Notice Droopy doesn't tell us his source, which is Townhall, just another joke in the Right Wing media. Look at how it takes a conclusion by a sociological study and then engages in non sequitur argument. The study nowhere says Liberals are closed minded or unable to address Conservative arguments. All it said was that they were more likely to block or ignore those folks. Yes, and I can understand why. Most educated folks tend to ignore the village idiots in any given context, especially on these forums. Moreover, most die-hard Right Wingers I know on Facebook do nothing all day but post highly offensive images of Obama dressed up in African attire with a bone through his nose, humiliating his wife, etc. Remember subgenius, who recent called the first lady a "female Patrick Ewing"? Yes, these folks are despicable human beings who should be ignored because they have no intellectual arguments to be heard. All they have is hate driven ignorance. Droopy would love for it to be the case that these people are presenting "arguments" to justify their Right Wingedness, but the study suggests no such thing.
The claim that Liberals have a hard time mimicking conservatives is probably true, but for the reason that given the chance most Conservatives could argue among themselves about what that means. Just look at the way self-professed conservative Runtu reacts on this forum. Last week I had an argument with a guy who spouted every Tea Party/Republican article of faith there is, and half way through his rant he insisted he was no more a Republican than a Democrat. Of course, he said he was a "Libertarian," which is generally a word many Republicans use to make themselves feel unique. Most "Libertarians" I run into are typically Republicans who believe in the legalization of pot. The foundational tenets of the far right (small government, low taxes, etc) they adhere to faithfully. So if this study's conclusion is based on the fact that Republicans feel Liberals misrepresent their views, then that is understandable. Like Wade Englund and WIlliam Schryver, they like to claim misrepresentation when in fact there is no misrepresentation.
Having said all that, I have quite a bit of experience in all this. And I can say I have never deleted or blocked anyone from Facebook because of their political "arguments." I have deleted two or three people over the course of five years, but it was due to their propensity to post highly offensive images, never because of their arguments. In fact most Conservatives I know are so stupid, they wouldn't know what an argument would look like. For instance, a few months ago I had it out with an old friend of mine from elementary school. He is the typical backwoods, minority hating, die-hard Republican redneck in Alabama and he was telling me we went to war with Iraq because of 9-11. He really believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for it and talked to me like I was an idiot for not knowing it. When I provided him with evidence that even Bush admitted this wasn't true, he quickly blocked me.
Last week a friend on Facebook went on a rant about how Obama is to blame for her husband's taxes going up 2% this year. I kindly pointed out that this is simply not true. His taxes went up because a previous tax cut, implemented by Obama, had expired this year. His taxes are still lower now than they were under Bush because of Obama's increased child tax credits (they have six children!).
Several people clicked "like" on my post and she finally got around to responding after a few hours. She said, "Kevin, are you serious?" I explained that I was, and I then noticed all of my responses on that thread were slowly disappearing. She then sent me a private message saying"
Kevin I really like you and your sweet family. I don't want to ruin that with our differences. I am sorry but I feel strongly about these things. I really like you guys.
I hope you understand that it is nothing against you at all.
Political stuff can be tricky and hard to talk about when people see things very differently. I think it is best to not get in an argument with people you really like and care about.
I tend to get upset and say things I shouldn't so I am avoiding it completely because I value our friendship.
To which I responded:
I feel strongly about what's verifiable as true, but who is arguing here? I was just commenting on your thread explaining why his taxes went up slightly. I didn't expect disagreement from anyone. It is a common question this week. All of us have enjoyed really low taxes the past while because of Obama's tax cuts, and many of us forget that. This is an incontrovertible fact and I was just reminding everyone about this. So why fear the truth, or why suppress it? It makes no sense to me. If you're hell bent on hating Obama then there are other things he can be criticized for, but raising taxes on the working class just isn't one of them.
She then deleted me as a friend. This exact situation happened that same week with another friend who complained about her husband's smaller paycheck.
The interesting thing to me about these encounters, isn't only that I am always the one who gets deleted or ignored. The interesting thing to me is that I almost always obtain more "friends" from that other person's friends list because they are like-minded and usually well educated folks. They agree with my posts but refuse to speak up on these threads because they know just how unhinged their Conservative friends can become and they don't want to risk damaging those relationships by disrupting their worldview with facts.
