Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus as, over at Blogging Tory "Climbing Out of the Dark," commenter "Alberta Girl" unleashes the hounds with the comment:
Alberta Girl said...
"Respect is earned not bestowed. and your team has done nothing to earn my respect or the respect of anyone else left of center."
Ok Ed - let's have a respectful discussion here.
Tell me what - in the left's mind -the conservative government has done that has NOT earned your respect.
Oh, dear God, where to even begin? But let's do this right, shall we?
Since your humble scribe has enough to keep him busy today, I'm inviting my regular readers to pop over there and explain -- quietly, politely and accurately -- why the Stephen Harper Party of Canada are a bunch of classless, juvenile, douchebaggy fuckwits.
Of course, don't put it quite that way. As I said, be methodical, give examples and, if necessary, back up your claims with hyperlinks. Make sure those examples involve actual members of the CPoC, but I'm guessing that even members who don't hold their former positions are fair game -- you know, Rona Ambrose and absolute retards like that.
So, here's your chance to make a point. "AG" quite explicitly invited readers to post examples and, as long as those examples are relatively civil, there's no excuse to start moderating or rejecting those comments, is there? Now we'll see just how open-minded those folks are about a genuine civil discourse and whether they're capable of having one.
Have at it.
WELL, THAT DIDN'T LAST LONG. First, it was COOTD who lamented that she was "tired of juvenile, disrespectful ranting from the lefties," followed by commenter "Alberta Girl" who challenged Ed to "have a respectful discussion," at which point various leftist/progressive types took up that challenge, only to read this from an anonymous commenter:
do you just attract liberals with zero critical analysis skills?
I believe I've made my point here, wouldn't you say?
10 comments:
The only time they earned my respect was in taxing income trusts, although how they did it (and who they ended up hurting) does not. So that's a wash.
Everything else (and I mean that literally) they've done I've objected to as arrogant, vote-grabbing, pandering or a sell-out to their own vaunted principles.
But off the top of my head:
1. The Emerson defection and the softwood sell-out;
2. The Fortier appointment;
3. The Velacott appointment;
4. The mean-spirited nickel-and-dime cuts to programmes that advocate for the powerless (Status of Women, Court Challenges);
5. "Moral Clarity" in supporting Isreal's disastrous war with Lebanon (exploited in a fund-raising campaign to boot);
6. Largest budget in Canadian history;
7. GST cuts;
8. Wajid Khan;
9. Breaking electoral law;
10. Climate change policy to support the Oil Patch which has hurt the economies of other regions;
11. John Baird;
12. Peter van Loan;
13. Jason Kenney;
14. Junior MacKay;
15. Scrapping Kelowna;
16. Reneging on the Atlantic Accord;
17. Child-care charade.;
18. How they've lied about the Afghanistan mission;
19. Their links to American rightwing astro-turf organisations and think tanks, which has debased Canadian politics;
20. Anti-democratic information control and message discipline;
21. Replacing opposition MP's with pod people (l'affaire nekkid mayor).
...and finally, using The Blogging Tories as a conduit for Government (not just Party) insider gossip and subterfuge.
Pardon me...I have to go puke now.
"Alberta girl" doesn't give a fig what "the left" thinks. This is a waste of time. You can point out all of the egregious points of difference and friction (as Ti-Guy has done in exemplary fashion above) with this government and it won't make a whit's worth of difference. To AG, the "left" is evil, Harper and the Conservatives are "right" — in name and deed — and everyone else can get stuffed. Because... you know, they're "evil" and "treasonous" and "demented" and ... well, you know the routine. Every calumny imaginable can be heaped on the "left" — IT'S JUST AS SIMPLE AS THAT.
But just for fun, I'll throw in my own fave pet peeve with this gang and that is the scrapping of reporting requirements on the expenditure of health care transfers from the feds to the provinces... all the while professing that this government is concerned about "accountability" and "transparency."
I'm not holding my breath as I've been burned far too many times. But if I can get one reasoned discussion out of the right I will be pleasantly surprised.
Thus far in all my travels I have only met one conservative Republican that was worth talking to. He was missing a little in the knowledge department but he was willing to listen to facts where he was deficient in that region. We had a loud discussion but it never became disrespectful. As we discussed more of the Bush regime's treachery he began to get angry because he stated to see not only the betrayal of the country but the betrayal of his party and his ideology.
Eventually our friends got tired of listening to us go back and forth talking politics and dunked us both in the Gulf of Mexico. (We were in Florida)
"Alberta girl" doesn't give a fig what "the left" thinks. This is a waste of time.
Perhaps. Not like I know her. If she turns out to be what you (and I) expect then we're justified in using it as another example of right wing hypocrisy. You guys can all point and laugh and I'll go back to being the curmudgeon I was before.
If not however, who knows. Perhaps under my rough exterior there is an idealist waiting to escape and all it needs is someone to treat me like a human being instead of just dismissing me off handed.
Or maybe I haven't had lunch yet.
Seriously, I could very well be wasting my time. But it can't hurt to hold out an olive branch once in a while. That one kid blogger saw the light and defected from the right wing, perhaps more can do. If I'm right that just reaffirms my belief that the right wing is bad for society. If not, I like having my paradigm challenged anyway. =)
And what happened?? After AG wanted 'civil discourse', cc, grog and m@ responded in kind. The response?
" Anonymous said...
do you just attract liberals with zero critical analysis skills?"
Bye bye, goalposts.
I'm with RT on this one--can't win no matter what you say.
And I won't even mention the irony of an anon commenter on a BT site complaining that people on the left don't have 'critical analysis skills'.
Sparky — It’s an exercise in futility. Having attempted for YEARS to engage in “civil discourse” on right-wing sites, I no longer have any time for the utter pointlessness of it. For most of the flaky commenters on these sites, their hateful, idiotic points of view are clearly part and parcel of their own personal identity and they’re unlikely to depart from that no matter what evidence is presented to contradict their specious, Cheeto®-dusted assertions. The same, it could be said for radical leftists as well. There’s plenty of catastrophically dumb intolerance that can be spread around here.
grog and m@ responded in kind. The response?
" Anonymous said...
do you just attract liberals with zero critical analysis skills?"
Bye bye, goalposts.
By Blogger Sparky, at 1:26 PM
Yeah but you can't hold the blogger responsible for comments unless she's making them herself. We're not Bill OReilly after all. Granted for all we know the Anonymous comment was just her getting in a dig without consequences. But we don't know that for sure so we can't just assume that.
Oh I didn't mean to infer that it wsa the blogger hisself that wrote the comment. I was inferring that 'the right' (inasmuch as we can surmise that 'anon' lives in the echo chamber of the right)--in their neverending quest for civil discourse--after getting it they move the goalposts and come up with another rationale as to why they don't address issues brought up by lefty commenters.
Well they can't say I didn't at least try. Actually consider the level of duplicity on the right, I'm sure they can. I'll probably be suddenly renown amongst the right as Bin Ladin's former roommate now or something.
Oh well. This is the general reason why I have so much vitriol for the wingnuts ( beyond the obvious reasons of corruption, immorality and criminality ). They claim they want civility and reasoned discourse but when you show up with the truth on your side they slit your throat and then tell you to 'Get over it'.
I guess I will go back to my original position of: Fuck Civility. Though I have to admit I am rather disappointed.
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