Now I Remember Why I Unfriended You

A few years ago, while working nights at a hotel in New Hampshire, I spend a few hours in conversation with a Kucinich supporter who was working for his campaign.  It was interesting as I am generally liberal.  I am also pragmatic.  The ideas sound great, I said to the man, how are you going to make it happen with at least half of Congress seeing things differently, even if he was elected?

Why, you MAKE them see it, he said.

Liberals are at fault at times when their arrogance when they are so sure they are right, causes them to not see the fault in their argument, or the effect of their words.

From writing on the internet I made a number of acquaintances over the years.  Some have turned into true friends, others just stay acquaintances, others I have put out of my life for various reasons.  I came across someone a couple months back who I knew but I wasn't friends with.  We're generally on the same page with things politically.  I had a nagging feeling in the back of my brain that I'd unfriended her in the past, but couldn't remember why.  We became friends again.  Today I remembered why I unfriended her.

There's an anti-intellectual movement in this country.  The right-wing Republicans are exploiting the feelings of inadequacy among the less educated to decimate public education.  The smug arrogance among many who are educated has contributed to a lot of this.

I'd just had a conversation with someone else about religion and faith.  I'm of the opinion that everyone is entitled to their beliefs or lack thereof and I'm completely respectful of anyone's beliefs until you tell me I have to live my life by your set of beliefs.  I'm a liberal, but I also have a deep faith.  I don't align myself at all with the religious right.  However, I know why they vote against their best interests when you have "intellectuals" on the left trying to lecture them about what's best for them as well as belittling their beliefs.

This person started mocking people who have faith when people die and believe in an afterlife.  And it was right out mocking.  It was one of the most clear-cut examples of intellectual smugness I have ever seen.  It's the embodiment of everything that's wrong with people on the left.

It's what causes people to vote against their best interests.

I've said it before, posts where people talk about outlawing religion or taxing the churches give fuel to the culture wars Faux News has stoked over the years.  Left-leaning people damage their cause every damn day when they post crap like this.  They are as bad as the people on the right who want to make this a "Christian" nation and force everyone to live under their particular set of beliefs.  It's two sides of the same coin.

I snapped.  Having lost a daughter to suicide, I know a hell of a lot about grief.  Since 2012, I lost my mother, my mother-in-law, my daughter, a beloved aunt, a good friend, someone I looked up to as a child almost like a brother, my father a half-sister, and my grandmother.  I have walked the grief walk more times in the last few years than I would wish on anyone.  To belittle how people handle their grief is reprehensible.  It's a deeply personal thing.  How does it hurt you how I handle my grief?  How does it hurt you that I believe in an afterlife?  You want to believe there's nothing after you die, that's no skin off my back.  That's you're personal set of beliefs.  But to publicly mock people; reasonable people who have deep faith is despicable.

Yes, I now remember why I unfriended you.  You've been unfriended and blocked this time.