Howdy y’all! The comment section at Ye Olde Blogge and the Facebook page has been busy of late, which is especially surprising given the huge hole in the posting schedule over the past two months. At least the trolls are giving us posting fodder, amirite? Proving once again that every silver lining has a dark center once the trolls show up to shit on things. Trolling isn’t that the expression of nihilism gone digital?

Back on 27 March, a character calling himself, Mr Untroubled White Cracker, graced us with a comment that began, Why should I care about lesser cultures when it was my white culture that sailed across the Atlantic and built this country? in response to the post, What Can I Do? Five Things White People Can Do To End Racism. My rule here on the blog is that as long as you offer some kind of semi-coherent argument as opposed to just invective, I’ll deal with it. I have to admit. I saw Cracker’s user name and that first line, and I thought, racist motherfucker and braced myself for something a little less articulate but equally irrational as my Uncle’s If a black person stepped foot in my church, I’d never go back. I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

He goes on to say, When I go to Africa I notice the mud huts and the violent tribal politics, and I conclude their culture is backward. Seriously? I lived in Kenya for five years. When people live in mud huts or huts made of indigenous material living their traditional lifestyle, they are living in harmony with the nature around them and providing quite nicely for themselves… usually. They solved the problem of living in that area with their technology… and they innovate to continue coping as the environment changes and their knowledge grows.

True most African politics is tribal based and corrupt. But, really, you’re claiming ours isn’t? At least they’re honest about it. I’m not saying there is anything superior about living the traditional lifestyles or African politics. I’m just saying there is nothing significantly inferior about it.

My response was to call him a racist and advise him to learn more about how America was actually built and the cultures he was condemning. I bet you can predict his response.

But you haven’t actually given me a reason to acknowledge black people, other than labelling [sic] me and hoping that changes something? Fucking laughable. Labeling him when he calls himself a cracker? Jesus. He’s labeled himself. You can’t have any self-respect and even attempt such an argument. And, my job ain’t to give you no reason to do anything. My job on this blog as set by myself for myself is to use psychology to explain current events and be as snarky, sarcasticky, and profaney as I wanna be. It is my goddamn blog. 

But, I thought I very tactfully, tactful for a snarky, sarcasticky, profaney blog that is pointed out what I perceived as the error of his ways and what he could do about it. If culture is your thing, then you should go out and try to learn about other cultures. Once you’ve done that, then you’re qualified to discuss here on my blog. Until then, you just wallow in stubborn willful stupidity. Hey, I’m nothing if not an altruistic pervert. You’d think after round two, he’d’ve learned his lesson, but no, he’s got a rote pattern he pursues like a bee dancing directions in his hive. He just can’t help himself because he once he delivers his gotcha line, he knows he’s won regardless of whether he actually has accurately described the interaction. Did I mention he calls himself cracker, claims to have visited Africa, and describes Africans as living in mud and stick huts, and then objects if someone thinks he’s racist? Jesus dancing on the head of a pin.

I always end up concluding that people who don’t have an answer to something but prefer to berate the questioner for daring to ask, tend not to actually have an answer. That’s OK, I didn’t have a good answer either, that’s why I asked. Seriously, what? I gave a very articulate answer in the article he’s commenting on and called him ignorant and advised that he educate himself. That ain’t berating. Calling him stupid might be. Ignorance is a lack of information, which he clearly lacks, and I’m guessing ain’t interested in getting. He will only stare pointedly at one side of the issue like a common Egyptian hieroglyph cherry picking information to support his conclusions. Motivated reasoning and confirmation bias in action.

Isn’t this a tired response coming out of these types? I only want to have an honest discussion but all I get is berated; therefore, I win. It doesn’t matter whether you actually did want to have an honest discussion or actually were berated. Christ, how weak must your ego be to make this your standard modus operandi? But I guess that’s just the price of shit these days.

This was actually part of my attempt to understand the Liberal mindset on race, but sadly you and your little friend appear to be overly emotional and very hostile towards people outside of your bubble?
I can’t see this being very educational for anyone. Thankfully not all Liberals are quite as angry as you two, but this elitist condescension does seem to be commonplace and a bit of a barrier.

Go back to his first post from Mr Untroubled White Cracker about how his ancestors crossed the Atlantic and built this great country all by their lonesome with no help from anyone but good white stock, and now you’re trying to tell me I shoulda known you wanted to have an honest discussion of race? How weak. What a joke.

He should try reading the article he is responding to — it is pretty clear he didn’t since he didn’t reference anything in it — and writing with a little more curiosity and information about other peoples and cultures before trying to initiate a serious discussion. But, of course back on his racist social media sites, he’ll be reporting about how once again the mean liberals are not interested in an honest exchange no matter how politely approached. What a cracker.

The other comments in question are in response to Politico article I posted there about The Ol’ Pussy Grabber sending more money and resources to help Texas recover from Hurricane Harvey than he has to Puerto Rico to recover from Hurricane Maria even though Puerto Rico quite clearly needs more help than it is getting and Texas is recovering quite nicely. It seems to reveal an obvious bias. One, James Farquharson, went well out of his social media way to grace us with this pearl necklace of “wisdom,” Politico… Hahahaha grasping at sippy cups aren’t you now!? Seriously, that’s what you’ve got? Are you making the snowflakes cry now? Have I been told?

If you’re going to come to this page that (a) links to credible sources for all my claims of news, psychological findings, and psychological theories because I believe in attributing work where it is deserved and to allow my readers to go beyond my interpretations if they so desire, and (b) uses a lot of snarky, sarcasticky, and profaney language and expects such weak shit to taken seriously. Well, you can read the fuck off he received.

Worse, though, is his tandem troll, Rick Cobane, posting the general question, not to James by name or even in reply, What would you have done? He was told to fuck off, too.

My other message to them was that they needed to make an argument of some sort rather than just waste the bandwidth with their ether nonsense. What the fuck does any of that even mean?

Then, as if to prove that he can learn nothing and has nothing in his head, James offers this witty and well-informed retort, The Psy of Life . Hey, maybe he visited the blog? but probably didn’t read a goddamn thing on it.

For fuck sake, is this what our political discourse has descended to? An exchange of mindless memes and trying to sucker each other into some kind of emotional argument only to then blame the other side for being emotional and failing to enter into a constructive dialogue?

Motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, groupthink, dehumanization are destroying this country. We no longer believe in or even understand democracy as a group. Democracy, Cracker, James, and Rick is not a sporting event in which one side wins and the other loses. Democracy is a process of dialogue which will result in an informed compromise being enacted. Like our Forefathers warned (a) the republic can be easily lost (Franklin), and (b) it takes an informed public to maintain it. Otherwise, we’ll just end up as another authoritarian state or worse.