Attn:Pay Attention

Now I have my political views and I am not one to shy a way from a good debate but the fact is this, if you are going to approach a debate there has to be a couple of basics in place for it to be stimulating and worthwhile and not just a ridiculous waste of time. First, both debaters have to have enough connection to what they are talking about and enough of an emotional investment to take the time to actually learn what the hell it is they’re defending. Second you have to take a moment to remind yourself before entering in to a debate that the other person is hopefully at least as intelligent as you are. In other words the best way to enter ant debate is to consider that you may actually learn something from the other person, you are still entitled to your own opinion but at least be open to the fact that there is a chance you could be incorrect. Third, any good debate isn’t about the two people that are in it, it is about what ever the topic is and trying to understand why the other person feels the way they do so you can try to persuade them to your way of thinking.

To boil it all down, if you are going to try and debate a topic with someone, especially me, handle it as an adult because if you don’t more than likely if the other person is at all intelligent they will destroy you and your argument piece by piece and expose you as the ignorant fraud you are. Now, in any good debate if a person is truly passionate it is just human nature that they may let their emotions get the best of them in which case, just stop talking about it for now and let all parties cool off and come back together later.

So let me be up front about this before I move on, if you know me as a person you may feel that I am not the most pious, most moral person you have ever met but what it comes down to is I do have a set of ideals that I live my life by. I am not saying they’re right for everyone but they work for me. First, I can not tolerate laziness or stupidity. That doesn’t mean I am the type of prick who will tell a person they don’t have a valid point of view if they mis-spell something or that I consider someone who didn’t go to college unintelligent or that I consider someone who doesn’t spend al day working their ass off lazy. Second I don’t try and shove my beliefs down anyone’s throat and I try to be as receptive as possible to someone else’s way of life at least until they try and force it on me.

Prime example, I am an omnivore, I have no problem eating meat. Hell I have no problem slaughtering my own meat, butchering it and keeping a piece out to cook up and eat fresh that same day while still remembering the way the animal looked at me while I killed it. I can understand if someone else doesn’t feel the same way, there are a lot of people out there that pursue vegetarianism or veganism because they can’t bring themselves to eat something that had a face. If that works for you, cool, no problem, where I go apeshit on someone and destroy them without remorse is if I am sitting down with someone and I am about to cut into a big juicy steak and they try and tell me I’m wrong for it.

When it comes to politics I have a hard time identifying completely with conservatives or liberals, mostly because I consider both sides sheep that blindly follow a doctrine rather than learn about the issues for themselves.

I don’t have any problem with abortion as long as it isn’t abused by dumpster sluts that get knocked up every other week.

I own quite a few guns and I can shoot all of them probably more accurately than most people because I practice with them but at the same time I have no false belief that I own them for protection. I own guns and I am enthusiastic about them because to me, hiking into the woods at the crack of dawn and firing off a couple of boxes of shells at a target is fun and challenging to me.

I don’t have any problem with people coming to this country to start a better life for themselves as long as they don’t have a problem paying taxes or speaking to me in the language I speak to everyone else in. That isn’t to say I think a person should give up their heritage but again, I shouldn’t be forced to learn the language of someone else who comes here.

I don’t have a problem paying taxes nor do I have a problem with people who truly deserve it using that tax money to try and better themselves. For example if a hard working person who has a family to provide for loses their job ad can’t find another one right away I think that it IS the governments responsibility to help them keep their family afloat and get back on track. That doesn’t mean I am a socialist, that just means that if someone worked hard all their life and showed up one day and the company they worked for was closed down and they can’t find anything else, as long as they had been responsible, keep the lights on, keep a roof over their head, keep the heat on, keep their cupboards full and teach them how to do something else and as soon as they get another job let them pay their own bills.

I am a supporter of the military as long as those in charge of keeping it running are responsible and accountable for their actions. In any other job if someone fucks up massively, repeatedly they are usually fired, I think the same rules should apply. I don’t think the U.S. should police the world, but at the same time I feel that when it is time to go to work we shouldn’t do it wearing kid gloves. I am a big fan of conflict resolution by the most efficient means possible. Try every possible means to eliminate the conflict before it comes time to do battle, but when that time comes kill like a soulless machine until the result is achieved then once the result is achieved put down the gun and pick up a hammer and put it all back together.

I am afraid of blindly following any organized religion but at the same time if a person finds the strength they need to live every day in it good for them, just so long as they remember not everyone else feels the same way.

I could go on and on but that isn’t what this is about, to simplify I am respectful of just about anyone else’s ideals as long as they are respectful of mine and generally I try to have faith in humanity and believe that most people feel that way, I think most people just want to be left alone.

Which finally brings me to the point of this article (you’re relieved aren’t you) ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS ANYTHING BLINDLY AND MINDLESSLY IS A DANGER TO MAN KIND AND SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM CIVILIZATION.

As a society we are approaching a period in time where we are failing ourselves and allowing it to happen. Why? Why is it o.k. for 24 hour news channels to put their own spin on anything and try and make us swallow it as news? Why is it ok for Rush Limbaugh to be viewed as anything more than entertainment? The guy is nothing more than a fatter, louder Howard Stern and as funny as I think Stern can be at times I wouldn’t consider him a leader of any kind. Why is it ok for people to turn on NPR listen to it for ten minutes on their drive to work and think they have a right to try and tell anyone else they’re wrong? It is ENTERTAINMENT! Even if a talk radio host is telling you word for word your own ideals, it is entertainment, that’s it.

Why is it ok for Fox News to make anyone who isn’t a republican look like Satan? Why is it ok for MSNBC to make every democrat look like a hero? Why is it ok for CNN to ramp up the shock value of every story they report just to sell a little more ad space? That’s what it all comes down to isn’t it ? Ratings right? So why do people let it sway them?

Why is it ok for someone to use Ayn Rand or Daniel Quinn as a reference when trying to convince someone else of something? I really dug Ishmael and The Story of B, but that doesn’t mean I am going to live my life according to those books, because guess what, they’re novels, works of fiction, that’s it. I mean I thought Starship Troopers was a bad ass book but that doesn’t mean I am going to base my life off the core values of the Mobile Infantry so why in the hell is it acceptable for someone to read 20 pages of Atlas Shrugged and think they have the answer to our current economic situation.

I have read Atlas Shrugged cover to cover, twice (once in college and once to make sure I didn’t imagine the whole awful thing) and I still think Ayn Rand was a fucking crazy person who just happened to write a really long book that has a really unique view of the future but I didn’t find any answers or higher enlightenment, no more so than I did from reading The Areas of My Expertise. It was a book, that’s it.

Have we really become so complacent as a group of people that we are just fine with other people doing all of our thinking for us? If so then why should we bother fixing the economy or protecting the environment? If we have all let ourselves become nothing more than a herd of lumbering morons stumbling through life on the guidance of  Shawn Hannity or Rachel Maddow then who cares if the whole country sinks into the ocean?

I am not saying that my country has let me down or that I don’t consider anyone else as intelligent as myself, for all you know I am a drunken idiot that spends all day playing video games and eating snacky cakes, what I am saying is you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your country, you owe it to the next generation of people coming behind you to look around and realize that right now we are fucked and rather than trying to put the blame on anybody in particular put the blame on yourself for letting everyone else think for you and fix it.

If someone is in the media bitching that it is unfair for the richest people in the country to be taxed more than others ask how they got rich in the first place, more than likely it wasn’t by anything you’d consider honest work. On the other side of the coin if someone is complaining that the tax money we all pay should be used to help them ask why they need the help if its because they spent their entire lives looking for the easiest way then do they really deserve any more help?

Stop trusting that just because someone wrote a book, or is on the radio or has a tv show that they have a valuable opinion and do a little research on your own. You owe it to yourself.