PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

I've got a Facebook account. Fun, fun, fun - not really. I initially got on the thing so I'd have a place to post photos of my family and some of my drawings and "art" photos for other family members and friends. I also, like many, came to enjoy brief updates on the lives of friends and people I've known. It works quite well to those ends. To other ends it often becomes just another laughable template for "progressives" to remind others that they hold the secret to all knowledge in general and that any one who dares to differ is... racist, fascist, stupid, selfish, etc. (yawn).

The first year or so, while posting links to science articles or writing a sentence or two on mundane personal matters, I deliberately steered away from any reference to politics. Just as when I'm at a social gathering and meet someone new or don't know an acquaintance's worldview, I think it would be damn rude to burst out with comments insulting random perspectives and idols - I don't bring up politics with people I don't know (assuming the possibility that they're views are different from my own or in the far reaches of the trendy-land left). The reasonable sense of decorum I try to adopt is often not reciprocated. I can't count the number of times that complete strangers or those I barely knew started spouting out cliche' hatreds for Bush, Palin, conservatives, business people, even America in general. There's often an occasional obligatory rant about Israel as well ('never quite understood the lefts' lockstep hatred of the only true democracy in the Middle East).

Like a good conservative, I guess I'm supposed to just nod in compliance, take the personal insults and cower in the fear that a label may be cast my way for disagreeing - "fascist, racist, privileged, capitalist, selfish, stupid, religious (my favorite since I'm an agnostic) etc. etc."

Enter, my last year or so of Facebook. Some friend's would post links to topical issues of the day and even comment or ask for responses - 'reasonable . But, More and more I began noticing the lefties amongst my "friends," and more often mere acquaintances, posting clearly controversial and partisan links bashing conservatives. The style was of course what those of us on the right have become used to amongst this crowd; clearly picking a fight, anything to prove to themselves that they had the one true monopoly on goodness. They were begging for responses but heaven forbid it be a " wrong" response.

On one occasion a third party commenter totally lost it, misinterpreting things that had no political relevance at all and really getting quite vicious while expressing their angst over other material criticising Obama - the god-man (never go there).

There's a "feminist" I know from years back who had always been a fervent femi-leftist (is there any other kind?). She recently has taken to posting extremely aggressive and insulting statements clearly hoping for a response from those like myself. But, I'm going to pass on that one. I've observed the psychology of the Jacobins long enough to know when an expression of reasoned disagreement is futile (this is one of those people who, if she actually had political power would be a raging dictator for the cause - complete with thought police and death camps). I wanted to respond to her last post with a question regarding why she she and other feminists had generally given a pass to Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Anthony Wiener, Bill Maher, et al., but not to Margaret Thatcher, Ayn Rand, Sarah Palin, or Michelle Backman, Michelle Malkin, et al. Of course, the answer is obvious; "feminism" has nothing to do with "empowerment of women" or responding to male chauvinism of various types. No, it's good old-fashioned leftism, packaged in the same dishonest garb as so much of civil rights, environmentalism, and "social justice."

A common issue that pops up on Facebook posts and comments among these people is to tie anything they don't approve of with the tea parties. Sometimes it's a mere side-note "...evil, racist extremists...like the tea parties..."). For my part I always point out - I think quite reasonably- that belief in limited government and lower taxation are valid viewpoints completely unrelated to "racism," "greed, " or "privilege" and, having a different viewpoint is actually an acceptable thing amongst civilized people who aren't on a mission to cram their custom made distopias down everyone's throat.

There is no doubt a civil war of sorts occurring in America today. I can't help but view it all in the way Andrew Breitbart described it in his recent book, "Righteous Indignation..." These people really are bullies, they refuse to accept the fact that half the political spectrum has a right to exist at all. While the product of a dynamic and diverse society, I have to wonder if some of these people, if given a chance, would be totally fine with mass-arrests and persecution of anyone holding views similar to the country's founders. These clowns are the heirs to Rousseau and Marx and like past kindred spirits of the same...they will hurt you if you dare defy them (and if the fates of history afford them the power). After all, they're on a mission..."to make a better world."

Offering me confirmation of what I've seen in these types so often before, a particularly troubling exchange was with a very intelligent ('last I heard he was an assistant attorney general for a state government) former friend from a couple of decades back. I remember meeting him again for a brief reunion a few years back and the first thing he said upon being introduced to my new wife was, "so, are you still one of those...(?)...Republicans?" (For what it's worth, I've never been registered as a Republican). When I "friended" this guy on Facebook, he accepted without comment. After numerous posts of my very cute daughter and some artsy photos, he finally found reason to acknowledge my existence upon reading one of my comments to another's post (again, I dared play defense for conservative/limited government values). This guy couldn't so much as note, "your daughter is cute" but was ready to roll when a fight could be picked regarding my defense of decency during the lefts' prime offensive on our country and its values.

I realize that much of this - being rather personal in nature - sounds like mere bitching but, I dare suggest that more than a few readers have encountered this same style of nonsense. It exemplifies the subtle underbelly of a phenomena in social media, but more so it reinforces the truth regarding the temperament of people who have become entirely unreasonable and intolerant of other people or viewpoints.

Andrew Breitbart's recent book keeps reminding me that we no longer have to take this shit; the lies, the coordinated overbearing tentacles in all aspects of the culture, the smug style of confrontation. Like many, I'm ecstatic that fewer of us on the right are now taking this nonsense sitting down. In spite of what our opponents think of us,they're dishonest, they fight dirty, and their goals have little to do with love of country or freedom. For them the bottom line is an old one, a contrived "equality" of outcome and a political structure lorded over by intellectuals and those who see themselves as intellectuals. Time to stop bending over and time to go on the offensive...

Like Andrew Breitbart said....." war..."

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 12:23 PM