Fighting The Fourth Reich

[Bob Butler 54]

(08-26-2017, 12:56 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: And you're wrong. The NRA leadership (I don't refer to all the members) is not a culture, it's a commercial lobby lead by creepy insane people who put no value on life or anything else valuable. They should be thrown into asylums, but maybe it's lucky I'm not in charge of that    It's quite amazing to call these creeps a "culture." I don't dignify criminals by calling them a "culture" either, but I suppose you could. To realize that fact about the NRA leadership is not a narrow way of thinking; it is just the truth.

And I stand by my description of kinser (but won't repeat it). He and I are not comparable at all. To compare him to me, or me to him (or in fact ANY discussion of the character or personality other members of this forum) is just the kind of insult that you preach to others to avoid. But you do it yourself, which makes you a hypocrite. Knock it off.

I can kind of agree that one shouldn't be going after character and personality.  However, if one's politics includes calling people 'insane', 'evil', etc... if they move far enough off one's own values and world views, you can't just touch goals and expect not to be tagged back.  Some people would consider the style of partisan politicking you regularly engage in insulting.

And there is a pattern, perhaps a human trait, that those who settle firmly enough into a world view often cannot or will not comprehend or respect one who disagrees.  You and Kinser just make excellent illustrations in that you have both openly admitted it, in very different ways of course.  Declaring someone insane is very different from saying one is not of one's tribe.  Still, both enable one to demonize and dehumanize.  I think we've enough of demonize and dehumanize.  Of course, you two are hardly the only parties that play that game.  I would expect any with a strong world view, and that's just about everyone who contributes here, to be pulled in to one degree or another.  Most just do not see it or admit it so openly and blatantly.

Me, I don't consider Kinser to be a nitwit, for example.  I find him extremely intelligent and articulate, though his selective empathy is of course problematic.  In the same way, I don't find the NRA leadership 'creepy'.  That sounds like an extreme partisan, going beyond politics, attacking character and personality, blatantly using insult.  They less are a culture than the products of a culture.  They value rights including self defense.  The come from a place where self reliance has worked better than waiting for a generally late and often not understanding government.  You come from a different place and have different expectations, but that doesn't justify insulting personal generalizations of character and personality.