A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged by idiocy!

[elfs]

Do I annoy you?

I ask this because you're here by choice. You stick me on your friends list presumably because you believe I have something interesting to say, or share, or something like that. Whatever it is that you like about me you keep me around on your flist. Maybe you grew tired of me months ago and I live on in your flist due merely to inertia.

This afternoon I took Kouryou-chan to her dance class. I was trapped there in the front room while rehearsal went on in Studio #4. While I was there I was subjected to a woman reading the newspaper, loudly, and proclaiming loudly in that way that, I'm sure, annoys red state conservatives. I don't even know what she read but suddenly she was talking loundly to whomever she was trapped with about how our cheap food and cheap clothes and cheap whatever was due to our underpaying all the illegal immigrants here and we weren't doing enough for those peolpe and if they were going to be here they should get paid the same rate as Americans and on and on. Another article about Burma lit her off into a rant about how the tsunami two years ago was somehow America's fault; if not the storm itself, then all the deaths were our fault because we hadn't done all that we could to instrument up the ocean over there the way we've instrumented up the West Coast to protect our own people. A third article about Iowa apparently flooded well-worn grooves in her brain about how governments had failed in their responsibilities to those poor people and how things could have been prevented if the government had done something.

When she got to the article on the earthquake in Japan, all was well because the state machinery was on the ball, which was good because "you can't do nothing when Mother Nature wakes up."

And on and on and on. Oh, did I mention she was loud?

Gods, she's a teacher. "I tell my students, privacy policies are a lie. They don't keep your stuff private. If you put your name on a petition, and the government doesn't like it, they'll know who you are. They might come investigate you." Half-truths don't serve us at all.

I think I drive people crazy because I seem to vacillate between being a conservative and standing behind liberally proposed programs that-- surprise-- benefit me and lay the groundwork for the well-being of my children. But this woman drives me crazy with her assumptions that all the ills in the world are due to failures of U.S. governance.

Lady, get a blog already!

Comments

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

First thought - I don't suppose you tried to ask her to be not so loud? Or that you weren't interested? Or somehow shut her down?

That's what I would have done, but that's me. I'm a New Yorker, I'm an expert at it. Then again, if she was really crazy, I'm also good at Not Getting Involved(tm).

But no, you don't annoy me. I can skip what I don't want to read. It's cool.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I read your blog because I enjoy your stories and want to get more insight about the man behind them. Your politics aren't the same as mine, but I didn't friend with that expectation. Just so long as you don't enter OSC levels of Teh Crazy, I'll stick with you.

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

LSB is a conservative. I had a bit of cognitive dissonance around that for some time, as a good lifelong liberal feminist.

Until I figured out that *I* was actually pretty much a conservative too -- in the real, original sense of it before there was a silent implied "social" in front of the term.

That's how you generally strike me too. (Of course I keep you friended to keep up with what's up in your family mostly, but I get neat news tidbits from your daily round ups too.)

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I have you on my friends list because you are normally interesting.

If you say something I don't agree with, I either say so or just scroll to the next friend. If you say something that I consider boring I ignore you. If I ignore you long enough I drop you from the list. Not a big deal for either of us, really.


Oh, about the petitions... (http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/philly-cops-raids-ac.html)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

But... then I wouldn't have had any material! *Gryn*.

[cyber-pagan.livejournal.com]

"I seem to vacillate between being a conservative and standing behind liberally proposed programs that-- surprise-- benefit me and lay the groundwork for the well-being of my children."

As do I. In general that's why I'm a libertarian.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I don't think the traditional terms, such as conservatibve and liberal, map all that well onto modern political parties.

Mind you, from where I'm looking, a US liberal still seems uncomfortably right-wing. And your country's bits of political magical thinking look as crazy as some of my country's must to you.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[athelstan.livejournal.com]

No you don't annoy me. I enjoy thoughtful commentary from all sides and often you change my thoughts about topics or prompt me to go do some thinking of my own. You are interesting, and know how to communicate via printed words. That's enough for me.

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

Well, get your material, then shut her down?

;)

[mokie-sassafras.livejournal.com]

You're interesting. I enjoy perusing your daily brain, and reading about your kids.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

Someday when we're in the same room I'd be happy to share some of the absolutely astonishing things I heard drip from the baked brains of certain lefties during five years at UC Santa Cruz. I don't think I can do 'em justice in text format. Enough to turn one into a neocon out of sheer revulsion.

- Eddie

[shunra.livejournal.com]

You sometimes annoy me, but ever so entertainingly. I'll keep reading...

And idiocy is not limited to any one side of the political spectrum. Close-minded self-satisfaction is evident in all political camps. People often expect better of those who are in agreement with them - despite all evidence of the silliness of that position.

[fallenpegasus]

Welcome to the cause of my high blood pressure.

My main source of comfort when processing my exposure to Seattle's default liberal mindset is telling myself I would be just as enraged by the opposite stupidity if I lived in a red state area.

But I still think the lib piss me off more, mainly because, in general, they like to sneer they are smarter than cons, while the cons in general do not sneer that they are smarter than libs.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

> ... because you're here by choice.

That's the crucial difference between spam in my inbox and whatever stuff crops up on my LJ friends list -- in the latter case it's me who has charge of the "unsubscribe" button.

I was initally here because I'd read your stories -- the first one I read was "Goodby Donna", on its first outing on Usenet back in the mid-eighties.

I remain here because of the posts about parenting, about geekery, about your use of transport, about loads of things ... but it's worth mentioning that you talk on both sides of US politics, which keeps things interesting -- whereas many people who talk on one side only swiftly become boring.

[jatg.livejournal.com]

Man...are you sure you're not in San Fran? I have things like that happen to me at least once a week.

Doesn't help that my girlfriend listens near exclusively to Air America. (headdesk)