Beware the Grumpy Old Men! Alternate Reality Rules on Comment Boards

I used to think I was pretty conservative. I actively campaigned for every Republican presidential nominee from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, served as a Republican precinct chairman and was a delegate to two Republican State Conventions. While I have since soured on the Republican Party, most of my underlying core beliefs remained the same. However, when I had the audacity to challenge statements made on some right wing discussion boards, I found out that I was a "liberal POS" (and they didn't mean Point of Sale System), "retarded" and "the worst kind of fool." Who knew?

Seriously, these boards are symptomatic of a larger problem. In today's America, many people tune out the Main Stream Media and only listen to those who confirm their biases. If the only people you talk to are the most conspiratorial minded 1%, you can find validation for the wildest theories. Woe to the person who walks in who is only 95% pure. They can expect an internet thrashing. While my recent experience has been with the right wing echo chamber, I am sure that the same can be said for people who find the Huffington Post to be too conservative.

As a public service (or perhaps I just want to vent), let me open a window into some of these forums. The three that I get the most emails from are The Last Resistance, Political Outcast and Eagle Rising. You can click on the article titles  below to get to the sites. Each of them send out email news updates which allow readers to comment. Sometimes the comments get pretty far afield from the original article. While the articles can be pretty bad, the comments are much worse.

Here are a few examples:

• Last Resistance had a post entitled "Eric Holder: Blacks Have a Civil Right to Murder" on November 8, 2013. The premise behind this article was that: (i) Trayvon Martin tried to murder George Zimmerman; (ii) Eric Holder said that the federal government was thinking about pursuing federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman; and that therefore (iii) Eric Holder believed that blacks have a civil right to murder white people. The article was full of gratuitous slurs against black people such as, "there's nobody black people love more than black people" and "the American government sets very low standards for black people." However, to me, the most absurd premise about the article was that Zimmerman was the victim and Martin was the aggressor. The article said:

If Zimmerman violated Trayvon’s civil rights, then that means it was Trayvon’s civil right to kill Zimmerman, because that’s the only thing Zimmerman stopped Trayvon from doing.

Huh? I thought this was nuts and said so.

In response, I was told:

 Bonk:

It's not a race thing, it's a culture issue. BO would love a race war, so he can declare martial law. His Obamacare does well to help kill off most of the senior population.

Sharon:

Did you conveniently forget that Martin was bashing Zimmerman's head on concrete and would have most likely killed him if Zimmerman hadn't shot him? Perhaps you need to open your eyes and stop drinking Liberal Kool-Aid.

freemanfornow:

The 911 operator knew Zimmerman was on foot and continued to ask about Martin's actions, which required Zimmerman to continue following (with his gun holstered and concealed). As the police car was entering the neighborhood, Zimmerman broke contact and started walking back to meet the officer. That's when Martin doubled back and attacked Zimmerman.

Avenger:

Why is that all liberals sound so retarded? Liberal organizations were formed so the organizations can easily influence the stupid to say and believe fairy tales like Steve Sather is spouting. As Steve shows, short-circuited 'logic' and liberal ignorance can be funny and entertaining.

• In another article, entitled Neo-Nazis: Haters We Love to Hate on November 14, 2013, the author told the story of a Neo-Nazi who found out that he was part black. The article pointed out the stupidity of Neo-Nazi groups. So what did the comments say? You guessed it: Barack Obama is just like the Nazis.

Rockyvnvmc:

There's little difference between the Obot's hatred & the Nazi's, except the Obots hate Whites And Jews... even those whites amongst them.

Obamaism is following the Nazi's lead, word for word, out of 'Mein Kampf'. Now, just like Hitler, Obama's hoing after our guns... we All remember what happened next, after Adolf disarmed his opponents...

Harold:

Why worry about a small group of neo-Nazis, when we have a whole bunch of them in Washington,D.C. who are trying to rule like Adolph's Nazi's. starting with the white house.

• In TX School Says Cheerleaders Part of Government So Their Speech Can Be Controlled on November 8, 2013, the author asked what I thought was a fair question: whether cheerleaders at a football game are speaking for themselves or for the school when they hold up banners with Bible verses. Because the article only offered one side of the argument, I offered the rebuttal, which is, that when cheerleaders selected by the school are wearing uniforms with the school insignia on them and are given a special platform not available to others that maybe is not unreasonable to consider them to be acting as representatives of the school.

 What I saw in the comments was hatred against Muslims and Jews and sympathy for Joe McCarthy.

SpudPicker:

Too bad McCarthy didn't get a lot more help way back when! He had the right idea but was outnumbered and outgunned. He needed help but didn't get it.

Winston Blake:

The three women on the Court are... JEWS...

The Jews Who Rule America

V Steve:

My free speech:

Jews and muslims should be ran out of the united States, jewish groups want to destroy our christian heritage and our culture which our founding fathers founded the united states on, muslims want to enforce their sharia law to replace the constitution and bill of rights.

Denise B:

He's absolutely 110% correct. Jews and Muslims are completely Anti AMERICAN. Screw off to Israel.

fort9erdon:

As there should be! Islam, is not a religion, but in fact is an agenda for world domination, therefore not entitled to protection from the first amendment. Islam is an idea, that belittles women, causes 98 percent of the evil in this world, and Muhammed was an insane pedophile, sex deviant, who hatched an idea that took hold in a very evil, backward culture. Mulims are stuck in a very bloody 6th century world. Islam should be outlawed. America will be doomed by Islam, because PC IS DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY! WAKE THE HELL UP AMERICA!

• When Eagle Rising wrote a story about Sarah Palin Warns Obama of Impeachment on October 16, 2013, I thought it was bizarre that anyone would still listen to Sarah Palin and said so. 

Sarah Palin has not shown any familiarity with the Constitution. On top of that, she was incapable of serving one term as Governor of a small state. She is an intellectual lightweight who is overly in love with the sound of her own voice.

 Of course, this does show my bias.   The comments in response to my shot across the bow were equally poignant adding more heat than light to the discussion.




BarefootBoy1:

Steve Sather is full of Blather. Your Ignorance and Stupidity is showing.

Jon Hawk:

and yet another Mis informed Liberal fanatic who does no fact checking obviously...go drink some more koolaid and do some actual research before making ill founded and un truthful remarks about someone you moron

Poodleguy:

And Steve is full of equine fecal matter!!!!! Go away, you leftist POS.,,,,

Of course, the comments that were not directed against me were even worse.

TimboT:

Obama is still in power because of the evil of this nation and the world. The Despot has been propped up by none other than Satan who is the Devil and Prince of the Air.

Peggyjsl:

Here is one for you Delbert whether anyone likes it or not: The current president, Community Organizer is muslim (says so himself) Islamic and is of the muslim brotherhood and his god is Allah, which means "curse" and in arabic the mark of the beast "666" is "In The Name Of Allah" and "Shariah Law" is their caliphate

Marian:

Obama will never stop lying. He must be impeached now! I do not want him in prison...I want him gone....ship him off to Pakistan with Mooch and his two daughters. Get rid of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi...the rest will be replaced in November 2014. We need to clean up Washington and air out the WH!

G. Frazier:

Anybody, who votes NOT to impeach Obama should be tried for treason! Obama should not only be tried and convicted, he should also be sentenced to prison - HARD LABOR, MIND YOU - until he has paid back every cent he's stolen from the nation.
That should keep him busy until at least 2525!!

DavidE:

Obama is our greatest enemy ever!! Being a devout Muslim, he hates our guts and is looking for ANY excuse to implement Martial Law to extend his dictatorship indefinitely to destroy our country and imprison or kill our citizens. GOD BLESS AMERICA

Final Thoughts

There you have it. Barack Obama is a Muslim Nazi who is in league with Satan to encourage black people to kill whites so that he can impose martial law. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.   Reading these articles and the comments they inspire, it is clear that there are some people who are very, very angry about nearly everything in America.   If the comment boards allow them to blow off steam and commiserate with their compatriots, they may well be doing some good.   However, when there is a constant refrain that the other side is not just wrong, but in league with Satan, I worry that some will be inspired to take up arms against their fellow Americans.  Hopefully, these are just a bunch of grumpy old men who while their time away on the internet while they wait for their social security check to arrive.  Maybe they just need to get out of the house and feel the sun upon their faces.