Well, emotionally anyway. Yesterday one of my Facebook friends (a "friend" only on Facebook, but that's OK -- he seems a decent enough guy) posted a link to an article about the recovery of the Bush White House emails. I made a comment about having little faith that the Obama White House will prosecute, and was berated by another commenter for having "low expectations." He ended by saying, "Who did you vote for? John or Ron?" and he said I was no different than the teabaggers. I responded that I did indeed vote for Obama, and that, while I was aware I was not voting for a progressive, I have been disappointed in things like the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. The same commenter belittled that, saying that Obama is NOT escalating the war in Afghanistan. When I replied that I thought sending in 30,000 additional troops did amount to escalation, and as a Quaker I am opposed to all war, he called my opinions "uninformed". He also said that if I am going to comment in a public forum, I am open to insults and criticism. At that point, another commenter jumped in saying that if I am a Quaker I shouldn't have voted for Obama because he said he would escalate the war in Afghanistan. I responded (should have stopped there, but oh well) that a) many Quakers voted for Obama for many reasons, and b) just because he said he was going to do it doesn't mean I have to like that it is happening. Anyway, 2nd commenter got the final word when he wrote, "Oh just take your bat and ball and go home! If you're going to comment then grow a thicker skin!"
O-kaaaay. I'm just going to say that I felt like I was in an old boys' club and these two guys were hell-bent on proving that they were right and I was wrong. They were going to belittle me until I ran home to my mommy. The crux of it seemed to be that I said I was disappointed in Obama so far. During the Bush years, some wags in the blogosphere coined the term "sheeple" for the people who mindlessly followed Bush just because he was the president. Is it any different to mindlessly follow Obama? I find it alarming that so many people seem to think so.
Commenter One told me that my ideals were unrealistic. He said I was a "fringe element." If people like me (and I think I'm in very good company with folks like Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Dennis Kucinich and so many more) are painted as extreme in our ideals, then the center is pushed farther to the right and the so-called "centrists" look an awful lot like Republicans. Like Bill Clinton. Or Barack Obama.
For the record, I have to agree with Ralph Nader, who said that it wasn't Obama's intelligence he questioned; there is no doubt that he is a smart man. It is his integrity. He is not a progressive president. I knew that when I voted for him, but it still saddens and disappoints me. I wish I could really and truly vote for a peace president. I wish I could have voted for Dennis Kucinich. I wish there were viable parties outside of the big 2. (Or as Gore Vidal said, there is one political party in the U.S. with 2 right wings.)
I'll bounce back. I spent the night thinking of many people who have taken a stand and been berated and worse for it. It's part of standing up for what you believe in. However, I wish that people in the relatively anonymous world of the internets didn't feel like they had to be insulting in order to get their point across.
15 comments:
Lately, I am very reticent on politics because I am rather thin-skinned. I know I shouldn't be that way because words can't hurt me really, but I can get so damned irritated at it all. So I just quit. I know that's wrong, but right now, I do not have the stomach for it.
The truth is, I vote, knowing full well that we have a sad two party system. I vote for Democrats because they are like the bad boyfriend. You know they're likely going to cheat on you, take money from where they shouldn't, make you feel like an idiot for your ideals and generally commit all kinds of jackassery and hope that you don't call them out on it. But every once in a while, they do the right thing and you're glad you have them in your life.
But I can't vote for Republicans because they are like a vicious wife beater. You know you're going to get the shit kicked out of you, robbed, raped and eventually sold out to some third world as human industrial fodder. You're to take your "medicine" because they are richer, smarter and therefore morally superior to you. You're lucky to get to live in their world. And they don't owe you a thing.
Yeah, that's pretty much why I vote for Dems. Not perfect, but not deadly. Mostly.
Sorry you felt beat up.
Lisa, I love you and your analogies! When I was called "uninformed" I thought about how I often can't read articles on Common Dreams or Alternet, because they depress me so. But then again, I have to think about my friend's father -- recently passed away -- who was a peace activist and Communist during the McCarthy years …
I'm with you sister. And if I had seen those two guys be so disrespectful of you and your opinions then I would have taken them to the woodshed. Nobody messes with my Quaker vixen buddy. Nobody.
I don't always agree with Richard Bernstein, but he did put this awfully well:
"But what the Internet and its cult of anonymity do is to provide a blanket sort of immunity for anybody who wants to say anything about anybody else, and it would be difficult in this sense to think of a more morally deformed exploitation of the concept of free speech."
FWIW, I guess I'm a fringe element too. With fuzzy bobbles.
Name-calling and personal attacks are all too common on the internets. Don't let the trolls get to you. Remember, those people have a right to their opinions, but they don't have a right to their own facts, and insulting someone because you disagree with him or her (or because they speak an uncomfortable truth) is never acceptable. Be comforted by the fact that what you had to say was unsettling to those guys because it was true. Maybe it will get some people to think a little bit, and even if it doesn't, at least you spoke out when so few others are.
And what Ed said.
Suzy - It is doubly hard to care and feel and emote - taking in what can be very difficult and then to be trashed by others who put so many words at one/you - and try to make you into whatever they wish.
We both can remember the "bad" Bush Years - and it is tough now to see so many things that aren't necessarily always: "as bad" - but still are difficult to accept.
It would be much easier if it was a single issue, but there are so many areas now.
Hopefully - some of these things will get (relatively) better - yes.
We also need to support and care for each other and care for the good people and good things around us.
Good Luck and thanks for being there!
I, too, am fed up with the Dems in general and deeply disappointed in the Obama administration so far. My most recent interaction that reminds me of yours, was when a Democratic Party fund raiser called me. Boy, what an earful that guy got! His crowning retort to my long list of disappointments was in reference to the not yet passed health reform bill, in which he rhetorically asked, "Well, you have to admit it's better than nothing, right?"
Yeah. That was his argument. I should be satisfied with "better than nothing," when in fact, what we have is nothing.
There are a LOT of us out there, so never think you're alone in raising your concerns and objections. Accusing someone who disagrees with you as being thin-skinned or lacking a sense of humor is just another method of playground bullying.
I only disagree with you on one point, the Nader quote. I believe Obama has both intelligence and integrity. I just happen to disagree with him on particular issues. Nader, by the way, is one of the last people qualified to comment about anyone's integrity. I worked with the man in the 80's and 90's and believe me, he is not as "above it all" as he likes to portray himself.
Threading Water -- One of these days we should try to meet, we live so close and we have a shared interest in handwork AND progressive politics. (But I'll be embarrassed because I never finished my quilt square for your project.) Anyway, I appreciate your comment about Nader. I have no patience for people who hate him because of the 2000 election. I am open to the possibility that he has his own warts. It remains to be seen what kind of integrity Obama can sustain. Tom Tomorrow has been doing a series of cartoons about the "idea of Obama" VS. the real Obama, which are very interesting.
Some people just dont like knowing they may be wrong... Or that us women have opinions.. They use every excuse.. I am not political and I try and keep my mouth shut...
Tweetey, I should learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes.
suzy i am so with you - your post could have been written by me -- my disappointment with obama runs so deep - and gets worse each day - but i actually expected him to do some right things - like partake in the debate on health care and actually influence the outcome - instead he has stayed on the sidelines
Don't stop speaking/writing your truth! I agree with Ed that the anonymity of the internet leads some people to respond to posts in very obnoxious ways. If you let them inhibit what you say, then you have given them power over you.
They wouldn't get so angry if they weren't worried that what you are saying is true. There may be many other readers of your post who were positively influenced by what you wrote. I am disappointed by Obama's centrism. He could be so much more.
Keep your beliefs and never be intimidated by haters who just want to drag you down. It is harder to have prinicples than to change at the whim of a changing tide. I too am disappointed with Obama and I am not even American. We all had the right to hope for someone to lead the world into a new future.
Thanks, Cal. And thanks for stopping over at my bliggety blog.
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