Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Olbermann, Maddow

The Unforgiven.
ER — (archived)

We do have an ideological split here. Maddow, Olbermann, Limbaugh and Coulter DO share something in common; the sneer, the snark, the use of ridicule and and the appeal to hatred, the manipulating of political positions into moral ones in order to discredit the opposition by attacking not their ideas, but their very right to exist. It is the same attitudes I see in some of the partisans on this board, and I find it sad.

Oh yes, I understand this is war, and sometimes you get to the point where you realize that you have no choice but to bomb civilians. And I don't want to fight the war here, where I come to play. But the war was raging when I got here, and I saw my enemies and saw that they had to be stopped, because you cannot appease them and neither can you reason with them. They will not accept compromise, they are implacable. But when you sign on to exterminate them, you realize they have succeeded into making you just like them. They have utter contempt for anything less.

I cannot forgive them, not because of what they believe, but because they force me to either engage them or to run away, like a coward.
We are the unforgiven, and they are the unforgiveable. Or is it the other way round? Does it really matter?

Maybe I'm overly sensitive about these matters. Perhaps for most of the people here this kind of debate is a way to blow off a little harmless steam, to engage in some friendly sparring, a game like Air Hockey or Foosball, played strictly for laughs. But I don't see it that way, it hurts me, it bothers me deeply to have to do this, it fills me with dread every time I am involved. Rightly or wrongly, I feel I am being forced to participate. Sometimes I get so upset I just run away, but that doesn't seem to moderate the contest, it goes on, and on, and on, and eventually my outrage drives me back.

Does anyone here even know what I'm talking about?

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