You have taken me talking about ONE person and comparing that ONE person to the POTUS….and somehow made me some grand defender of the Left and critic of the Right…
Not cool…and not what I was doing
I personally think that both the Left and Right are becoming unhinged and have enough hypocrites and vile people to fill a small Solar System.
I called Maxine Waters a Senile Blow-hard (and she is).
If that was not enough…then I am more than happy in saying that her words were out of line and over-the-Top; and personally I think she should be censored in some way.
What other people wish to say about her I will leave up to them.
Full confession: My first choice was childish. I even had it in there for a hot minute before deciding it was too harsh and swapping it for juvenile. I’ll leave it to you to decide which term is more “colorful.”
I don’t see where I did or said anything about Trump.
Just because trump has displayed bad behavior does not excuse an elected representative to call for harassing people of a different political affiliation.
The hypocrisy of the pretense of tolerance while calling for the harassment of people who do support the president is unacceptable.
How is that tolerant?
“Believe as I do or we will mob and harass you in public” is acceptable?
What if the tables were turned and some Republican congressman said that about Obama supporters?
You know full well the outrage machine would be in full swing.
People are putting emotions before reason and that is dangerous.
So you say Trump divides, so does that mean we should all divide? Are we going to harass or worse in public? If that is the case then Trump is the president we damn well deserve because the collective of citizens are then exactly the asshole people think trump is.
If we want better leadership, we need to be better, not worse.
If we want tolerance we must be tolerant. Otherwise, let’s just have a free for all and see who stands on top of the heap when the smoke clears. Is that what you want?
You can hate the president all you want, let’s leave and be decent to each other in public.
Imagine a mob gathering around you because of what people preceive you think. Would you feel safe? You think a mob will be reasonable?
That is not what we need right now. We need the opposite.
You should treat people on the Internet as if you were talking to them to their face. Otherwise you’re a coward. Hiding behind a keyboard is no excuse.
@Mufasa, I appreciated your thoughts. Sorry if you felt I was attacking you, or belaboring the point. That wasn’t my intention.
It’s dangerous because it’s much easier to pop off, and it’s also a lot easier to misunderstand each other because we can’t see eyes or facial expressions. We can’t know when someone else it reading our words and taking them to heart. How many of us are ever going to actually meet up in real life? The risk of offending someone is fairly low, unlike a dispute with your co-worker or neighbor. Except after awhile you begin to feel that you have real connections with these strangers because they’ve talked about real ideas, or real experiences, and so you’re willing to talk about your faith, or your disabled child. This is stuff I don’t talk about with anyone, except a few people very close to me. So, yeah, it’s best to remember that we’re real people. I’ve felt sincere regret a few times when I realized I’d been harsh. And also felt genuinely hurt many times, so it’s not a joke. I’ve spent way too much time, and it’s run it’s course at this point.
@zecarlo, what pat said. I often think your just trolling. It’s rare that you’ll write something that makes me think you’re trying to communicate something real. I’m often not sure what you mean, or I assume you’re just poking someone. You said some thoughtful things about class in The Second Year thread. I wish you were like that more often.
Some days I completely hate the way I feel sometimes mostly due to the toxic Political environment we are in…and those feelings sometimes manifest themselves in ways I never intended.
But I would never take anything you, Pat or some of the others say as a personal attack.
Ultimately this is the problem. People don’t ‘really’ care about divisiveness in this country. That is to say, they don’t care enough to let it influence their voting patterns. It’s like a C tier care at this point. Abortion, Healthcare, Unemployment Immigration, Guns, Corp America, Religion, War, etcetc all competing for that top spot in our 1/2 topic voter lives.
Hell divisiveness has almost become a litmus test to join either party as a serious candidate anymore. Just look at the last election. Trump took a near decade’s work of Republican work at creating the modern day liberal boogeyman, and what did Hillary do? Mouthed off about ‘deplorables’ and lost the election (Romney should sue btw, he should have trademark after the 47% thing).
If we kept to the issues then I don’t think it would be a problem. But it isn’t the issues it’s the perception of those who disagree on issues that they are something worse than the issues themselves stand for.
We all disagree on the issues to one point or another, it’s tribalism taken to extremes that is the problem.
Most of us agree on most things, I believe. We agree on desired results but disagree on the path. If we hold fast to tribalism, we have no chance of learning from each other.
It when we start saying ‘if you believe this, then you must be that. And if you are that, I hate you because you are on the wrong tribe.’
The crap has to stop. Most of us agree with both conservative and liberal beliefs. Now we may mean more one way than another, but to attack and mob because those people are perceived as ‘other’. We head down a dangerous path.
I don’t mind a friendly row over issues, but these days it seems it’s always gets personal quickly.
I don’t see how we progress with a healthy exchange of ideas when someone charges the atmosphere with a list of insults for the other side.
What Rep. Waters did was short of a call to arms. Mob rule never turns out well and someone usually gets seriously hurt.
We have to act like grown ups despite how our leadership may act. Clearly, many of them need Finishing School, not a willing audience.
This ‘US and Them’ has to stop. Talking issues is fine, talking about people who believe in some issues instead of the issues is not ok.
We all make mistakes, emotions get the best of us some times, but apologies are ok and so is moving on.
I am certain if we were geographically close and we’re to interact act, I am certain we would be freinds.
We could talk about the hard stuff with out being at each other’s throats.
Man you got a real strange view of “good” at a job.
From what I see she never even does it. Whenever she’s asked she says she’s not going to get into that or that the reporter will have to check with Trump or Pence or whoever it is the reporter is asking about.
Would you vote for a pro choice national candidate under ANY circumstance? If so, what would that be?
Also, I get what you’re saying. But even you, yourself, don’t ‘really’ care. Despite what you’re saying you still votes for arguably one of the most divisive men to ever hold the oval. If you don’t mind me asking, is there a scenario where you won’t be voting for him again in 2 years?
Me neither, but it’s one of the reasons I didn’t vote for Trump. Guys kinda the king at it. That’s what makes this such a C tier care. You don’t like the atmosphere but it was never going to be enough to make you vote for HRC, because it’s just not as issue you really care about. Same goes to almost all of us
Do you believe in this statement anywhere near enough to let it influence your voting pattern?
@pfury brings up and important (and sobering) point…
If we look in the mirror and deep into our Souls…most likely many of us are part of the problem and not part of the solution.
We can lament all day that “they” must stop…or “things” must change…
But how willing are we to change ourselves?
Probably not much…and at 72 years of age, with a Life of essentially having things done exactly how and when he wanted them…barring some soul-changing event…Trump sure isn’t going to change…
I couldn’t agree more, but how is this possible when you have a f**n president who goes to twitter and labels those he is disagreeing with:
Sloppy Steve, Little Rocket Man, Liddle Bob Corker, Fake Tears Chuck, Jeff Flakey, Lyin Ted, etc…
You may disagree with Obama and Bush (which, depending on your political leanings, you likely disagree with at least one of them) but they didn’t create a climate of childish name calling and bullying. You could have a civil discussion with someone who disagreed with your politics.
Is it possible to have a civil discussion with someone who supports Trump’s politics? I actually don’t know. I certainly never have myself, or seen it done on TV or elsewhere.