I probably said I wasn’t going to talk about this anymore. I’m sure I believed it when I did. Now I’m differing with myself.
Here’s how I initially started this post:
I’m certain I have more friends and acquaintances who are not talking about Doug Jones and Roy Moore than I do who are.
But wow, does it ever seem like the ones who are have nothing else to say right now. And I think way too many of those are forgetting that thinking, reasonable people shall find
But I went to Facebook after that, where I was going to write a capsule status on the topic. Instead, my post wound up over there.
I have reproduced it here for your convenience.
I mixed it up on Usenet newsgroups for 14 years, and I was proud of the fact that I didn’t use a killfile. I thought killfiles were crutches of cowardice, employed mostly by the undisciplined.
I carried that logic into Facebook for a long time, refusing to unfollow anyone. But it doesn’t really apply, because there were two big differences back then. First, on Usenet, there was a tacit understanding that if you said something, you were ready to defend it. And second, though we would argue for literally weeks, we did so mostly respectfully.
Now you can draw your own conclusions about why I led with that, but I’ll say this next: some of you are acting so damned ugly about this stupid election that I literally cringe when I read what you write.
There are thinking, reasonable people who are going to vote for Doug Jones. There are thinking, reasonable people who are going to vote for Roy Moore. And there are thinking, reasonable people who are going to do neither. There is a path through each option, and you have friends, neighbors, colleagues, schoolmates, churchmates, and relatives who aren’t going to choose yours.
That does not make them bad people. It makes them people who have reached a different conclusion from the one you have reached.
Furthermore, despite what too many of you have apparently conditioned yourselves to think, western civilization does not hang in the balance on December 12. Whatever happens, life will go on. And life going on shall include continuing to interact with our friends, neighbors, colleagues, schoolmates, churchmates, and relatives.
That will be harder if you’ve accused them of, oh, complicity in infanticide or pedophilia, say, or if you’ve questioned their intelligence or faith.
An informed citizenry should pay attention to what its government does. But there isn’t a single thing that happens in that fetid cesspool inside I-495 that is important enough to cost us personal relationships. If you believe otherwise, it is my view that you might could use a recalibration.
Guess what? We’re all still going to be here December 13. And guess what else? We’re all still gon’ be ‘posed to be lovin’ one another.
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