The enemy

I just left a bar, after having a rather heated argument.

Someone with whom I was speaking was sitting next to someone who repeatedly made references to people of color being inferior, people who have committed crimes deserving to die and people who aren't, in his warped opinion, deserving of the same opportunities as he and his friends and families, being freeloaders. 

I was biting my tongue, for the sake of not offending people.  He waxed poetic about the new G.I. Joe movie (complete escapist, jingoistic crap).  He said that his daughter was as good as any of Steven Spielberg's editors, but couldn't get any help in paying her tuition, because he makes too much money and he's white. I was still biting my tongue. 

He then told a story about how he had swayed a jury in his home county to find a man guilty of first degree murder.  He said that the man charged was gay,  that he had killed his lover, stabbing him over 30 times, most of the stab wounds being, "below the belt"* .  He said that the "money quote" he used in convincing the other jury members to vote for conviction was (and he delivered this in a mincing, "queer", tone of voice) the answer that the defendant gave to the prosecutor when he was asked why he had killed his lover.  That answer was, "He sucked his dick!".  He said this, twice, possibly three times.  He then lamented that NJ has no death penalty and that all murderers should die at the hands of the state and all who rape children (on adults, he wasn't so draconian).  Once again, I held my water.

Then he said something about an Islamist president being "taken out" in the G.I. Joe 2 movie.  I did not hear him clearly and I said, "The president is not an Islamist".  His reply was that he wasn't talking about the current president.  I then asked him what he WAS talking about and he repeated that it was in the movie's plot ( I have not been able to find out whether or not that is true--I suspect it's bullshit).  Then, he said that President Obama is a socialist and a traitor. 

Sorry, folks, it doesn't take a lot to piss me off on the blogs, but I usually hold my water in meatlife.  Not tonight.  I told him that was bullshit.  He repeated it.  I told him he was a Teabagger.  It did not go uphill from there.  The poor gal whose father owns the place was in a tough spot and really wanted nothing more than for me to leave, which I did after a couple of more comments apiece between me and the other guy. 

The guy who I had words with has been here for several weeks and it's not the first time I've listened to him bloviate about "right to life" and the inferiority of other than white folks.  He's a big deal consultant of some sort who is from here, originally, but lives in NJ at the moment.  He's a fucking prick and a racist.  He is also, I'm sure, a staunch supporter of Li'l Ricky Santorum as he is anti-abortion.

After I called him a Teabagger, he said that he's a "Classical Liberal" and that I should read about the life of Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson's writings on the subject of liberalism.  Typical Teabaggist bullshit, typical reptiliscum bullshit.  Claiming Jefferson for their own, as if he wouldn't denounce them if he were here, today.

Then, as I was leaving, he turned around and stuck out his hand and said, "Well, one of these evenings, we'll meet as friends.", the smug asshole.  I told him that such a thing was not going to happen.

I can disagree with people, and be disagreeable about it, and still be civil at the end of the day.  When someone like the clown I was dealing with tonight pulls the kind of shit that he did; well, rapprochement is not a probability.

Here's the thing.  We are facing a shitstorm of problems, as a nation and as a planetary community.  There are, certainly, legitimate arguments to be made from all sides of the political divide re: solving those problems. What cannot work is to have people that are completely divorced from reality be accorded the same courtesies and have their "arguments" given the same weight, as those who actually HAVE facts to work with and some ideas about rational policy for dealing with those problems. 

Blaming the poor, the "inferior" races, the Palestinians, women, gays, unions, liberals, islamists, Iranians and the whole panoply of the GOP's bogeymen is ALL that the rightwing has.  They have no real diagnosis of our society's ills, never mind any genuine prescription for curing those ills.  It is, in fact, they who are the traitors. It is they who are attempting to destroy a nation that is not of their liking.  Narrow minded bigots, exceptionalist douchebags and religionist scolds--none of them.has the interests of anyone beyond themselves or their small circle of associates in mind.  They do not care what happens to anyone but themselves.  They are the enemy.

If I could have a conversation  with someone like the idiot who was spouting all of this nonsense I would ask him how it is that he can't support his family.  I would ask him why anyone should give him or his children a fucking thing.  Charity is, after all, for those who CAN'T meet their own needs; it's certainly not for people that are free-market types who want everyone to work for everything that they receive.

I would also ask him if his legal opinons about rapists of children being executed would, perforce, include all of the RCC's paedophiles and all of the GOP legislators who have had sex with anyone who is not legally of an age to give consent.

I might inquire as to how it is that nonwhites are inferior to whites.  I would, of course, want to know what he bases his opinion on.  Would it be the work of the eugenicists, the opinions of such intellectual giants as Adolf Hitler and Josef Mengele?

I would probably quiz him about the basis of his antipathy towards women who elect not to have babies.  He has stated on previous occassions that he isn't a Catholic but that he supports their stance on "right to life" issues.   He has also stated that abortion is an anti-black pogrom by liberals. 

Alas, none of this will be happening.  I doubt that I will be speaking to him in future.  I will have to go and apologize to the young lady who was managing the bar this evening.  I am a bit dismayed at the prospect of not going there anymore, as they have always been courteous and polite to me.  However, I will certainly understand if they would prefer I not return.  The town I live in has two nuke plants (three reactors, total) and one of the largest aluminum smelters in the U.S., if not the world.  As is often the case--unfortunately, many of those who enjoy the fruits of the union movement are extremely conservative and hate liberal ideas, voting against their own interests on a regular basis.  The bar (a bar and grill, actually) where I was tonight does a very good business with locals and contractors from the nuke and aluminum plants.  I would not jeapordize their business by creating difficulties for them.  We'll see how that goes.

Meantime, I have pretty much had it with being polite to assholes who spout lies and get their feelings hurt when they're called on them.  On the blogs it's not really a problem, most of the time.  In meatlife it can get pretty sticky, particularly when you are in a small city like the one I live in. 

Selfish, mean spirited, shortsighted, braindead assholes do not deserve courtesy, respect or a hearing.  Full stop.



*    Not an uncommon feature of stabbing crimes where a sexual relationship is part of the mix.