The Partisan Divide on Issues

[Bob Butler 54]

(04-17-2020, 03:27 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Let me get this straight. You posted a personal snip it of the preamble and I'm wrong for questioning it and the way you presented it. As far as I know, you are a retiree living off a private pension and social security and already on medicare. Right now, I'm not working and paying in like twenty million others which means the social security trust fund is being significantly drained right now. So, I hope you are living good and feeling well as we are sacrificing for people like you right now.

The one mistake is past.  The problem is in how it fits a pattern.  If your ideology tells you something that can be fact checked, you ought to do so to maintain credibility.

And a good part of you ideology becomes slandering and lying about those who disagree with your ideology.  You will lie and slander about people.  You don’t need to.  Part of my philosophy is finding the legitimate reasons an extremist believes as he does.  It is easy enough to listen enough to those you disagree with to find a reason why they hold opposite opinions, why they look at things from another perspective.  If your ideology does not look for these valid reasons, for these different perspectives, it can become full of incorrect demonizations.  If you want to look at why we are a divided country right now, look there.

Of course the illegitimate reasons will still be there.  Elites and bigots will still exist.

I am sitting financially pretty.  I had no expensive hobbies when I was younger, didn’t have to put childen through college, and held onto a good job for a long time.  For a person who thinks with their pocketbook, they should judge me as doing well enough.

Thing is, I don’t think entirely with my pocketbook.  My sister quietly cancelled the traditional Easter family get together.  My fantasy role playing friends quietly by mutual consent canceled the local games.  I used to go to restaurants several times a week, but they are now closed.  Even the opposing lawyers that had been given a demand by a judge are using the Coronavirus as an excuse for withholding the long overdue payment.  I am in the age group where the virus is more of a threat.  I paid my dues all through my younger days, but the coronavirus crisis pretty much turned me into a prisoner.  Sure, I could daydream about being in another generation, or about having other priorities.  As is, we have different problems.  We value different things.

And I can’t help a little bit but resent the selfish and hedonistic way some people are ignoring the isolation precautions.  The more you bypass the precautions, the longer they have to stay in place.  These people care more about themselves than, say, the first responders and medical professionals.  They cling to the Unravelling old ideals rather than shifting with the Trigger.

That’s pretty much where I am right now.