Monday, June 15, 2009

Let go of the "group" mindset...

In reply to: Valley of the Shadow: Advancing Towards Fort Sumter
---

I always am willing to debate on a higher plane, but it is hard after seeing feces flung at us for 8 years (and still today, as the examples I cited).

The trick, my friend, is to let go of the "group" mindset--the one that says, because some on the left flung feces, you should be on your guard against all on the left, responding to Peter (or to Bob, or James-->me... Nice to meet you both, btw)--for the sins of Paul--and to instead treat each person, left, right, or otherwise, as individuals. There's always time to react to poor behavior AFTER it's happened, but silly & a waste of time to do so beforehand, because it just might not happen at all...

Bob's right... Pretty much everything that happens among some on the left, happens among some on the right, as well. Either we can endlessly point fingers at each other's political side as a whole, or we can condemn (or at least argue about) the *individuals* who misbehave, whichever party they're from, and not hold the whole (liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican--take your pick) gang responsible for their worst behaving individual members.

As far as "assassination porn," it's not treason, it's free speech, in all it's ugliness. If everyone was making pretty and universally accepted statements, there'd be no need for the first amendment. I'm not saying that it's not disgusting or offensive, but only that it probably isn't treason, legally or even morally.

(To be fair, I couldn't find your previous mentions of assassination porn on this blog. I searched the phrase, as well as each word separately, and then tried the phrase "kill Bush." Nothin'. I do recall hearing about one movie somewhere several years ago that showed an assassination of a guy some claim was supposed to be Bush, but thought that was a foreign film... Which is to say, I'm only reacting to what I know, and to what I believe, in general... Maybe you do have an example so bad it goes beyond free speech and creative license, but if so, I'd have to see it to judge for myself.))

you showed neither the magnaminity or post-partisanship you folks campaigned on.

Again... Can you really hold some anonymous (or indeed ANY) person on the internet responsible for the promises made by a campaign that most of us weren't even a part of? I mean, it's one thing if s/he SAID s/he was a magnanimous post-partisan, or chided you for not being one, but otherwise, it's quite possible that s/he's one of those poor behaving idiots I mentioned earlier, who don't represent the campaign, the party, or liberalism in general, any more than some rude anonymous righ twing--(yeah, I left it that way intentionally... The phrase appealed to my strange sense o' humor, almost the same way "cow orker" does.)--moron found on the internet would represent your whole party or political belief system,

Just my two bits.
(& by the by, I just gave you credit for your well-mannered way of treating those with whom you disagree, over at Donald's place. Please don't make me out to be a liar anytime soon... My poor heart wouldn't be able to take it... 8>)

[Define the verification word meme}:

humstai - a small town in Liechtenstein, famous for their bratwurst.
--
submitted for approval at 9:41 AM, (Valley of the Shadow blog time)

No comments: