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Small town Republican thoughts on refuting the alt-right. In The Republican Journal:
I want to make one thing very clear: The Waldo County Republican Committee absolutely, unequivocally condemns Nazi and KKK ideologies and actions, as well as any other kind of bigotry, and we encourage all of our voters and the community at large to do the same.
For fellow Republicans out there, worry not, we don't like Antifa's ideology and actions either, but we need to clean our own house; we need to worry about our own responsibilities.
Such honesty, and clarity of thought!
The most dangerous part of politics today is identity politics, trolling, pathos and a severe lack of critical thinking. You cannot defeat the insidious hatred of bigoted politics with more hate. By doing so, you morph the conversation away from policy and ideology to silly label syntax, eventually devolving completely into back and forth verbal gymnastics. Make no mistake, these trolls are ready for you as you stoop to their level, and they beat you up with mountains of experience.
So what do we do? Very simple. Stay neighborly by controlling your reaction. Seek out those with whom you disagree, try to understand them first, and politely offer your counter argument.
And it looks like the Republicans in Maine, if not in Illinois, are rejecting the alt-right.
The way to defeat Mr. Kawczynski is not by attacking him, but by attacking his ideas. Here are some flaws in his thinking: His immigration ideas are antithetical to the Maine Republican party platform, a section of which states, "We support the assimilation of legal immigrants into Maine society."
Kawczynski's ideas stand in contrast to Maine history and culture; in fact, it is white folks with racist ideologies who pose the greatest threat to Maine's foundation, not other races of people.
Another brilliant tidbit:
Ultimately, all you have to do is walk outside with your eyes open in this state to see that Kawczynski's fearmongering about "white genocide" is completely laughable.
Entire guest column is well worth a read.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 10 2018, @10:02AM (4 children)
Gotta agree with the old fart here. I mean he can't be much more substantial than a fart by now, even Yoda couldn't break 1k.
I digress, at some point alt-righters figured out they could play on the liberal sensibility of tolerance and for a short time they thought they were making massive headway. They slipped a massive movement through this tolerant gateway and thought it was a failing of the liberal minded. They have now used up the tolerance and there is now very little compromise left to be had. Sometimes it is better to not take the high road and to yell right back in the face of bullies.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 10 2018, @12:44PM (2 children)
That headway? Rhetoric, populism and lies, planted in the fertile soil of "my ignorance is as good as your education, teach the controversy" led into it.
What to to? Apply common sense - those conservatives know "Stay neighborly by controlling your reaction. Seek out those with whom you disagree, try to understand them first, and politely offer your counter argument." It's a normal world, it used to be an everyday world before the spin-masters stepped into it and started to twist it into monstrous shapes to fit their interest. Can you fault them they want that world back?
And what the "old fart" does? Plays the "No, you go to journal; no, you; no, you first" game. Right, wise reaction.
What if the offer of counter-argument fails, you ask? Then, there's the other part of life that the "old fart" ignores - direct and shared experience. Not the words of philosophers of the old, no epistemology and metaphysics. Go live with them in their neighbourhood for 2 weeks and start something from the grass-roots.
For instance, if you are such an "internet-connected-world wizard", start a funding campaign for some $15k-$20k, convince the locals to volunteer for 2 weekends and, together with them and your 79-sexes troupe of die-hard liberals in all colors of the rainbow, plug the holes in some 3-4 miles of potholed [wgme.com] roads [mainecampus.com] in Maine [cartalk.com] - the ones that hurt the local economy [pressherald.com] (start with the East Waldo road [blogspot.com] for instance?). No, you don't repair the road (gets you to millions/mile), you just plug the holes.
What's gained from this? Shared experience, a road that won't damage their car for the next year, showing that action count more than hollow nazi slogans and empty local administration promises, empowers them to take the things that matter in their own hands.... shall I continue?
For God sake, even the anarchists can have more common sense than a 2k "old fart"? [reason.com]
Just what did you do with my fork, you dining philosopher?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 10 2018, @04:33PM (1 child)
I can't quite tell from your response there, but it seems like you took my "old fart" joke rather personally. I was just teasing your chosen identity and the number of times you say you're thousands of years old. Stop obsessing about your fork, just make sure you've got your towel.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 10 2018, @10:44PM
No, nothing like that. My relation with the magister doesn't allow me to use "old fart" in any other sense than a friendly appellation.
Yours,
c0lo
---
about the way the philosophers use forks [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:01AM
Dafuq did you even say? "slipped a massive movement" - a big shit? "through this tolerant gateway" - progressive faggots? "failing of the liberal minded" - well of course. "used up the tolerance" - progressives are butt-hurt? "little compromise to be had" - no more reacharounds? "not take the high road" - Huh? You who live in the gutters have lower and higher roads?
Fucking progressives are more complex than we ever imagined! They have high roads!