Seattle Times: In Seattle, is it now taboo to be friends with a Republican?

[Bang]

So, for the last fifteen or twenty years, the right has rabidly attacked anything on the left, pushed the notion that liberal thought is a mental disorder, enjoyed the works of hate queens like Anne Coulter while she hit the bestseller lists with books specifically targeting the left with titles like "Godless", "Treason", and the oh-so condescending "How To Talk To a Liberal"..  these ideas were applauded and her guest shots were endless, just to use one example. You call anyone who doesn't like the bully tactics a "snowflake" while getting offended over every perceived slight, real or imagined.

 

And now you want to point a finger when these people you attacked for the better part of two decades don't want to have anything to do with you?

Quit pretending there's some sort of difference between how people behave in public and how they behave online. 

let's face it,,  with what the Republican party has boiled itself down to, a rabid, fact-denying stone wall of ignorance, racism, xenophobia, religious fervor and ultra nationlism..  if you still identify with that, then those are who you identify with, and that is who you are. Guilt by association gets quite hard to ignore when those associating with the same schools of thought are as reprehensible as they are.

 

the party is overtaken with the fringes, hate and anger rule the thinking.

And if you don't think so, well, open your eyes and smell the ****ers who stood next to you at the Trump rallies and turned and screamed at the media on cue, just like you did. You stood lineed up with the "build the wall" morons, and the "lock her up" morons, and were manipulated right along with them.

And if you want to claim you didn't, you stood by like a pansy while these factions overtook the republican party, and elected a disaster who has damaged our long standing alliances, and has removed us from our position as the leaders of the free world, and any respect that went with it. 

 

So own it, and quit crying when people don't like you because of >gasp< your own actions.

Or, do the smart thing and purge this garbage from the party, relegate the fascists back to the sewers, demand the president at least denounce a supremacist who knifes two Americans to death while trying to attack two women and screaming for a revolution.. or at the very least, tells the turks they can't just come over here and rough up our citizens and our cops.

 

til then, accept what you are and why people are getting sick of you.

 

~Bang

[justice98]

33 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

 

Now I would see a clear distinction between "harmful" and "disrespectful". Harmful? Oh yeah, I am as protective as a pit, you simply do not pose a threat to me or mine and expect no response. Disrespectful? That IMO is way more nuanced, maybe you actually earned that disrespect? Or the other person is speaking out of ignorance, or fear, or jealousy, that isn't mine to own. I may try to help them see things differently, but in the end someone elses disrespect isn't mine to fix. If my friends said something scathing to me, my instinctive response is probably going to be to wonder what I did to rate it, because my friends are people whose opinions I value, there just may be something to it.

 

It doesn't have to be personally directed at you specifically.  Disrespectful in a broader sense, like disrespectful to a group that you may represent, for instance. It's not a function of what I did to deserve it or a direct response to something I may have done. 

[codeorama]

1 hour ago, Bang said:

So, for the last fifteen or twenty years, the right has rabidly attacked anything on the left, pushed the notion that liberal thought is a mental disorder, enjoyed the works of hate queens like Anne Coulter while she hit the bestseller lists with books specifically targeting the left with titles like "Godless", "Treason", and the oh-so condescending "How To Talk To a Liberal"..  these ideas were applauded and her guest shots were endless, just to use one example. You call anyone who doesn't like the bully tactics a "snowflake" while getting offended over every perceived slight, real or imagined.

 

And now you want to point a finger when these people you attacked for the better part of two decades don't want have anything to do with you?

Quit pretending there's some sort of difference between how people behave in public and how they behave online. 

let's face it,,  with what the Republican party has boiled itself down to, a rabid, fact-denying stone wall of ignorance, racism, xenophobia, and ultra nationlism..  if you still identify with that, then those are who you identify with, and that is who you are. Guilt by association gets quite hard to ignore when those associating with the same schools of thought are as reprehensible as they are.

 

the party is overtaken with the fringes, hate and anger rule the thinking.

And if you don't think so, well, open your eyes and smell the ****ers who stood next to you at the Trump rallies and turned and screamed at the media on cue, just like you did. You stood lineed up with the "build the wall" morons, and the "lock her up" morons, and were manipulated right along with them.

And if you want to claim you didn't, you stood by like a pansy while these factions overtook the republican party, and elected a disaster who has damaged our long standing alliances, and has removed us from our position as the leaders of the free world, and any respect that went with it. 

 

So own it, and quit crying when people don't like you because of >gasp< your own actions.

Or, do the smart thing and purge this garbage from the party, relegate the fascists back to the sewers, demand the president at least denounce a supremacist who knifes two Americans to death while trying to attack two women and screaming for a revolution.. or at the very least, tells the turks they can't just come over here and rough up our citizens and our cops.

 

til then, accept what you are and why people are getting sick of you.

 

~Bang

 

 

Quoted for truth... I'd like to save this as a stock reply for so many comments.

[Riggo-toni]

But... but....Hillary's email server, dammit!

[Spaceman Spiff]

3 hours ago, justice98 said:

 

I dont think it's always quite that simple.  Saying "a different world view" is so broad that it has no meaning.  If you fundamentally believe in something specific that is harmful or disrespectful to me as a person, that's gonna be a problem in terms of being friends.  All differences of opinion aren't created equal.  Some things are more significant than others.

 

 

I agree, but how many people on facebook are deleting others because what they've seen posted is "harmful or disrespectful"?  I mean, if people are dropping the N-Word like Bill Maher, yeah, I'd have a problem with that too.  But I'm not going to stop being friends with a someone who's posted a bunch of Trump or Hillary crap.  

[Bang]

I've unfollowed people, definitely.

Not necessarily due to the viewpoint, but mostly due to the never ending deluge of the viewpoint, infecting every topic the person can talk about.

Do i feel bad about it?

Nope. I don't see the problem as mine.

 

(I will add, most of my "friends" on every social media site i use are listeners to my podcast, and as such i don't really know them at all.. i don't know most of you here on ES, but i "know" you better than most. (I am much more active in engagement of other ideas here, and I do try to play nice.)  So on my pages, i get all views, across the spectrum rolling through my timelines. My rule typically is to not engage them, the one thing we have in common is they like my show, and presumably like to laugh about sports like I do. So i  keep to that, and only unfollow when a person just litters the page with constant posts about why he's a victim of the left today.
This also went for a lot of Bernie Bros, who were just as single minded in their daily outrage.)

 

~Bang

[SkinsPassion4Life]

2 hours ago, Hersh said:

 

You'd lose that bet....bigly. 

 

Positions I view as ignorant: Climate deniers, anti-vaccine, racist/misogynistic points of view, believing Donald Trump is truthful or cares about American workers, that deporting 11 million undocumented people is a good thing, probably some others too but that's a start. 

 

There are plenty of individuals I view as ignorant or completely disingenuous, but I don't view something like being against abortion or against gay marriage as ignorant. 

 

fair enough

[DogofWar1]

Taboo to be friends with Republicans?  No.  And probably won't be ever.

 

Taboo to be friends with STILL Trump supporters?  Not quite yet but it's getting close.

 

Realistically we probably don't cross that line until, and IF, he is shown to have committed illegal acts.  If it reaches that point, one could reasonably say that people who still support Trump are acting in a manner inconsistent with American values and as such, "friendship" with them will always be somewhat limited, at best.

[LD0506]

I will just add this without comment......

 

 

[PokerPacker]

9 hours ago, justice98 said:

 

I actually became really goid friends with a coworker once because we used to talk politics.  We used to go at it, having spirited, but still friendly, discussions back during the Obama/McCain campaign.  She was a card carrying, George Bush loving, evangelical conservative and I was not.  Until we wore each other out and decided we liked each other too much and [...]

D'aww, a "how we came together" story.  How sweet.

9 hours ago, justice98 said:

[...] agreed to stop talking politics.    

Oh.  Well that was unsatisfying.

[justice98]

1 hour ago, PokerPacker said:

D'aww, a "how we came together" story.  How sweet.

Oh.  Well that was unsatisfying.

 

Glad I disappointed you.  That alone made the story worthwhile. 

[PokerPacker]

34 minutes ago, justice98 said:

 

Glad I disappointed you.  That alone made the story worthwhile. 

[Ron78]

On 6/4/2017 at 7:30 PM, nonniey said:

This is by no means limited to Seattle.  Heck even here in the tailgate you see it (I'd say wishing death to the supporters of the political opposition imo qualifies).  

 

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/in-seattle-is-it-now-taboo-to-be-friends-with-a-republican/

 

"Can we just get along?

This question is being asked more and more, what with the bitter polarization of the nation. The answer, right now, would appear to be a resounding no.......

........

This week a poll by Politico and Morning Consult showed that the American divide is, if anything, widening. Or rather hardening. The poll found that 45 percent of Americans think President Trump is doing a good or great job, while another 43 percent say he’s such a disaster he already should be impeached. That leaves an astonishingly small sliver — 12 percent — in the middle.

“America Is Racing Toward Peak Polarization,” went one headline, noting that the people are more split and seemingly charged up to fight than the politicians, who are the ones usually blamed for not getting along.

 

Scientific American recently compiled the psychological research into this “hyperpolarization” phenomenon, and found what’s on the rise is “a visceral, even subconscious” attachment to, or rejection of, party groups or “teams.” The result has been a profound, collective loss of empathy: “Those on the other side no longer just disagree about the issues, they are bad people with dangerous ideas,” the authors conclude.........

ItÂ’s not because we canÂ’t. We donÂ’t want to.

 

We are fighting an information civil war right now, and the level of intolerance some have for others could one day lead to something that resembles this...

 

 

And they are okay with that because it is better than coexisting with a dissenting point of view.

[Riggo-toni]

Indiana Becomes Fourth State To Ban Great Sex

 

INDIANAPOLIS—Following the lead of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia, the Indiana legislature Tuesday passed “HB 1679: Prohibiting Sexual Intercourse Of An Excessively Pleasurable Nature,” officially becoming the fourth state in the country to outlaw great sex. “Here in Indiana, we have long believed that sexual activity should be brief, unexceptional, and performed in the most perfunctory of ways, and the landmark legislation we sent to the governor today embodies the traditional values that are so deeply ingrained in this state,” said State Senator Mark Messmer in a morning news conference, 

 

http://www.theonion.com/article/indiana-becomes-fourth-state-ban-great-sex-56175

[sacase]

On 6/4/2017 at 7:28 PM, clietas said:

 

Maybe if your grandparents were from some rural ****hole. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a kid and adult. Loved it. Willing to bet their liberal California outlook helped shape both my parents and my own political philosophy. 

What is it with people bashing the country? I grew up in a small town and it was great because I was allowed to be a kid and make mistakes. I had my shotgun and fishing pole in my best friends car and went hunting and fishing after school regularly. Rural life is great and relaxing. Honestly, when I go back home it feels like I have more time to do things even though its 20 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart. I could never live back home as I am too accustom to living in larger cities now with having access to everything, but it is refreshing to go back home to the middle of Kansas. Its a different more simple lifestyle. Not sure why people bash it so much. Oh and FYI. I am black. I experienced more racism in big cities than I did growing up in Kansas. 

[Captain Wiggles]

2 hours ago, sacase said:

What is it with people bashing the country? I grew up in a small town and it was great because I was allowed to be a kid and make mistakes. I had my shotgun and fishing pole in my best friends car and went hunting and fishing after school regularly. Rural life is great and relaxing. Honestly, when I go back home it feels like I have more time to do things even though its 20 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart. I could never live back home as I am too accustom to living in larger cities now with having access to everything, but it is refreshing to go back home to the middle of Kansas. Its a different more simple lifestyle. Not sure why people bash it so much. Oh and FYI. I am black. I experienced more racism in big cities than I did growing up in Kansas. 

 

Are you white by chance? 

 

 

Im sure Kansas is nice if its your home. For me its just another big empty state that stands in the way of getting back to Colorado. Plus much like Virginia the cops in Kansas are dicks. Oh and did I mention the state is seemingly empty and the roads go on forever. 

 

Nothing against country life. Just the racist, sexist, homophobes that tend to occupy it. Yes I lived in a rural area during high school. I currently live in a city in the South. The same type of racist, sexist, homophobic assholes live there as well.

 

Sorry to just single out rural ****holes. There are plenty of urban ones too.

 

Im guessing you dont wanna read my post about sending all the conservatives to Kansas and fencing them in. Solid plan even if I did steal the idea from a stand-up comedian. 

[visionary]

He said he was black near the end of his last post. 

[Captain Wiggles]

25 minutes ago, visionary said:

He said he was black near the end of his last post. 

 

Thanks me no read well. 

[twa]

5 hours ago, clietas said:

 

Thanks me no read well. 

 

probably from growing up rural 

[Captain Wiggles]

I assumed @sacase was black by reading his post. Even read it twice and still missed it. 

 

1 hour ago, twa said:

 

probably from growing in the South

 

 

 

Reason I asked was because in my experience white people have no problem expressing their racist thoughts and feelings in front of other whites. Sometimes within the first minutes of meeting each other. Usually a racist "joke" is told at first. 

 

Surprisingly enough most of these racists ****s keep those thoughts and feelings to themselves around minorities. I wonder why that is?

[LD0506]

There is a huge disconnect between rural and urban lifestyles/realities, and IMO the vast majority of it comes from sheer ignorance. "Country" folk cannot even begin to understand how anyone might live in a city, the noise and concrete and lack of a horizon and the huge number of strangers, to them it's a nightmare. "City" people have grown up with the ease of access to so much and the wild diversity of flavors in food, language, people, style, and see rural life as some purgatorial existence of ennui that never ends. They're both right and both wrong and both completely out of touch with the big picture. We have no communication twixt the two sides, they have become armed camps, used in proxy wars for political and economic power by a small % of the populace that honestly doesn't give one small **** about any of them.

 

Anyone that has traveled beyond the 'burbs for any length of time will be given the opportunity to see what a huge country we live in, huge in size and range and differences that are all part of the whole. I have known great- great in the purest sense of the word- people in Appalachia and the Southwest and Great plains and damn near everywhere else, that swath of the country casually and demeaningly dismissed as "flyover country" is amazing, and if you deny yourself the experience of seeing it then that's on you.

 

At the same time and to the same extent, the cities have their own treasures and appeal, and yes it can be a bit of a culture shock if you're not from there but just like a pool, you screw up your courage and dive in, you stop being aware of the temperature and wonder why you hesitated.

 

My point is that the conversation is not directed by either group, it is used by those with no interest in understanding or rapprochement, in fact they have a vested interest in preventing that. And I have don't have the foggiest idea what could be done.

[Riggo-toni]

Maybe we could be more than friends...

[Captain Wiggles]

@Riggo-toni She doesn't appear to be BPA free. No plastics for me. 

 

This young lady tho...

 

 

 

#Murica

[Riggo-toni]

Agreed - much better...I guess some things have improved since the election. I suddenly have more interest in dirty energy.