Reply #22: Not as much as I was. [View All]

[Bouncy Ball]

I've let it go a bit. Especially when things like this happen:

I'm sitting at a red light, front person. The truck next to me honks. I looked at them as I pulled up to the light and I know it's a big beat up pickup with a gun rack and two old white guys in it. No stickers.

So I'm pretty sure they're wanting to let me know what I think of my "Bush lies, people die" sticker and not in a nice way, so I don't look over.

They're persistent--they honk two more times. Finally I look over and they are all grins, giving me two thumbs up and one of them yells "That's RIGHT! You keep telling the truth about that bastard!!!"

Shocked the shit out of me. But that's what I get for engaging in stereotypes. They apparently hate the crap out of bush. Who'da thunk it?

But then I think about my husband, driving around in a Ford F150 with an A&M sticker and several stickers for the units he was in in the Army. No political stickers. Anyone would think he was a bush lover Supreme and NOTHING could be further from the truth--bush makes him ill.

So, I try not to. ALTHOUGH I will admit to trying to suss people out in conversation, VERY subtly, to try to figure out leanings. I have a casual friend I've decided is apolitical leaning toward liberalism. I figured that out the other night.

Most of the time, if I like someone, and I met them AFTER the election, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW who they voted for. Period. If I find out they voted for bush, I will never look at them the same way and the friendship will hobble along to its premature death. For instance, one woman I worked with that I liked suddenly one day just went OFF on Teresa Heinz Kerry. I have no idea what triggered it and it was AFTER the election. :crazy: She was super bitter and hateful towards her and I asked her what THK did to her and she admitted nothing but "I JUST HATE HER!!" I said "Well it's not like she's the First Lady, so what are you worried about?" That was the end of THAT friendship. I mean, what the fuck? I don't just RANDOMLY start cussing out Pickles, in fact beyond a few mentions of her on DU, I've never mentioned her in real life.

Ah well. I can't get past all the blood on their hands, I guess.

On edit, I think it's ok to discriminate based on something the person CHOOSES. People do it all the time. Some people discriminate against others because they CHOOSE to wear non-designer clothes. I discriminate against those who CHOOSE to be repukes. Now, I will not EVER discriminate based on something the person can't choose or do anything about, such as nationality, sexuality, etc. I try not to discriminate based on religious beliefs, either, but fundielicious repukes make that a bit hard to do, in their case.

And they DO choose that.