Tolerance

So I am at this dinner party at a relatives house. She had a very Liberal / Progressive friend over as well as family. This friend of hers and I had had several passionate discussions of various political issues at past gatherings. He was as passionate and assured of the correctness of his world view as was I.  It was evident in everything about him that he was very bugged not only by my world view, but evidently by my ignorance, and general lack of intelligence. It had been clear for some time that he was just itching to set me straight on all of my misguided views.  So I'm trying to avoid those hot potato subjects that might lead to a heated debate. "Better to keep this a peaceful family gathering," I'm thinking. So this lawyer is going on about all of his stuff that he owns including his new Beemer, and basically just being a pompous ass. So I, trying to avoid ideological landmines think "OK let's just fawn over his beemer if that's what will make him happy." "Can't go wrong there," thinks I.

     "So does your new Beemer have an Ipod dock?" I fawn.

He instantly blanches, looking at me as though I were something he just stepped in.

     "I don't listen to Ipods" He spits at me, clearly and strangely offended.

     "Oh," I mutter apologetically, uh... what do you listen to?

     So he snipes: "I own a - Something German - ...You wouldn't have heard of it."

OK, so now I am starting to get bugged. Well in no time at all he somehow manages inexplicably to steer the conversation to his perception of the general stupidity and avarice of Conservatives. OK - so that did it...

     "So why do you think that?" I ask, with the most innocent sincerity I can muster.

     "Oh I know this person that purports to be a Christian, but she's really selfish, probably the most selfish person I know... except all the other Christians, Their all selfish." He proclaims.

     "Yeah," his wife chimes in; "every Christian we know are really not generous at all."

     "Well," says I, "you know that there is a Christian principle that we are not supposed to glorify our giving. We are actually admonished repeatedly in the bible to keep our charity private: that boasting is probably as bad as not giving at all."

     "No They don't give anything at all to charity," he repeats clairvoyantly.

At this point I quip: "So they fill you in on all of their finances do they?"

 I have somehow found myself suddenly defending these people that he refers to as his 'friends.'

     "That really is the great divide between Liberals and Conservatives," I say , "My Bible admonishes me to give of all of the bounty the lord has given to me, and Liberals evidently read that as 'give bountifully of all that the lord has given to others.'"

     "Well," he hisses, "Christian's are just selfish!" Now were rollin... 

I ask if he is aware of the myriad studies and a recent book proving that Conservatives give far more than Liberals, and that Conservative Christians give more that anyone both in ratio and in total.

     "Do not," he sputters."

     "Do to..."

     "Do not..."

     "Do to..."

Suddenly we are two third graders on the playground.

     "Well Conservatives are stupid!" He proclaims, I guess as the end-all definitive answer to the whole Christians are selfish debate.

Well, I think - 'that was a rather strange and abrupt segue,' but I roll with it.

     "OK, Why are Christian's stupid?" I ask with a calm that seems to annoy him all the more.

 Evidently he is incredulous that his proclamation of the general stupidity of Conservatives, being an ostensible universal absolute truth, would need any further clarification. As I look at him I wonder if he is about to cry, scream or flail about, knocking everything within reach flying from the table.

     "I bet you live in a compound!" He spits at me.

 I sit dumbfounded, processing feverishly, trying to figure out how that fits into our conversation...

So that brings me [finally] to the meat of this post. I ask him the question that I ask you now.

     "Why do Liberals always resort to personal attacks rather than just state their positions and back them up with facts?" I have rarely had a disagreement with a Liberal / Progressive that did not end in them flipping me the bird, either figuratively, or literally.

     "Well" He says I don't want to talk about it any more."

Brushing that off I ask "Why do Liberals always do that? They feel perfectly OK starting a conversation with an attack on your viewpoint and then when you respond, not as they expected as a hillbilly simpleton, but rather with a cogent defense and a plethora of facts to back it up, they then shut down your defense against their personal attacks with the old "I don't want to talk about it anymore?"

 So now, my wife getting nervous says, "Come on Ben, don't bother with these people." After a couple of more admonitions from her I drop it realizing that I now have somehow become the jerk for not leaving the conversation at the point where I and everyone that thinks like me is a Stupid, Selfish, misguided....

So this happens all of the time. Some Liberal / Progressive will out-of-nowhere throw out some backhanded slap against everything conservatives believe and if the Conservative responds they are a jerk. The Liberal / Progressive will sometimes engage the target of their wrath further if they are particularly fired up about some particular issue that has their undies in a bunch. They will vent and spew all over them with a barrage of bumper sticker slogans and will maybe even be amicable if their prey do not commit the cardinal sin of bringing opposing facts into the debate. And if they do there will be hell to pay! Inevitably those with such temerity will be informed of myriad facts about them from the army boots worn by their mother to their family inbreeding. I am just constantly amazed at the way that Liberals / Progressives debate the important issues of our world and our time. They are perfectly happy to blather on attacking everything they disagree with as long as there is no opposing viewpoint and especially no opposing facts. Why can't they simply discuss opposing viewpoints without resorting to personal attacks. With this being the general mode of debate I often wonder of any credibility to their world view at all. I am reminded often of the old Chinese proverb: "He who throws the first blow has lost the argument."

Well it was an unfortunate way to end the family gathering early, but at least on the way home I was able to de-stress from the situation by finding a couple of homeless people to run over with my SUV on the way back to the compound.

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