Incident while waiting for a car repair at the dealer.

[rurallib]

Yesterday I had to take my car in for a repair. It was a long one so I brought a book and settled in the waiting area.
In the waiting room there was a big screen TV that was on when I entered. Three other people were there, a middle-aged woman, a young black man and another younger fellow that appeared to be a farmer of some type. I am @60. Let me mention that this takes place in Iowa City, Iowa - the major outpost of liberalism in Iowa if not the country.
The TV was playing the Today Show. The farmer was the only one watching. He would interject some comments that the rest of us ignored, totally. After a while the young black man left. Then the farmer left. With just me and the woman there I asked if she minded if I shut off the TV as she was reading also. She said fine so I shut it off. The TV was off for about an hour.
I was getting restless reading. I noticed that the remote for the TV was a DISH remote (I had shut it off manually). I asked the lady if she minded that I turn it back on. Since it was a DISH I was curious if they carried FreeSpeechTV in the dealership or if they had it blocked. The lady said she had just gotten DISH and she wanted to know how to run the remote.
So I turned it on and flipped to 9415 and voila! FSTV. The lady asked me about some of the channels and I showed her UCalTV and Link. She was very happy I showed her these stations.
We settled on a lecture by Michael Polan on Link about the food supply.
We were quietly watching when the farmer came back in. After a couple minutes he speaks out loudly "You know this guy has never been on a farm. Where does he get off trying to tell us how to farm?" We ignored him, so he repeated what he said louder and spoke in my direction. I Looked at him and said "There's about 50 stations on here telling people how to get to heaven. Not a one of them guys have been to heaven. You believe what they say don't you?"
He was irritated. A couple minutes later he started spouting something about "the stimulus and Obama bankrupting our kids and grandkids." We ignored him. So he repeated it louder.
I turned to him and said in a very stern voice "Look, I am going to do you a favor. I will not respond to your bait. I will do you a favor and not embarrass you."
He started to scream, but I shut him down. "Please" I said, "act civilized."
He was turning red. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Sit here and watch this crap?" he asked. "No" I said, "you have options." "What should I do, leave?" he said loudly.
Calmly I responded "That would be one of your options." With that he left, never to be seen again.

Bullies can't take it.

[sakabatou]

1. Bullies are bullies who don't like their own medicine

[City of Mills]

2. I can watch Fox News

I don't spontaneously combust, my ears don't bleed...they can broadcast their opinions, they don't hurt me. Why would someone be so antagonized and completely incapable of hearing an opinion they may not share? Why can't they just quietly disagree with what they're hearing in their mind? It's ridiculous when adults have tantrums like that, seriously what are they afraid of?

[rurallib]

3. He had been in the room for about a minute when he started bitching.

[MorningGlow]

4. You handled that well, Rurallib

When right-wing wackos start screaming (and, it seems, they always do), I have a very, VERY hard time not screaming back. Most of the time I'm the one who leaves the room in order to keep my cool.

That guy reminds me of my aunt (fundie-Catholic, Rush-Beck-O'Reilly listenin', Bush-worshippin'). I was in her presence twice in a week, recently, and both times she tried to drag politics into nonpolitical discussions (and failed, mainly because my mom and I changed the subject both times, because we're onto her). Right-wing wackos are DYING to rant--it's like they have all this hatred poured into them by Faux Nooz until it boils over inside them and they just HAVE to let it out. (Yes, I firmly believe Faux is poisonous that way.)

The one time I yelled back at my aunt over Obama's policies, she didn't talk to me for three weeks. They definitely CAN'T take it.

[unpossibles]

6. They do seem to enjoy a good rant, don't they?

I know a handful of lefties who do, but not many, and at least when they rant it's usually about something sensible.

[raccoon]

5. You handled that well. Esp. since you didn't respond to his bait.

I betcha the asshole would've acted differently if you were a woman. IME, people like him do.