Written by
It has been a couple of weeks now since President Obama's speech to the students. As I have two school age children I was involved in the debate surrounding the speech, and I was one of those parents contacting my local school department regarding it.
I was not one of the parents requesting that my child not watch the speech, but I did request permission to be in the class during the speech and any following discussions that took place. As it turns the Seekonk School Department opted not to show the speech live. They did show it at a later date in classes where it fit into the curriculum, and none of the White House approved "propaganda" was used.
Yesterday I was going through the articles I had missed on my local newspaper's website "Seekonk Star", and had a chance to review some of the comments that were left on the articles that were written regarding the speeches controversy.
I was amazed, not at the arguments for or against the speech, but by some of the outright idiocy written by some of the local Seekonk residents.
In a Letter to the Editor addressing the courage of the decision by the School Superintendent to not show the speech, the rhetoric on both sides started hard and fast, however one poster by the name of "Union_teacher" amazed me. It was not his/her political views, but his/her obvious lack of any political knowledge whatsoever regarding the person he/she had voted in as President. Unionteacher supports Obama literally on blind faith. Facts need not be regarded in his/her views.
To illustrate my point allow me to share some of his/her knowledge with the rest of you. I take no responsibility for the loss of IQ after reading these remarks.
StateTrooper says:
"I agree also. That speech was worthless. How can Obama preach to Children when he isn't the best poster child from all the things to did in his past, drugs etc."
union_teacher says:
"Hmmmmmm.....If I remember correctly, our last president, George W. Bush was an admitted alcoholic and cocaine addict-talk about a poster child. And tell me State Trooper, where are your facts that President Obama has done drugs in his past?-please share those facts.
As far as the president's speech, although my children are grown, and are long past school age, it would have been an honor for me to have them watch the speech by the finest president to ever grace the White House-OUR President Obama."
Okay, statetrooper is kind of an idiot too, but for those of you who pay attention you know where I am going with this. Before I get there I would like to point out another user who joined in on the conversation almost immediately to offer his/her fine words of wisdom. It only took nine comments for someone to pull out the race card. Enter user jaqdadi:
"I agree with union, statetrooper if you are a statetrooper I would like to know if you have knowledge of drug use by Obama as well as what "etc" means, or are you simply one of those cowardly racists that can't find anything of substance so you present rhetoric and false statements."
Watchman says:
"Looks like jaqladi didn't get the memo....Obama admitted cocaine and marijuana use in his 1995 book, 'Dreams From My Father'."
jaqdadi says:
"Just more rhetoric and false statements by sore losers."
union_teacher says: (Never addressing the Drug Statement)
"Not only have the last 6 months since President Obama took office been the happiest 6 months of my life, but I feel even better knowing he will be leading this great nation of ours for the next 3 1/2 years. Thank goodness for President Obama-the finest president ever to grace the Oval Office."
I am not sure what worried me more, that union_teacher could possible teach my child someday, or that depth of this persons ignorance and borderline fanatical knowledge of the person he/she helped put into office.
But one thing is certain; you cannot argue with an idiot. There is no sport, and the only way to communicate with them is to reduce yourself down to their level. What good does that do you? Your only other option is to pause the actual argument and go back and try to counter a statement or argument that an intelligent person would never have said in the first place!
Another tried and true tactic by the idiot is to latch onto some minor statement within the argument, attack it, force you to defend or debunk it, while successfully hijacking the original discussion.
Every side has their idiots. My advice is, if they are on your side of the argument, kindly point out their mistake and remind them that they are not doing anyone a service by throwing out rhetoric. If they are not on your side, as difficult as it sometimes is; just ignore them and seek out an intelligent adversary. Engaging the idiot does nothing to advance the cause, it only wastes time and pulls all of us down into the mud with them.
What was the saying? You can put lipstick on a pig....
I have posted the link to the articles for your enjoyment. Feel free.
******************************
twitter.com/harshaw1776