OK... we need help in responding to a Teabagger post from niece on FB:

[secondwind]

My husband and I marched last night with Occupy Boston..... he posted this on FB last night:

This Vietnam Vet, capitalist just marched for the first time ever with the Boston Occupiers! Dewey Square to the bridge. Actually, it was enjoyable. Cold, rain, and *** yelling with the best of them! What a country and the police were actually supportive. This is a needed poke to the powers that be!!

*********************

My husband has never done this before, but I have, many times. Anyway, this morning, we found this response from a niece on FB:

I hope everyone picked up their trash... Are the occupiers taking up a collection to repay the city for the added stress on it's infrastructure and resources? I don't get it at all. Sticking it to the man? why don't they go do something productive and stick to him that way? run for office, change the laws, write letters and make change happen. I respect legitimate demonstration with a purpose, but this is a joke.

And then she came back with this:

oh, and did you go check your stock values right after you were done marching... just asking?

***********************

We have many responses for these posts, but want to leave EMOTION out of the equation..

What we want to do is give her a response that will leave her speechless..... we don't want to start a flame wars thing.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

DUers are so good at this, and I've never asked before.. but would like some help here.

Thanks in advance.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Do as I did to my niece: "xxxx, you know I love you, but we...

disagree. I will not discuss this with you any further."

[hlthe2b]

3. And perhaps add....

One day, I fear, you will understand oh so well....hopefully it
will not be too late

On edit, I find her post to be incredibly snarky, given it is directed
to family. Forgive me, but do you have a close relationship with
her? Opinionated is one thing, but she seems really derisive
toward you. That might change my thoughts re: any attempt to
educate her.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

2. How old is she?

Sounds like she might need a history lesson. Find a copy of Howard Zinn's Book, A Peoples History of the United States.

First off tell her you love her, ask her to further elaborate on her feelings, and how she came to those conclusions,
You may have to fact find for her, Maybe add that you are doing this for her generation.

[secondwind]

4. she's in her early 40's... this is not a teenager. married, 3 kids, etc.

[hlthe2b]

5. Her opions may be pretty firn then

As I mentioned earlier, I find her snarkiness towards you sort
Of shocking really ... Perhaps your best bet would be to merely
Indicate an unwillingness to discuss politics further with her in order
To preserve your relationship. Painful, I know

[CJCRANE]

6. You could say something like this:

"I agree with your suggestions for making change happen but Occupy is also a way of getting involved and making our voices heard. If enough people protest maybe politicians will actually do something to repair the infrastructure we're all so worried about".

[secondwind]

7. Thanks for your posts... here is what my husband wrote back: I think it was a good response:

Jackie, I didn't mean to hit a nerve! Sometimes it takes more than letter writing to effect change. Peaceful demonstration is one. Wall Street isn't responsible for the world's ills, but it's “emblematic of an entire economic and political system that no longer seems to have the best interests of most Americans at heart." The Koch brothers be damned! Now, no more politics. : )



My husband has a short fuse..... so thanks to you guys for "taming the beast"! :toast:

[Tippy]

11. Very good response...tell him Congrats..

[sammytko]

8. Why even post there or respond to posting there?

I've quit FB for the most part because of the neo-con postings of some of my "friends" - I have 125 or so. It used to make me mad and then I thought - I never even talk politics with these people in real life, why on Facebook?

I especially hated the older ones that would re-post stupid things that are so easily debunked.

Now I might check in every few weeks or so.

[Tippy]

10. I just recently began posting on FB.....

Never really liked FB because of people posting so many pictures of their children and grandchildren. I love my kids and grandkids but would never put their pictures out there for the perverts to ogle..Plan to give this a try...to see where it leads.

[lunatica]

9. Tell her that her advice is very good and that she should follow it

That the OWS will welcome her when it doesn't work for her either.

[applegrove]

12. There are a million messages bubbling up. Most of them having to do with not letting the rich buy

our government so that the stock market is not the only place the country is above water. We are so much more than that....there are so many more wonderful facets to our country than the 1% can understand. It is called democracy.

[Ikonoklast]

13. Tell her the stockholders are getting s screwing, too.

CEO's that get tens of millions of dollars for FAILING, how is that good for stockholders?

Why should I, as a stockholder, accept less in value for my holdings because s screw-up of a CEO got a multi-million dollar Golden Parachute and the stockholders get to hold the bag?

How does she know that OWS is a 'joke', anyway? what is the extant of her personal experience in the matter? Does she automatically believe everything the media tells her, without question?

Ask her to accompany you to an OWS event, and *then* form an opinion.

[Norrin Radd]

14. "repay the city" Since when do teabaggers care about infrastructure

or public works/space, and, it's our city. It doesn't belong to itself.

[doccraig67]

15. tj

“I hope we shall crush… in its birth the aristocracy of our
moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our
government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws
of our country."
Thomas Jefferson

[DebJ]

17. Ha! That's my sig line on my emails. n/t

[vaberella]

16. i agree and disagree with her. i support the movement and demonstration.

But i think some of the people who are pushing for change should run for political office so they can make and change the laws. Congress...doesn't listen to us and that is evident. Removing some of the fools in Congress who fuck us over is the best way.

[cags]

18. I would simply delete her post. There is nothing worse than being ignored.

[Arkana]

19. "No, the Occupy movement is actually striving to keep the areas it uses clean."

"And no, why do you ask?"

Be completely nonchalant. She wants to piss you off--don't take the bait.

[WingDinger]

20. Used to be an ankle bracelet was an impediment, now you youngins' choose them.

No wonder you do not recognize your captivity. Yeah, I know, they should never have allowed us out of our free speech pens.

[mwb970]

21. Ignore her.

You're not going to change her mind, so why try? Ignoring her sends a message: "Your comment is not worth responding to."

[urgk]

22. "Economic inequality kills babies. Really."

"Go ahead, make fun of those protesters, if you want, but the income inequality they're protesting raises the infant mortality rate. It causes Americans to die younger and makes it more likely that when they do, that death will be violent. It makes the rest of us pay higher insurance premiums when more Americans are morbidly obese, and higher taxes when more Americans are in prison (http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html).

But, it's a joke. It's funny, right?

We like to talk in this country about how are kids are lazy, how they'll never amount to anything. But here is a group of kids...and grandparents...and hard-working taxpayers.... who are actually doing something - they're organizing to demand that somebody, anybody, take it seriously when the United States Constitution says:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What could be more patriotic, more noble, more...."productive" than to demand our Constitutional rights? What better way to "make change happen" than to demand that our elected officials enforce the very document upon which our nation is founded? What greater purpose could there be than to point out that we have as much right to be protected from greed -- from the unbridled pursuit of profit -- as we do to be protected from foreign enemies?

If you want to get upset at something, get upset at the people who are telling these kids to sit down and shut up...to give up their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble; to give up the birth right of free speech earned by the blood of our soldiers, broadened by the courage of our civl rights leaders, written indelibly into law by our founding fathers. Get mad at Newt Gingrich whose best response to a national economic crisis is to tell those who are demanding something be done to take a bath and get a job. Get righteously angry at every news outlet, pundit and congressman who's asking you to let what happened to our economy, our jobs, our neighborhoods, our friends, our tax dollars and our nation happen again...so the 1% can buy another yacht or pay off another Senator.

Ask those kids to report and to ostracize the violent protestors. Ask them to be civil and to be respectful. Ask them to throw away their trash. But don't you dare ask them to throw away their Constitutional rights. Or their belief that this country can, and should, change for the better."

Best I could do on short notice. :)