SHUT UP! Just STFU!

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I'm sure this happens to all of us that have an unorthodox mixture of views, but it seems to be happening to me a lot lately. I hold a lot of strong views that are not often found in the same political affiliation, such as supporting gay rights and gun rights, being for a strong military but against letting it run amok, etc, and I keep getting into these situations where someone latches onto one of my beliefs and thinks that I'm "one of them" and starts spouting off ridiculous and or offensive things that I don't want to be associated with. For example, the other day my electrician was putting in some new lights and outlets in my workshop, and noticed all the gun parts on my workbench and started talking to me about guns. All fine and dandy, till he then gos off on this rant about the communist in the White House and all this tin hat BS, and all I can do is smile and nod and find a reason to get out of there. I'm like "dangit, there's another one who's going to go off like that in public and give the rest of us a bad name". My black ex GF used to describe a similar feeling whenever there was a shooting at hiphop night at one of the local clubs or some rapper said something particularly ignorant on TV, just SHUT UP! STFU!

It happens a lot on forums too, I'll be making good progress arguing something, doesn't matter what, then someone who ostensibly shares my viewpoint will chime in trying to "help" with something totally off the wall and offensive that splatters me with guilt by association. It's like a reductio ad Hitlerum, even a blind pig finds the occasional truffle, and even otherwise nutty people occasionally have a good idea, the idea should be judged on it's own merits, not those of the people supporting it. The classic example would be that Hitler was a vegetarian health nut, does that make those things bad because a bad man believed in them?

Thoughts?

I think it happens to a lot of us.

Some are just good at not getting emotional about it. One of the reasons I hold most of my personal views....I tend to get very passionate and emotional about my ideals and whenever someone tells me how stupid they are I can't help but angrily react without putting on the poker face.

It seems as if I use mostly my right side of the brain (emotional side) moreso than the left side (analytical side)...at least this is my own theory. I've seen many people ridiculed for their political and idealogical views but don't react in the same ways I do. One thing I notice with people like this is they either go neutral and stop aruging about it or back it up with many sources without getting emotionally wrapped up in it.

So I doubt there will ever be a Utopia society coming soon unless we're assimilated into borgs. /:

I think it is just rooted in human nature.

1) People do not know how stupid they are.
2) People have to have beliefs, and to believe something, one must believe they have good foundations(reasons why *anyone* should believe), stupid people cannot know what a good reason is but they must believe that their reason is good enough for anyone to meaningfully believe their belief.
3) People are great at self-deception, and even if a person is smarter than the reason they put forward indicates, they can easily subscribe to a stupid belief or a belief based upon a stupid line of reasoning simply because their mind makes them blind to their own errors.

Possibly more reasons as well. The point being that people suck.

Also you know when people use the word stupid or randomly blast insults at people...there isn't some emotions involved aka set of beliefs.

This forum is a little bit like playing hardball. Sometimes I'll watch...sometimes I'll join.

true. The problem is that there's such a polarization nowadays, you're not even allowed to consider more than one side of an issue.

Making intelligent decisions isn't good for the corporate overlords... then they can't sell you crap you don't need...

This is all fine and dandy, but I don't see any progress being made if people just sit in a circle and sing 'kumbaya'.

EDIT: Looks like I missed the point of the topic. Ah, well.

yeah I get this a lot when people find out that I'm atheist, pro-choice (or anti-life/pro-death is you so prefer ), pro-legallisation of drugs, euthanasia etc, they automatically assume that I am a "leftie", whereas my economic views are rather extremely laisser-faire and anti-communist.

oh well

dox47, i think the problem you're running into is that you make your own decisions. see, you're supposed to pick one issue that is more important to you than all the others, first. then, you find out from either fox news or msnbc what the loudest people advocating that cause say about everything else and conform your belief system accordingly.


then again, some of us prefer to be rational and realize that we can agree and disagree depending on the issue at hand instead of just picking "right wing" or "left wing."


anyone who can't understand how you can be pro-gun rights and pro-gay rights is obviously right though. i mean, can't you see? the second gay people are allowed to get married they will take all the guns away from heterosexuals and use them to shoot up our hetero weddings! something must be done!

i mean c'mon... you can't have it both ways........ oh wait, we live in reality.

in reality, the man who taught me the fundamental relationship between respiratory discipline and marksmanship would be kicked out of the army for being gay if he ever came out to the wrong person.

...that is if the homophobe who turned him in didn't have a stroke trying to contemplate how an infantry drill seargent could be gay.

But everyone knows all gun owners are clinging to their Bibles. It is a fact. We must accept these things.

When I was initially ranting there, I was mostly thinking of people who share one of my beliefs and assume that means that I share all of them, but it also does go the other way when I get "pigeonholed" by people who don't know me going on a single one of my positions. Anyone who's followed any of my *many* gun related arguments here in PPR has probably seen me sandbag someone who's made false assumptions about my political affiliation or background by bringing up my Obama vote or my socially progressive positions, which I must admit can be fairly entertaining when someone thinks they're scoring points by painting me as some sort of ignorant redneck type. Maybe this sort of thing is exacerbated by the aspieness of the membership here with the black and white thinking, maybe it's harder for some to allow for positions they agree with and disagree with in the same person.

^^I think you've nailed it there. I'm pretty sure that most people take some sort of worldview as their own in order to "fit in", become a member of some group. most AS people don't have this sort of social instinct.

I think it happens everywhere, with everyone, Dox.

Well, everyone knows that hard-core veganism is just extreme fascism in disguise... if the health food nuts ever come to power, expect meat eaters to be incinerated by the millions in the only legally operable barbecue pits... wasnt it Jefferson who said that if totalitarianism ever comes to america, it will come wearing a stethoscope? Was the stethoscope even invented in Jefferson's time? (Thomas, not George)

*** edited by ed ***

I'd agree with those here pointing out the tow-the-party-line mentality. We are herd animals. We get in a particular herd and the herd expects us to agree with everything and anything the herd says/does while vehemently denouncing everything and anything the herd on the other side of the fence says/does. I often wonder what would happen if you could strip away the names and party affiliations from, say, Bush or Obama and ask someone, "President does X. Do you agree?" I'm thinking a lot of people would either be lost. "But if I don't know what party President belongs to, how do I know if I'm supposed to like or hate him?"

And admittedly, to shorten things I too will generalize. No secret that I find a WHOLE lot less common ground with the Republican herd than the Democrat herd. But at the end of the day, my principles are mine, no matter which party supports them.