A Complete Waste of Space

callmeslick wrote:nuf, a priceless thread! My sides still hurt, although I take some umbrage at comments about the South. All of us who were raised below the Mason Dixon line are NOT uneducated morons, and on the whole, I find Virginia, for instance, a damned tolerant place to live. Pockets of the deep South are actually pretty damned decadent(NOLA, the Keys, Miami, Biloxi, etc).

Local South Carolinian reporting to say that my experience has been similar to his. I'm a pretty left leaning guy and people usually respect my opinions or keep their racism to themselves if I say I have an issue with it. Sure, you're gonna get some bible thumpers telling me I'm going to hell, but that isn't the majority of people for my area. I don't even think its fair to generalize the entire "South" one way or the other in regards to racism or other kinds of bigotry. There are a lot of different people here, its not some collective of rednecks.

I live in Kansas, long the laughing stock of various sitcoms and also the world as far as conservativeism goes.

I learned a long time ago to not get overly scientific or factual in conversation, especially if it goes to prove someone wrong, even if it is correcting a pretty basic fact, not necessarily in argument. A lot of the time going into detail and fully explaining something, especially on a political topic, will get you branded as a smartass. Some people will think you are trying to outsmart them or make them look foolish.

Part of rural culture is a value placed on directness. Not necessarily simplicity, but directness. True anti-intellectualism, value placed on ignorance, is actually fairly rare. People often mistake explaining complex ideas as trying to squirm out of giving a straight answer. I've seen people turn sour on me in conversation (not vocally but subtly) explaining in detail even things they support, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, there is more to the Quar'an than exterminating whitey. No, we should not nuke Somalia. Yes, climate change is happening, I know it snowed yesterday.

As far as religion goes, in decent sized cities its OK to be an atheist but not the norm by far. If you happen to be good friends with someone (a younger person) from a rural town, usually religion is a subject just avoided or or you are a target for subtle (good natured and not even necessarily annoying) attempts at conversion. The idea of atheism is alien to the younger generation, although its still very unpopular with the older.

A big part of the far right's appeal is that they speak directly and in absolute terms. Obama IS ruining us. Liberalism IS the enemy. The course of action is CLEAR. Things are simple enough for YOU to understand.

I love living in the South. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee and it's a beautiful city. People are dumb, yes. People are religious, yes. People are conservative, yes.

Deal with it. Southerners do not match their stereotype exactly.

I'm a moderate atheist. I get by just fine. Sure, I get the frequent hushed stares when I admit I'm atheist to a group of people, or the "well we'll be praying for you" as a parting message. But these people mean well. Religion is such a mainstay of the American South that most folks assume that everyone is religious. That's why you'll get the question "What church do you go to?" It happens. Just answer confidently and there are no problems. If there are, let them happen. If they have a problem with you you probably don't want to associate with them anyway.

Politics are a totally different thing. Politics bring out the worst in people. As another poster said, don't mention politics and you'll be fine. Just avoid the topic. If it comes up, and discussion doesn't happen, drop the conversation. Problem solved.

Basically, don't be an assholet, and most people won't be an assholet back.

Edit: I have many friends who go to church. They know I'm atheist and they don't care! It's crazy, I know.

But... you know, them Southerners

It's a bit annoying for some reason to hear people who don't live in the south talk about how backwards it is, even though as someone who grew up in the south I KNOW how bad of a place it is. It's not a completely different country than the northeast or midwest. There are plenty of ignorant people in those regions as well, the south just seems to be home to a disproportionate amount of people who take pride in not knowing poo poo. Blame the lackluster education or whatever else you like, it is what it is.

What can be annoying to me as a big lefty living in Louisiana is no one thinks I exist at all. To most Americans outside of the south, this place is totally full of anti-intellectual conservatives. I can definitely tell you this isn't the case. And if you think you're frustrated by these conservative southerners, you should try living amongst them and see how goddamn frustrating they are.

Even if the entire country made a major shift to the left the south would still be a bastion for today's flavor of conservatism and that's frustrating as hell for me.

Obama has continued or expanded almost all of Bush's bad policies, and broken new ground on his own.

- Continued both wars, expanded Afghanistan drastically. We now have more troops there than the USSR did at their peak.
- Expanded conflicts in Yemen and Pakistan
- Continued policy of warrantless wiretapping
- Continued policy of extraordinary rendition
- Continued policy of torture
- Refusal to prosecute or investigate Bush administration for any of the above.
- Attempting to claim the power to assassinate US citizens without a trial(BONUS: Bush claimed that power)
- Very little useful action on economic front
- No reforms to prevent the next crash
- Very friendly to the FIRE sector that were his biggest contributors
- Personally killed almost all meaningful reform in Health Care, including the parts that are most going to gently caress the budget
- Pushed a GOP healthcare plan.
- Placed the guy receiving the most money from the industry in charge of HCR
- Personally helped kill most of the meaningful financial regulation reforms
- Lied to the UN(read the wikileaks)
- Spied on the UN(same)
- Hamstrung the stimulus package by filling it with tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy as a pre-compromise gaining nothing
- Pushed plan of tax cuts to the wealthy
- Pushed plan of defunding to SS
- Deficit commision created in a huge recession, against the will of Congress
- Deficit commission stacked with conservatives
- Meaningless pay cut to federal employees
- Vocal about plans to cut Medicare and SS(BONUS: Bush actually expanded Medicare and didn't managed to harm SS)
- Convincing liberals to support GOP policies because of a false dichotomy.

I'm sure there's more, this was just off the top of my head. The guy is a conservative. So is most of the party, including the leadership.

The only part that's blinding you is the (D) after their names.

I had this same conversation with my father recently, and it's enough to make you tear your own hair out in large, bloody tufts. He cited foreigners he's witnessed receiving health care in Boston area hospitals as proof that the whole world hates socialized medicine and envies us. He makes it out as if people get sick or injured and hop on a plane to the U.S. for treatment, ignoring the fact that, presumably, they are mostly immigrants or visiting foreign nationals. Either way, residents. Oh, and the three years I spent living in Canada in no way gives me a better idea about how canadians feel about their health care system (militant was my word). Nope. He saw a canadian at Mass General one time, ergo, canadians hate socialized medicine and come here in droves for treatment.

nuf wrote:i think this post sums up what we can witness in many forums:

He saw a canadian at Mass General one time, ergo, canadians hate socialized medicine and come here in droves for treatment.

Reservoir_Dog wrote:Shit, I was going to go to Boston to have penis reduction surgery.

fatman wrote:Come on man way to kill my buzz
And your ex mil right? Do you know if mags are a controlled for you guys or can a few go missing