because I'm proud to be an American....

Equality 7-2521 wrote: I wouldn't classify any of those things as playing the victim card.

Then what do you call it when the politically and culturally strongest group in the country constantly whines about how its values are under assault?

Teaflax wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: I wouldn't classify any of those things as playing the victim card. Then what do you call it when the politically and culturally strongest group in the country constantly whines about how its values are under assault?

NutterAlert wrote: Is the Regius Professor of Particle Physics at Cambridge job up for grabs?   I've read 20 pages of stephen Hawkings book (before falling into a coma) so reckon I could do it...   look, if bush can run the states, Blair can run UK, and Prescott can keep his job anything is possible.

^^ Are you somehow trying to suggest that the majority can't be under attack? Especially when it's the slim majority as in the U.S. where most of the dissenters are present in pop-culture or acadamia, so their opinions get seen in the public light.

Honestly Teaflax, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't mean that as an insult; I would just like you to state what you're referring to.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^^ Are you somehow trying to suggest that the majority can't be under attack? Especially when it's the slim majority as in the U.S. where most of the dissenters are present in pop-culture or acadamia, so their opinions get seen in the public light. Honestly Teaflax, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't mean that as an insult; I would just like you to state what you're referring to.

    
You honestly don't see this? Ultra-conservative people always view something they don't like as a personal attack. Slogans such as, "Gay Marriage is ruining America," and "Illegal Immigrants are taking our jobs" are constantly bandied about. The truth is that neither really has any effect on their personal life. These so called "values" seem to be more like predjudices. Ignorance always fears what it doesn't understand.
    
    

Edited by bhikkhu - July 17 2006 at 20:35

Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^^   I think what's happening here is that since you don't agree with them you see it as complaining and getting up on the peverbial cross, but when the people you agree with do it you see it as valid.   bhikkhu wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^^ Are you somehow trying to suggest that the majority can't be under attack? Especially when it's the slim majority as in the U.S. where most of the dissenters are present in pop-culture or acadamia, so their opinions get seen in the public light. Honestly Teaflax, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't mean that as an insult; I would just like you to state what you're referring to.       You honestly don't see this? Ultra-conservative people always view something they don't like as a personal attack. Slogans such as, "Gay Marriage is ruining America," and "Illegal Immigrants are taking our jobs" are constantly bandied about. The truth is that neither really has any effect on their personal life. These so called "values" seem to be more like predjudices. Ignorance always fears what it doesn't understand.               How you make a connection between being aginst gay marriage and the truth having no effect on one's personal life is beyond me or any reasonable person I think.   Conservatives really arent' against immigration. Just illegal immigration which everyone should be against. It is illegal, get it?

It's the scapegoating that bothers me.

It's not that they are against gay marriage, but that it is portrayed as the thing that will destroy all life as we know it. Bush won the last election by terrifying middle America with this.

Funy, but it is rarely the lack of proper documentation that is brought up with immigrants. It is the fear of losing jobs. Now, I don't think the guys coming across in the back of a truck are in line for a CEO position. Now imagine this. An employer has an unskilled job opening, and has two applicants. One is American, and speaks fluent english. The other is Mexican, and only knows enough to get by. Who do you think gets the job? The fact is that prospect number one isn't looking for that job. That's why it goes to contestant number two.
    

Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^^ Not really, most conservatives realize that our economy is dependent upon the flood of imigrants from Mexico to do our unwanted jobs. They, along with myself, just went them documented. I'm not afraid of a Mexican taking my job. What I'm afraid of is the number of businesses that will have to close down if they lose their supply of immigrants, but having untrackable people in our country is not a good thing at all.

Teaflax wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: ^^ I see very few reasonably conservatives taking this approach to gay marriage. I agree. But I see one hell of a lot of conservatives taking that approach. What does that say about the Republicans, eh?

    
Thanks for backing me up Teaflax. I wasn't refering to all conservatives, but we only seem to hear from the hardliners. It's the fear based approach that typifies most of their campaigns. This in turn breeds the idea that they have somehow become victims. Other people then jump on the bandwagon, without really understanding the issue. Sure, some of it is based on actual problems. However, it usually gets overly exaggerated in order to serve an agenda.

I should also add that this topic was about a man suing because he was born white. This is a result of the propaganda out there. The ferver over these issues has done more to breed racism and hatred, than anything else (and isn't that what the Gay Marriage issue is really about). Hate has never created anything positive.
    

Edited by bhikkhu - July 18 2006 at 10:47

^There's a few million intolerant apocalyptic Right Wing Christians whose codes and general world-view is being nurtured and spread by Right-Wing talk show hosts and other such media. Eliminationist rhetoric - calling those on the other side of the political aisle vermin and traitors - is being spread by the likes of Ann Coulter, yet she is never denounced by even the more moderate Right.

There are at most a few thousand genuine Socialists in the USA, and none of them have book deals, are asked to comment on political events of the day or seen as pundits.

So, what were you saying again?