Is there a wiser way to use FR?

God, I hope | January 19, 2017 | HiTech RedNeck himself

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well.

It has been 16 years more or less that I have been on FR.

My participation began with the contested Bush-Gore election in late 2000.

I've seen a lot of debate, a lot of discussion, and a wide palette of points of view from left to right and on many spiritual subjects.

I believe the present season, with not just Trump but a new salvational consciousness on the horizon, is an answer from God to the confusion.

Anyhow, as the "age of Trump" comes upon us, are there wiser ways to use FR than to chew the fat on behalf of particular parochial views? Perhaps it would be the time, instead, to look at how a full-salvational God consciousness can bridge what looked like unbridgeable gaps.

I got into a debate today on Facebook. It was with a women's protest movement that, typical of our modern Left, took the LGBT etc. under its wing. Well we know that's folly. I tried to sell them on the point that it was folly. I got asked back whether I'd ever met any of these folks. Well here's where I took a turn I might have taken differently. Rather than saying yes, I've seen them do thus and such, which emphasized how much I knew, I could have pulled the mirror out right there and then, and asked how many conservatives or even centrists that person had met, and are they all the same?

Conservatives can get so fixed on the idea that the Left is ghastly wrong, that they can also forget that even blind squirrels smell out some nuts. A full authoritarian brain wash job towards the Left isn't needed, if we can rightly capitalize on, even empathize with, what they correctly identify as desiderata. Sometimes it's just our own pride or lack of patience that has caused us to get frozen into a certain attitude. As even Trump said, "I'm going to bring us together." Let's give both God and Donald a chance.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And our dear (or maybe we’re feeling not so dear) Left is in such a situation.

A lot of pride, not very much knowledge.

But that’s what has to be started with, if a quest to embrace them into some kind of sanity is to succeed.

Acts of God are required, in fact. I believe in acts of God. Acts of God took me out of a reflexively-left attitude (voted twice for Carter, and then Dukakis!) and mellowed my attitude over and over to boot.

Catgone it, God really cares about our souls, not just our earthly hides and guts. This is PERSONAL. I’m not proud of me. I’ve effed up in many common ways and in some uncommon ways too. I’m proud of God who keeps pulling me out of sin, over and over and over (and yet little by little, I stumble less and less and less badly with time).

God looks everywhere to see if anyone will answer His call. Questions about how this is staged on a deeper plane (predestination) don’t detract from the initial truth.

I don’t believe God arranged for Donald Trump to be here without any bigger picture in the plan.

[HiTech RedNeck]

One always has to test the audience before concluding “swine.” FR has a number of ex-swine.

[BraveMan]

Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself, And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right, But that three lefts do.
Wherever possible put people on "HOLD".
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
And despite the changing fortunes of time, There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs, Especially with those persons closest to you;
That lemon on your left for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls, Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.
Carefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
For a good time, call 606-4311.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog Is finally getting enough cheese;
And reflect that whatever fortunes may be your lot, It could only be worse in Milwaukee.
You are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The Universe is laughing behind your back.
Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be, Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal, The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up.

[T-Bone Texan]

In 2000 I used FR to organize, meet, and protest with other conservatives, and the left used our profile page photos in an attempt to identify and physically attack us.

A big scary black dude got in my gf’s face at a rally and told her to go back to Europe. She get right back in his face and said “Ah ain’t goin nowheres”!

I married her. I credit FR. We have 2 kids now.

[blueunicorn6]

That brought tears to my eyes.

[infool7]

For the rabid left indiscriminateness is a moral imperative.

Bill Whittle and Evan Sayet Distill the Kinder Garden of Eden in under 12 minutes

Spend the 12 minutes. it's worth it. TRUST ME!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Heh heh heh, then I don’t mind going native at all.

I think that’s better than being in the Venus or Mars groups.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Heh heh heh.

This lampoons cynicism quite well

[SgtHooper]

An “Act of God” has occurred in my family, when my brother, who was Democrat for all his life, jumped across to conservative for this election. I don’t know how, but it happened. From what I understand, he was so “rabid” a conservative on Facebook, he got “disciplined” once or twice! LOL!

[T-Bone Texan]

In the old days, you had to close your HTML formatting or all subsequent posts would possess that formatting.

Any body remember “scrolling marquee”?

Those were fun, heady days on FR.

[HiTech RedNeck]

So how do we give out the rabies shots?

[mumblypeg]

“All the FReepers who are ex-left would disagree.”

+1.
As to how we can better use FR, I’d say less preaching to the choir. We need to double down on harassing the MSM for their bias. Call them up, ask why aren’t they covering major stories that appear on FR.
A substantial portion of the population won’t read Drudge or FR. We need to re-assert our voice in the MSM, where the other half of the population will hear us.

We should make more attempts to persuade those on the other side to re-examine their own positions and consider ours, using irrefutable, calm logic.

We should be more willing to unite on single issues whenever possible, and build toward a conservative consensus, with the understanding that not everybody’s journey starts at the same place or moves at the same speed.

When I read here about some middle-of-the-roader speaking out, taking an agreeable stance on a particular issue, and then FReepers proceed to drag out whatever that person said or did 20 years ago to remind us that we should continue hating that person’s guts, as if that’s the only principled thing to do-—that just frustrates me so much. How is that helping -—them, us, our country?

WWJD? I think He meets people where they are, and walks forward with them.

[Company Man]

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

FR needs to remain secular:

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading in the same direction, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only one wasting time is the one who runs around and around the mountain, telling everyone else that his or her path is wrong.

Hindu teaching

[N. Theknow]

In the old days, you had to close your HTML formatting or all subsequent posts would possess that formatting.

Hey Dude! Turn off your Italians!

[papertyger]

One always has to test the audience before concluding “swine.” FR has a number of ex-swine.

The context is very different. Online, you're leading with your thoughts, not appearance.

Anyone trafficking in "Betsy DeVos is unqualified because she associated with anti-LGBT, Christian, hate groups qualifies as "swine.'"

As for ex-swine, once they demonstrate the "ex" they no longer qualify as "swine."

[HiTech RedNeck]

I remember when tag auto-closing was added.

FR had its share of lefties (MurryMom?) well before then, yet they were somehow still respectful enough not to throw a thread visually off kilter with an unclosed tag.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Who doled out that diktat? God?

[infool7]

Start by not accepting/entertaining any of their BS.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Any attempt to smuggle in the idea of “once swine always swine” (which is easy to do with the English language because of its poverty of certain verb tenses) is simply dishonest. It’s also a moral cop-out before God.

[papertyger]

I remember when tag auto-closing was added.

WHAT!

I don't have to close tags anymore?