On the story concerning the gunslinging GOP, I have this little vignette to share. My father was a 20-year Army NCO with two combat tours in Southeast Asia. As a boy, he urged me to stand up to school bullies if cornered. But he also discouraged me from walking around my neighborhood with a stick or other weapons because in his words:…
On the story concerning the gunslinging GOP, I have this little vignette to share. My father was a 20-year Army NCO with two combat tours in Southeast Asia. As a boy, he urged me to stand up to school bullies if cornered. But he also discouraged me from walking around my neighborhood with a stick or other weapons because in his words: "It'll make other people think you're looking for a fight."
Are these GOP 2A people merely cosplaying? Or is it the beginning of a new brinkmanship? If it is the latter, then I encourage my neighbors not to play their games. Just as I listened to my Dad's advice, I also listened to my wife when we were at the Antietam Battlefield about ten years ago. There were three KKK members loitering outside the visitor center, wearing "Invisible Empire" tee-shirts.
As a history professor and an Army vet in my own right, my first impulse was to walk right up to these three losers and give them a piece of my mind. But my wife told me this is exactly what they want -- attention in the media. If we give them what they want and a fight ensues, then regardless of what the news actually says, these right-wing nuts will just turn it around to their own advantage.
So let them post their inciteful photos and stage their rallies. Instead of clicks, let them hear crickets!
I see both sides of this perspective. There’s a fine line between de-escalation, and appeasement. There’s a time for challenging those who wish to instill fear, or else we allow horrors to unfold a little at a time. I’m unsure myself where that line is; each circumstance needs evaluation. But one-size-fits-all is dangerous.
I hear you, and if the three T-shirts were intending with their attire to be "those who wish to instill fear", they did so believing that instilled fear will keep you from challenging them on their attire's message. They do not worry about intellectual niceties such as, did you not react due to de-escalation or appeasement, if they even know the words and their meanings.
They also believe that if they see you have noticed their "message" but do nothing, you have implicitly agreed and they have won. Bullies are like that. You could stand up to one with calm, low-key arguments, not fists. Of course, that only assumes that the "provocation" was worth it in your mind, but that is a different analysis, one that Jeffrey's wife espoused and which won the day with him.
Agreed. It’s an ongoing conundrum that we face over and over in varying intensities. “Silence is complicity”, versus giving them the attention they crave by challenging them. I usually think of the perfect response the next day, after examining the situation every which way.
I admired the way an old friend responded to a racist joke years ago; “I don’t think it’s true, and I don’t think it’s funny”. Simple. Succinct. Unfortunately, I don’t think fast on my feet.
You need to read Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. Thinking fast is a habit, but habits are all to often ingrained biases. Develop good thinking habits, slowly, and your quick responses may -- that's may -- be appropriate. In my experience, far too many people with quick retorts are full of nonsense.
This is what people have been saying about TFG for years, but he keeps getting prime time attention. All those three RWN (right wing-nuts) have to do is get him to pose with them and their personal Warhol 15 minutes of fame begin.
On the story concerning the gunslinging GOP, I have this little vignette to share. My father was a 20-year Army NCO with two combat tours in Southeast Asia. As a boy, he urged me to stand up to school bullies if cornered. But he also discouraged me from walking around my neighborhood with a stick or other weapons because in his words: "It'll make other people think you're looking for a fight."
Are these GOP 2A people merely cosplaying? Or is it the beginning of a new brinkmanship? If it is the latter, then I encourage my neighbors not to play their games. Just as I listened to my Dad's advice, I also listened to my wife when we were at the Antietam Battlefield about ten years ago. There were three KKK members loitering outside the visitor center, wearing "Invisible Empire" tee-shirts.
As a history professor and an Army vet in my own right, my first impulse was to walk right up to these three losers and give them a piece of my mind. But my wife told me this is exactly what they want -- attention in the media. If we give them what they want and a fight ensues, then regardless of what the news actually says, these right-wing nuts will just turn it around to their own advantage.
So let them post their inciteful photos and stage their rallies. Instead of clicks, let them hear crickets!
I see both sides of this perspective. There’s a fine line between de-escalation, and appeasement. There’s a time for challenging those who wish to instill fear, or else we allow horrors to unfold a little at a time. I’m unsure myself where that line is; each circumstance needs evaluation. But one-size-fits-all is dangerous.
I hear you, and if the three T-shirts were intending with their attire to be "those who wish to instill fear", they did so believing that instilled fear will keep you from challenging them on their attire's message. They do not worry about intellectual niceties such as, did you not react due to de-escalation or appeasement, if they even know the words and their meanings.
They also believe that if they see you have noticed their "message" but do nothing, you have implicitly agreed and they have won. Bullies are like that. You could stand up to one with calm, low-key arguments, not fists. Of course, that only assumes that the "provocation" was worth it in your mind, but that is a different analysis, one that Jeffrey's wife espoused and which won the day with him.
Agreed. It’s an ongoing conundrum that we face over and over in varying intensities. “Silence is complicity”, versus giving them the attention they crave by challenging them. I usually think of the perfect response the next day, after examining the situation every which way.
I admired the way an old friend responded to a racist joke years ago; “I don’t think it’s true, and I don’t think it’s funny”. Simple. Succinct. Unfortunately, I don’t think fast on my feet.
You need to read Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. Thinking fast is a habit, but habits are all to often ingrained biases. Develop good thinking habits, slowly, and your quick responses may -- that's may -- be appropriate. In my experience, far too many people with quick retorts are full of nonsense.
QED my above post.
Too violent. Just be nice and give him a ticket to an NFL locker room to participate in a tackling drill with his shirt super-glued to his body.
This is what people have been saying about TFG for years, but he keeps getting prime time attention. All those three RWN (right wing-nuts) have to do is get him to pose with them and their personal Warhol 15 minutes of fame begin.