Patronizing and Condescending

[propel]

This is an email I received from a family friend.
Apparently, my liberalism is a discussion amongst these Georgia repukes and family of mine.


I say in love the best way I can that I hope you recosider your beliefs.

I used to get angry when people would tell me that I don't have to live my life with all the angst and misery that I lived my life with and that I was just being self destructive. I would argue vehemently against the world and would bask in my misery never admitting to others that yes you were right, I was miserable and swimming upstream. I hated things I should love and loved things I should hate.

In terms of free enterprise...I used to make this argument.

"The exploitation of wealth is the main reason for profit in a capitalistic society"

Do you believe that statement is true?

I at one time did believe it and I was miserable but would never admit it to those who told me I was miserable.....my thoght was...."how dare you tell me I'm miserable".

My liberal friends I want you to consider your heartfelt anger and life SWIMMING UPSTREAM.

Love God, Love America, love freedom, and love free enterprise....not because I tell you to love these things...but rather for your own peace of mind.

I know how it feels to be enraged and feel outside the mainstream.....don't hate America when America rejects Barack Obama....if you're black, America doesnt' hate you, if you're gay, America doesn't hate you, if you're anything outside of what many consider the "standard", America doesn't hate you just because Barack Obama loses an election.

In 2000, the Democrats were very smart....Al Gore was a southerner who came off as somewhat not so much a liberal...they had the right idea.

In 2004, the Democrats weren't as smart, John Kerry was a northeastern corridor liberal and He lost a good bit worse than Gore.

In 2008, the Democrats were in perfect position to win but elected a northeastern corridor liberal who has a Muslim name and is very liberal, if you think He's gonna win, you might want to get an early start in changing your life as far as getting rid of the feeling of SWIMMING UPSTREAM.

I tell you in love.....love God, love America, love freedom, love free enterprise and quit the miserable feeling of SWIMMING UPSTREAM.

I've been there my liberal friends, don't let your life be miserable because you insist on SWIMMING UPSTREAM.

[donco6]

1. Go with the flow, it'll just be that much easier.

Never mind it's completely antithetical with their Christian beliefs.

[Da Fusa]

4. I have friends who went to rehab that came out sounding like that e-mail

\

[Da Fusa]

2. I think a punch in the mouth is in order for whomever gave him your e-mail address

after reading it, I want to hunt down the author and beat him with your post

[shireen]

3. sounds like a good piece of comedy

if it's delivered by the right person. Like John Oliver.
:rofl:

yeah ... send this to the Daily Show or Colbert Report. Good material to inspire them.

[propel]

5. Should I confront

My relatives?
I don't like being pitied for my beliefs...my own family looks at me as though I have a disease sometimes.
I'm thinking of ripping into my parents for treating my beliefs as if I'm some misguided school boy with
a crush on his teacher....it's really ticking me off.

[tannybogus]

8. I finally gave up seeing my relatives.

They are of the Jesse Helms school of thought. When my Mama was alive, I would go to Raleigh with her for the Xmas feast.

After dinner though, the fun would begin. My relatives would start in about "libruls" and everything. I'd start to blow and,

and my Mama would poke me so I wouldn't leave a trail of destruction. She didn't like their crap either, but she was much

older and didn't want to cause a fuss. My brother organized a family reunion, and I have avoided it. I told him that if I went

that he would be responsible when I fired up the 'ol John Deere and laid waste to the area. I like to disc. So I am an orphan.

I have a few family members I talk to, but for the most part I stay away. They think I was a changeling left on my parents doorstep,

and they got the wrong child. I quit trying to change their minds. Good luck! :hi:

[SpookyCat]

48. I have a brother I cut out of my life as well...

Once my parents were both dead, I realized I'd never have to see that miserable person again, and I never will.

I'm sorry it was your entire family, but remember, you can choose family too. You don't need to remain "an orphan".

Hugs!

:hug:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. Try this:

You reply to whichever relative sent this to you - if it was a group, use "Reply To All" - and you tell them this:

"I got this email the other day, and I thought you should know that some screaming asshole is sending out this nonsense and signing your name to it. They must have hacked into your email account. I hope you catch the idiot son-of-a-bitch."

[scarletwoman]

25. That's excellent! (nt)

[shireen]

46. If you want to engage them and have a little fun at their expense,

respond with earnest innocent-sounding questions. Like "what do you mean?" "Really? Can you tell me why you feel that way?"

Get them to start talking specifics, keep asking them more innocent-sounding questions like "where did you hear that, i'd like to know more about it", etc.

Keep asking innocent polite questions, and watch them dig themselves in deeper and deeper .... :evilgrin:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

6. Swimming upstream.......

Sounds like our health care system. Which of course, this repuke doesn't want to discuss, I'm sure. Just speaks in mindless platitudes.

[Sal Minella]

7. From the "Rape Is Kinda Fun If You Just Relax and Enjoy It" School of Political Philosophy.

If these people are your family, I suggest you have nothing to do with them and hang out with liberal friends instead.

[hootinholler]

13. SNAP!

:rofl:

"Where is that wonderful Ape?"

-Hoot

[scarletwoman]

9. What's with the "northeastern corridor" crap? Obama lives in CHICAGO.

Hit reply all and tell 'em, "Shit floats and sewage flows downstream." And leave it at that.

sw

[propel]

11. If Obama loses

I'll never be able to go to another Thanksgiving dinner or any family gathering.

You people outside of the south don't know what it's like. This is a culture and a world that many who read this cannot relate to. You don't know how good you have it. There are more churches around here than stores. We have people going to church all the time....people are always at church it seems....you people just don't know.

For most around here, the idea of voting for Barack Obama is like turning their children over to Satan...they can't conceive of it.

Can I move in with anyone ?????

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. It's not limited to the South, alas

I come from that dreaded "northeastern corridor" - you know, the one where that Muslim guy came from - but not Chicago - and my family, working class first-generation Americans who owed everything to unions, somehow devolved into idiot rightwing Republicans with mean, mean attitudes. I got into too many arguments until I just quit and stopped seeing them. It wasn't any kind of loss because, frankly, I just didn't like them.

The hardest part, though, was my mother, who, after telling me she'd voted for George Wallace, asked me if I really believed that garbage about "hunger in America."

Friends are family, and you are about to put together the most wonderful family you'll ever have, because you get to choose. You'll see - it'll be great.

And, welcome to DU.

[scarletwoman]

29. No, I can't imagine it. Nor would I stick around in that kind of place.

Is Thanksgiving dinner worth putting up with psychological abuse?

[SpookyCat]

49. I'm in San Francisco, so when you escape

I'll have a cup of tea ready for you. :-)

You CAN escape, you know. My husband managed to get out of Houston. You are free to go.

[Lorien]

55. Rural Georgia? They have nearly as many gun shops and strip joints as they

do churches. It's a whole other culture, that's for sure.

[WritersBlock]

10. Tell them you're shocked that they don't love the USA enough to stand up for it.

Or tell them to fuck off. Whichever makes you feel better.

Or both.

Welcome to DU, btw :)

[IDemo]

12. I think I found the guy who wrote that->

[Muttocracy]

14. I like the capital H He for Kerry :-)

[SocratesInSpirit]

15. So basically they're saying

go along with the crowd because you'll have it easier? Who cares if the crowd is delusional, as long as you're happy? How would that argument fly if you were a disgusted German citizen in Nazi Germany who objected to Jews being rounded up and sent to concentration camps?

What a load of crap! I'd be tempted to ask them if Jesus took the easy way out. He could have "gone along" and not been crucified. Or tell them to take the plank out of their own eye before trying to get the speck out of yours. (I suggest religious arguments because it seems to be the only thing that registers with people like that.)

Sometimes it's hard to know when to engage, or when to stay silent. I once had a boss who was a hardcore republican. He tried to debate with me all the time about how Bush is great, yada yada. I refrained from discussion, thinking it would make things worse. One day, I'd had enough and started firing back retorts. He seemed taken aback, and then never discussed politics with me again - even after the presidential election of 2004 a week later. For relatives who send me emails, I usually just delete them without response.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. If swimming upstream weren't a sound evolutionary tactic

there wouldn't be any salmon left in the world. These people are idiots.

[Berry Cool]

17. Read between the lines and you'll see the anxiety and fear lying behind this message.

Ask yourself: Why do they feel the need to equate your politics with a failure to love God, America, freedom and free enterprise?

Why do they feel the need to persuade you so hard to not hate America "when America rejects Barack Obama"?

Could it be because they are terrified that America will NOT reject Barack Obama?

Can they be terrified of what that might mean for them...that the tables might be turned, and they might find themselves enraged and outside the mainstream this time, instead of you?

Could they be so afraid he's going to win that they have to try extra hard to convince you that he will lose, and that if you back him, you are backing a loser, and that will only make you unhappy? Because, if they persuade you of that, you'll switch to their side for the reassurance of "backing a winner"--and that might MAKE their side avoid losing?

Any experienced athlete could tell you: This is a "psych-out" attempt. This is what happens when you become so good that your chief opponent needs to wander into the locker room before the competition or game and confide to you, in private, to the effect that he/she actually feels sorry for you, because although you've become very, very good, you're still going to lose, and he/she really hates to see you become so upset and frustrated banging your head against a wall. But, hey, good luck anyway, OK? May the best person win. Then he or she quietly leaves.

The hope, the goal of these psyops is to get you so mentally unstrung that you won't be able to go out and perform and do what you can do. The result: Your opponent wins, and you're left feeling like a worse loser than ever.

Unless you recognize it for what it is. The abject, terrifying fear that, this time, you just might not lose.

When you do see it for what it is, you smile, knowing that you must be on the right track, because your enemy who normally wouldn't give you the time of day is suddenly so scared of you that he/she has to try to head you off at the pass.

And you go out, and you KICK ASS.

The only response you should have to this is: "Nice try, but I'm going out on Election Day and voting for Obama anyway."

It'll drive them NUTS.

[Cerridwen]

19. If we'd only let ourselves be assimilated - resistence is futile - n/t

[Greyhound]

20. As a very wise woman once told me, "The strong go crazy, the weak go along".

I just can't fathom how thoroughly disconnected we have become from America. These morans are the Nazi supporters, this is how evil has prevailed.

[AndyTiedye]

22. We Are Swimming Upstream to Avoid Going Down the Toilet!

[propel]

26. No....

I hate to tell you but they don't fear me.

They really do view me in a very patronizing, condescending way....and that is what angers me....I dont' want to be pitied by people I don't agree with. I wish I could say they did fear me.

How could you follow that Godless Party ? That is their attitude.....oh, that's another thing.

At Christmas, that book was a gift from many family members to other family members...."Godless, the Church of Liberalism"

You think you know my pain ?????

You have no idea.

[AndyTiedye]

31. I Was Addressing the Nature of the "Flow"

I didn't say anything about fear, so I'm not sure you replied to the post you intended to.

I would never presume to claim to know your pain, even trying to imagine your situation makes me :cry:

[treestar]

38. They fear "liberalism" not you

so you can condescendingly assure them that there is nothing for them to be afraid of. They don't have to be afraid of gays, who won't hurt them. They don't have to be afraid of a black president. He will just carry out the constitutional duties, not use the office to hurt white people. Deep down, they know that, anyway.

Just calmly state that Obama is a Christian, just like them, and very smart and will take good care of them.

[hfojvt]

23. time to quote the Bible

James 1: 27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress AND to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Matthew 7: 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few find it."

Sounds kinda like swimming upstream. Doing the right thing, even when it is more difficult and stressful and frustrating because the confederacy of rubes and cupidity and power of the insidious make the battle somewhat quixotic.

At this point, though, it still seems more likely that America will accept and embrace Obama.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Why is it that right-wingers seem incapable of writing a rant with a logical flow?

My old professor of expository writing would have had her red pencil all over this ill-considered piece of ditto spew.

[Cleita]

51. Because reaching a logical conclusion would

discredit their ideas and probably give them a brain hemorrhage.

[csziggy]

27. Tell them, "You win!" then send them the "I'm voting Republican" video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU

[lunatica]

28. Tell them the truth in a different way

Think of a theme around which you can make sentences that depict just how you feel about THEIR beliefs.

Exmaple: Use words like mediocre, averaqe intelligence. mental sloths etc.

Then write sentences like "What you want me to do is become a mediocre mental sloth with below average intelligence."

You may or may not want to add, "like you", depending on how pissed off you are at them. In either case they will instantly be put on the sputtering defensive and they'll finally get how you feel about THEM.

People just hate it when you question their smarts. Especially the condescending ones.

[propel]

34. You are right

They are condescending beyond words and that angers me more than if they just disagreed with me...that really really infuriates me.

They act as though their son just has a disease. Liberalism. What really makes me mad is when I argue with them they look at me with pity like I don't know what I'm talking about. They treat me like a child and my opinions are not to be taken seriously because our poor misguided son doesn't know what He's talkin about.

I feel so sad sometimes that I can't even relate to my own parents.

[varelse]

30. America itself was founded by people who "swam upstream"

Freedom isn't granted, it's won - and never by those who "go with the flow".

[Marr]

32. Yeah, really-- Jesus should've just swam downstream, too.

What was that whole thing with the money lenders in the temple...? He should've just gone with the flow and cashed in. No doubt would've been a whole lot happier (for a whole lot longer).

"Don't swim upstream"... that's a great philosophy. If you happen to be a cowardly, self-centered, amoral sheep.

[Mandate My Ass]

52. The same people who authored and approve of this email

would viciously re-crucify Jesus if he returned to earth with the same message he delivered 2000 years ago.

J.C. was a loony, left, fringe liberal and the ones who spew this kind of crap are the very same ones who chose to offer reprieve to a career criminal so that the liberal (who made them aware of their disgusting hypocrisy) would be put to excruciating torture and death instead.

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[propel]

35. Like I said:

The condescension is what absolutely drives me crazy. I am not diseased. I just don't conform to their beliefs. I guess a son can't be condescending to his parents....I wish I could.

[lunatica]

39. Just stop ranting to them or around them

Obviously they aren't going to change you, and you're not going to change them. Believe me, it's best when families agree to not talk about certain things.

[Odin2005]

36. I'm sick of southerners thinking as if the Presidency is their right

"North-East Corridor liberal?" Chicago is in the Midwest, that fella needs to learn some geography. Southerners must have added us Midwesterners to the "evil librul Northeast" catagory. :eyes:

[propel]

37. Let's trade

I'll move there and you move here. I've had enough church and homophobia to last a lifetime

[YellowRubberDuckie]

40. I really find it funny....

...that these "Christians" are the greediest people I have ever met, and they forgot the passage in the bible that says that it is easier to put a camel through an eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven.
Duckie

[propel]

41. What would you do ??

If your parents took this condescedning attitude towards you ???

How would you react ???

[Berry Cool]

47. I would say "You don't need to worry about me."

"Besides, I suspect you're more worried for yourselves than for me. You're worried about what might happen if a man who's half black becomes president, aren't you? You're afraid it will bring on the 'slave uprising' and 'race war' every white person in the South has been bred to fear from the cradle. The black people will take over and the white people will have to run for cover or risk being raped and/or killed. That's it, isn't it? You're afraid of all of America turning into a ghetto, ruled over by the Big Pimp and his Welfare Queen, while all the poor hardworking white folk cower as their hard-earned possessions and lifestyle are looted before their eyes, right?

"Well, consider this for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, this man who is also half white (raised by a white mother) doesn't intend to turn this country into Ghetto Nation. Maybe all he wants is to give ALL middle-class and poor people (of all colors) a break, and make the rich contribute their fare share rather than stashing it away in a protected account or bequeathing it to their lazy slob descendants so they never have to work a day in their lives. Maybe, just maybe, all he wants is to make the playing field a little more even...for everyone.

"That's what I believe, and that's why I am voting for him. And when he wins, guess what...I won't be swimming upstream anymore. Unless you get on board, YOU will be the one fighting the tide."

[tannybogus]

56. My relatives don't dare condescend to me.

I don't see them now because it wasn't worth my bp readings going up. I just read a lot naturally and kept

up with events. I could throw the facts back at them. I also knew the Bible, and could fling verses with the

best. They wouldn't know Jesus if he bit them on the butt. I put my energy to better use. It's hard to give up

family no matter what kind of flaming assholes they are. You give up home, so you have to make one of your own.

You may have to come to terms with letting them go.:hi:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

57. My mother does have this condescending attitude towards me.

I only go see her when she buys me things. :shrug: If it weren't for her helping me out occasionally with bills, I probably wouldn't speak to her. I know that sounds terrible, but if you knew the abuse I have received at her hands, you'd totally understand.
Duckie

[helderheid]

42. Tell THAT to those who lost loved ones in this goddamned war.

[SmileyRose]

43. I don't even understand it - it's too much gobbledygook.

My writing is pretty bad but that mess is so disconnected even "I" can't follow it.

[Vinca]

44. Is the family friend a rich Republican?

This sounds like a pile of bullshit from someone who can afford McCain-level healthcare. I especially love the 'pukes who thump their Bibles and invoke God, but would just as soon outsource a poor man's job to add a few bucks to the stock portfolio. (Note: This is not a slam at rich people, just the greedy ones who can actually pass a hungry person on the street.)

[magellan]

45. Sounds like "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

Fine example of today's American spirit there. Just lay back and think of England.

[fishwax]

50. Vote Republican -- it's easier than thinking

the email seems like a long-winded way of saying the same thing--doesn't fit nearly as neatly on a bumper sticker :shrug:

[Scout]

53. only dead fish go with the flow! n/t

[Lorien]

54. Lol! True

and if salmon didn't swim upstream they'd be extinct.