Quote:
Originally Posted by Good4Nothin
One way to love your neighbor is to respect their opinions and assume there is some truth, however strongly you may disagree. To make an effort to look at their perspective objectively.
I see the opposite of that happening these days. Atheists assume believers are ignorant and superstitious, Democrats assume Republicans are ignorant and selfish. Etc.
Maybe one of the very best ways to love your neighbor isn't to give them food and money. Maybe it's to give them respect and search for common ground.
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Can we be any more hypocritical?
First you talk about respecting opinions and to assume there is truth ...
Unless of course it's an atheist or Democrat ...
This kind of nonsense is PRECISELY why we criticize you.
Don't give them money? Right ... I'm disabled. Am I supposed to eat and pay rent by stuffing common ground into my stomach? I'm sure the landlord will be happy to forgo rent in favor of some respect and common ground.
See, we criticize you and assume you're ignorant and selfish because ... well, you prove it with posts like this one. Because instead of demanding that opinions on BOTH sides be respected, you say that ONLY the opinions of believers and Republicans should be respected by atheists and Democrats.
Which is, of course, selfish and ignorant.
I mean, seriously ... it boggles my mind how you people can step on your own landmines every time you post. No I'm not going to respect opinions that are demonstrably wrong. No I'm not going to respect opinions that would deprive 27 million Americans access to health care. No I'm not going to respect opinions that call someone like Trump an "honest man" with over 6,000 lies told since taking office.
Sometimes you're just ... wrong. Period. And we don't have to respect that - especially when we drop a library of facts into your lap and you simply ignore it, deny it, call it "fake" and continue preaching the same falsehoods as if no one said a word.
If you want respect, then it's going to flow both ways. If you think an atheist and Democrat is going to give you a lick of respect now that your party is nothing but a quasi-religions political cult, you're barking in the wrong forest much less up the wrong tree.
All one has to do is look at the political politicies of the Repubicans and Christians in the Bible Belt to see what respect means to them. They came a hair's width away from sending a pedophile to represent Alabama in Congress - and we're supposed to respect them for it. Are you out of your damn mind? Nor will I respect your side so long as you continue spewing propaganda and conspiracy theories to the point where the American people believe that Satan with Hitler as a running mate is preferable to any Democrat.
And I sure as hell won't respect the side that has been practicing voter suppression for the last 2 elections and who despised our last president simply because he was black. A side that promoted the idiocy of the Birther conspiracy. I won't respect the hypocrisy of listening to Republicans scream about Obama's deficit spending for 8 non-stop years while cheering and supporting a tax cut for the wealthy that put this country another $1.5 trillion in debt.
Nor will I respect a side that is teaching kids not just that evolution is false, but teaching them anti-evolution and promoting conspiracy theories about how papers written by creationists aren't getting published by peer review journals. I will not respect a side that has in their midst those who believe we should start indiscriminately murdering gays because it says so in Deuteronomy nor will I respect a political party whose presidential candidates openly hobnob with the very same blustering preachers who advocate a Nazi-like Holocaust against gays in our very own country. I will not respect a side that has within its ranks scores of Dominionists who wish to turn America in to the first Christian fundamentalist theocracy so it can force everyone by law to obey the old Mosaic laws from the Old Testament - except the Mosaic laws that they break non-stop like, for instance, adultery, fornication, and the mass consumption of porn. Nor will I respect the side who has decided to sacrifice the futures of their own children all for the cause of Big Business profits, thus denying climate change. Nor will I respect the side that has even further sacrificed the future of their own children by taking the side of the NRA over frightened kids afraid to go to school because of rampant, out-of-control gun violence - a side tha ridiculed and insulted CHILDREN for daring to speak out against gun violence and beg for responsible gun legislation.
You have light years to go before your side will ever get an ounce of respect from me - and when something is wrong, it's wrong. I'm not going to bust my ass looking for one single kernal of truth that isn't there anyway just to find common ground.
Because, you see, you don't want to find common ground. You want our side to GIVE ground. You want all of us to consider becoming Christians and to slide our political views far to the right. And after we've joined you in a place that makes Reagan look like a liberal and Islamic militants look like atheists, you'll cheer and claim, "See? I told you we could find common ground."
Like I said, you want our side to make all the concessions, all of the sacrifices. You want our side to give up our morality, our humanity, our empathy, our compassion, our reason, our very reality so we can go hang out with your side along with Neo Nazis and the KKK.
No thanks. That's not a common ground I either want or ever care to see.
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How to Love your Neighbor
