When Nutters on the Left Are As Crazy As Nutters on the Right

I've long said that there are crazies on either end of the political spectrum.  My experience with those on the left have largely been that they don't live in the real world.  I can remember having a Dennis Kucinich supporter stay at the hotel one night during the 2008 primaries and him coming down for a discussion in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep.  When we got to the point in the discussion where we pretty much agreed I said, "That's fine but even if he were elected President, that still doesn't mean he gets his way."  The man looked at me like he didn't understand.  "A President isn't a dictator.  You have Congress, the Senate, and a whole bunch of other people who think differently." (Okay, keep in mind this was before Trump.)  His answer was "Well you make them."

Today, though, I got to experience another like that, only worse.  It was on a mutual friend's page and I'm sorry I got baited into it.  As soon as this person started commenting, I should have dropped it since I'd been through it before with him and we had a history (one that I don't think our mutual friend knew.)  The topic didn't start out as what it evolved into, but once some people get their teeth into something, they do't let go.  

The topic had to do with the "War on Christmas."  I put that in quotes because there is no "War on Christmas" except in the minds of the sheeple who watch Faux News.  One of our mutual friends made the comment that she had an experience where a person she worked with who was an avowed and noisy atheist got upset when he was assigned to work on Christmas Day.  She hated having anyone's views shoved down her throat.  I agreed as a religious liberal that I hated that as much as hearing all of the right wing stuff and that everyone has the right to believe or not believe what they want to as long as they don't force it on anyone else (paraphrasing the discussion here.)

Along comes "Sam."  Sam and I had a history where he attacked me once before on a thread TELLING ME WHAT I HAD TO BELIEVE AS A CHRISTIAN.  Keep in mind, he's an avowed atheist.  He also claimed to know everything there was to know about Christianity because he attended a Methodist school for a time.  In the discussion, I made citations backing things I said and he countered with ridiculous anecdotes that I knew weren't true.  I'd had that experience before with right-wing nutcases.  Until this encounter, my experience with left-wing crazies was strictly that they didn't live in the real world.

I unfriended Sam and blocked him once I realized he was off the deep end on this and there was no mutual respect for others' opinions and views. He had to be right; he had to be "superior" and it didn't matter how he got to that point in his mind.  Apparently, this upset Sam greatly because I was informed by a mutual friend that he had a long post on his wall about it twisting what had been said in the discussion.  I didn't care - I was done with the situation.  Or so I thought till today.

We have many mutual friends that have an affinity for something not related to politics or religion, so eventually I unblocked Sam so he would see the informative posts in our groups.  That worked until today.  Once several of us had made comments about not having people force their beliefs (or dis-belief) on anyone he had his hackles up.  I should have walked away at the beginning, but I took the bait and started the discussion.  Once Sam started demanding citations and acting superior, I was done though.  I wasn't combing through looking for citations only to have him disavow them because he made up anecdotes that proved his point but had no basis in reality.  I don't mind having a good discussion and having to prove my point, but this would have been like arguing with a Trump supporter.  Nothing I said would ever get him to admit that anyone other than him was right or even had a point.  I made the point that I'd been through this with him before and I wasn't going to jump through hoops and play that game again.  Now he's back on my block list.

I love reading Jim Wright (see Stonekettle Station).  He has a very popular political writer who is an independent thinker.  One of his more popular essays is on Hunting the Unicorn.  He talks about how Liberals want the "perfect candidate" and instead of working towards a goal of a better country, they tend to become dismissive when things aren't going 100% their way, sort of like my Kucinich supporter above who wouldn't handle it well when his candidate got elected and found out it wasn't just a matter of snapping his fingers and BAM! Universal Healthcare!  This is the same case with the person in this conversation today who now earned himself a permanent place on my block list.  They think they know better than anyone else how the world should be.  There is no mutual respect of other humans and their rights to live their lives according to their standards, morals, and beliefs as long as they don't interfere with anyone else's.  There's no conceding that other people have a point and instead they will end up alienating the very people they are trying to bring to their way of thinking.

I can respect a different way of thinking for how someone lives their life.  I don't tell Jewish people they need to eat pork.  I think if a woman chooses to wear a hajib as part of her faith, that should be respected.  I believe gay people have the same human rights as the rest of us, including getting married and adopting kids.  I think my right to believe in Jesus Christ and go to church should be respected as well.  I don't think there's a "War on Christianity" but there are certainly people out there who need to practice what they preach, on both sides of the political spectrum.