What if they gave a protest and no one came?
Been following the world wide huge Global anti Iraq war protests? Well, if you missed that then maybe you noticed MSM, ever hopeful that they can create another Vietnam, fretting over the low turnout. “How can this be? We know the entire country has turned against Bush. His popularity is lower than Nixon’s was during the height of Watergate.” Well, maybe the media will have to learn to live with what should have been apparent to everyone: doing skewed polls as propaganda to sway public opinion is one thing, but if you start believing them yourself I think that qualifies as some sort of mental pathology.
In my own little corner of the world I live quite close to one of the standard hive minded hate zones of the left – Eugene Oregon. I drove by one of the protests yesterday and it would be hard to find a group less inclined towards cogent discussion yet constantly seeking to be taken seriously. Sometimes when I see these people I just want to stop my car, get out, and just walk up to one of them and hug them. “You are really trying so hard aren’t you? Please, you are embarrassing yourself and you don’t know it. Can I take at least one of you on a field trip to a kindergarten class?”
I really honestly feel this way. I feel that these people are so hate filled and frustrated simply because they do not have the verbal and logic skills to persuade people of their position. They get angrier and angrier because their reasoning skills and logic mean they will never be taken seriously. This inability to communicate leads to frustration and then hate. They need to step outside their hive mind peer group and see how others see them, that’s why my field trip to the kindergarten class.
What would be learned? Well first of all I think these people would observe that simply calling someone dumb or stupid doesn’t really advance your position. I saw plenty of variations of the “Bush is stupid” placards at the protests around the world. How stuck in the hive mind does one have to be to think this is effective? Do these Al Gore voters (remember him? He’s the guy who hired Naomi Wolf to help him learn to be more of an alpha male when he was VP) really think this is reasonable? The “I don’t like them, their dumb” argument is often used in kindergarten class, with the result of being sent to the corner by the teacher. It is equally effective in persuading the rest of us.
Second – learn that you can’t be running around playing and having fun, but then when the teacher walks in claim you were doing your studying (yes, I went to a tough Kindergarten). Likewise, you cant be having a protest, claiming you are fed up with the war, indignant about it, and are taking a principled stand, and then have everyone show up in wacky sunglasses and whooping it up and generally having a party. Try and at least look serious and understand that a lot of people are inclined to be against you because they have to go to work while you seem to have time on your hands for this sort of thing. Whooping it up and looking more like a party than a serious activity never convinced anyone. If your outraged, then show outrage, but do so with more reason and less dope smoking. Maybe watch the “I have a dream” speech. That was an effective protest. Did those people look like they were partying? Do you see how they were taken seriously?
Anyway, I really do hope that somewhere in the bee hive colony that constitutes this group there is a little drone working away busily on some educational materials for the rest of the hive minded. I don’t care if they agree or disagree with me; I just wish that somehow they could learn the reasoning skills that would lead them to be less frustrated and thus less angry and hateful. Hate is not dissent. Ok print the bumper sticker, slap it on, Im done.
Been following the world wide huge Global anti Iraq war protests? Well, if you missed that then maybe you noticed MSM, ever hopeful that they can create another Vietnam, fretting over the low turnout. “How can this be? We know the entire country has turned against Bush. His popularity is lower than Nixon’s was during the height of Watergate.” Well, maybe the media will have to learn to live with what should have been apparent to everyone: doing skewed polls as propaganda to sway public opinion is one thing, but if you start believing them yourself I think that qualifies as some sort of mental pathology.
In my own little corner of the world I live quite close to one of the standard hive minded hate zones of the left – Eugene Oregon. I drove by one of the protests yesterday and it would be hard to find a group less inclined towards cogent discussion yet constantly seeking to be taken seriously. Sometimes when I see these people I just want to stop my car, get out, and just walk up to one of them and hug them. “You are really trying so hard aren’t you? Please, you are embarrassing yourself and you don’t know it. Can I take at least one of you on a field trip to a kindergarten class?”
I really honestly feel this way. I feel that these people are so hate filled and frustrated simply because they do not have the verbal and logic skills to persuade people of their position. They get angrier and angrier because their reasoning skills and logic mean they will never be taken seriously. This inability to communicate leads to frustration and then hate. They need to step outside their hive mind peer group and see how others see them, that’s why my field trip to the kindergarten class.
What would be learned? Well first of all I think these people would observe that simply calling someone dumb or stupid doesn’t really advance your position. I saw plenty of variations of the “Bush is stupid” placards at the protests around the world. How stuck in the hive mind does one have to be to think this is effective? Do these Al Gore voters (remember him? He’s the guy who hired Naomi Wolf to help him learn to be more of an alpha male when he was VP) really think this is reasonable? The “I don’t like them, their dumb” argument is often used in kindergarten class, with the result of being sent to the corner by the teacher. It is equally effective in persuading the rest of us.
Second – learn that you can’t be running around playing and having fun, but then when the teacher walks in claim you were doing your studying (yes, I went to a tough Kindergarten). Likewise, you cant be having a protest, claiming you are fed up with the war, indignant about it, and are taking a principled stand, and then have everyone show up in wacky sunglasses and whooping it up and generally having a party. Try and at least look serious and understand that a lot of people are inclined to be against you because they have to go to work while you seem to have time on your hands for this sort of thing. Whooping it up and looking more like a party than a serious activity never convinced anyone. If your outraged, then show outrage, but do so with more reason and less dope smoking. Maybe watch the “I have a dream” speech. That was an effective protest. Did those people look like they were partying? Do you see how they were taken seriously?
Anyway, I really do hope that somewhere in the bee hive colony that constitutes this group there is a little drone working away busily on some educational materials for the rest of the hive minded. I don’t care if they agree or disagree with me; I just wish that somehow they could learn the reasoning skills that would lead them to be less frustrated and thus less angry and hateful. Hate is not dissent. Ok print the bumper sticker, slap it on, Im done.
posted by R Huse at 6:54 AM
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