Combatting the Irrationality of Disagreeable Teabaggers

By Leadfoot_LA

I have been attempting to inject truth into my Facebook newsfeed for more than three years now.  Every time I see an illogical, mean-spirited, or just plain ignorant post, I try to counter with rational thought and fact-based links.  I’m not sure I’ve ever enlightened anyone or changed any minds, but still I persist.

Frankly, lately I have been ready to give up.  I am beyond frustrated that so many people I know, and some that I even love, can be so diametrically opposed to my way of thinking.  I like a good political debate, but I can’t tolerate that they have become so disagreeable and personally insulting.  I was ready to throw in the towel.  Then, on Thursday, I saw this:

Best. Video. Ever.

My fire has been re-ignited.  

“One voice can change the room. And if a voice can change a room, it can change a city, it can change a city, it can change a state, and if can change a state, it can change a nation, and if can change a nation, it can change the world.” – Barack Obama

So this post is my challenge to all of you who tweet, Facebook, Instagram, Pin, blog, or talk to real, live people.  We are less than 60 days from the election.  We MUST remain fired up, and ready to go.

However, I am more committed than ever before to civil discourse.  I want us all to be vocal, but nice.  I started researching the best way to accomplish this, and came across an interesting book: 

Basically, it says that we all form nearly instantaneous perceptions about other people and the things they do.  These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong.  Liberals cherish caring and fairness while conservatives praise loyalty, authority, and sanctity. Both sides would be able to communicate better if they could appreciate each others' core values. 

Try to remember that and appeal to those values as you communicate.  Hit them with facts and tons and tons of links.  (Maybe we should start a PoliticalGates Facts Library?)  If you are getting nowhere, move on, there are other battles to fight.  

Perhaps Cracklin’ Charlie said it best, in a response to one of my comments (ok, complaints) on the previous thread:  “Don't worry about your dad...worry about your daughter.”  Indeed.  The future is, well, the future.  That is where our energy should be spent.

And if my dad happens to read this post, he should remember the universal parenting law:  under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

And with that, I'm so fired up and ready to go, I don't even know what to do with myself!