A woman posts because she's ashamed of herself.
Democratic Underground - I did not stop to help a * supporter today.And one of the kind, generous, compassionate people who are Democratically aligned posted the following in reply.
I would have done the same thing except I would have pulled over and asked her if she supported Bush. If she said yeah, then I would have said, "Then I'm only going to offer your baby a ride, not you." And if she refused, I'd tell her that she could call her little hero in the White House for help then. Then I'd speed off, leaving her behind.Such a kind and compassionate response.Difference being I wouldn't feel any remorse. I'm beyond that. They are hateful people with hateful beliefs, and it would probably be best if the child was taken away and raised by someone else and she was left to fend for herself. In my eyes, Bush and those who still support him are not even Human. They do not deserve sympathy, pity or any other emotion devoted to humans. They aren't Human because they are incapable of feeling sympathy or pity for others.
I hate to say it (I will anyway, of course) but I wonder if the same sort of hatred was put forth by the more intolerant Germans over the Jews in the late 1930s? Look at it - the poster's managed to completely dehumanize someone who's broken down by the side of the road - simply because she had a "W" sticker on her car. (Not the original person who wrote - she was feeling pretty bad about what she did.) You get the feeling that poster would shove this person into a gas chamber, perhaps? Talk about not feeling sympathy or pity.
The thing I dislike about DU is that it panders to the absolute worst in the Democratic party. The most hate-filled, the most illiberal, the least tolerant crowd - and they self-reinforce their feelings like crazy.
Reading through the thread, what's sad is she's figured out for herself what she did wasn't what she was inside... but quite a few folks are telling her she's wrong to feel that way.
i would probably have done the same thing. anything W is soo contaminated!One didn't, however...
prior to sonny boy's sitting in the oval office, i'd always give money at the supermarket--money which was earmarked for the salvation army to help feed the poor.after sonny boy stole the chair at the oval office, a cashier once asked me if i wanted to donate money to help feed the poor... i told him, tell sonny boy to give feed the poor with my tax dollars which he just gave to the rich and unneedy!
and angry too is how i feel about this collecting money from the private sector to help the stranded in NO. why isn't my tax dollar being used for that!?
I generally don't post but this is so striking I was moved to.It should be. For us all.Given what's going on in this country today it's inconceivable that you would do this.
How exactly does leaving a woman and small child stranded demonstrate your superiority over anyone?
People are more than their politics. History is replete with tragic examples from the left and right when society forgets that. When we start denying a person in need their humanity because of a bumper sticker we are going down a very ugly road.
Even if you could not 'lower' yourself to actually help them personally, why not call 911 on your cell?
Who benefited from this non-interaction? Not that woman and her child and certainly not you. I hope your example is a cautionary tale for others.
J.
Comments (2)
Sigh, indeed. I've pretty much stopped reading the comments at sites like LGF and Kos. As you know, I used to pull out those comments and post them. However, I concluded that it was just making me angry at Republicans without actually convincing sane Republicans of anything. I think you (and many others) are doing the same with this DU post, with the same effect. I have been thinking about posting some sort of "political blogger's pledge" to only respond to bloggers (not their commenters, except in the comment threads) and to give more weight to the words of those in power than those of random typists. It's not fair to accuse Bush of being racist because I can find racist remarks on LGF. Likewise, it's not fair to say Democrats are on their way to being Nazis because some DU poster didn't stop for a Bush supporter.
Posted by Bellman | September 2, 2005 4:05 PM
Posted on September 2, 2005 16:05
Bellman -
I'm not so worried about the poster who was upset because she didn't stop for someone with a W sticker. Reading through that thread shows she was quite ashamed of what she'd done - that she failed to live up to her expectations of herself and her attempts to make the world a better place and she was going to try to make it right somehow - by passing it forward if nothing else.
I've done that myself - failed to live up to my own expectations and tried to make up for it somewhere else some other way.
What I'm upset at are the persons who not only think she did the right thing, but who would have done significantly worse if they'd been there.
I wonder sometimes if history isn't repeating itself with our political classes. I'm pretty sure the vast rank and file of Germans didn't think much about the Jews - until the leadership of that country needed a scapegoat class and found the Jews to be convenient... and not enough of a political power to be a problem. Then the disinformation campaigns started, the blaming of Germany's problems on the Jew... and the rest is history that we know all too well. There were Germans who were ashamed of what was happening, but saw no way to stop it. There were Germans who saw what was happening - and believed with all their hearts and souls that the Jews deserved it.
I must admit I don't see a whole lot of difference between that mindset and that of the guy who'd take her kid away. It's not an ideology so much as a mindset of hatred. You lose compassion, you lose pity. You dehumanize the other with a demeaning name, or a term that YOU find demeaning. Dehumanizing the other makes it a lot easier to hate them, and when you get enough people together who share that hatred, it gets a lot easier to justify acting on it.
Sites like DU and Kos, and to a lesser extent LGF, are the online equivalent of cavity resonators. There's a whole lot of energy going in, and a pretty pure tone coming out. Whether that tone is something that you want to listen to depends on your ear, I guess. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_resonator)
BTW, I realize our politics may not coincide much - but I'm glad we can disagree without being disagreeable. Heaven knows we need more folks actually talking to each other instead of screaming insults. Maybe we're leading from the front, setting the example for others to follow.
J.
Posted by JLawson | September 2, 2005 9:59 PM
Posted on September 2, 2005 21:59