I find this ironic

[Political Tiger]

Many of the same people who are demanding President Obama go out and scream and shout over the BP oil spill are the same people who throw a fit when people WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ON A MESSAGE BOARD! ;)

Just a small, albeit very small, observation of mine, but I think some people really need to rethink their priorities!

:fistbump:

[RoyGBiv]

1. Good luck with that re-thinking thing ...

DU has got to be the largest concentration of cognitive dissonance I have ever had the misfortune to stumble across.

And it's not recent either. It's just lately showed up with things like you mention.

Take the idea of "war" for example. I was in a thread some years ago in which an individual offered the opinion that all of the civilians who lived in the South and died in the Civil War "deserved" it and that the Union armies "should" have actually inflicted more damage than they did. That same person was at the same time on another thread locked in battle with some members of DU who supported the Afghan war, at least in theory if not in execution, and were arguing that Bush's greatest post-911 error was in not prosecuting it to its fullest and instead getting us involved in Iraq. The individual arguing the opposite said that the war in Afghanistan was not justified primarily because of the "civilians" who were dying.

Now I don't offer this to start an argument on that subject. The point is that the individual's position was, at best, inconsistent, and that person wasn't even aware of it. When I dared mention it, I was accused of all sorts of nasty things.

I've noticed it mostly with less controversial things, e.g. people bitching constantly about corporations who in another thread laud the existence of a company that is a massive corporation. At one time I would get into this a lot on the Computer forums. A person claiming to hate all corporations and who would describe their political philosophy as socialist nonetheless would get insultingly defensive when I'd suggest using OpenSource software instead of products produced by Apple or Microsoft.

I think I have given in to my own cynicism. People demand the right to judge without being judged and to opine as though speaking gospel truths without even being asked to support their position. It's not that they DON'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO YELL. It's that they don't like people who yell louder than them.

[goclark]

2. K

[treestar]

4. They hate the corporations so much, but then get upset when the corporation

loses jobs - why would they want anyone to work for these monstrous entities?

[RoyGBiv]

5. I don't understand that one even a little ...

...not even in theory. Even the idea that privately owned businesses could fuel the engines of the country is an idea that died in the 19th century. The apparent desire to get back to that is one reason I've been referring lately to many modern self-proclaimed leftists as reactionaries. They're far more conservative than they think they are in wanting a return to the status quo pre-industrial revolution, which is what all the anti-bank, anti-corporations sentiment really boils down to.

Rather than ramble on some more about specific examples -- and I could ramble for days -- I'll just say this.

This hatred of corporations while demanding jobs, the demanding a lot of yelling while decrying those who yell is emotional. It's not intended to be thought through. We don't think about why we should be angry or happy or feel love or hate. We just feel those things. Given time and accumulated wisdom, we will tend to evaluate our emotional responses and may attempt to alter how we react to certain circumstances. However, when we are in the moment of having an emotional response and someone challenges it with an attempt at a logical argument, we become defensive, thus ingraining the emotional response as though it were truth.

It's Spock vs. McCoy.

"That's not logical."

"Don't speak to me about logic you damn, green-blooded, pointy eared freak!"

[Uzybone]

7. Please make this an OP

Brilliant post.

[Cary]

3. I think. . .

. . . if Democrats give aid and comfort to "conservatives" we're all screwed.

Reagan beat Carter because Reagan managed to confuse and distract enough Democrats. Carter allowed it because he said some pretty stupid things. But basically it was the "Reagan Democrats" who put Reagan over the top.

It was a huge mistake. My parents were "Reagan Democrats" for a year or two. Then they were sorry.

[HughMoran]

6. The irony goes a lot, lot deeper

Imagine if you will attacking a poster for suggesting that we be more productive in our anger toward BP. Imagine a concerted effort to attack and deride such a message. Feel like throwing up yet? :puke: