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Rich Colbert's avatar

Yesterday I was driving to do an errand. On my vehicle I have a decal memorializing Sgt. Hamzy and Lt. DeMonte who were ambushed by a crazed person with an AR-15. I passed a truck with the same decal but then I saw he also had a decal with a character peeing on "Biden." Of course I see it and am filling with angst. I agree with the need to lower the temperature of our debates BUT I have no idea how to get through to those who are so dug in to conspiracies - the attack on Paul Pelosi cannot even bring gQp leaders to speak with unity and force to condemn the attempted murder. Those like Laura Ingraham continue to call Officer Fanone a "crisis actor"! Many still call the Sandy Hook massacre that happened in our backyard a hoax! How do we ignore those people? I think it is incumbent upon us to call them out, expose them and try to be voices of truth and reason. However, I am drowning from pi**ing up that rope for the last 5+ years?!?

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Nor do I. I always was taught if you ignore this, it goes away. It didn't. But engaging on that same pissing level is fruitless.

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Sharon Foster (CT)'s avatar

I'm pretty sure ignoring it is not the way to go. We've seen more than enough to know that it's not all going to blow over one day. It has to be called out for what it is.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I suppose calling it out will be it, then. I have to remove myself from the notion that calling it out makes it go away.

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Jac's avatar

It's in too many places to make it go away. I think calling it out in candidates or people who hold public office is helpful. Voters should know. Calling it out among family & friends/acquaintances is helpful, because they might listen or care about what you say. Calling it out with random people online seems rarely helpful. They seem to also enjoy being provocative just so they can channel their hate further with a random, faceless person. The discussion is almost always useless, IMO, and a waste of time. Anyone who would post something as awful as that in the first place is unlikely to suddenly show compassion, self-reflect and show remorse. They are more likely to delight in riling up "the liberals". In those situations, I ignore.

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Lou's avatar

I think the title of your post says it all. Many years ago, the vast majority of people would have reacted to this with scorn and disdain. But with TFG's brand of politics becoming more the norm, this is seen as an acceptable response. It is vile, cruel, and unacceptable.

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Joan Sheehan's avatar

We are awash in so much hate and lies that we don’t know what to do. I agree with those who say we must call it out.

The other day I told my husband, I miss the old days of three news networks telling us the news and that was it.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

But even then, we were missing a lot of news. It was slanted then, as well, in ways we finally figured out were hurtful on a different level. I respect and love Walter Cronkite and I will forever, but the news in those days was so very white-centric and we missed a lot of important things.

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Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

Yeah, I've been thinking about that for some time. I am still not sure what's the best of the none-of-them-great solutions.

Don't repost, and allow baddies and their dupes to claim that they aren't nyuh-uh doing that, they're Good?

Repost and expand their reach?

It's true that when people weren't so overtly hateful the hate and violence were still festering in obscurity. But OTOH they weren't recruiting as successfully.

I wish we could get to a change of Zeitgeist. To where goose-stepping of various sorts doesn't get the feverishly giggle some response it now does. To before young (and not-young) men being assholes wasn't automatically accepted as bold and hilarious.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Precisely this. But since we can't turn the clock back, what's the solution for now, when asshole behavior is viewed as you say, as bold and hilarious?

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Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

When you figure it out, let us know?

In the meanwhile I at least periodically point out the stance and its poverty.

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Thomas Dombroski's avatar

Some of the goofballs that I know that post stupid or hateful memes always seem to stop in their tracks when I tell them that they are fake christians

Some stopped posting memes

Some unfriended me so they could post their hate without feeling guilty

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Susan Campbell's avatar

That's interesting. I mean, it WOULD make you pause, if you were paying attention.

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