I do not do so for a very good reason: them.
One section of my friends subscribes to the theory that Obama is the be-all and end-all of evil, determined to impose a crypto-Muslim socialist United Nations choke hold on America, another (opposing segment) insists that Obama is actually a Fascist rightwinger hand-in-glove with the banking industry and the Christian extremes.
Please understand that in this context, 'friend' is used strictly to mean person whom I sort-of know, but whose sanity I sincerely doubt.
TWATS, BOTH VACUOUS AND JEJUNE
A few of them will always and eternally bring the subject of conversation back to the evil Muslims (all of them) who are plotting our downfall, funding terrorists, preaching hatred of the west, and sending their sons to fight in Syria.
Likewise, some of them constantly forward rock-hard evidence that liberals and gays are undermining the very fabric of American society, have un-American values, and are destroying our country from within.
Some have absolutely no good words for any man or idea to the right of Barry Goldwater.
Or to the left.
The internet has not made information more available so much as it has made insanity more prevalent.
"All Muzzies bad. No good ones. Kill them all, God will know his own."
In the past, voicing strong opinions about several subjects on this blog got me death threats and hate mail.
Real-life encounters with people who claimed that they were on the very same side were often marked by venomous accusations and indignant demands that I change my opinions to something more outré.
Forth-effing-whith!
Insults and strong opinions were screamed. Or sneered. Or whined.
"You're a Trotskyite race-hating homosexual!"
Some of those people accused me of being neurotic, heathen, liberal, Jesuitical, a neo-nazi, a communist. Besides being a very well-trained Christian critic of the Talmud, and a savage Christian-hating Jew.
An agent of the Jewish cabal that runs the world, as well as a pro-Arab infiltrator. And a Stalinist. Animal-hater! Vegetarian!
I no longer associate with those "friends".
Nor meet them for coffee.
They're nuts.
The past three years have been extraordinarily enjoyable. My free-time is taken up by reading (yes, also on the internet, but selectively and critically), heading over to Chinatown for snackipoos and hot milk-tea, an occasional pipe filled with good tobacco, and a spot of whisky now and then. My health is better, my manly figure trimmer and leaner, and my complexion now remarkably smooth and blemish free. The tentacles are almost gone, and my horns and tail have disappeared. No more bony armour plates.
Nor ichor and miasmas.
[PHOTO CREDIT: SPM / MM, et auctores antequam.]
Sometimes I listen to stirring war music in foreign languages.
Or ogle fair maidens wot never suspect a thing.
I do not regret absenting myself.
I don't actually have a dog in this fight. Whichever fight it is. I want to arm bears and bunny rabbits. And write about smoking and food.
Did I already mention that I wish to ride on a different planet? There's just too many smelly drunks occupying seats on this one.
Comments welcome.
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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
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11 comments:
You chose an easier life rather than be a positive source of change. You abandoned people who respected you and counted on you.
For the mass of America, snackipoos (and designer handbags) take precedent over fellowship and loyalty, so you now find yourself comfortably with the majority.
So glad you are happy.
Apologies. Maybe you are right. Maybe the key to happiness is to place thinking and feeling on the back burner, and to concern one's self with satisfing the "id'.
Its a harmless middle-aged crisis. May you enjoy a long life of milk tea and snacks and tobacco.
To Anonymous at 8:43 AM;
Abandoned people who respected me? Holy shit, you're smoking crack. Bxx was damned glad I left and basically told me to let the door slam my ass on the way out (quote: "Good bye. You've been threatening that for a couple of years now".). Rxxxx's e-mails all the way through the last one nearly two years ago were paranoid accusations and calling me every name in the book. Bxx got all huffy and accused me of calling her nuts about something on the list which I wasn't even privy to. Txxxx made a couple of vague remarks that more or less suggested that I was nuts. The rest, when they didn't tell me to mind my own damned business, steadfastly pretended I didn't exist. Sxxxx suggested that we should all just get along (meaning, in the context in which it occurred, that I should just fade into the background). Mxxxx made it quite clear that she did not respect me in the slightest since I told her I wasn't going to vote for a Republican - and I should point out, btw, that voting Democrat was, in that group, the wrong thing to do. There has been NO communication from any of those people in well over a year.
As for the people NOT on the list, well, let's see. Lxx K. thinks I'm basically a dunce and a patsy. Sxxxx S. who made alia always indicated that I was by no means kosher or even knowledgable. R and M can't stand me, and D thinks I'm either a control freak or a plant.
There are several others, mostly total loose cannons, who were and probably still are convinced that I didn't know which end was up.
Again, that voting Democrat thing. That probably more than anything else persuaded them that I couldn't be trusted.
And people who counted on me? Let's see.... people trying to pick fights, unaware of any security issues, blithering unaware of any danger for that matter, who wander around with no idea who might be following, holler out real names in happy recognition, and can't take hints. The phrase "herding cats" comes to mind.
Even during the three months after I quit the list, when we were still sort of pretending that I was still part of the group, none of those fuckers I mentioned in the first paragraph of this comment communicated with me.
You will recall that everyone was INSISTENT that Txxxx was still part of the group and demanded that she be reinstated.
I know that was NOT the case when Frxxx left. The attitude afterwards was between "eh, whatever" and "good effing riddance".
Between September and whenever the last time was in 2013 that I sent a message on the alternate list, the reaction, in a nutshell, was, "what, YOU again?!?"
And, in particular, on December 18, 2012, Rxxxx told me on that second list that I wasn't even marginal, I was out. Not part of the group. OUT.
No one disagreed.
I cannot use that list anymore in any case, because one of the listmembers strongly suggested that my doing so was disruptive and non-contructive, in every way possible, and whenever I do send out a feeler , Rxxxx responds with inprintable abuse. With, apparently, the silent approval of damned well everyone. Except of course for the ones who haven't figured out e-mail yet.
And that, in short, is the extent of communication with the group.
Those were people I had coffee with every week for several years.
It was good coffee, wasn't it?
Anonymous at 11:07 AM;
Yep, harmless. Given that my social life no longer revolves around herding kittens, but I still enjoy having people around me, it is not only the best I can do, but hanging out in C'town is far better than the proximity of most middle class non-Chinese Americans.
I don't have to hear about how special someone is, how she has asthma, is allergic to her own cat, or her fellow union members are all evil, or how Obama is planning to take away our guns, or how the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated, or how I'm a gentile who knows nothing, or how as a gentile I cannot possible understand anything, or who smoking is evil, or why the Dutch are idiots for not voting en-masse for Geert Wilders, or how all of Europe can go to hell, or how eating meat is depraved, disgusting, repulsive, and in any case makes me far, far, inferior to a cat lover, or about going camping, or about how San Diego is far better organized and if I would just SHUT UP we could actually do something.....
And, as for loyalty, I always worried more about the shitty understanding of security, confidentiality, and the complete lack of reasonable secrecy and any ability to shut up in public.
Did I mention kittens? Loud, squawling kittens.
You'd be surprised how many people I have blocked on facebook.
Go up to 'Privacy Shortcuts'. Scroll down to "How do I stop someone from bothering me". Click on it.
"You can block someone to unfriend them and prevent them from starting conversations with you or seeing things you post on your timeline."
Now, carefully note how many people are NOT listed among my friends. You probably know most of them, and can figure out why I do not have contact with them.
Yes, I am somewhat bitter, and I feel burned.
The cause is still worthwhile, but many of the people involved in it are idiots or asshats. That is the nature of any cause, I suppose.
And good lord but I hate the East Bay.
Everyone is gone. There is no one left. Its all a moot moot anyway.
Except that every single one of the hundred plus people I've blocked on facebook have been assholes, as well as unflexible and racist.
There are still three of those left. They're on a short list.
I appreciate what you've been doing on that other blog. Stellar work. But please realize that by and large that is a solitary endeavor, quite separate from those whom we let into the group. Who are largely useless, and not at all balanced.
re: other blog. I don't want to continue it, but like that episode of the Twilight zone, I can't give it up unless I can pawn it off on someone else.
No takers.
Your doing a fine job, and you're irritating the spit out of some people, as well as doing what must be done, and which is worthwhile
Keep it up, but perhaps post a bit less often.
Remember that a blog is, to a certain extent, timeless. Not necessarily current affairs.
People are still reading posts here from years ago.
You could, as just one hypothetical example, post something about Golda Meir. And it would be read. Not only today and tomorrow, but months and years hence.
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