by admin | Oct 7, 2015 | Information, Politics, Rant, Stuff I Did |
I Got Accused of Being a Hypocrite…
It’s true, I got accused of being a hypocrite the other day and, for a second, it stopped in my tracks. It’s important to do some self-reflection from time to time. And this person, though wrong, made a good point. Their question and my eventual response I think are worth sharing because we all should step back from time to time and ask ourselves the same question.
I was on a rant about constant barrage of republican fuckery. Two things they had done and said had set me off. First, the absolute bullshit of the attack on Planned Parenthood by republicans and more specifically the bullshit lies told by U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz during his questioning of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. The other thing I was on a rant about was the republican gun nuts after the tragic shooting at Umpqua Community College. Their hypocritical bullshit and stupidity is absolutely offensive.
It was a really good rant, I was nailing it! I was rightfully outraged by all the hypocrisy and obvious bullshit being told to the public by the conservative right. And, then I as a took a breath I was interrupted with a really good observation. This person said, “Look I agree with you but how do you know you’re not being as closed minded as the republicans you’re attacking?”
I asked what he meant by that because the things I was upset about were their complete denial and misrepresentation of the facts. Rep. Chaffetz was misleading the public with his questioning. He did in fact lie. This has nothing to do with a difference of opinion. It is fact, fact and opinion are two very different things, I was expressing my anger at the facts on both topics. However, he better clarified the question by explaining, “How do you know you’re facts are correct. How can you be so sure that what you know is actually the truth.” It was a very good point. And, it’s something I have actually addressed before in various rants on this very site and on Facebook.
Here’s the thing, before I go on a public rant I do something not a lot of people seem to do on both sides of the political spectrum, I fact check before I speak. I am not saying that I am without flaw. I am not perfect but when it comes to a public rant, I fact check. I don’t just spew bullshit. Yes, I offer up at times very strong and harsh opinions. But, they are always checked for facts. I do my very best to never lie or mislead in my rants. And, if I am made away that something I said was not true, I will correct it and I will admit it.
However, that doesn’t answer the question he posed. The real question is “How do I know what I am claiming to be ‘facts’ are indeed facts.” I trust in my facts because I verify the things I say. When fact checking, I verify my sources and then I verify those sources to the best of my ability. But, how do I know my sources are correct? What is it that I am doing different than say my crazy republican family friend George? The simple answer, I use multiple, varied sources.
It’s like this, in general, I watch all kinds of different news. I get my information on all kinds of things from multiple sources. For example, my friend, George has pretty much one source of news, FOX News. He has flat out said it’s the only news he watches. However, it’s not the only news he pays attention to. He follows every single bat shit crazy right wing page on Facebook. He constantly emails, anyone that will listen, with every bullshit conservative meme and opinion that finds. Sadly, every single one can be proven to be either misleading or flat out lies with a simple fact check. But, he refuses to do so. He’s convinced all media is criminally biased except for FOX News, they truly are fair and balanced in his opinion. If it’s not FOX News, it can’t be trusted. He actually believes this. And, that right there is what makes me different from George.
I know just about all media is biased. It’s almost impossible to observe something and convey that observation without inadvertently changing what was seen or heard. Sometimes in the case of FOX News, that information is willfully changed regardless of the facts to promote an agenda. Truth be dammed. And, when caught doing it, their fall back excuse is, “We’re not News, we’re pundits expressing opinions.” So, that makes it okay in their eyes to flat out lie.
Of course there are many other “News” outlets that are biased. MSNBC is one of them. Very liberal bias. But, there’s a difference between having a bias towards one view or another and actually manipulating the truth to make a point. I have yet to see MSNBC get caught in a lie that they failed to correct. Biased, yes, flat liars, no.
Continuing, I don’t just get my news from MSNBC. I watch and read from a variety of sources. Yes, I watch MSNBC, I also watch ABC News, CBS, Al Jazeera, BBC, legitimate science blogs, NASA, Psychology today, Astronomy (my favorite magazine subscription) and the list goes on and on. You cannot call yourself an informed person and trust only one news source and only one point of view. It takes many to get the full picture.
This is what separates me from a person like George. Add that to my own life experiences and I have pretty good built in bullshit detector. As I have said, this doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes. There isn’t anyone out there that doesn’t make mistakes. What separates me from people like George is that I make an honest attempt not to lie about the things I am saying in order to make a point.
I read and or watch all those above news sources and I still don’t know everything. You can’t know everything. What you can do, is try. This is what pisses me off when it comes to idiots like George. He makes no effort to learn. He is being told lies and misleading information and makes no attempt to fact check them and he thinks liberals are dumb.
How do I know he doesn’t fact check or do any research? He’s told me that he doesn’t. Years ago, when I still talked to him, he was emailing me daily with newfound conservative cult views. I started calling him out on it. I started pointing out the fact from fiction. He kept not responding to what I was saying in my responses. He would just come back at me with yet another question to which it became clear he was never going to read my actual response. I called him on that too,
I asked him, “Did you actually read the article you quoted to me to in your last email?” I asked him this because the actual article he was quoted, agreed with my point point of view and had he read it, he would have known that. I knew the article he quoted actually agreed with me, because I took time to read it. I also asked him, “Did you actually read my full response?” His answer to both were, “No.”
This is how can you tell if someone is full of shit or not. And, I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative. You cannot trust your source if all you listen to is one news source that is told from one single ideological viewpoint. In fact, I can make my point with an image. At first glance, this image shows a girl with her hand between another girls legs.
Now imagine the media or some politician trying to make a point about about teen sex or wild teen parties. Something along those grounds and their evidence being this picture. If they flashed it up on the screen you’re going to think it’s a photo of a girl with her hand between another girls legs. You’re going to be shocked and you’re not going to have any reason to disbelieve the media source or politician.
But, if you actually, take a deeper look at the photo, it’s not what it appears to be. It’s an unintentional optical illusion. It’s all quite innocent, well the photo is innocent, what was said about it, was not. This is exactly what FOX News does so well. The are getting good people that usually aren’t very bright to begin with and making them, angry, frustrated and paranoid about a whole lot of things that really aren’t true at all.
I learned the hard way to check my facts. I never really became political online until those long email sessions with George. Reading all his bullshit and taking the time to read what he had to say, to look it up the articles he was quoting and then researching them myself made me realize there are some tragically blind and stupid people out there. So I started following some liberal sites. I am not democrat, I am not a liberal. But, right now, they are the only ones at least making an effort to better this world that we live in.
Right now, conservative care about two things, the unborn and making sure this country follows a set of Christian values and that terrifies me. This country came into existence because our ancestors wanted nothing to with the England’s government that was being controlled by Christian beliefs. I know my history, and as far back as you go, there has always been Christian fuckery from the Crusades to the Salem Witch Trials, you cannot trust a political entity that gets it’s morals from any religion.
But, I digress. My point is that thanks to republican fuckery I learned the necessity of gathering information through a variety of varied news sources and ideologies. But, it was actually through some liberal fuckery that I learned the importance of fact checking everything before I repost it. Yes, I said it, there is some liberal fuckery out there. Not the principals for which it is based upon, but sometimes, the propaganda used is every bit as full of shit as that of it’s opposing party.
I have found several liberal type memes that are completely full of shit when it comes to the facts they claim. I recall one instance, a liberal Facebook page had posted a meme with Pat Tillman on one side and George Bush Sr. on the other side. On the Bush side it quoted Bush as saying that atheists shouldn’t even be allowed to be U.S. citizens because their patriotism is in question. On the other side is Pat Tillman, a man who gave up his career in football to go fight in the war against terrorism after the attacks of 9/11. He was killed in action in Afghanistan. He died a war hero in service to his country.
The meme is very inflammatory. The problem is that there is no verifiable proof that what Papa Bush said had ever happened. I had reposted this meme on my Facebook page because I trusted the liberal source from which it came. Turns out, they didn’t fact check it either. It more than likely never happened. After researching the quote, it turns that the Bush administration absolutely denies that he ever said such a thing. Doesn’t mean he didn’t say it and I certainly will never trust the word of Bush, or Bush Jr. or Jeb but it gave me pause. How could he deny it? It wouldn’t be quoted if there wasn’t a record of him saying. So I kept looking.
Seems the quote was attributed to a liberal biased “journalist” who claims that Bush said it in crowd at a speech he had given. The problem with this is that no one else on the face of the planet backs this bloggers quote. It’s not in the transcripts, no other reporter heard it. Hundreds of people there, no one else heard it at all. Now, it doesn’t mean he didn’t say it. But, the overwhelming evidence suggests that he did not. And, if you’re going to make a point about something, you need hard evidence. If you don’t have it, keep your mouth shout and don’t muddy the waters. It’s that type of reporting that makes FOX News and those who follow them so frightening pathetic.
After posting that meme, I learned first hand that you have got to check your sources. Just because in ideology you agree with a source doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of presenting inaccurate facts. And, nothing makes you look more incompetent then making bold claims and then having the very side you’re fighting against be able to simply discredit you with actual facts. Sure the current republican party is going to try and discredit you with lies and bullshit regardless of the facts, that’s inevitable. However, what you cannot, ever, let happen is to have them actually be able to discredit you with the truth simply because you were too lazy to fact check something you let come out of your mouth.
by admin | May 26, 2015 | Information, Politics, Rant |
Poor Shamming, Can We Please Stop Doing That…
I hope this is going to my last political rant for a while. I really hate these but I get so pissed off at how shallow, unsympathetic and easily manipulated people are and I just have to rant about it. Here’s what pissed me off this morning…
As I was on my way to bed last night I see one of the alerts that a Facebook friend shared “Mr. Conservatives” post. It was yet another attempt by the conservative right shame the poor. It was a meme that was just so stupid I had to rant about it. I used to be able to ignore this type of bullshit but sadly too many well meaning people fall for this form of propaganda because no one points out how they are being manipulated. I let it go because I was tired, in my bedroom and had already turned my PC off so I just went to bed. It was all but forgotten until I got up this morning and checked my Facebook feed. There it was, this stupid, ignorant inflammatory conservative meme. I wrote a huge rant in my friends timeline. I didn’t post it because I know it would be like trying to explain basic math to a monkey. Sure it can be done but it takes a long time and they’re still going to sling their shit at you when you’re done so what’s the point. Side note, not to say my friend isn’t as smart as Monkey or that she is an idiot. It’s just that I know she doesn’t mean to shame the poor and I know she’s well intentioned. Instead, I agreed with her and said that corporate greed is bad and that Walmart and the big three auto companies for example cost us billions a year. Trying to not correct my friends as much nowadays.
Mr. Conservative’s poor shamming
The reason this kind of crap pisses me off is because it’s pointless. Seriously, who think it’s a career choice? The only people that would disagree with this are probably the very few that have made it a career choice. Also, does anyone think that this is meme is going to persuade them to not make welfare a career choice? So I ask you, what is the point of this? I will tell you. Because, it’s propaganda for the conservative right that is designed to inflame good people. Good people who feel as if they are working too hard and paying too much in taxes to have it wasted on welfare fraud. And, I am not hear to tell them that they shouldn’t be enraged by it. What I am hear to say is that welfare fraud isn’t this rampant thing that conservatives keep telling us.
…it turned out he could only find that 2 tenths of 1 percent might have committed some kind of welfare fraud in his state.
To give you an example, the state of Maine’s governor LePage wanted go after those committing welfare fraud in his state. So his people did some research on it. He was on the case and this was a serious problem costing his state unknown fortunes! Well, he released the data and as it turned out he could only find that 2 tenths of 1 percent might have committed some kind of welfare fraud in his state. That’s it. Another way of looking at it is that 99.8 percent of the poor in his state are just poor and not committing any welfare fraud. And, of that 2 tenths of one percent, not all of them actually committed any fraud at all. As it turns out, some of those were just typos or clerical errors. So, we know in at least the state of Maine welfare fraud isn’t really too big of problem and isn’t really costing us that much money. If you want to get angry over 2 tenths of 1 percent go right ahead but if fraud is what bothers you, there are much bigger fish to fry.
Maine is just one state though, what about all those “Welfare Queens” we keep being told about? What about all that fraud FOX News keeps telling us about. Well, most of it never happened. That’s right, they lie to you. Most people know that FOX News has been proven repeatedly in study after study as one of the least factual news agencies in this country. And, the actual cases of fraud they come up with are so rare. So what is the national rate of welfare fraud in this country? It’s got to be like 25 percent? 40 percent? 25 percent? The numbers have to be outrageous right? Why else would conservatives make such a big deal out of it if it wasn’t such a big deal? As it turns out, at best, the national average for welfare fraud is about 2.7 percent. That’s right. All the poor shamming the conservative right does it turns out that 97.3 percent of the American’s poor aren’t committing fraud. They’re just poor and need some assistance.
So why is the conservative party so outraged by welfare fraud? To be honest, it’s just what they do. They convince good people that there’s a problem and they can fix it. They make simple statements designed to outrage. This type of negative propaganda works. My friend that shared the image doesn’t know dick about the poor. But, she works hard and doesn’t want her tax money wasted on people taking advantage of the system. She’s being manipulated to believe that there’s a serious problem when there isn’t. Further more, it implies that since this is a conservative page that those who are not conservatives must be the ones allowing such travesties of fraud to continue. That simply is not the truth.
Have the facts to back up what you’re saying otherwise, don’t post it.
I don’t care what party a person belongs to. All I ask is that if they going to post something, have a clue as to what you’re posting about. Have the facts to back up what you’re saying otherwise, don’t post it. I don’t mind opinions that differ from mine. I love a good debate when I have the time. But, what pisses me the fuck off is when people just randomly post this kind of crap when it’s sole purpose is to mislead others and create a rage over an issue that really isn’t as bad as it is being made out to be, that isn’t right.
People need to question things more. When did we stop doing this? I saw someone post a meme the other day explaining the origins of the term SWAG. I had to re-tweet the correct information when I saw it.
Her intentions were well meaning, she said something like, “Personally, this makes me like the term even more now.” The problem is, this is not what it means, it isn’t a fact, it’s just stupid shit some dumbass came up with because he or she was smart enough to know that people are gullible and will believe pretty much anything they are told if they thing it sounds reasonable.
What I have found is that when it comes to politics, propaganda works. Liberals do it, conservatives do it. It’s just that conservatives do it to an insane level. They are creating a fear in people that is causing a level of paranoia that is absolutely ridiculous. If it isn’t promoting bigotry by hiding behind the Bible, it’s shamming the poor by hiding behind non-sense statements and creating an unrealistic ideal of welfare fraud. I just have a hard time letting this kind of bullshit go unchecked. But, there is just so much of it, I simply don’t have the time to correct all the bullshit I see by posting the actual facts. It would be nice if I did. But, I have a job and if I don’t want to be on welfare, I need to get back to it.
Please, read these articles below, they are eye opening.
Resources for this article:
Governor’s Attempt To Find Massive Welfare Fraud Turns Up Next To Nothing
Welfare fraud is nothing compared to Pentagon waste and abuse
Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs
Dishonest Fox Chart Overstates Comparison Of Welfare To Full-Time Work By 500 Percent
by admin | Aug 2, 2014 | Fun, Rant |
Not me anymore!
It’s August 2nd 2014 as I write this and as the title says I did in fact quite one year ago today. It was August 2nd 2013 that I quit smoking. So actually, it’s been a year and a day but let’s not nitpick. The year hasn’t been easy and my life has changed a lot since then. I’ve had to deal withdrawals, serious health issues, prescription medications, frustrations, depression, legal issues and of course there’s that time I killed a prostitute.
Okay, I didn’t really have any depression. But, it was a difficult year for a great many reasons. I really did have a lot of the above issues. However, my biggest triumph is that I quit smoking. I always new that I would quit someday. And, August 1st of last year I had no plans to quit the following day. So what made me quit and how did I do it?
They say that you should plan to quit. You shouldn’t just wake up and quit. That you need to plan for it, be prepared for it. I did none of that really. Of course I knew that someday I would quit but it was day long off into the future. I had this idea that I would first lose some weight and have beautiful, wonderful girlfriend that didn’t smoke and she would help me through it. That I would want to quit for not only her but for myself.
But, before I get into how I quit, let me briefly say briefly what didn’t help me quit. I do this because I hope that maybe the liars and the morons behind why I didn’t quit sooner will read this and see that for all their bullshit, they had absolutely nothing to do with helping me quit and actually encouraged me to continue smoking. I am talking about all the bullshit “facts” about smokers. (not saying that all facts on why you should quit smoking are bullshit. I am just saying that many “facts’ aren’t really facts they’re more like misleading misuse of the facts.) I am talking about all the commercials that tried to shame me or scare me into quitting smoking. The commercials that misrepresent the facts in order to scare you.
Looking at pictures and videos of people with holes in their throats didn’t do shit for me. That blonde lady who is now dead with that hole in her throat trying to scare me into quitting was such bullshit. I love how they added CGI smoke coming out of her throat. I love how all these commercials completely misrepresent the facts using scare tactics and bullshit. It didn’t work for me, it had the opposite effect actually. I would become defiant when I saw these ads or heard of these so called facts. All the bullshit around second hand smoke. Is it dangerous? It can be. If you work around it all day long the facts absolutely suggest that it can be. So, if this bothers you. Don’t work around it. It’s pretty simple really. If you’re walking in a well ventilated area and happen to get a whiff of someones second smoke, you’re not going to die. You will probably have that disgusting smoke smell on you but it’s not really going to cause you any harm unless you already have severe respiratory issues. So let’s just be honest about this and lose the cult mentality over it.
Let’s be honest about the numbers here. The vast majority of smokers don’t die because they smoked. Both my grandfathers smoked most of their adult lives and their deaths had nothing to do with smoking. This isn’t to say that it’s a good idea to start smoking or that I condone it. It is bad for, it can kill you. The science doesn’t just suggest it, it proves it! But to say smoking kills is misleading. Smoking can kill. That’s more factual. But, my point here isn’t about the science. It’s about the advertising that didn’t work for me.
You couldn’t scare me into quitting by throwing bullshit facts in my face. Like the one that says over 500,000 people die every year from a smoking related illness. That’s really misleading. Because it implies that over 500,000 people die from smoking every year. They do not. Or if they do I have never any data that suggests it. What they did there is add up all the ways in which people can die that also relate to illnesses that smoking can help to cause. A great example is lung cancer. A lot of smokers die from this. But, so do a lot of people who don’t smoke, who never smoked and they still died from lung cancer. But, their death, because it’s was caused by an illness that can be attributed to smoking. This is total bullshit. Their death was not caused by smoking.
Let me clear that up. Let’s say that last year 25,000 people died of lung cancer. Of those 25,000 people 15,000 of them were actual smokers. It doesn’t matter. Lung cancer is considered a smoking related illness. So, the anti-smoking lobby can say those 25 people died of a smoking related illness. Do you see how misleading that is? It implies that all 25,000 people were smokers. So you can’t believe these people and that is a terrible thing. Because smoking is bad for you and it can kill you. I am just saying that you don’t need to make shit up about how bad smoking is. The science is there. Don’t scare me with bullshit. 
So what did help? A few commercials motivated me when I did quit. Granted I didn’t use their methods but the commercials themselves made me feel better about myself by supporting me in a positive way. Those commercials where a person is asked if they want to have a smoke break or is faced with a situation where they would normally smoke but they choose not to. Then the tiny band pops up singing, “I just want to celebrate!” I thought of those commercial almost every time I wanted a smoke and didn’t have one. I pictured that tiny band singing that song to me. There was also the commercial with the little line cartoon and the guy smoking that wanted to quit but keeps smoking. The narrator tells him it’s not easy but there’s help if he wants it and he just need to call some 800 number. It was again a positive commercial. It didn’t try to scare me or shame me. It tried to support me. It offered help not a scare tactic. It offered compassion not shame.
When August 2nd 2013 rolled around I had already been planning on going to Laughlin for my upcoming birthday on the 27th. I love the Colorado Belle, if I could move in there I would. I wanted to save some money. I had just bought an eCig and my thought was that if I can smoke this more often instead of smoking a real cigarette I could save a good 60 or 70 bucks before my trip.
I was at Walmart on the 2nd and I had walked by the nicotine patches then I saw the gum. I thought, just for the heck of it, what if I just try to quit for a day? Maybe I could just actually smoke less. Maybe just have one or two smokes a day with the help of the gum. I bought a pack for 30 bucks. I got home and started chewing. I think I had 3 or 4 pieces that day? With each hour that passed I started to wonder, how long can I go before I just have to break down and smoke? By the end of the day smoking was all I could think of. I had trouble sitting still. The thought of smoking was consuming me.
However, another thought was creeping into my head. What if I could actually quit smoking. My dad quit smoking 10 or 15 years ago. My grandfather on my mother’s side quit smoking in the late 70’s. I remember it well. He lived with us. I was just kid back then. But, I remember him coming home from a brief stay in the hospital. The doctor had told him he didn’t have a choice, he had to quit. He never smoked again. Keeping them in mind also was a great help. If they could do it, so I could I. Then I started to think, I made it through the day, maybe I can make it through another day.
It was rough but I made it through. I stopped taking the gum after the first day. As I understand it, the patch and the gum just add to your suffering because it keeps the nicotine in your system. Without them the nicotine is out of your system in about 48 hours. I could be wrong about that but it’s what I had heard. I thought, let’s get that crap out of my system.
I knew the hard part of quitting would be the habit. It’s truly is a two step process. You have to get the nicotine out of your system. That’s actually the easy part. The difficult part is breaking the habit. For me, I would work at my desk in front of the computer all day and about every hour I would get up for a smoke break. I’d be out at the side door of my garage taking that glorious, relaxing smoke break. I loved those! I would have one if I had to wait for something, anything, if I had to wait for something and it was going to take more than a minute, I was out on a smoke break. I would have one before dinner and of course there’s not much better than the after dinner smoke break. And, having one with my morning coffee.
Smoking is a habit and giving up all those wonderful breaks can be one of the hardest things you will ever do. I decided to try and fool my brain. I went and bought some Red Vines. I would grab 4 or 5 of them when I craved a smoke break. I would go to my usual smoke break spot and bite the ends off the Red Vines and pretend it was a cigarette. I would actually inhale through the thing like it was a smoke. It sounds so silly now but damn it didn’t really help me! I would take a long drag and then a bite. Those 4 or 5 vines would take about as long as smoke break to go through. I can’t express how much this helped me get through it.
I think the most difficult day was day 3 or 4? I was miserable. I was in such a bad mood that day. I just wanted to beat or kill everyone. Everything was pissing me off. I wasn’t expecting that it was the closest I ever came to cheating on my new resolution and having a smoke. I kept telling myself. “Don’t kill yourself, you can have just one smoke. You deserve it!” Somehow, I made it through that day and didn’t smoke at all.
I kept up the Red Vines trick for about a week and a half. By this time, I still wanted to smoke. But, I could finally have brief moments where I wouldn’t think about smoking. It still wasn’t easy. I loved smoking. I knew it was bad for me, I couldn’t even take full deep breaths any more. And all that crap about Erectile Dysfunction was somewhat true. I don’t want to get into the gory details other than to briefly say I had some issues over it. I wasn’t completely broke down there but there were some “getting there” issues. I look back at all the years of some less than stellar moments in the bedroom and at times it makes me wish I could get a “do-over”. But, that’s how powerful the control smoking can have over you.
The Red Vines weren’t my only help. I have to admit that I always hated smoking. When I was teenager I couldn’t stand it. I looked down at smoker in some ways. I always knew it was bad for you. It always stinks and you can always smell people who smoke. Now, I walk past some people and I can smell it so strongly that it almost makes me gag.
This was one of the joys of quitting. Since I worked at home and I don’t date much if at all any more. I don’t go out unless it’s to go see my kids or go shopping. That smoking smell just soaks in. Because of it, I never could just really go out at the drop of a hat. I knew I smelled so if I suddenly realized I needed something from the store for example, I would have to take a shower just so that I wouldn’t stink as bad. It was always a hassle. In fact that was the biggest reason I kept not smoking once I finally quit. I didn’t really care about my health enough to quit. I loved smoking too much. There are few things better than enjoying a good smoke break. It made quitting more difficult for me because I loved it. I still do love the idea of it. But, the reality of tit is what keeps me from smoking.
I love not having to spend the money on it. I love that I don’t stink like smoke any more. I feel better about myself knowing that I don’t have all that crap in my body anymore. It’s been a year and there are times I think about smoking. In fact I still have 3 and a half packs sitting out in the garage that I haven’t touched since August 1st 2013. I keep them there as a reminder. For some reason it helped me knowing that they were there in case I ever really needed them. It took long a time and I am glad to say that after a year, I still look at them. It’s just that now I don’t keep them because I might really need them. I keep them as a reminder that I never did really need them.
![I Lost A Friend On Facebook Today Over Polotics!]()
by admin | Sep 10, 2012 | Rant |
Yes it’s a sad, sad day on Facebook for me. As anyone on Facebook knows it’s election time and some of us have strong opinions as to whom we should all vote for. People posting crap on both sides of the party lines. I try to be tolerant of it seeing as I have made my share of political posts.
Here’s the thing about me though. I don’t really care about politics. I don’t really care who you want to vote for. What fascinates is why you want to vote for them. What I have found in the last election and now this one with Romney is that the people voting for him are the most uninformed shallow damn people ever! Now I am not saying that all of them are. Just the ones I have attempted to debate.
I am finding that they are being lied to and they completely believe the lies. They believe them with a passion I find amazing. No matter what proof you provide for them, it doesn’t matter. No matter what the source their only comeback is “the liberal media”.
The other day I pointed out an error to a republican in his thinking. He didn’t believe me. I showed him printed proof from factcheck.org. He still didn’t believe me. Then today he’s rambling on about another lie. Well it was more of a half truth. It was one of those misleading statements people use when the facts don’t back them up so they take a quote or an action out of context and try to use that as proof. So I tell him that he is wrong and that his facts are misguided. What does he do? He links me to factcheck.org to prove his point.
Really? Now this place is ok because it backs up what you’re saying? Could you be any more hypocritical? And, the sad part was that factcheck.org didn’t really back up what he was saying at all.
As former Republican, the majority of my life I proudly belonged to that party. I tend to see things from the outside looking in. I am now a registered Independent. I am not a Democrat and thus not a liberal. I see the republican party leading by fear and lies. At the last election they were trying to say that Obama was really a Muslim and not a natural born citizen. Both arguments were so incredibly stupid and both based on lies the Republican party spread. I was again sickened by my former party. Now, you don’t see anyone arguing those issues any more accept the extremely shallow and stupid. The party has moved on from that because well, no Muslim would have found and killed Osama. And, as for the birth certificate, well that was just stupid to begin with. I mean his certificate was on his website pretty much the whole time, it was an official copy, there really was no question. And, when the extreme stupid still didn’t give up, he released the long form.
So those issues are now dead. What are they coming up with now? It’s the economy. Finally they are fighting with something worthwhile. It’s almost encouraging. It’s one of the main things any election should be about. The Republicans I thought were starting to get it right again. Nope! In their fight to scare people again they have done nothing but lie about the economy. The sad part is that there is no need to lie about it. The economy is shit! Why lie?! Just tell the truth about it!
Well, I guess it’s because they can’t really tell the truth about it because for as bad as it is, it’s so much better than it was before Obama took office. These are facts that cannot be denied. The only thing that is worse now than it was then is the unemployment rate. That’s it. The housing market is better. The auto industry is doing better, a lot better. The stock market is doing better. But, that damn unemployment rate. Oh but wait, it’s been getting better to and has been for well over a year! Well, shit!
Anyways so when I hear someone support a bigot like Romney I just want to scream, “Are you fucking stupid?” Did you not learn anything from the last 8 years of Bush Jr.? But, I try to calm myself and let it go. And, if I see a picture or an article that speaks the truth about Romney I will throw it my timeline in the hopes that some of the smarter Republicans will read it, fact check it, and see for themselves what an asshole, lying sac of shit this guy is.
So the other day a new friend of mine on Facebook (but someone I knew of in High School) was again posting non-stop Romney bullshit. Now I will admit that I didn’t fact every damn thing he posted. If I did I wouldn’t have time to work. But, the stuff that I did fact check, guess what, all lies! Well on this day he posted a clip to that stupid so called documentary about Obama. Now look I don’t have to see it to know that it’s all bullshit. I will watch it when it comes out on DVD just to prove myself right. But, here’s the thing. It was made a republican who has a long time beef with Obama. How fair is it going to be? About as fair a Michael Moore film. So I responded to his post with a “Do you really believe that crap?”
My new friend Darmon responded with as I recall, “Yes, I read Obama’s book ‘Dreams from My Father’ and I just don’t like what I saw.
Ok, I haven’t read that book. But I am impressed. Looks like Darmon likes to read. This is a sign of intelligence. But, what I don’t get is how can he can vote for a bigot and a liar. So I ask him that. He respond to this aggressively by insinuating that I am a liberal and that I am not going to change his mind.
Well I was little offended by his harsh tone. After all I was just asking questions. I wasn’t trying to be mean. So, I took my time with my next post. It became a lengthy reply. (I will post it here at the end of this rant.) I tried to explain where I was coming from, why I felt the way that I did. This was Thursday or Friday of last week. I hadn’t heard back from him. I had looked forward to his response. I thought I brought up some valid points. Maybe I came across as too harsh? I don’t know.
Today I am posting on another friends page where another pro Romney person is spouting bullshit and I basically tell the friend that he is arguing and it’s a waste of time. You can’t argue with stupid. Nothing you say or do to some people is ever going to change their minds. It was reminding of my conversation with Darmon. So I thought I would post a link to the page of comments. But, I can’t find the link? He killed it. No debate, no screw you. Just a simple delete. I was so disappointed. Part of me is actually sad he deleted me from his friends list. But, there’s another part that thinks, what a coward.
As I said, I don’t care who you vote for. But, if you’re going to vote for someone, at least do it because you’ve taken some time to look at the facts. And, by that I don’t mean just reading your regular news sources. Check out some of the places you don’t normally read as well. Inform yourself, open your mind.
For example, a friend on my list posts a lot of liberal stuff. Some of it is true, some of it is not. In one instance she had posted a link to an article that was bashing Paul Ryan the Republican VP candidate. I don’t recall the actual article but it had something to do with “Paul Ryan says that Rape is a legitimate way to get pregnant.” Something like that. A real crazy statement for sure. So I stop what I am doing to watch the video. I mean if he really did say it then I need to re-post it and people need to hear this. I watch the dumb video and I don’t hear him say that? So I watch the stupid video again. I mean I disagreed with what he was saying but he never says what was claimed that he said. What he did say, in a poorly worded way, was that no matter how you get pregnant. It doesn’t change anything for the baby, it’s still innocent.
Like I said, I don’t care who you vote for really. Just make an informed decision. When someone posts some bullshit liberal photo bashing Romney or some bullshit photo bashing Obama, look it up? Do a Google search. Chances are you find you will find that there’s some truth to it. But, that it’s totally misleading. In my searches I have found almost every single Pro Romney comment to be either completely misleading or factually wrong, a complete lie.
An example of this was a photo posted last night by a very sweet friend who is sadly a Romney supporter. I think she’s a total sweetheart and like with most my friends I try to just ignore their anti-Obama shit, because it’s just so stupid, I don’t have the time educate everyone one of them. I can only hope that some of them will read my posts when I do comment and see that I am not biased, I am always fair in my opinions and if I post a picture or statement bashing Romney you can damn well bet that I have already looked it up and found it to be true. I do not pass along lies, ever!
Anyways, she posts this photo and I fly off the handle. How completely outrageous the photo was. You
cannot look at the photo and not suddenly be disappointed in our First Lady Michelle Obama. The photo I plan to post but in case I forget, shows a picture of the first lady and her smiling as the text reads that she spent 10 million dollars of tax payers money on vacation.
Who wouldn’t be offended at that? Ok, but here’s the thing. Every President takes vacations. Some more than others. I explained this very harshly in a response to that stupid photo. In a nut shell I said that Obama has taken 61 days of vacation at this point in time. (Actually now it’s like 78) but at the time of posting the article I had read was from several months ago.) At the same time in Bush’s Presidency he had taken 180 vacations days. In fact, he was vacationing during the first 5 days of Katrina. If you remember, he was laughing and joking and playing guitar while Katrina flooded three states and killed hundreds. One of the worst natural disasters in US history and Bush did nothing for 5 days.
I have no problems with the president taking vacations. Take a lot of them, I don’t mind paying the bill. But let’s get this straight. We only pay for transportation and security. We’re not buying them dinner and paying for haircuts. Well, unless you’re Bush Jr. I do believe we paid for a hair cut while on vacation but I could be wrong. But, honestly, who gives a shit. It’s the President it’s not like he can just load up the family in the station wagon and head to the local Motel 8. He’s the President of the United States! He has to be protected. It’s not cheap. So if you’re gonna bash Obama’s wife of all things implying that she’s spending all the money. Get your facts straight. Bush Jr. Spent almost 3 times as many days on vacation. Do the math yourself and you’ll find that Obama’s 10 million is fucking bargain!
Now, I’ve ranted a lot here. But, let me get to the most important part of my rant. If you still want to vote for Romney, go ahead! Vote for a bigot I don’t really care. Sure I will be disappointed in you and think you’re an idiot. But, who the hell cares about what I think? I am certainly not perfect and I certainly don’t want lose you as a friend. When it comes to cars I am a complete idiot! Seriously! Just because we have different political views doesn’t mean that I don’t like you. Most of us are more than just a political view. Well Accept for Darmon. I am looking at his page right now and he apparently has no life. Every single post is slamming liberals and almost every single post is either misleading or a complete lie. But, the rest of my friends, you post the best stuff. Some of you post how you’re diet is going. Some of you post random thoughts of life and love. I love spending my mornings reading all your posts.
So here we go, this was my response to Darmon three or four sentences in which he implied I was a liberal and that I was not going to change his mind. Keep in mind, he never responded to this. My guess is, he is full of shit. He can post all the lies and half-truths he wants but throw real facts in his face and he can’t defend himself. He un-friends me without so much as a word. That is a true coward in my opinion and someone not to be trusted or relied upon.
My Response to Darmon:
“I am just saying that actions speak louder than words. I was a republican all the way until Bush Jr’s second term. By then I just couldn’t justify his stupidity any more. I am not a democrat and never will be. I am not a liberal. I am just waiting for the Republican party to stop leading with fear and lies.
I am not a huge Obama fan. But looking at things objectively, between Romney and Obama, Obama is the only logical choice. Mitt has lied constantly during his campaign, about what he believes and about what Obama has done. For example, Mitt was supportive gay marriage. Now he is not. He was either lying then or he’s lying now. So if he was lying back then, he is a liar and a bigot. If he is lying now, he’s just a liar acting like a bigot. His healthcare reform was almost identical to Obama’s. Now he’s totally against it and wants to repeal it.
He won’t release specific details on his plans for budget but from the details he has released the average person’s taxes will go up by at least 2k a year. The average person pays between 25 and 30 percent in taxes, he paid 13 and refuses to release his previous tax returns like just about every other person running for president in history. Even his father who ran in ’68 released his tax returns for 12 years! Stating that releasing just one year could be an anomaly. No one has tried to hide his past more than Romney.
He promises to create jobs and will not say how he plans to do it. Judging by his past, we’re talking about a man whose business ethic is one of the reasons this country fell into a recession at the end Bush’s second term. He bought companies and liquidated them. He’s cost the American people hundreds if not thousands of jobs, not to mention all the jobs he created in China. I haven’t researched the actual numbers yet. By that I mean, real numbers… He fired “x” amount of people by closing plants and businesses. He sent “x” amount of jobs to china / other countries.
Obama on the other hand, was handed the worst economy since the great depression. He was also left with two wars to deal with and has been treated with more disrespect than other president in history. And through it all it all, he managed to end the war in Iraq, he’s saved the American auto industry. Oh ya, that’s another thing, Romney first said he was against the bailout but now says he would have done the same thing and is trying to take credit for it.
Obama also did something the republicans couldn’t do in 7 years, he tracked down and killed Osama. Well, that’s not completely true. The republicans, Bush, tracked him down at least once and instead of capturing or killing him, they decided to let the Afghan military go in and get him, big surprise Osama gets away! Why would Bush allow that to happen? Either he really is the biggest idiot of all time or he knew that in order to win the election again he’d need to keep the fear alive. And capturing and killing Osama in the eyes of many would mean that the wars are over. No more wars, no more money, no more fear, no more Bush.
Any one thing Obama did in his term would have been flat out amazing and worthy or re-election but what he did against overwhelming odds I have never seen another President in my lifetime accomplish as much. And… He did it all by spending less than other president in history! Hard to believe because the republicans have been telling us since his first term that he has outspent every other president. And, guess what, it isn’t true it was just more shit they made up!
I would love to sit here and bash him Obama. I would love to make excuses because of shit I read in book that has no bearing on his presidency. I would love to use the old excuses that it’s all the liberal media! Liberal this and that. But, actions speak louder than words and I have to give credit where credit is due and what Obama has done is literally amazing.
Now you can continue to suggest that I am some liberal when I am not. You can say I am intolerant and that I somehow I berated you? When all I did was ask why you’d rather vote for a liar and bigot. I am sorry my friend but it is obviously you that are intolerant. And, this isn’t about backing down. I am not asking you to back down. I am not asking you to change your mind. It’s just that every pro Romney person I’ve talked has been wildly misinformed about the facts. It just seems to me that the republican party wants to believe what it wants to believe regardless of the facts. And, when the facts don’t work out for them, they just completely make shit up. If you want more examples of all the things the republicans just made up about Obama let me know.
If I offended you because I am brutally honest, I am sorry. I do not believe I berated you or that I was intolerant of you. What I am intolerant of is a man running for president that is an admitted bigot. I can even handle the lying part because we all know that you can’t be a politician and not lie a little. But, come one man! There’s a difference between the lies the parties are telling. I don’t care if Obama says it or Romney says it. I always fact check it. It’s just how I am. I don’t believe anything anyone says until I can verify it and I just haven’t seen Obama lie in blatantly misleading way yet. And, yet every time I fact check Romney, he has either flat out lied or completely mislead the people.”
This is how can you tell if someone is full of shit or not. And, I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative. You cannot trust your source if all you listen to is one news source that is told from one single ideological viewpoint. In fact, I can make my point with an image. At first glance, this image shows a girl with her hand between another girls legs.
