So I have a great
friend in NY or I used to. We have known each other for decades but
just in the last 5 years or so starting talking almost daily. A
talented outsider artist, IMHO, we would discuss all sorts of
important matters such as the stupidity of modern computer graphics
and the failure of that movement, the importance of the Hollow Earth,
Lovecraft, the Illuminati's role in modern society, Keats, Blake,
Bulwer-Lytton and so forth.
My friend is well
known for helping other people who are down. No one can figure out
how he supports himself but among other things he is very frugal (but
that is not enough). He has had some adversity in life but does not
seem to notice. Like all my artist friends who are successful in
some sense of that word, he works extremely hard, and is very
productive. He has stood by friends in need on several different
occasions that I am aware of even when it was not convenient (a test
of character, in Southern terminology). Since I am impoverished
because of my work and commitment to computer animation he helped me
find a place to stay in NYC so that I could visit, which otherwise I
could not afford. He spent a billion hours with me when I visited NY
and really helped to make that trip great. His daily chats and emails
would often cheer me up, and since I am currently ostracized and
living in abject poverty, I enjoyed hearing from him. It helped to
break the near total isolation.
And he is a die hard Republican.
Loved Romney,
thought he would make a great president. Hates Obama more than he
would hate Hitler. Benghazi this and Hillary that. Obamacare blah
blah blah. Jews controlling the media, how much the Jews are hated,
etc. I would hear this stuff daily, more or less, in chats on
Google mail and by email. It was occasionally annoying but I
enjoyed talking to him, he had high entertainment value. I presumed
he was being occasionally sincere but often just provocative.
But he kept assuming
he knew what I thought and that I was a typical lefty liberal,
whatever that may mean. I kept telling him that he did not know
what I thought, really. He did not realize that my third generation
elitist Virginian reform Jewish atheist roots and the history of
Orthodox and Hasidic rabbis in my family in the Eighteenth century or so, as well as my time at the RAND Corporation left me
with somewhat eccentric and non-mainstream beliefs.
So one day, after
reading about an hour of rants about Democratic villainy from his
point of view I told him .0001 percent of what I believe. Just one
time, after hearing this stuff from him literally every other day (if
not every day) for years.
I told him what I
believed on just one issue just one time.
That the Supreme
Court pissed on the constitution in public in November 2000 when they
installed their goon, Bush Jr, as president in a classic coup d'etat.
That the NY Times was just a right-wing rag when it rolled over and
did not even slightly object to this gross injustice thus revealing
its true colors. That everything Bush did was therefore illegal.
That every decision that the Supreme Court made since that black day
needed to be reevaluated in light of this crime to see which of their
decisions were legal and which needed to be overturned.
And he never talked
to me again.
So what is the moral of our little story? I guess the moral is that you should never tell someone what you believe unless you are perfectly ok with them never talking to you again. It doesn't have to be fair, and it doesn't have to be reciprocal, that is the way it is. We might also conclude something about how Republicans relate to opinions outside their cult, but we already knew that.
So what is the moral of our little story? I guess the moral is that you should never tell someone what you believe unless you are perfectly ok with them never talking to you again. It doesn't have to be fair, and it doesn't have to be reciprocal, that is the way it is. We might also conclude something about how Republicans relate to opinions outside their cult, but we already knew that.
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