What's with all the ideological purists judging everyone who doesn't

[cali]

adhere to their strict code? How is that liberal thinking?

Don't buy an American made car? You're betraying your fellow Americans.

Push the fucking shopping cart back to the store? You're screwing the person whose job it is to perform that task?

Shop at WalMart? You're unamerican and not patriotic.

Eat animal products? You're a sadistic torturer.

Believe there's such a thing as terrorism? You're a complicit dupe.

And on and on.

E.M. Forester once wrote that tolerance is the most underrated of virtues. He said it's impossible to love the annoying stranger in line, but not to tolerate him/her.

[Ian David]

1. Your concern is duly noted. n/t

[hlthe2b]

2. Cali, Libs aren't strict "constructionists" nor conformists...certainly

but there is a "sanctimonious" phenotype circulating widely among us....;)

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jwirr]

4. Totally agree.

[bigtree]

5. You're doing it yourself

But, you're too caught up in your own self-righteousness to realize it. I think you made this attack on folks you disagree with because you haven't been able to adequately debate the substance of what you disagree with them on. Try going back to the threads and continue your arguments there.

[cali]

11. wrong. I never would attack someone for what they eat or shopping

at WalMart or driving a foreign made car or anything else like that. And I absolutely have made arguments against this type of thinking in multiple threads. If you had bothered to inform yourself, you'd know that.

I'm not judging people by these things. Never have, never will. I do judge the conspicuous consumption in this country. I judge the greed of corporations and some of the wealthy, but I don't make broad brush judgments.

That's just false. Sadly, I think you know that.

[bigtree]

13. you made a broad brush attack on someone.

It's just not clear who. It looks like an attack on everyone who you've recently disagreed with, carried here to this new scolding thread of yours. I don't know what you intended, but this looks like a pathetic attempt to make your point against these folks outside of the threads where you disagree with them. It could just be a thread that isn't well thought out. That happens.

[spoony]

14. AND in another thread she made a specific point of saying

she doesn't shop at WalMart. If there's nothing wrong with that, why mention it? But of course why be consistent in one thread when she can start three or four more contradictory ones.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[patrice]

6. Some critical self-assessment is a good thing - though probably not that common, or

not common enough, to avoid some of these massive Socio-Economic tar pits we've blundered into.

I'm sure there are more moderate and measured ways and means to bring up the issues addressed by ideologues, but I'm not sure why one'd bother to do so, since it would probably not get noticed, nor read for being too wordy, and likely produce little or no critical self- or other- analysis.

[merh]

7. What's worse than those judgmental types

would be those that allow the opinions of some strangers on a message board to cause them angst - they are just pixels on a screen.

Until they walk in my shoes they cannot say what I do or don't do is liberal enough.

[Mari333]

8. funny thing is

when someone on the left or on the right tells me i shouldnt be doing something based on their own vision of what or who i should be, i usually go out and do exactly what they tell me not to do just to be contrary.
i think i will go have a cigarette now, and then drive to walmart and then pick up some french fries at mcdonalds for lunch and then wash that down with some french wine and then protest the war and then visit cuba and then take a nap.

[Mark E. Smith]

9. My favorites ...

... are those who publically wail about being denied their rights
to free speech when you disagree with them.

[ShortnFiery]

12. What cracks me up is reading censor by the self-anointed morality police. It's as bad as the folks

who are FIRST seemingly intolerant. You don't have to agree with someone's opinion but it's truly beyond the pale to dedicate an ENTIRE THREAD to censor them. To dedicate an entire thread of criticism, the OP is IMO "acting out" as much as the dreaded accused "offenders." :shrug:

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

[hendo]

10. YAY

someone who gets it..

K&R

[RushIsRot]

15. I will shop where I damn well please. I will eat what I damn well

please. I will drive what I damn well please. If any don't like that, then you do not need to follow suit.

Enough said.

[lightningandsnow]

16. Yeah.

I mean, it's good to self-critique the things you do or think that may be harmful or erroneous.

But, what always gets me is that the ones who don't wish to be judge often do a hell of a lot of judging themselves.

[hfojvt]

17. aren't we built on that to a degree?

We start with intolerance and judgement of FReepers who are religiously insane, bigots, total morans and/or a$$holes. Then we move to Repukes in general, and all the enablers of BFEE war crimes. Then we move to the Blue Dogs and DLC and all other DINOs. Then we break down into various factions of PINOs. Those who are not anti-corporate enough, those who are not feminist enough, those who are not pro-GLBT enough, those who are not anti-religious enough, etc., etc.

But we are also built on compassion, which means thinking about consequences, thinking about other people and other creatures. A union member is supposed to look for the union label as part of the solidarity of the movement. We can act with our economic power as well as our political power. Not just to push for legislation requiring more humane livestock raising and slaughtering, but to vote with our pocketbooks.

However, if the code is too strict or the judgement too self-righteous and harsh then such arguments are unlikely to win friends or influence people.

[Odin2005]

18. I've been called a neocon because I want AQ and the Taliban crushed.

Which is pathetic because that is what the Neocons don't want to happen, Osama is too useful as a boogyman for them to capture him, and that REALLY pisses me off. I want Osama's head stuck on the end of a pike.

Then I get called a neo-colonialist because I want to use NATO troops to go in and help the folks in Zimbabwe, Congo, and Darfur. :eyes:

[AZBlue]

19. Thank you for your sane post. For a minute I thought I'd logged onto FreeRepublic.

And I don't even have an account there!

[Truth2Tell]

21. Oh goody, it's a straw man party!!! Why does everyone hate America? nt

[leftofthedial]

22. If there's one thing I just can't tolerate,

it's intolerance!

I think it's only prudent to just hate everyone.

Especially THEM!

[RB TexLa]

23. Some people have a class system of human beings. They don't want people buying

or doing anything for those they perceive to be beneath them. You have to feel sorry for them, it really is a mental illness.

[Greyhound]

24. Could these examples possibly indicate that a reassessment of our fundamental

assumptions are in order?

[JDwho]

25. Okay, I partially agree with you. Here's why:

I have I friend I just absolutely love, love, love. But, he goes on and on and....on; about the poison I am putting into my body anytime a put a morsel of food to my mouth. I'm not a particularly unhealthy eater. Yet, he is convinced that if it is not raw, then it's poison. Sometimes, I listen most of the day, at other times I tell him, with love, to "shut up already". I'm not depriving him of his free speech, I just become exhausted after a while.
I do shop at walmart, because sometimes their prices meet my budget, and my family must eat.
I would like to buy American, to help our workers in the US. I sighed heavily when all caps and scarves were made in China or Pakistan last week (in Walmart). I didn't by any. But, that's not the reason. The reason is that, along with very expensive ingredients for "raw food", it doesn't meet my budget...Sorry, rambling....
Anyway, I think it's okay to say "shut up already" every once in a while, but patiently understanding that everyone has their own lifestyle. I know my friend just doesn't want me to eat poison, and you have to appreciate a friend like that. :)
Also, as long as your not hurting anyone else (or yourself), it's none of my business if you push your cart back to the store.

[JanMichael]

26. Some open minds lead to empty heads (tipping the brains out). Just sayin'. nt.

[alarimer]

27. I wish more people would return their shopping carts.

Most people are just too fucking lazy to even put them in cart corrals. So they roll around in the middle of the parking lot, where the wind blows them into somebody's car, which scratches it. OR they put the damn thing in the MIDDLE OF THE SPACE I WAS ABOUT TO PULL INTO. Seriously, she looked right at me as she did so.