Why Are Liberals So Rude to the Right?

[shrubnose]

Oh yes! Make no mistake. I know exactly how I'm coming off. It is always intentional and fully crafted to give exactly that impression.

But I do prefer more civil discourse. But the question was asked. And I answered.

I would have preferred to have given a more "peaches and cream," answer but I am now, as I have always been here, truthful in my opinions. And that is the truth how I see it.

But consider this. I do this because, well, do you remember the movie Rambo? With Sylvester Stallone? Remember that scene when he tells his ex-commander, "They drew first blood." That's kind of where I come from around here quite often, when confronting bullies on the school ground. Now, imagine this foum as a school ground. I came here many years ago, thousands upon thousands of posts ago. I get here with hoping for smiles and handshakes and then I meet these nasty, arrogant, vile and "rude," people (whom, I might add, were disproportional in number on the extreme right side of ideologies.) They swarm me with insults and name calling. To me, they were like schoolyard bullies. I'm the LAST kid on the school yard the bullies want to **** with. I was a hippy in a world full of Scoal dipping asshole, redneck, goatroapers with cowboy hats, when I was in high school. They tried their best to **** with me. I never let that happen. It's hard to teach an old dog like me a new trick, I suppose.

I confess it brings out the worst in me. I do prefer more civil conversations.

But these whackos are going to get what they got coming when they step into my school yard.

Do unto others,etc, but always get the first and most important-the last licks in.

Never give a far right sucker an even break because he sure wouldn't give you one.

 

[poweRob]

Give me one example of Gary Johnson, or Bill Weld, or Robert Nozick, or anyone of any significance who could be credibly described as "the libertarian right" behaving in a churlish manner.

I actually have no idea why we libertarians are such perfect gentlemen (and gentlewomen). We just are.

I'll disagree with Captain on this as well but I think what's happening here is that there is a grey area forming in conservative circles. After the Bush administration many conservatives were too embarrassed to say they were Republicans and the Tea Party was born, out of libertarian ideology mind you, but was soon hijacked by Koch Brother money and an ideology that has a far more uber religious bend to it than libertarians tend to have. More of a Constitution Party ideology than a Libertarian ideology IMO.

So the conservative faces that we see on TV I think is besmirching Libertarians in that manner because the nose-diving poll numbers of the GOP is still having conservatives say they are not Republicans so the default option blame wrongly goes towards Libertarians.

 

[Cyrylek]

I'll disagree with Captain on this as well but I think what's happening here is that there is a grey area forming in conservative circles. After the Bush administration many conservatives were too embarrassed to say they were Republicans and the Tea Party was born, out of libertarian ideology mind you, but was soon hijacked by Koch Brother money and an ideology that has a far more uber religious bend to it than libertarians tend to have. More of a Constitution Party ideology than a Libertarian ideology IMO.

So the conservative faces that we see on TV I think is besmirching Libertarians in that manner because the nose-diving poll numbers of the GOP is still having conservatives say they are not Republicans so the default option blame wrongly goes towards Libertarians.

Well, I do not disagree - except regarding Koch brothers: they have been and remain libertarian, as their support for gay rights and drug decriminalization illustrate. It would be more correct to say that their money helped the tea party movement to gain momentum - which attracted various un-libertarian groups within and outside the GOP now claiming to be tea parties (the rapid and damaging process I call "bachmannization"). Plenty of local tea parties still have their libertarian cores intact though.

 

[poweRob]

Well, I do not disagree - except regarding Koch brothers: they have been and remain libertarian, as their support for gay rights and drug decriminalization illustrate. It would be more correct to say that their money helped the tea party movement to gain momentum - which attracted various un-libertarian groups within and outside the GOP now claiming to be tea parties (the rapid and damaging process I call "bachmannization"). Plenty of local tea parties still have their libertarian cores intact though.

Well said. The Kochs pretty much own the "Tea Party Express" organization though from what I've read. Watch out for what turd flies are drawn to that flame.

As far as Kochs and Libertarianism... I think they are more just status quo guys. They got it made right now and their money seems to fly in any direction that prevents any kind of regulation or oversight or anything in their money making orgs. I think that has some crossover appeal with libertarians but I seriously don't see them as a part of libertarianism. More just about Kochism. Which I guess has it's Randian appeal.

 

[LowDown]

That's exactly what I thought when I read YOUR post. This is what I always enjoy about partisans. They never believe that their side does anything wrong even when it is shown to them.

It's fair if you don't believe me if what I say doesn't match your experience. I still have a hard time believing it, though. I thought it was widely recognized that left wingers are nastier and more ugly to people with whom they don't agree. I've seen that meme repeated many times. It's something right wingers complain about a lot.

 

[Captain America]

This is all your perception. If I am around a lot of right wingers (and I frequently am), I hear plenty of anti-gay and racist comments and plenty of other attacks that have nothing to do with just how wrong left wing policies are. On the other side, when I am around left wingers, as I often am professionally, what I hear, fairly exclusively is just how wrong right wing policies are. No personal attacks, no racist or anti-gay comments... at all.

Perhaps it's a function of location, who one spends time with, or perception. But in my experience, I've seen the exact opposite of what you've seen.

I could have written the same. We are products of our environment.

A lot of folks assume the mainstream or a majority when they say, "American's want this, people think that...." Someone reading them, from 1000 miles away, just shakes their head in disbelief that someone could make such a claim with a straight face as their reality, their culture, their personal "mainstream/majority," couldn't disagree more with the person three states over. Yet, both think they are indisputably correct.

The proverbial Tower of Babble. I have long wondered how humans can experience the same thing, and sometimes derive at an extremely opposing intrepretation. I used to think that the people in the Middle East was from Mars and we were from Venus, with nothing in common and a thought process that was planets apart. Worlds apart. Separate realities.

But, you know, Texas ain't that really far away and an overwhelming number of their inhabitants have a very unique reality that other Americans often find puzzling.

In short. Perception is reality. Personality, conditioning, indoctrination, parential upbringing, have direct effects on one's perception. Therefore, it would only make sense that it would effect their reality. I would also add peer pressure helps to shape one's opinions as well. Only the bravest of souls would drive through Texas with an "Obama for President," bumper sticker.

 

[Mason66]

Those guys don't post HERE.

Was the OP about people who post here?

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

It's fair if you don't believe me if what I say doesn't match your experience. I still have a hard time believing it, though. I thought it was widely recognized that left wingers are nastier and more ugly to people with whom they don't agree. I've seen that meme repeated many times. It's something right wingers complain about a lot.

I have a hard time believing your experiences. And I thought it was common knowledge that right wingers are nastier and more ugly to people of whom they don't agree. I've been on this board for 7 years and that has been my experience pretty consistently... as has it been outside the internet.

Btw... conservative blogs and comments on message boards mean exactly nothing towards your premise. I can find plenty of them that show that right wingers are far nastier. You're a right winger. You're not going to notice the problems on your side. I see it on both sides and have confronted both. I see the right as being quite a bit worse.

 

[zimmer]

Harry Reid's government shutdown reveals how vile the left are with their rhetoric. The fish rots from the head down.

All was more civil a couple decades ago say the Leftists, and it was... because they had 40-years of controlling the House and Senate. The R's were lap dogs... sleeping more than half the time.

After 1994, that's when things got ugly. The Left didn't only lose the House and Senate... they got a historic ass kicking. The R's didn't lose a House or Senate seat, nor did they lose a Governorship. After that, all hell broke loose, and the left went from Vile, to Viler, to Vilest.

Look at a Republican rally and then the vandals and slobs of the left with theirs. Occupy Wall Street is a prime example of the leftists and their ways. Vandalism, rampant illegalities, and leaving a cess pool.

And then there are their propagandists:

 

[Constantine]

Before I came here I was on a site called Sodahead right, that place is a warzone, the liberals are as radical as they are angry as they are crazy. In this year alone that site had one liberal sent to prison for hacking Sodahead and changing conservative comments to hate and racism. We had yet another liberal in August go to a town hall meeting and shoot the place up killing several - he's up for the death penalty now. Debating liberals in my opinion can be dangerous. Some of you are cool....but some of you hate the right so bad that you lose your sanity.

 

[Captain America]

Before I came here I was on a site called Sodahead right, that place is a warzone, the liberals are as radical as they are angry as they are crazy. In this year alone that site had one liberal sent to prison for hacking Sodahead and changing conservative comments to hate and racism. We had yet another liberal in August go to a town hall meeting and shoot the place up killing several - he's up for the death penalty now. Debating liberals in my opinion can be dangerous. Some of you are cool....but some of you hate the right so bad that you lose your sanity.

I'm not too worried about some liberal slapping me with his man-purse.

There are crazies from all walks of life. Liberal. Conservative. We hear about it all the time. I believe a crazy personal deserves his/her own label.

That's the thing. Not one size fits all. I know dozens of very conservative people in my life. My family. My dear friends. Fellow lodge brothers, and part of our congregation. There are no finer people anywhere. We do not sit around pissing and moaning and fighting over politics like people do here. I can say the very same about my more liberal friends, co-workers, lodge brothers, neighbors etc. They would give you the shirt off their back and make for wonderful neighbors and friends.

But we are talking about here. People often get rude when poked, provoked or prodded. I am guilty of that myself.

And, even though I have to carry my own sins here, I can say without a doubt, like some have said before me, the right side of the conversations here at Debate Politics are more often than not, vile, rude and seething in hatred. Some are better at cloaking it than others. And some conservatives here are much like the conservatives I count as friends and share my boat with. I have much respect and good feelings about them. One size does not fit all.

I have become jaded. I was hoping when I first came here, as I mentioned earlier, to find a forum with good fellowship. Smiles, handshakes. That's not what I found. But I came to learn that I only had so many cheeks to turn. Once prokoved and insulted into oblivion, I just became one of them. It has caused me to have utter contempt for some people and their views and their way of dialog packed with viotrol and ill-will. There were a few liberals doing this. There were a few, "just assholes," doing this (not sure if they were left or righ.) But there was a mob of conservatives who seem they were here only to insult, demonize and demean.

Even the title of this thread, in my opinion, was worded to incite. Left rude to the right. Give me a break. Don't piss in my hair and tell me it's raining.

If I could wave my magic wand and fix things, I would do a "system restore," to the forum making all sins forgiven and give the members a chance to start over. And as soon as a member started up with that "rude," ****, and send the forum snowballing into a place where people come to hate and gnash their teeth, like it is now, I would banned them immediately.

But then I would have to sit around and listen to a bunch of liberals. LOL!

 

[X Factor]

Oh yes! Make no mistake. I know exactly how I'm coming off. It is always intentional and fully crafted to give exactly that impression.

But I do prefer more civil discourse. But the question was asked. And I answered.

I would have preferred to have given a more "peaches and cream," answer but I am now, as I have always been here, truthful in my opinions. And that is the truth how I see it.

But consider this. I do this because, well, do you remember the movie Rambo? With Sylvester Stallone? Remember that scene when he tells his ex-commander, "They drew first blood." That's kind of where I come from around here quite often, when confronting bullies on the school ground. Now, imagine this foum as a school ground. I came here many years ago, thousands upon thousands of posts ago. I get here with hoping for smiles and handshakes and then I meet these nasty, arrogant, vile and "rude," people (whom, I might add, were disproportional in number on the extreme right side of ideologies.) They swarm me with insults and name calling. To me, they were like schoolyard bullies. I'm the LAST kid on the school yard the bullies want to **** with. I was a hippy in a world full of Scoal dipping asshole, redneck, goatroapers with cowboy hats, when I was in high school. They tried their best to **** with me. I never let that happen. It's hard to teach an old dog like me a new trick, I suppose.

I confess it brings out the worst in me. I do prefer more civil conversations. But these whackos are going to get what they got coming when they step into my school yard.

I see you go to the partisan insults just quicker than just about anyone else so the fact that you see yourself as some sort of victim is hilarious. You get back what you put out there (oh, but I know, you're never at fault, lol).

BTW, in my experience, those that try to act all badass on the Internet do so because they're door mats in RL.

 

[X Factor]

I have a hard time believing your experiences. And I thought it was common knowledge that right wingers are nastier and more ugly to people of whom they don't agree. I've been on this board for 7 years and that has been my experience pretty consistently... as has it been outside the internet.

Btw... conservative blogs and comments on message boards mean exactly nothing towards your premise. I can find plenty of them that show that right wingers are far nastier. You're a right winger. You're not going to notice the problems on your side. I see it on both sides and have confronted both. I see the right as being quite a bit worse.

Which I think, is a function of your perception as well. Is it not nasty to be accused of being pro-rape, of hating women or of being racist when race clearly has nothing to do with it. Sometimes, there are things you seem not to notice, CC.

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

Which I think, is a function of your perception as well. Is it not nasty to be accused of being pro-rape, of hating women or of being racist when race clearly has nothing to do with it. Sometimes, there are things you seem not to notice, CC.

You're doing it again. Re-read my post.

 

[X Factor]

You're doing it again. Re-read my post.

Haven't you posted your conclusion that conservatives are more likely to be mean and nasty several times now? When it comes down to a left vs right thing, I know where you will land (just as you can pretty well guess the same about me). I know I can get pretty pissy about this type of thing (and it is wrong of me to get so defensive) but, really, it's not a big deal. If that is what you believe and that's what you think your personal experience is then that's what it is. I just happen to disagree based on my own experience. To be clear though, I do disagree with the OP that liberals are worse (just as I disagree with you that conservatives are worse). I've seen nasty stuff from both sides and I think both sides are about equally capable of it.

 

[d0gbreath]

The right smells bad! If they would all wear the Right Guard antiperspirant, which was designed especially to combat said stench, everyone would be much happier and we could all sing Kum-ba-yah together.

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

Haven't you posted your conclusion that conservatives are more likely to be mean and nasty several times now? When it comes down to a left vs right thing, I know where you will land (just as you can pretty well guess the same about me). I know I can get pretty pissy about this type of thing (and it is wrong of me to get so defensive) but, really, it's not a big deal. If that is what you believe and that's what you think your personal experience is then that's what it is. I just happen to disagree based on my own experience. To be clear though, I do disagree with the OP that liberals are worse (just as I disagree with you that conservatives are worse). I've seen nasty stuff from both sides and I think both sides are about equally capable of it.

I've posted PLENTY of times what I think of both sides. The right is more likely to be mean and nasty. The left is more likely to be manipulative and weasel-like. This has been my experience here at DP. My experience in RL is quite different. In my workplace, most of the people with whom I interact are left wingers. In my outside of work activities, most of the people with whom I interact are right wingers. The latter are certainly nastier, more racist, and more closed-minded. This is my experience. YMMV.

Oh, and the comments in your second sentence of post #138 were pure nonsense as a rhetorical question. THAT'S how you were "doing it again". If I need to, I'll just keep pointing it out until you stop. It's been nearly 3 years, now. Let's see when that might happen.

 

[Kobie]

Haven't you posted your conclusion that conservatives are more likely to be mean and nasty several times now? When it comes down to a left vs right thing, I know where you will land (just as you can pretty well guess the same about me). I know I can get pretty pissy about this type of thing (and it is wrong of me to get so defensive) but, really, it's not a big deal. If that is what you believe and that's what you think your personal experience is then that's what it is. I just happen to disagree based on my own experience. To be clear though, I do disagree with the OP that liberals are worse (just as I disagree with you that conservatives are worse). I've seen nasty stuff from both sides and I think both sides are about equally capable of it.

I agree with this. Nasty partisan rhetoric is not exclusive province of one side, either in volume or scope. Anyone who attempts to claim otherwise is just trying to make their "side" look better.

 

[cpwill]

With a heavy imbalance from the right. Especially the Libertarian right or those who like to proudly flaunt their "conservative" credentials. They can't seem to hold a simple conversation without demonizing Obamabots, Libtards, Commies, DemocRATS, etc...

As opposed to the terrorists, racists, so on and so forth? I'd rather think getting called a 'rat' would be less offensive than being accused of being the kind of person who seeks to commit mass-murder against innocents. But it's the fringe calling folks "DemocRATS", and the leadership calling folks "terrorists".




Generally speaking, I think it's likely to express itself differently. The old saw is that if you disagree with a conservative he will think you are stupid, but if you disagree with a liberal, he will think you are evil. So liberals are more likely to impugn their oppositions' character, while conservatives are more likely to impugn their intelligence.

 

[cpwill]

I've posted PLENTY of times what I think of both sides. The right is more likely to be mean and nasty. The left is more likely to be manipulative and weasel-like. This has been my experience here at DP. My experience in RL is quite different. In my workplace, most of the people with whom I interact are left wingers. In my outside of work activities, most of the people with whom I interact are right wingers. The latter are certainly nastier, more racist, and more closed-minded. This is my experience. YMMV.

So you are discounting the possibilities that people act differently in professional v social environments, or that conservative professionals do not share a similar inverse with liberal non-professionals?

 

[Kobie]

So liberals are more likely to impugn their oppositions' character, while conservatives are more likely to impugn their intelligence.

I don't see how anyone can look at the state of political rhetoric over the last 10 years or so and think that either of those positions is accurate.

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

So you are discounting the possibilities that people act differently in professional v social environments, or that conservative professionals do not share a similar inverse with liberal non-professionals?

Read my next words carefully. IN MY EXPERIENCE, the few conservatives that I interact with professionally, tend to be somewhere between the liberal professionals and the conservatives I interact with in social activities. I've heard some occasional racist comments, though this is not the norm. IN MY EXPERIENCE, the liberals that I interact with in social activities, tend to behave similarly to the liberals I interact with professionally. Notice how I highlighted 3 words. So no, I am not discounting other possibilities. What does this mean? It means this is my experience. It means that someone else's experience might be different. It means that there are some nasty, mean racist liberals, and some nasty, mean, racist conservatives. My experience is that conservatives are more so... which is fairly meaningless if we are discussing definitions. Anyone trying to paint one group as being ACTUALLY defined by those qualities doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[cpwill]

I don't see how anyone can look at the state of political rhetoric over the last 10 years or so and think that either of those positions is accurate.

:shrug: it's a very loose observation. I have backed it with a very thorough study that consisted of sitting back for a minute and going "huh, yeah, that sounds right". :shrug: don't read it as anything like a truth-claim.

 

[cpwill]

Read my next words carefully. IN MY EXPERIENCE, the few conservatives that I interact with professionally, tend to be somewhere between the liberal professionals and the conservatives I interact with in social activities. I've heard some occasional racist comments, though this is not the norm. IN MY EXPERIENCE, the liberals that I interact with in social activities, tend to behave similarly to the liberals I interact with professionally. Notice how I highlighted 3 words.

I am simply asking if you have checked your observations against fairly important contextual notes. I agree you aren't extrapolating here.

That is because you instead extrapolated here:

I've posted PLENTY of times what I think of both sides. The right is more likely to be mean and nasty. The left is more likely to be manipulative and weasel-like.

So no, I am not discounting other possibilities. What does this mean? It means this is my experience. It means that someone else's experience might be different. It means that there are some nasty, mean racist liberals, and some nasty, mean, racist conservatives. My experience is that conservatives are more so... which is fairly meaningless if we are discussing definitions. Anyone trying to paint one group as being ACTUALLY defined by those qualities doesn't know what they are talking about.

So... given the above, do you?

 

[Kobie]

:shrug: it's a very loose observation. I have backed it with a very thorough study that consisted of sitting back for a minute and going "huh, yeah, that sounds right". :shrug: don't read it as anything like a truth-claim.

Fair enough.

Anyone can prove anything with anecdotal evidence, I've found.

For the most part, anything one side is guilty of, you can find just as many of them on the other side in spades. Such is life on the internet, which has given millions of assholes a soapbox.