh? So if we all pay our fair share in taxes, that would mean…I pay a thousand, you pay a thousand, that rich guy over there pays a thousand and then that “working family” pays a thousand. Affirmative action, we’re getting rid of that now? And with the recession, lots of skilled professionals in the private sector pick up the subject of raises and get told “in times like these” and “with things the way they are…” they don’t like what comes right after those bromides. Hey if it’s about equality, shouldn’t the public-sector union “workers” be told exactly the same thing? Everyone has some skin in the game? How about President Obama flying His personal trainer in from Chicago while the rest of us are being told to curtail our carbon emissions. Equality, right?
Unfortunately, Taoist has it right. It’s got nothing to do with logical coherence or consistency or anything of the kind. I think, what you’re looking at, is these are people who feel terribly ashamed about something in their past, and they don’t think they can ever be “good” people on any individual basis so they want to show their goodness by taking part in some massive rock-concert setting, “be[ing] a part of this thing” — losing their identities as a first step. That necessarily must mean anybody else who achieves self-perceived goodness, while retaining their individual identities, must become objects of hatred. And so you have the justification; paragraph after paragraph of “conservatives think this conservatives think that” without a shred of evidence to back up any of it.
He’s activating that known human failing — if we see someone as alien, we’re inclined not to treat them unkindly, and even regard ourselves as compassionate as we do so. He’s provoking his fan base into behaving that way, against “conservatives,” and he’s doing it on purpose. What makes me think that? Because he hasn’t said anything else of substance. Just lays out his own ugly stereotype, nice and thick, and then end-of-article.
Nice. Boy, that’s some kind of “empathy.”
Yeah, I had to give that article a bit of a “fisking” over at my place. Saw it the same place you did. On Facebook.
I think.
Maybe it was RCP. Wait, no, it was over at The House of Eratosthenes, now that I think about it (still a bit amazed that I spell that word now without blinking anymore).
At any rate… dude’s living in an alternate universe.