Bits And Barbs

I wander about the internet in search of sanity. Of course, I never find any but that doesn't discourage me, I keep trying. Like Don Quixote, I tilt at the windmills of the internet. Perhaps I am a masochist.

What I find are comments like this:

Voters are finally getting wise to the smarmy politicians who worship at the altar of the free market god. Neoliberalism, which started as a creepy Reagan/Thatcher fetish, has now metastasized into a global mega-cult. The ultra-rich are the high priests, and the rest of us are the human sacrifices.

I cannot make sense of it... "Neoliberalism"?  What does that have to do with Reagan, Thatcher, or free markets?

But the comment continues:

The fact that thousands of children have been confined in border-state concentration camps, with near-zero public outrage, is the scariest proof of all that the US is now the grassroots fascism capital of the world.

The phrasing is wonderful, very creative, but the substance is insulting and offensive. At least to me. But it continues...

There's an average of one new school shooting every single week. Even police officers have become moving targets of unhinged right wing extremists. So the Justice Dept. has quietly restored its domestic extremism investigatory unit, five years after dismantling it to placate the NRA-loving, white supremacist-enablers of the GOP.

This person undoubtedly does not think she is an extremist. But she is also likely certain that those who disagree with her are. She would likely describe herself as "open-minded" and "tolerant" but I see no open-mindedness or tolerance. I see just the opposite; I see hate and bigotry and intolerance. I am, apparently, nearly alone in this since she received 676 "recommends" for her words.

Another blogger with whom I have had discussions with on the matter says he doesn't see these comments anywhere. I offered that he should peruse the Washington Post, The New York Times (where I found this comment), and the Huffington Post... they are rampant.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of this coming from the other side; "DemonRats" is one epithet I have seen and there are plenty more.

I do not understand. At one time, we didn't hate each other based on our political party affiliation. No, we hated each other for the color of our skin, for speaking another language, for our religious beliefs, for our accents. Oh wait, we still do that last. Have a southern accent? You will be assumed to be a bigot, and stupid, and probably one of those "white supremacist-enablers of the GOP." And never, ever, tell someone you are a NASCAR fan.

This comment was in a response to an article in the New York Times about Eric Cantor's loss in a primary.  I am saddened by the attitudes I see in this country. Sure, when I was growing up, prejudice was everywhere and if you were black, brown, or Jewish (and, in some places, Catholic, Italian, or some other minority), you might have trouble buying a house in suburbia or getting your children enrolled in the neighborhood schools but political leanings? People didn't much care. Few asked who you voted for and no one got upset if you voted for the party they did not support.

Maybe we just traded one prejudice for another.