That said, I have gotten less tolerant of people being contrary to my opinions. I'll jump on someone right away when I think they're wrong, even if they're not. Normally, I would bide my time, Google up some good points for my side of the argument, and then strike back when they least expected it. POW! BIFF! BAM! BATMAN SOUNDS! That's how Taylor do.
I frequent many forums, and a couple weeks ago, one of them featured a post wherein someone told a joke that bashed the people who voted for Obama. Called them (us) retards, because voting for Sarah Palin is NOT retardery of the umpteenth degree, somehow. Anyway, it's not a political forum, so posting something like that opens one up for scathing retaliation. And some of that certainly did occur. But the forum is based in Utah, and Utah is a pretty red state, so there were a lot more people laughing and agreeing than there were saying, "While we're on the topic of retards... G Dubya anyone?"
I kept my opinions to myself for a while, until someone mentioned that Obama was fucking up the conflicts we're involved in in Iraq and Afghanistan (because, according to this person, wars are supposed to improve a country's economy, not ruin it). I couldn't help myself. I had to respond. He's fucking up an already fucked-up-beyond-all-conceivable-imagination situation?? Um, who even got us into that stupid conflict?? It wasn't Obama; it was some jackass who looks a lot like a chimpanzee, and his geriatric puppetmaster.
I managed not to swear during my response (in which I pointed out that the only reason WWI and WWII were profitable for the US was because we weren't involved until the very end, and all we did was sell weapons to GB... also, that Vietnam was one of the major factors that caused the economic crisis of the 1970s), and at the end, I added that I wasn't going to respond anymore, because I didn't want to create bad blood on a forum that I enjoyed and that really shouldn't be the stage for a political discussion.
I stayed away from that post for two weeks. It's been hard.
Today, I was clicking through, and I saw a response. I had to look. One person, even though they have differing political affiliations than I, complimented me on a well-written post. I appreciate that. Another person shoved this in my face:
"One of my BEST FRIENDS just came back from AFGHANISTAN where he was awarded a PURPLE HEART for defending YOUR FREEDOM! You try looking him IN THE EYE and telling him that this war is a LOST CAUSE!"
There was other blahblahblah as well, but this person never learned about punctuation in school and his/her post was difficult to make sense of. That was the gist.
Oh yes, I did say that the war is a lost cause (not specifically those words; I said it was unwinnable). I likened it to digging a hole in dry sand: while you're in there digging, the hole is open, but once you leave, that hole is going to collapse and all your effort will be for nothing.
I wrote a response that pointed out that I'm a veteran, I've been to the Middle East, and unlike his BEST FRIEND, I probably actually understand the motivations of the denizens of those countries (albeit not as well as many other people; I'm not trying to say that I'm an expert by any means). I said I'd look anyone in the eye and tell them that the war is stupid, because my opinions aren't going to change just because the person I'm talking to got injured in said stupid war (my tact and empathy may increase, however). I said that the war we're fighting over there is going about as well as the British Empire's war against the American colonists. And we all know how that turned out. We're either going to have to just admit defeat and leave them to kill each other (which is what they've been doing for hundreds of years), or we're going to just have to kill them ALL at once. Like an Etch-a-Sketch. Shake-shake-shake. You're all dead. Clean slate!
I almost posted my response. Almost. Thisclose. But then I cancelled it. After all, I had already said that I wouldn't respond anymore, so my lack of response isn't an admission of "hey you're right." I don't need to defend my opinions to some turd who doesn't know anything about me or about the experiences I have that allow me to come to the conclusions that I do.
But I reeeeeeally wanted to reply. It was nasty. It wasn't a nice response. And it would have felt SOO GOOD to hit "post reply," but I didn't. Not there, anyway. That's why I posted it here. I have to get it out or I'm going to be wigging about it all day. And I don't have Jake here to rant to, so I have to do it this way. Yay!
