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talkpoliticsGiven some of the discussions generated from my last post, I wanted to share with you one last picture from the April 15 Tea Party protest.
But first, I wanted to thank everyone for all of the positive comments. I was trying very hard to be open minded and fair, and I am genuinely happy that people found my post to be so. I am even more happy that people from "both sides" liked it for that reason. This is an incredibly positive political sentiment - that we have a common preference for fair and balanced presentation. It gives me some hope that this hyper-polarized climate might collapse one day.
I also wanted to apologize for not being on line much after posting - I'm on limited internet these days.
Anyway, I hope this doesn't destroy the fair and balanced vibes, but a lot of the commenters believed that the Tea Party is a bigoted movement. Not only do I insist that this is wrong, but I also believe that making this wrongful accusation needlessly pushes Tea Partiers and their liberal counterparts further away from ever listening to each other, or making any compromise. I therefore wish that I could say that I saw no evidence of bigotry at the Tea Party, but I can't. Here's the last picture:
This is one of the counter-protesters. Her shirt reads "F*ck your God". I didn't intentionally leave this out of the original post because I was embarrassed by it, although I am embarrassed by it. I only left it out because in choosing from my hundred photos to post, this one was just va poor quality shot.
I'm not trying to make liberals look bad with this picture. I'm just trying to show that while there are people with ugly beliefs on both sides, these ugly beliefs don't define those sides. The Anti-Tea-Party movement (or Coffee Party, or whatever) isn't an anti religion movement, even if some members of the Atheist Takfiri show up in the crowd. The same goes for racists (of which I saw none) or anti-abortionists (of which I saw the nutter truck driver - his rear billboard was all about fetuses) who show up for an anti-tax movement. The movement isn't about those other things, even if some of the participants go way off message.
Sorry if this post doesn't offer much new information over the last one, but given that there was such a strong belief in Tea Party racism in the first set of comments, I felt that I had done everyone a disservice by leaving this picture out.
But first, I wanted to thank everyone for all of the positive comments. I was trying very hard to be open minded and fair, and I am genuinely happy that people found my post to be so. I am even more happy that people from "both sides" liked it for that reason. This is an incredibly positive political sentiment - that we have a common preference for fair and balanced presentation. It gives me some hope that this hyper-polarized climate might collapse one day.
I also wanted to apologize for not being on line much after posting - I'm on limited internet these days.
Anyway, I hope this doesn't destroy the fair and balanced vibes, but a lot of the commenters believed that the Tea Party is a bigoted movement. Not only do I insist that this is wrong, but I also believe that making this wrongful accusation needlessly pushes Tea Partiers and their liberal counterparts further away from ever listening to each other, or making any compromise. I therefore wish that I could say that I saw no evidence of bigotry at the Tea Party, but I can't. Here's the last picture:
This is one of the counter-protesters. Her shirt reads "F*ck your God". I didn't intentionally leave this out of the original post because I was embarrassed by it, although I am embarrassed by it. I only left it out because in choosing from my hundred photos to post, this one was just va poor quality shot.
I'm not trying to make liberals look bad with this picture. I'm just trying to show that while there are people with ugly beliefs on both sides, these ugly beliefs don't define those sides. The Anti-Tea-Party movement (or Coffee Party, or whatever) isn't an anti religion movement, even if some members of the Atheist Takfiri show up in the crowd. The same goes for racists (of which I saw none) or anti-abortionists (of which I saw the nutter truck driver - his rear billboard was all about fetuses) who show up for an anti-tax movement. The movement isn't about those other things, even if some of the participants go way off message.
Sorry if this post doesn't offer much new information over the last one, but given that there was such a strong belief in Tea Party racism in the first set of comments, I felt that I had done everyone a disservice by leaving this picture out.
Re: well bo-hoo
Date: 24/4/10 03:27 (UTC)You might actually have something intelligent to contribute, but the more you talk the less that becomes clear. I will say that the moment someone tells me to 'own up' to their impression of an event by becoming the recipient of their 'truth enema' so to speak ("up the ass"? Really?), it tells me that person is not interested in having that conversation. This goes double for basing said understanding on one or two casual observations and a lot of assumptions about what those observations mean across the board. Forget about the fact that I basically agreed with you on some substantial things, like the composition of the tea parties, and the not inconsequential number of hypocrites therein which I cannot help but shake my head at. No, for daring to not live up to your arbitrary standards, regardless of reason, I have earned your designation as "Patsy" (a formal name now?).
If this is the impression you wished to leave, you have succeeded. However, as I have a low tolerance for such presumptuous condescension, I really don't care anymore what further you might say on the subject.
Re: well bo-hoo
Date: 24/4/10 03:51 (UTC)This doesn't mean that I resent the whole libertarian movement or don't see different schools from within it.
You did sound an awful lot like whining. And I was harsh. I'm not going to apologize because you "agreed with me on some points" as you say, because a discussion is not a trade treaty, but I will apologize for treating you as any tiresome libertarian apologist, which you may or may not be.
In any case, it's not pleasure to me to insult you, and you didn't deserve it from what you wrote, so I'm sorry about the tone and wording, if not the content. And I really do have some thoughts on how libertarians can turn the tea party hoopla to their advantage without becoming complete republicans. I've drafted some points which I'll post here or elsewhere and notify you, and then you can choose to read it or ignore it.