Posted on 10/06/2011 8:45:42 PM PDT by djf
OK, as usual today I read through a dozen (actually probably more) threads about various subjects.
I am interested is seeing the news. I am interested in reading other peoples opinions about what is happening.
Just about every thread I visited had such a huge amount of rancor and spite and outright viciousness it was practically unbearable.
So what is up with all the fighting? Why does every thread turn into a room full of drunk badgers, wolverines with an estrogen overload, and cross dressing hyenas?
Don't we have the ability to be even just a little bit civil with people we disagree with? Are we not adults here? Or at least trying to be?
I finally realized why I've been getting the urge alot lately to pop "Lord of The Flies" in my DVD players!
I understand that people have strong opinions about politics, but it's getting to the point I'd be scared to go to a FReeper party because I KNOW it would turn into a flash mob brawl!!
Calm down folks! Switch to decaff or something!
Your mom was probably right...you are special. LOL!
That makes it that much better. It’s like when you hear someone curse who never does...it leaves you shocked.
That makes it that much better. It’s like when you hear someone curse who never does...it leaves you shocked.
Kenny G merely follows a hallowed tradition in popular music - easily digestable mediocrity sells, as the public majority’s critical skills remain undeveloped. Most people cannot discern. The same is true in all arts, starting with the execrable Thomas Kinkade, and many, many figures in rock that I wouldn’t dare mention here now for fear of provoking another world war.
What was it that Theodore Sturgeon said, that “ninety percent of everything is crud”. (Wikipedia has a good article about the source of the quote.) Some, like Kenny and Danielle Steel, are more offensive than others. Others, like John Tesh, are actually tolerable if cheap.
Lucky man! (I wish a respectable celebrity had done it to my sister!)
@ post 61. That was well said but I have a much different opinion.
I try to be reasoned and polite and I am sure much of your comment was directed at posters here on FR. It has gotten ugly around here.
Our country is so polarized and entrenched that it is all but impossible to change course because people have been conditioned to think in terms of social justice instead of the constitution that promised me the fruits of my own labor and promised nothing to those who won’t work.
We have followed the inevitable cycle to it’s conclusion just as the “Rise and Fall of Empires” tells us. We have almost half of our nation living off the other half. We have half our country that does not vote. The half that votes are equally divided.
I don’t mean to be cynical but the time for debate is over. The definition of robbery is “the taking of one’s property by another through the use or implied use of force”. We are being robbed to pay for half our country when 95% of them should be taking care of themselves. We have trashed our constitution and it shows.
This has been inevitable through the last few decades but we did not have to deal with the consequences of our undisciplined behavior. Now, the inevitable crushing debt has entered the picture and like another ably stated above, everyone does not want to give up their piece of the pie.
I hate to say it, and I thank you for your post, but it’s highly likely that our country will sink as we know it and it’s probable most of our fellow countrymen will be sitting on their corner of the deck holding a small piece of pie when they take their last breath.
I don’t want to compromise with liberals because if we meet them halfway we are moving in the wrong direction. Bi-partisanship sucks. I want a constitutional government and I will be free to help those I want and be free to ignore those I don’t.
Lest you think I am heartless.... I give much more than required of both my money and time to those in need. I don’t need a politician to tell me what I owe someone else.... Jesus told me everything I need to know.
As an American, you don’t owe me anything besides respect for my rights. As an American, I don’t owe you anything except respect for your rights. The government is telling both of us what we owe the other after they take their cut and that is not right.
We have lost our ability as a nation to reason with one another because we no longer play from the same set of laws. They view the constitution one way and we view it another. Some have a Judeo-Christian ethic and some have a “gimme” ethic. It will not be resolved through further discussion. Sorry FRiend, that’s how I see it.
I’ve always thought dueling should be given a wink and a nod from the powers that be.
If there’s anything that would enforce a more civil atmosphere, it’s the potential for insulting someone who happens to be a better shot drunk than you are sober.
“I don’t agree. I think there will be 37 different sides and a whole lot of blood. Everybody is angry at the world and everyone feels like no one can be trusted, no one is really on “my side”.”
I believe you are right, and that it is part of the basic plan. Fracture your enemy across multiple fault lines and he can’t resist.
Here we have a lot of lines to fracture: Free trader conservatives vs protectionists, who view each other as not being conservative at all...
Differing opinions on what constitutes free speech...on whether private property rights trump the right of self defense... the list goes on...
Not only is it not true that “conservatives” have all the guns and ability to use them (I have known many radicalized ex special forces types, who believe in peace, but may just take up arms if required, by their own admission), but we are not a homogenous group within ourselves, and many of us have espoused positions which might put some of us on the opposite sides of armed conflict.
The absolute worst thing that could happen to this country is a Balkan conflict, with a return to the bushwhacking activity which was common in the civil war era.
I have wondered in the past whether a certain characteristic of our current potentate has made him bulletproof, where anyone else attempting to take over so many different aspects of our lives and businesses might meet a more swift removal from office. Even if (in a wild conspiratorial brainstorm) some evil corporation were to decide to remove this thorn in its flesh, the resulting civil war would be worse for its bottom line than riding it out.
This makes it more likely (to continue in the same hypothetical vein) that his handlers, if he has any, might be aware of his usefulness in this regard, when they get tired of him, or he is no longer otherwise useful. *Except*, that the last thing they would want is a civil war with two clear sides - we can overcome that, ugly as it is, as we did before.
So, everyone ignore the weird late night rambling, and get back to the subject:
It is vital that we have real conversation about what should constitute core conservative ideas and behaviors, now, and what we can disagree on without resorting to violence, before we find ourselves carried into a maelstrom without any chance of averting it.
Oppression? Depression? Regulation? Obamanumbnuts? FEDREGS?
Gimmie more more Xanax! Our maybe the meds are making me stupid.
Yeah, I KNOW this is a lobbed pitch.
Have fun with it. I don't care any more.
Kenny G? Are you serious?
Really. But he is an expert. Signed up before you were born.
LOL.
Zot-meisters will ZOT!
If you are saying instead:
Why can't we just all get along?I quite frankly doubt that 200 vAmp will help your particularily special problem.
As far as I know, it’s always been like that on FreeRepublic. There is always a certain percent of the participants who cannot disagree without making a personal attack. And then the offended party has to try to outdo the first offense.
I’ve had people post mean replies to me many times. At first, it bothered me. But I learned to ignore it. Some people are just jerks. They can’t help themselves. You can’t let them stop you from participating in FreeRepublic. It’s the best thing going on the internet.
Outstanding bodyguards...
yesh...
And...people in Hell need ice water.
I find it repulsive watching otherwise smart conservatives behaving like liberals when it comes down to who they support and who they don’t. It’s a lose, lose situation and brings back memories of why we lost in 2006 and had to endure that Pelosi beech for 3 years.
Good thread. I’m glad I didn’t have to start it myself, as I’ve had similar observations of late, and meaner thoughts about it all.
Times are hard, and members of this forum better informed than members of many if not most forums (let’s pat ourselves on the shoulders) being the info junkies, know what’s up, see the causes quite clearly, in addition to in many cases suffering personally due to the economic and political situation. This leads us down the path of pessimism, helplessness, bitterness and despair.
I too am afraid that the Stalinist in the White House will remain there until 2017, as I don’t observe signs of the public recognizing what he is and has always been, but only continued signs of guilt over race, and so easily provoked class envy, and resentment against the private economy players whose success or failure directly affect the dumbed down populace’s own retirement funds. Blame the greedy banks for the $5 Durbin Fee, yeah, that’s the ticket, and that’s the manipulation straight from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I think it’s supposed to be 40 acres and...a pony.
I'm seeing a whole lot of troll activity from oldtimers.
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