Sunday, May 24, 2009

Hitler's Little Helper

I'm staying the hell away from political blogs for a while, maybe permanently. They seem filled with the moronic type of people that think they have a God-given right to insult you, then get their panties in a wad when you respond in kind. I've had it. It's getting to the point now where I've descended to the level of telling a person of Jewish descent that, instead of going back in time to kill Hitler to prevent the Holocaust, I might be inclined to tell him "hey bud you missed a spot."

This is not to be construed as an apology to the person in question. This is for me and me alone. My nerves have been on edge over a lot of personal issues, and I don't need any further stressers, especially from the likes of these sorts of "people".

This started when I related as to why some rightists-wrongly in my opinion-judge Hitler as a socialist. Instead of accepting that I was merely pointing out that two people were arguing apples and oranges, I was accused of calling Hitler a socialist myself, and called stupid-by some dumb motherfucker that evidently doesn't know how to read plain English.

As if that weren't enough, I related stories from the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati in which I lived several years ago, stories from my own personal experience, as a way of demonstrating how life in the inner-city really is, and how some social welfare programs have enabled and even encouraged an atmosphere and culture of decay, dependence and despair.

I was promptly called a racist.

It's like banging your head against a brick wall and thinking you'll knock it down. Keep it up and all you'll get is a severe concussion. The wall will stand. News flash-I could write stories about homelessness and the inner-city and it would over time possibly be considered work of Dickensian proportions. But I just can't deal with it. It's too painful, frankly. I'd rather have fun writing, and let the monsters manifest in a form that might reach into a reader's psyche and give them a good punch in the kidney when they least expect it. Instead of doing even that much, I waste my time arguing with imbeciles. And blogging.

I'm thinking of giving up on blogging all together. I've evolved significantly since I first started this blog. I used to be firmly left-of-center. In another time-travel scenario, if I could go back in time and meet face to face with myself ten years earlier, my old self would be quite shaken.

"What the fuck happened to us?" he/I might ask.

"It already happened," I might answer me. "You just haven't figured it out yet. Don't worry, as you can see, you will."

Even when I look at this blog and think about what the name implies, I wonder about it. How do I possibly begin to fit in with a movement that is more leftist politically than it is any kind of a spiritual path? If you don't believe me, go to any pagan blog you see, and on the average for every pagan or spiritual, occult, magical, etc post you see you will see an overtly political post-usually though not necessarily always of a leftist persuasion. When it is not mainly political, politics more often than not creeps into it, to the extent that you feel like you are not a part of the group if you don't subscribe to their political beliefs. How can you be a modern pagan and not be, for example, a liberal environmentalist or feminist, or this-or-that?

Oh it's fine to be a conservative, as a liberal might define what they might call a "sincere" conservative, at least up to a point-but how can you support the likes of Sarah Palin? How can you defend conservative causes? If you want to be a conservative, be a good conservative, help us figure out a way we can have all this good shit in a way we don't have to be taxed to death for it. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut. We don't want to hear about freedom and independence, we want to make government work for us-and give us everything we want. Maybe if you turn against the rich and work with us, it will work out. The rich need no protection, they need to contribute more-like say ninety nine percent.

By all means, let's encourage an inter-faith dialogue with Christians-as long as they're liberal Christians, that is. The conservative ones are too hung up on that Bible of theirs. They have this funny idea it actually means what it says.

Duh! Isn't that the point of dialogue, to try to breach the walls of divisions and arrive at understanding and acceptance? Who says you have to agree on everything? Why should you even want that?

What it all boils down to is most people aren't looking to foster dialogue and understanding through communication. They are looking for political and social allies. They're not wanting to simply carve out their own niche in society and protect their rights and gain understanding. They want to form a brigade and mount a siege on the perceived fortress of conservative Christendom.

This should not be construed as an attack on liberal pagans, who aren't all bad, or wrong on all things, nor for that matter is this even a defense of conservative Christians, who certainly have their faults as well. It's a matter of communication. I've almost come to the conclusion its a fucking waste of time.

The point is, people carve out their own little niches, and for all their bullshit about communication and dialogue, its mostly a ruse. They want validation above and beyond anything else, and if they do look for dialogue with an opposing viewpoint, more often than not its a search for a strawman to knock down and abuse.

In response to this, I find my own self and this blog centered mainly on politics from a conservative perspective, though I like to consider myself independent, by no means a red=state Kool-Aid drinker. The point is, its hard to get away from it. I try to focus on other aspects, with entertainment and celebrity posts, or the all-too rare pagan oriented post, maybe a true crime story once in a while. But then sooner or later something political comes along that grabs my attention. To paraphrase a line from Godfather III, I want to get away, but they just keep dragging me back in. I have become the ass hole I rant about, and the war of words will inevitably begin, at some point or another. Maybe its just time for me to take the initiative and break this vicious cycle.

It might sound childish, but I think I'm going to take my marbles and play by myself for a while. I have one friend and one friend only. That reminds me, I think I need to clean her litter box. The other animals, those of the human variety, can fend for themselves, and we'll see how it all works out. I am not hopeful.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol, what's your problem

SecondComingOfBast said...

Certain people just keep me in a fowl mood, even when I try to treat them cordially. The only problem is there's really no such thing as time travel. Barring that unlikely development, I'm just going to avoid them. It's wrong to give people that kind of power over your emotions.

Anonymous said...

You're definitely a moody one.

Lemuel Calhoon said...

I can't tell you not to take something of a break from blogging because I did and it did me some good.

If it brings any comfort to you there is a growing pagan element to the neo-nazi/white power movement. It seems that they are getting it through their heads that you can't hate Jews and be a Christian because Christians worship a Jewish man as God in human flesh.

EminemsRevenge said...

Everyone thinks if you write an intelligent thought-provoking blog you'll build a following like Matt Drudge or Monica Crowley...but having managed my uncle's deli for 12 years i KNOW that the average person is STUPID...and on the internet you find that they're even stupider---which is why i don't even try doing the essay thang anymore.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Lem-

Those are the Wotanists, though some misrepresent themselves as Asatru (who as a group denounce racism). There is a growing movement amongst white separatists in prisons with that belief. I posted about them back some time ago. Both groups worship the Norse gods. I have an idea a lot of them in the back of their minds are seeing Thor as a long-haired blond guy who turns into a crippled doctor with a walking stick.

No, it doesn't give me comfort, but on the other hand, they aren't much worse than a good many of the others who denounce them. They are convenient targets for other pagans who don't have too much to crow about themselves.

Blogging is frustrating. You have to put up with assholes to the extent that you find yourself stooping to their level. At the same time, if you aren't willing to pay for premium services, like for example from Technorati, they won't even register your pings for updates, on the grounds they haven't determined yet whether or not your blog is "spam". It's impossible to build an audience under those kinds of conditions.

It doesn't help that I'm probably too independent for my own good when it comes to blogging. It is what it is. I'm just going to avoid certain people from now on for the sake of my blood pressure, and keep to blogging as a hobby. I started it originally as a promotional vehicle for my writing. That's obviously not working out.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Eminem-

Good point, but I would add to it the fact that there are just so much blogs out there that are pure dross and drivel, you have to wade through thousands of them to find something worth your time, and once you find that diamond in the truckload of coal, one, you feel like you need a shower, and two, well, there are different qualities of diamonds. Some lose their luster after awhile.

You just have to keep at it. For the most part, the blogs with the biggest advantage, aside from the celebrity blogs, or those like Monica's, are the team blogs, which have a number of people who can pool resources and share in the responsibility of regular posting and promotion.

I figure its best for me just to approach it as a hobby. That way I won't feel like I'm wasting my time, or setting myself up for a disappointment if it never goes anywhere.

Anonymous said...

I have fun with blogging. I don't know why you can't. Just do what you want, and you'll be happy. You're making too much of an issue out of it

SecondComingOfBast said...

What if it makes me happy to rant and rave like a maniac? Didn't think of that one, did ya? Huh? Huh?

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

PT,

Not to dig in on a discussion I didn't participate in, but Hitler was a left-wing socialist from his flophouse cocksucking days to his bunker suicide.

On the principle differences between left-wing and right-wing ideologies, Hitler and the Nazis fall definitively in the left-wing camp, on all counts.

Now where's this discussion at? I want some.

Quimbob said...

Beamish, I believe it's this'n.
Like most cyber discussions of politics it devolved into nit picking and name calling. When you have members like the Gert person shooting from the hip it doesn't do much good.
I think the key to these discussions is to know when it has descended into a madhouse riot and to just call it quits. I'm with Danielle, I just try to have fun - that kinda screws me, tho, because then people don't take me seriously when I am serious.
As far as quitting blogging ? holy hell, how could anybody walk away from all this easy money ?

SecondComingOfBast said...

Beak-

Hitler had a lot of socialist policies, but its a stretch to identify him as a socialist. It's one thing to describe fascism and nazism as leftist, it's quite another to call them socialist. It's a matter of degrees.

I don't want to say what blog this all took place on, because I don't want to cause the blog owner any further problems than he's already put up with, even if its not my fault. I was the one who was attacked.

Still, if you put some thought into it, I have an idea it wouldn't be that hard for you to figure out where this all happened.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Quim-

Well, yeah it was that one, and also the post before it. Not my finest moments.

sonia said...

I remember we had this "Hitler/socialism" discussion before. Considering that Hitler was the leader of an organization called National SOCIALIST German Workers Party, it's pretty much a settled issue.

But I am surprised that such things get under your skin. When someone calls you a racist, or a Nazi, it means that you have won the argument. It's a rhetorical equivalent of waving a white flag. All you have to do to claim your victory is to say, "You're damn right I am a racist and a Nazi, and shame on you for not being one as well..."

If you dare, that is...

And then you can denounce Hitler as a smelly turd who lost the war because he was a mentally retarded idiot, and everybody will be impressed that the new Nazi movement (under your leadership) has finally rejected the errors of the past...

Power is controlling the meaning of words...

SecondComingOfBast said...

Sonia-

I don't think its very adult to call yourself a racist or a nazi out of spite, do you?

I honestly don't care what these people think. I just want them to know in no uncertain therms that I am not intimidated by them.

Here's the rub-the idea that they think they can intimidate somebody over the net just shows how weak-minded they are.

It might sound impertinent, but I rather imagine certain ones quiver and quake at the force of my words.

They must be somewhat vulnerable themselves to imagine that someone could be so easily silenced by such an obvious name-calling tactic.

A head full of politically correct jargon that spills forth in the course of a debate is the sign of am empty headed weakling, with no true moral compass or intellectual integrity to call his own.

SecondComingOfBast said...

In other words, arguing with people like that is like arguing with brain-dead zombies, without so much as a single solitary original thought to call home inside those empty cavities they call their heads.

sonia said...

I don't think its very adult to call yourself a racist or a nazi out of spite.

Not out of spite. When someone empowers you to change the meaning of a charged word, it's a huge opportunity.

The gay rights movement really started when some asshole said "You're a queer!" and the queer in question responded "Thank you. Damn right I am a queer. I am proud of being queer and you are worthless because you're not a queer!". That exchange was a D-Day caliber victory. A Stalingrad turning point.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Quim,

Ah. I should have known the blog to look at.

A left wing blog catering to left wingers moderated by a leftist.

Searching for intellect there would be like looking for a cherry pie inside a can of Crisco. Sure, the pretty picture on the label matches what you're looking for...

Been there, done that.

PT,

Fascism, in many respects, is just another word for national socialism. Which makes Hitler just as leftist as the day he ranted about destroying capitalism, or the day he sent the SS to seize Jewish-owned means of production.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

...for the (German) "people."

The various strains of leftist philosophies (Communism, Socialism, Fascism, etc.) differ only on which humans they determine can be properly called "people."

That selective definition of "people" can span from "those outside the womb" to "those of Aryan blood" and all points in between.