Reminds me of an open letter from David Brin explaining that the most
addictive drug is rage of self-righteous indignation
(http://www.davidbrin.com/nonfiction/addiction.html).
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 2/24/2017 8:38 AM, Josh Reynolds wrote:
It's because people are tribal. They want to belong to a group.
Spewing a popular opinion in the echo chamber of that group brings
acceptance and validation.
It's no different than supporting a sports team owned by someone not
from the area with players that change every year yet somehow people
feel like it's "their team".
By labeling people, you apply blanket ideas to them and put them in
this little box. It dehumanizes them, and makes them easier to attack.
It'd fucking stupid, and it's the cancer of our democracy and country.
On Feb 24, 2017 10:32 AM, "Ken Hohhof" <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
There was an episode of the Star Trek TV series titled “Let That
Be Your Last Battlefield” about two warring aliens that appeared
identical except one was black on one side and white on the other,
while the other was the reverse. The difference was all important
to the aliens, but the Enterprise crew could hardly tell them apart.
I think of that when people immediately identify someone as left
or right, Democrat or Republican, Shia or Sunni. As if their
faces were painted a certain way so you can immediately tell. And
once you know their political party or religious sect, that’s all
you need to know. TV is that way, if they are interviewing
someone, the most important thing is to have a graphic that tells
you if they are a D or R. It’s like a sporting event, you need to
know what team someone is on, and then can cheer or boo accordingly.
Our political parties take themselves way too seriously, they seem
to believe people are born either D or R and that party owns
them. The parties don’t seem capable of running capable
candidates for office and governing well in order to earn votes.
But when they eek out an election victory, they proclaim it a
landslide and believe they have a mandate. Rather than accept
that voters hated the other guys a little more. This time.
It’s kind of ironic with Trump and Putin in the news, neither of
whom really care about ideology, it’s all about power and
personality. Yet we still want it to be a story about left vs
right, my party vs your party.
*From:*Af [mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Friday, February 24, 2017 9:51 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
Yeahbut they are democrats so they are leftists so they are
inherently truthful and trustyworthy...
*From:*Adam Moffett
*Sent:*Friday, February 24, 2017 7:45 AM
*To:*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
The statements come from representatives of the "Sweden Democrats"
party. Skim the wikipedia article about who they are.
Some choice quotes:
"The party had its roots in Swedish fascism^[15]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats#cite_note-r1089-15>
and was a part of the white supremacy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy>movement;^[16]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats#cite_note-telegraphboots-16>"
^" The Sweden Democrats, however, remain isolated in the Riksdag
because the other parties are staunchly maintaining a policy of
refusing cooperation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordon_sanitaire#In_politics> with
them.^[25]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats#cite_note-25>"
^" The Sweden Democrats believe that the current Swedish
immigration
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Sweden>and
integration policies have been a failure. They oppose integration
because they believe that integration involves "meeting in the
middle" and do not think that the indigenous Swedish people
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedes>should have to bear the burden "
The section on ideologies is interesting too. They might as well
have "Make Sweden Great Again" hats.
------ Original Message ------
From: "Chuck McCown" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: 2/23/2017 4:15:29 PM
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
My only point is, Trump made one of his typical
off-the-cuff/out his ass utterances, he was excoriated by the
left press.
Now it seems there was something of substance behind his comment.
*From:*Ken Hohhof
*Sent:*Thursday, February 23, 2017 2:12 PM
*To:*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
Sweden has accepted something like 25 times as many refugees
per capita than the U.S. And they have been mostly men who
can’t find work. Whereas the U.S. accepts mostly women and
children, who have been heavily screened, and there are
usually communities willing to help them integrate. I’m not
sure why we are wanting to point fingers at Sweden and make
some political issue of this.
Why not instead look for a model of how to do this right? By
all accounts, Canada is very good at this, with families
virtually adopting refugees and helping them resettle and
integrate into Canadian society.
Just be happy we get some choice unlike Europe which doesn’t
have the Atlantic ocean between them and disasters like Syria.
*From:*Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Chuck
McCown
*Sent:* Thursday, February 23, 2017 2:48 PM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
One for Jaime:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/23/sweden-democrats-trump-was-right.html
<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/23/sweden-democrats-trump-was-right.html>
*From:*Chuck McCown
*Sent:*Thursday, February 23, 2017 1:42 PM
*To:*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
Oh, and I had a business partner for 30 years that was
trans.... yes I have known trans people....
*From:*Ken Hohhof
*Sent:*Thursday, February 23, 2017 1:33 PM
*To:*[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] OT trolling
Once you know someone who is transgender, it turns out not to
be like that at all. There are exceptions to everything, but
if the first thing that comes to your mind is identifying as a
girl to shower with the girls, then probably you don’t have
any friends or relatives that are transgender. Well, that is
unlikely, more likely you just don’t know they are trans.
And school kids unfortunately take the brunt of this. Anywhere
else, are there really going to be bathroom police checking
birth certificates? There’s a creepy thought.
*From:*Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Chuck
McCown
*Sent:* Thursday, February 23, 2017 1:52 PM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* [AFMUG] OT trolling
Bored.
If this was mid 1970s and if I discovered that the president
said I could shower with the girls at school it I “identified
as a girl”, I sure as hell would have identified as a girl....
I have not heard a single commentator address this issue.
Boys will be boys. What do the lgbtqrstuv folks have as an
answer to this situation?
They don’t seem to be interested in protecting the rights of
my granddaughter to not have the boy’s football team in there
after volleyball practice.
