Cheap Reasoning
How to get blocked by a lefty who dishes it but can’t take it.
He knows I’m a moderate because I write my reasons, and he comments on my pieces. We’ve shared conversations for several years now, but he recently wrote a piece that was a full frontal assault on moderates and it read as a stab in the back.
He said “it’s shady to say you’re a moderate.” He said “you’re on the unpopular side.” He implied that the center is fake and that moderates are really just too afraid to admit they’re on the right. Well… those goads are fighting words in my book. Not literally fighting, but suggest I’m phony for being a moderate (while you claim to have liberal values) and you aren’t running away without getting a piece of my mind. I mean, I am quite obviously not afraid to say what my views are.
People don’t know how ignorant they sound when they talk shit about things they don’t understand. They don’t know how paranoid they sound when they argue that moderates don’t exist — just because they are so biased they can’t fathom it. I’m not guzzling red or blue koolaide but that doesn’t mean that I don’t share some or many of the same views as you. To say I’m trying to be “coy” by being a moderate is disgustingly condescending. To paint me as a fake person is really fucked up and uncalled for. You cannot be a liberal and a bigot — and you definitely picked latter, sir. I too think some political stances suck, but it doesn’t destroy the humanity of a person — or their right to vote. I can easily separate the politics from the person, but they too need to contribute respect for that system to work. Have liberals truly forgotten what liberal means??? TOLERANT… liberal means tolerant. The hypocrisy is pathetic, man.
Look, it’s no skin off my back to lose someone who can’t tolerate our differences… however minor they truly are… but I believe it’s beyond cowardly to block me for saying this. I was pissed, but I still tried to be silly — maybe it went right over his head… maybe he spontaneously lost his sense of humor after he equated moderates to a bad wig and visibly fake tits. 🤷🏼♀️
Throughout his piece he asserted that moderates needed to “take a stand” and “pick a side” (right or left), so my initial response was aimed at his assertion:
“Strong words, my friend! Counter-intuitive as it may seem, being a moderate is taking a stand against being a monotone adherent. As you’ve made abundantly clear — it is neither painless nor popular to subscribe to center politics, but I can take bigots’ beatings. Approval can go fuck itself! How’s that for coy? Welcome to the new rebellion. 🤙🏻 AD RATIONEM!”
“Illiberal framework forced me to abandon the present-day Left, and my decision was not escapist in the slightest because I resent the abomination that the party has become. I maintain eclectic beliefs and I refuse to sell my acuity short for the shallow camaraderie of thuggishly narrow-minded cults. The closest thing to a human-shaped box is a coffin, but I’m not dead yet, so I won’t be contorted into positions I disagree with, be it right or left. It’s bad enough that my freedom of choice is limited to two wonky devils of fate — the faces of Janus, come Election Day. Bad actors have destroyed the set.”
“I hate to be a dick, but I’ll be a proud dick if I must, because the nates of this dichotomy is fetid. I find polarized-politics insufferable, so I’ll plank to keep my free-minded soul out of trappings, thank you kindly. 😛 Sometimes I’m naked, but I’m not a nudist, and I often wear clothes, but I’m not a prude. My tits are as real as my teeth, and that’s not a merkin! To set the record straight, this “pussy” rivals balls any day any time.”
He’d responded to my first comment very strangely — as if I was the one who was trying to convince him to leave the left, rather than just standing up for my own position. Apparently, this is all it takes to get blocked by a lefty who can dish it but can’t take it:
“You do you, that’s what freedom is about, and I plan to keep it that way! Your vote should*** matter as much as any other American, because that’s democracy — the thing you claim to love. Voter equality is certainly better than the alternatives. No one owes loyalty to a party that doesn’t take their views into account, and it wouldn’t be America if that changed. If it did change, I’d vote to divvy the pie just to keep a slice true because it’s the only fair thing to do if people aren’t liberal enough to compromise.”
“Both parties are pig-headed, and I expected that from the right, but I trusted the left to do better! So, for me, being a moderate has nothing to do with right-leaning persuasion — it’s entirely about left-leaning alienation. A just and moderate leader is long overdue, not the crackerjacks these parties breed.”
“I continue to have more in common with plebeians on the left, but when your neighbors form a gang, it’s time to move. On merit, I cannot support what the left has become — a mirage of liberalism with too many commie cons. If the left can stop huffing theoretical fumes and hating free speech, then I’ll definitely reconsider, but until then my objectivity feels safer among the warehouse’s rafters, away from the belligerent claws of zombies. Call me shady again 😤 and we’ll have words 😂 because I fawn for no one.”
He deleted my second response (like I wouldn’t check 😜)— probably because it didn’t suit his victim-complex very well.
He’d made little condescending digs at me before, and I let them go… I played dumb… I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Dammit… I never trust my gut, because there is always that off chance that I’m the one who is being paranoid and I’d hate to misjudge a person in that light, but now I suspect my suspicions were right all along. For me, the most annoying part is that he has a background in psychology and he is no spring chicken… so he knows the things he said were fucked up. I can only surmise that he must think it’s ok for him to be fucked up… and in reconsidering his previous digs — his blocking me was likely only a matter of time. ✌🏻oh well!
