Boston Civilian Hero was Beat by 'Patriot' group

Arbo said:

Why would I want to view those that want to destroy the Constitution and the possibility of a good future for my kids, in a positive light?

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Since you probably voted Republican, my guess is that you voted for some of them.

Arbo said:

Why would I want to view those that want to destroy the Constitution and the possibility of a good future for my kids, in a positive light?

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Because no one wants to really destroy the future of any children, that's just rhetoric we throw around.

rocket88 said:

Since you probably voted Republican, my guess is that you voted for some of them.

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Spin fail.

Wiseone said:

Because no one wants to really destroy the future of any children, that's just rhetoric we throw around.

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The economic destruction of the nation is more a reality than 'those nra people want kids to die'..

Wow, way to totally ignore the message in the OP, because no way can diehard partisians even consider the possibility that those on the other side of the aisle are actual, you know, people instead of "the enemy who must be crushed."

I can't believe that some people are so insecure or just plain rabid, that they can't even allow a "liberal" to be praised for good works without trying to turn an uplifting, feel-good thread into a hyper-partisian food fight.

Personally, I can't even fathom what it must feel like to live with such all-consuming hatred based on nothing more than differing ideologies. It really does pervert the meaning of "humanity."

/rant

Wiseone said:

Its not about "making up for something" that's the wrong kind of attitude to have, its about trying to view people you may have many political differences with is a more positive light by remembering the things we all have in common.

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Remember your flowery words here the next time you are trashing all pro gun folks in the gun control forum.

Leopards do not change their spots, and neither will you, but feel free to prove me wrong.

You will continue to reap what you sow.

If you are actually honest about this thread, prove it with your own acceptance and civility going forward.

DiAnna said:

Wow, way to totally ignore the message in the OP, because no way can diehard partisians even consider the possibility that those on the other side of the aisle are actual, you know, people instead of "the enemy who must be crushed."

I can't believe that some people are so insecure or just plain rabid, that they can't even allow a "liberal" to be praised for good works without trying to turn an uplifting, feel-good thread into a hyper-partisian food fight.

Personally, I can't even fathom what it must feel like to live with such all-consuming hatred based on nothing more than differing ideologies. It really does pervert the meaning of "humanity."

/rant

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Man, the above missed the point in a pretty hard core way.

Nobody said enemy or crushed. What was said was viewing them in a positive light, or not. And anyone get's praised for good stuff, but that doesn't erase their bad behavior. I think the rest of what you wrote is merely projection.

SMTA said:

Remember your flowery words here the next time you are trashing all pro gun folks in the gun control forum.

Leopards do not change their spots, and neither will you, but feel free to prove me wrong.

You will continue to reap what you sow.

If you are actually honest about this thread, prove it with your own acceptance and civility going forward.

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I will certainly try but no one is perfect you know.

Somerville said:

Why not call A tea partier a "bigoted fascist idiot" if they happen to be one? You see that capitalised letter "A"? It is intended to mean ONE individual, not all members of a group.

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Read the thread, perhaps you'll understand the point of my post.

Sure, call a tea partier that. Just calling the man in the cowboy hat "unamerican commie scum". However, the purpose of the OP seemed to be suggesting that broadscale insulting of people in a grand degrading way based on political views you disagree with is perhaps a bit of a knee jerk thing to do as in the grand scale of things they may very well be fine people who would do very good things. That, as the OP implies, "despite political differences when things really [start] going bad none of that [matters]".

The point of my post was to state that it the notion some have been saying...to stop lauanching massive personal attacks and degrading labels onto people baesd on their political views because ultimately that's only a fraction of what truly makes a person....is a good one, but one that I was too cynical to belief would ever happen because too many people are stead fast in going "GRRR, My ideology is right, my insult isn't an insult...it's absolutely correct. GRRR".

Thanks for proving me right.

Wiseone said:

I will certainly try but no one is perfect you know.

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People might not question you motives so much if you didn't basically argue with only the people on the Right that are disagreeing with your point in this thread while you didn't make one comment to Somerville basically proudly proclaiming that you absolutely SHOULD roundly insult people for their political views.

Somerville said:

Why not call A tea partier a "bigoted fascist idiot" if they happen to be one? You see that capitalised letter "A"? It is intended to mean ONE individual, not all members of a group.

It is the Conservatives who I see attacking groups because of the actions of ONE person who happens to be a member of said group. It is yet one more example of the binary thinking, the "either/or", the "MY way or the Highway" pattern of thought so often exhibited by our modern American right.

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Zyphlin said:

People might not question you motives so much if you didn't basically argue with only the people on the Right that are disagreeing with your point in this thread while you didn't make one comment to Somerville basically proudly proclaiming that you absolutely SHOULD roundly insult people for their political views.

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I honestly did not see this but you are right I should have noticed it, I tend to post my just using the notifications on who's quoting and liking me and go from there so sometimes I don't notice what's happening in the wider topic, even when its my own topic. Yes somerville's words would be contradicting what I'm trying to say.

Wiseone said:

Because no one wants to really destroy the future of any children, that's just rhetoric we throw around.

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Great message but the one's that needed to hear it the most don't get it.

Wiseone said:

I will certainly try but no one is perfect you know.

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Already leaving yourself a way out, I see.

Hypocrisy duly noted.

Wiseone said:

I ran across this story and I thought it was interesting from the perspective of the kind of hatred and anger we often direct at ourselves, meaning our fellow Americans. The story is about this man, Carlos Arredondo, wearing the cowboy hat.

In 2004 his son was killed in Iraq by a sniper and Carlos attempted to commit suicide by burning himself alive with a can of gasoline. Later on he became passionately anti-war, he's what many of you would describe as a liberal who thinks we should have never invaded Iraq and it was done as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. He attended protests were in 2007 he was assaulted by members of a counter protest going on at the same time. Later in 2011 his other son committed suicide

The Redemption Of The Man In The Cowboy Hat | Cognoscenti

Daily Kos: Boston Hero Carlos Arredondo Beaten by 'Gathering of Eagles' Thugs in 2007

The People Who Assaulted a Gold Star Father on September 15th | War Is A Crime .org

This topic isn't attempting to paint all liberals as selfless heroes or all conservatives as violent offenders, I'm making it in the hopes that some of the folks here who often try to dehumanize people they disagree with as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" you get the idea will remember what was demonstrated here. That despite political differences when things really started going bad none of that mattered and this man acted in a way we would all consider heroic and a fine example of American pride. Let's not let the things that are different about us, despite how passionately we feel about them in the present, ever let us dehumanize our fellow Americans who despite any political differences we'll always have far more in common with and share more beliefs with than anything that may be different between us.

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Do you also feel that way about people who attend and support Tea Party rallies?

SMTA said:

Already leaving yourself a way out, I see.

Hypocrisy duly noted.

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Well I'm not going to say I'm never going to let my emotion get the better of me, especially when there's a few people here who can really get under my skin. I mean is there anything wrong with my message besides the fact that you don't think I should be giving it?

joko104 said:

Do you also feel that way about people who attend and support Tea Party rallies?

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Yes

joko104 said:

Do you also feel that way about people who attend and support Tea Party rallies?

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I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I have an opinion on it so I'm gonna go ahead and jump in.

To answer your question, yes, I do feel that way about people who attend Tea Party rallies. And about people who consider themselves anarchists, and about socialists, and about Navy vets (I'm Army), and about WVU grads (I'm Rutgers), and about... well, you get the idea.

I have friends, real life friends, who come from all kinds of different backgrounds, subscribe to different ideologies, attend all kinds of different churches, vote differently than I do, support "the war" or don't support "the war", share hobbies with me and even some who think my hobbies are downright ridiculous.

I'm exposed to people in my daily life (coworkers, acquaintances, people I just happen to run into on the street or in the grocery store or at my kid's Little League games, etc...) who broaden that circle I travel in expotentially.

I can't think of any time that I've verbally attacked any of them in the manner that we commonly see on the Internet (I've heard it called "flaming").

Beyond that, I've never just seen it spontaneously and randomly happen between two other people, so I know that y'all aren't doing it either.

I've never seen a conservative Marine Corp. veteran Tea Partier thoroughly tongue-lash a teenager in a "Che" Guevara tee-shirt, and likewise I've never seen a liberal hemp-wearing hippy 99%er start calling someone names because he drove up in a car that had a "Bush/Cheney 2004" sticker on the bumper.

That said, MANY folks online would have no compunction whatsoever about running their mouth like they're afflicted with Tourette Syndrome if they saw that someone else had a "Che" Guevara or "Bush/Cheney 2004" avatar or sig pic.

The reason people act like douchebags on the Internet is because there are no (what I've heard described as) "geographically induced consequences".

You're anonymous on the Internet, you're likely 1000 miles away from the person you're insulting, and your childish behavior is never going to come back to you (either from the target of your insulting comment punching you in the face, or your wife slapping you upside the head, or from your boss firing you, or from the neighbors thinking you're an a$$hole, or whatever).

People, essentially, are animals, and they behave with whatever degree of civility only because they've been acculturated to do so. Take away society, or change the rules of society (such that being a douchebag is accepted), and that veneer of civility falls away pretty quickly.

Unless, of course, you make a concerted effort to not behave like savage just because you can.

You (YOU) would never consider going off on someone and calling them a pinko-liberal-pu$$y or a jackbooted-racist-facist in the office because they had an opinion different than your own.

Pretty simple to not do it on the Internet if you put your mind to it, but many people don't have the self control to hold themselves to a higher standard.

(And look, I know that we ALL slip up sometimes. But there's a difference between slipping up sometimes and being "that guy" who everyone KNOWS is gonna jump in with some smarta$$, punk comment every time he sticks hiss head in a thread. I'm talking about the latter here.)