Okay, so I've debated with myself about blogging this for a week, because it is of a political nature, and I just don't want to open that can of worms here. This situation just really wigged me out.
This is only a part of the conversation:
Person A: I guess they're voting on health care this weekend.
Person B: Yeah, here comes Obamacare. And the complete and total end of America as we know it.
Person A: Yeah, I guess we're all going to be Communists now. Our Chinese communist overlords will be arriving any moment!
Person B: Ha ha-yeah, and, like, Obama's going to welcome them with open arms! Goodbye, freedom!
Person A: Yeah, and I bet this will all somehow undermine all of our marriages at the same time. What I don't get is how Social Security and Medicaid are okay, but anything else makes us comunists-
Person B: But they are not okay. I mean, do you realize that when Social Security was enacted, the age of retirement was five years older than the average life expectancy? It's not supposed to be a retirement plan. Work till you die, people!
Person A: Yeah....
**simultaneous narrowing of eyes**
Person B's inside voice: Holy shit, you think I'm kidding.
Person A's inside voice: Holy shit, you aren't kidding.
I'm mostly sure that we shared this moment of realization, at the end. We changed the subject immediately, and I hope we will never speak of it again, because I am a total chickenshit in the face of this kind of situation. People are so entirely polarized that they speak in rhetoric and absolutes, resulting in anger and name-calling instead of rational debate. I don't even know how to talk about this without venom, so out of respect for other people's right to have opinions, I generally don't talk about it at all, unless Carl and I are spouting off in a self-soothing round of pontification inside our own home.
I'm sure you can figure out which person I am. (Hint:I'm the hedonistic homo-loving commie liberal nutjob who is undermining the fabric of our country because I think that we can probably have socialized health coverage and continue to exist as a capitalist, democratic society, like many other countries around the world.) I won't tell you who the other person is. Suffice it to say, I normally respect this person's point of view all things that are not this, and I still do. This person is a well-informed individual. She believes in evolution and that NCLB was a bad idea for education. I can only assume that she has been brainwashed.
By aliens. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (yes there is)
If this person reads this, I apologize for using a private conversation to illustrate my position. I know that you also now believe that I have been brainwashed by aliens. I hope that we can exist happily in this mutual-disregard-of-political-leanings society, and remain friends. I really do.
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
1 year ago
People get scary wound-up about the HCR Bill, like it walked into their living room and raped their grandma wound-up. I can respect people with different political opinions than mine when they are well reasoned and insightful and based on facts.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, you just incited an early morning debate over HCR. Robb was reading over my shoulder. Except that we agree with each other. So it went like this -
Person A: Exactly!
Person B: Quite right!
Person A: I could not agree more!
Person B: Is that a new cologne you're wearing?
Mumsy says the last time she saw the country this horribly polarized was the 1960's, and she didn't think we would survive it then, either.
ReplyDeletePeople who think that the richest country in the world should leave its sick and injured behind to die like a herd of wild animals scare me a lot. I mean really, really scare me.
Here is a Conan the Barbarian misquote for you:
"Modern, soft-bleeding-hearted conservatives. The idea isn't to break windows—the idea is to defenestrate your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their gay partners…"
bb: I can't imagine how this is playing out in the households where people are on differnt sides of the fence with this one. Much less cologne-sniffing, I imagine.
ReplyDeleteB: I say it's time for the gay partners to take up arms against the defenestrators and wreak vengeance...Achiles storms congress and demands the right to his lover's remains, and also government-subsidised surgery for his tendonitis?