Back on the playground

Someone explain to me how it's bad thing when those on the right call lefties traitors or terrorists but it's okay for people on the left to call others names, mock their choice of fiction, or even where they live? Can you say hypocrisy?

I got into a discussion yesterday on this post. I asked questions. I made assertions. At no time did I label anyone. Yet I am called a troll. I am spit upon. One poster has no comment about anything I said but makes fun of a novel I have listed as a favorite and the fact that I live in Kansas. I'll repeat that. This person didn't have ONE SINGLE STATEMENT about anything other than me personally. How is this not hypocritical? If you can only call names or attack the person instead of the argument how can you possibly think you have any grounds to complain when you are treated the same way? If you disagree with someone that's fine. If you have a rebuttal for an argument they've made that's fine. If all you can do is mock the person then why do you even bother? That's not debate. That's not discourse. That's heckling.

I have never understood this mentality where people feel if they yell loud enough then something they don't like or want to hear will just go away. These are the people who are so concerned with protecting free speech, until someone disagrees with their point of view. Some of the people responding to my comments went so far as to state they would simply ignore anything I said from that point forward. How do you expect to make any meaningful progress in this country if your response to disagreement is the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and screaming, "I can't hear you!!!" till they leave you alone. This accomplishes NOTHING. These people aren't looking for progress. They aren't looking for accomplishment. They're looking for reinforcement of their own worldview and that's it. If your convictions need constant reinforcement from those of a like-minded view then you really don't believe in your own assertions. If you require reassurance that you're right then you didn't really have faith in your opinions to begin with.

There were a couple of reasons I started this blog. The first was to put down in words some of the things I thought. The other was the fact that many times what I wanted to say in response to someone else's post was far too long to politely put in a comment. This is not, as was called in the above post, a right-wing blog. That's so painfully obvious that I'm not going to even bother responding to that claim. If you want more info on where I stand on things you can see here. Those are not right wing beliefs. They are not left wing beliefs. They are common sense beliefs reliant on the fact that we are each responsible for ourselves and our choices. This is not a political viewpoint I have. It's a way of life. I chose to start posting. I chose to comment on the above post on Bitch's site. And then some of you chose to act like a playground bully instead of adults. You'll have to forgive me for not respecting your response and treating it with the contempt it deserves.