I love to hear people who have never really thought any one particular thing through spout off with their assumptions on anything they don't like. From Obamacare to decorative thimbles, I think I have heard that everything is the harbinger of disaster. All of this based on bad information and preconceived notions from the worst working brains on the planet.
This is the thing, so what if Aunt Trudy wants to buy one more commemorative Expo 74 button on e-Bay? If she has the money and it's her thing, what's the harm? Yet I've heard family arguments that turned into scorched earth over something as small as this. What is it going to hurt the old Tabby to get another button? Who cares? The bigger question is, why does the person griping about it care?
When I argue that one point I become the unholy mixture of the Wicked Witch of the West and Jezebel. Because I force the complainer to take a look at what they are complaining about and why. Oh, yes, it is the why, the eternal why that gets people where they live. Don't get me wrong, if that person turned around and said, "Aunt Trudy buys the buttons and then shoves them up her nose and we have to take her to the ER to get them removed." I can understand the rancor, there. However, if that person is objecting "just because" then we're going to rap and get in touch with our feelings.
Now, I say all of that to make this point. Conservatives don't disagree with Obama just because we don't like him. Personally, I don't know him at all. What I do know I don't like. Nothing he has done makes me think we would ever get along or agree on any particular point. Do I say this just to be contrary? No, because ideologically we are polar opposites. He does nothing based on logic or reason, but it's all feelings and how things should be, to him. Take Obamacare. Do I hate it with every proton of my being because Obama is a Leftie? No, I hate it because it's disastrous policy based on feelings and a mad attempt at government overreach that will bankrupt our country for generations to come. Ask anyone who handles National Health for Great Britain.
Do I just hate his crony capitalism out of hand? Because he's black? Because I don't like the cut of his suit? No, I hate crony capitalism because it breeds greed and builds nothing at all. It's destructive and ruinous. It's evil. Why is it OK to subsidize folks who refuse to change their business model? Why should WE be penalized because this guy has pull in DC and that guy with the better idea doesn't? Do I hate Obama's energy policy because he forged his birth certificate? No, I hate his energy policy because it's another attempt to drag us into the stone age by people who need us to be there so they can be in power.
I love that old adage about never assuming anything. In some cases you can try to predict something based on past actions or intimate knowledge of people. Doesn't mean you'll always win that lottery. But if you know they can't ever come back with a logical argument to your assumptions, then it can be a little fun to just toy with them a bit.
In the BBC series Coupling, in the first series there is this wonderful episode called Inferno. In it, Jack comes home to find his girlfriend, Susan cleaning his flat. She tells him that she found a tape to record something she wanted to see. He then realizes that he had already had a tape in his machine and that it was a porno. He prays she didn't notice the title, but she has. As they are having a dinner party at his place with their friends she challenges him to explain the film to their little group, to, in fact, defend the film. It's hilarious to watch him as he tries. When he finally has enough he asks Susan why she's doing this and she tells him that he assumed she didn't watch the film. That shuts him down. He realizes that he's defending the wrong thing. So he makes a brilliant and erudite defense of why he was watching the porno.
Jack began on the assumption that she didn't know what the film was really about and tried to defend that, rather than what Susan was really angry about, the fact he was watching a porno at all. When he finally did that, he came out just fine and made a great point.
Amen brother
This is the thing, so what if Aunt Trudy wants to buy one more commemorative Expo 74 button on e-Bay? If she has the money and it's her thing, what's the harm? Yet I've heard family arguments that turned into scorched earth over something as small as this. What is it going to hurt the old Tabby to get another button? Who cares? The bigger question is, why does the person griping about it care?
When I argue that one point I become the unholy mixture of the Wicked Witch of the West and Jezebel. Because I force the complainer to take a look at what they are complaining about and why. Oh, yes, it is the why, the eternal why that gets people where they live. Don't get me wrong, if that person turned around and said, "Aunt Trudy buys the buttons and then shoves them up her nose and we have to take her to the ER to get them removed." I can understand the rancor, there. However, if that person is objecting "just because" then we're going to rap and get in touch with our feelings.
Now, I say all of that to make this point. Conservatives don't disagree with Obama just because we don't like him. Personally, I don't know him at all. What I do know I don't like. Nothing he has done makes me think we would ever get along or agree on any particular point. Do I say this just to be contrary? No, because ideologically we are polar opposites. He does nothing based on logic or reason, but it's all feelings and how things should be, to him. Take Obamacare. Do I hate it with every proton of my being because Obama is a Leftie? No, I hate it because it's disastrous policy based on feelings and a mad attempt at government overreach that will bankrupt our country for generations to come. Ask anyone who handles National Health for Great Britain.
Do I just hate his crony capitalism out of hand? Because he's black? Because I don't like the cut of his suit? No, I hate crony capitalism because it breeds greed and builds nothing at all. It's destructive and ruinous. It's evil. Why is it OK to subsidize folks who refuse to change their business model? Why should WE be penalized because this guy has pull in DC and that guy with the better idea doesn't? Do I hate Obama's energy policy because he forged his birth certificate? No, I hate his energy policy because it's another attempt to drag us into the stone age by people who need us to be there so they can be in power.
I love that old adage about never assuming anything. In some cases you can try to predict something based on past actions or intimate knowledge of people. Doesn't mean you'll always win that lottery. But if you know they can't ever come back with a logical argument to your assumptions, then it can be a little fun to just toy with them a bit.
In the BBC series Coupling, in the first series there is this wonderful episode called Inferno. In it, Jack comes home to find his girlfriend, Susan cleaning his flat. She tells him that she found a tape to record something she wanted to see. He then realizes that he had already had a tape in his machine and that it was a porno. He prays she didn't notice the title, but she has. As they are having a dinner party at his place with their friends she challenges him to explain the film to their little group, to, in fact, defend the film. It's hilarious to watch him as he tries. When he finally has enough he asks Susan why she's doing this and she tells him that he assumed she didn't watch the film. That shuts him down. He realizes that he's defending the wrong thing. So he makes a brilliant and erudite defense of why he was watching the porno.
Jack began on the assumption that she didn't know what the film was really about and tried to defend that, rather than what Susan was really angry about, the fact he was watching a porno at all. When he finally did that, he came out just fine and made a great point.
Because it's got naked women in it! Look, I like naked women! I'm a bloke, I'm supposed to like them, we're born like that! We like naked women as soon as we're pulled out of one. Half way down the birth canal we're already enjoying the view! Look! It is the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like: naked women, stockings, lesbians and Sean Connery best as James Bond. Because that is what being a boy is and if you don't like it, darling, join the film collective! I want to spend the rest of my life with the woman at the end of that table there, but that does not stop me wanting to see several thousand more naked bottoms before I die. Because that's what being a bloke is! When man invented fire, he didn't say: "Hey! Let's cook!" He said: "Great! Now we can see naked bottoms in the dark!" As soon as Caxton invented the printing press, we were using it to make pictures of… hey!...naked bottoms! We've turned the internet into an enormous international database of naked bottoms! So, you see, the story of male achievement through the ages - feeble though it may have been - has been the story of our struggle to get a better look at your bottoms. Frankly, girls, I'm not sure I have insulted you, really ought to be!
Amen brother
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