I blew up at a hateful racist today...

[cynatnite]

I'm not proud of this, but I totally lost my cool.

I was at the VA for a doctor's appointment. I was sitting in the back, reading my nook while a few were commenting about the politics of the day. It was typical of teabagger type talk and normally it doesn't get me worked up. I can blow it off because I know the types. It's just not worth it.

One lady had said the "I'm not racist, but..." when she talked about Mexicans. I still let it go.

Then she said this...

"Gawd sent Katrina to clean out New Orleans"

I lost it. I told her she was crazy. Almost two thousand men, women, and children died. I called her fucking crazy again and stormed off. I was so livid at the hate-filled talk that I couldn't stomach being in the same waiting room.

My mother is a RW nutjob on so many levels along with her birther type mentality (which I think she's finally starting to realize the insanity of it), but even she found this woman's notions startling. My mother was stunned to hear this when I told her about it.

That lady is effing crazy.

on edit: I'm normally not like this. Anyone who knows me knows that I normally keep my two cents to myself.

[RagAss]

1. Did you ask her if God sent the tornados to clean out the bigoted south this weekend?

[cynatnite]

3. If I wasn't so angry and had been thinking clearly, I would have. n/t

[RagAss]

5. Save it for next time...you'll get plenty of chances with these cretins.

[monmouth]

9. OMG, you are reading my mind! I was just about to post the same thing.

I noticed these tornados seemed to hit teabagger country pretty hard. Do ya think they got the hint?...LOL.

[butterfly77]

21. Me too...

I was talking to a friend of mine today and she said she wanted to post something similar but she knew some would start defending the teabaggers..

[fredamae]

12. Exactly! That's like saying "God Punishes TX"

with the "fires of hell" b/c he is a radical republican.

Bad idea to make such literally crazy statements.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

27. Interesting you say this about the South, of which I am a product of.

The South ranks low on nearly every economic and social indicator. The schools are the worst in the nation. Unemployment, poverty, out-of-wedlock births, high abortion rates, high dropout rates....I could go on and on. And yet, people continue to vote against their best interests, proudly electing Republicans whose policies are destroying this country.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

30. Problem is

that many Southerners blame those problems on their high black populations. They won't blame it on general poverty, lack of education, etc.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

32. Of course they do, all the while reaping the rewards of a tax system that provides them

MORE subsidies. If they hate government so much, then give up those subsidies/federal tax dollars and give them back to New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Massachusetts...the highest taxed states in the nation. Why is this? Because we redistribute tax dollars to RED states that still underperform.

The Southern Strategy has worked miracles for the Republican Party in the South, but also in the Midwest. It continues to generate more votes in the South. Just when we think progress has been made, we move 10 steps backward.

[NICO9000]

31. To paraphrase Thomas Frank

What's the matter with the South and the rest of red America?

I long for a day when these folks wake up and realize they've been played for the suckers they are. Longing for the day, but not expecting to ever see it in my lifetime.

[raccoon]

42. Race. That's why they vote Republican. nt

[virgogal]

2. Even if there was a god he wouldn't want anything to do with this woman.

[Drale]

7. God is constantly banging his head on his desk constantly

these last 30 years or so.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. I don't blame you at all, such utter callousness is unreal. n/t

[TheWraith]

6. Next time ask her if that means that God also hates the South.

Since, after all, they just got pounded by some ~250 or so tornadoes within the past week, clearly they must have done something to horribly offend God, particularly North Carolina.

[butterfly77]

22. Would it be..

voting for Virginia Fox?

[TheWraith]

36. Actually, God has obliterated entire cities for a lot less than that.

Probably why he took an anger management course a couple thousand years back, around the time he had a kid.

[EFerrari]

8. Good for you.

Imo, these people should never get away with saying this hateful cr@P in public without being challenged because it becomes the new normal.

[yellerpup]

10. Racists always seem to know the mind of god.

Your response was a natural one and I hope it makes her think twice before spouting such poison again. Nobody needs to hear that crap! I'm glad you spent your 2 cents on her!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Be proud.

It's probably (one of) the first time(s) she's heard it to her face.

[madrchsod]

13. did she "blow`d up good,blow`d up REAL GOOD'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bda_eIX3J2Y&feature=related


sometimes ya just have to "blow up" some people..ya, blow them up real good.

my tip of the hat to you!

[OhioDoink]

14. Don't feel bad about it,its hard to bite your tongue after awhile...

I've done it a few times myself,bad part is I always think I could have said things differently.One thing is for sure,they never forget me or the conversation.

[calimary]

15. Maybe you need to share your two cents more often. Shut these assholes up.

I think they spew because they figure they can. And no one will challenge them or give them shit for having shitty views like theirs. They need to be shouted down and their shitty views need to be thoroughly CHECKED. There are no consequences, shaming, condemnation, or shunning - for thinking like this and embracing these shitty views. And there need to be. That's the only way to stop them, or at least drive them back underground where they deserve to be.

As long as these neanderthals think it's okay - AND THAT NOBODY CARES - they'll keep it up. When they get smacked down for opening their yaps with trash talk like this, or publicly shamed and embarrassed and loudly chastised for uttering shit like this, then it might encourage THEM to keep THEIR two cents to themselves for a change. Otherwise it reads as being rewarded for their behavior. "Nobody complains. Nobody says anything. Nobody ever speaks up and makes me stop or tells me I'm wrong. So that certainly must mean it's okay - and that I'm correct!"

If they think you don't care, they won't either! That applies ACROSS THE BOARD, not just to the politicians who hear only from teabaggers and pirates and robber baron lovers and idiots, and don't hear from us good guys often enough.

[pipi_k]

24. But they're not assholes...

Like the OP said, this woman was CRAZY.

You can't shut up CRAZY. Because CRAZY people don't even know they're CRAZY.

Who knows...maybe she had some sort of mental problem.

But that's OK, right?


Yell and scream at crazy people and people who may have mental problems, and they'll all just "shut up".

[socialist_n_TN]

40. I agree with your whole post. The only thing I would add......

is that you never know who ELSE might be listening who HAVEN'T MADE UP THEIR MINDS! The OP and all of us who DO speak up might be responsible for saving some poor politically naive smuck from the Hell of Teabaggery.

[NOLALady]

16. Katrina evacuees are all over the country.

A New Orleanian who had lost a loved one during Katrina could have been at that clinic. Totally insensitive.

I didn't lose anyone, but I know that it could have happened. Those remarks hurt.

My sister lost her Father in law who was in the VA hospital at the time. He had a non life threatening hospitalization.

[bobbolink]

37. Yes, and they are also dead, too. It sure didn't get much outrage when the suicides started, did

it?

Naw, the nation was too busy "rescuing" animals when the suicides started, so the news was filled with warm fuzzie stories, instead of the needless tragedies.

:cry:

[onethatcares]

17. good on you,

speak up and out, even if your voice is trembling. It's the only way to keep the hatred from running wild.

Could you imagine her going home and explaining that "some guy/girl had the temerity to tell me I can't hate blacks today".

Keep up the good works.:fistbump:

[Capitalocracy]

18. 2000 people died.

That's what she was referring to when she said "cleaning it out". She was happy they were dead. That's the bottom line.

[costahawk1987]

19. You need not apologize for that!

One of them told me the disaster in Japan happened because God was pissed gay marriage is legal here. He got a serious earful, too! A lot of us let that shit slide for too long. They speak their tripe on tv and the radio where we have almost no chance to counter. But on the streets, we need to smash their faces with reality until they think twice before spewing their hate.

[jimlup]

20. I say it is fine to blow up at racism...

It is perfectly understandable. Racism is unacceptable period. You are only human. Many of us would have reacted exactly the same way. I know that I would have.

[pipi_k]

23. Irony....

Which I'm quite sure is going to escape a bunch of people, but whatever...

Someone sitting in a waiting room (or anywhere) hears a "crazy" person talking "crazy" things and blows up, possibly red in the face with bulging eyeballs and veins and looks for all the world like a nutcase and accuses someone else of being fucking crazy and then storms off.


and I'm sure that "crazy" woman changed her whole attitude, right?

Because "crazy" people are "crazy" on purpose and all...


I can understand her talk upsetting you, but honestly? If I worked in that office, I'd have called the police on you for exploding like a maniac.

[cynatnite]

29. So, you think my eyes were bulging and I was exploding like a maniac?

That's a big assumption to make for someone who wasn't there to begin with in the first place.

No, I wasn't like that at all.

Besides, calling the cops on something like this would have gotten YOU into trouble. Hospital security has better things to do.

A proper response for someone who worked there would be to tell me and the batshit crazy woman to either be quiet or take it elsewhere.

[pipi_k]

43. I was going by what you wrote...

Which was:

"I lost it. I told her she was crazy. Almost two thousand men, women, and children died. I called her fucking crazy again and stormed off. I was so livid at the hate-filled talk that I couldn't stomach being in the same waiting room."


Livid. Your word, not mine.


So the synonyms for "livid" are:


First Known Use: 1622
Related to LIVID
Synonyms: angered, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off , choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed (also enflamed), infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, angry, mad, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, shirty , sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, wroth


So, yeah. I wasn't there, but you described how you acted, and the word used was "livid", and I got this mental picture of a red-faced rant.


I really don't think it's sporting for people to use certain words to describe something or someone and then blame their readers for "assuming something that never happened".

Either you WERE livid, or you weren't.

Which one was it?

[upi402]

25. I usually just turn away now

But used to lay into the idiots asswipes.

"Live and let live" was much easier before the 80's when religion became radicalized and politicians played them.

[Raine]

26. Good, these people need to be called out everytime

they spout crap like that in public ... IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE! They need to think before opening their big ugly mouths.

[Curmudgeoness]

28. I hope that you didn't have your blood pressure checked

when you saw the doctor. I have a feeling it would not have been good.

Although I don't blame you, next time you get this pissed, just look sanely at her and say something like "I can't believe you just said that" or "that is not a very Christian way to take about your fellow human beings". Rational but definitely makes that person or at least the people around them realize what just spewed from their mouth.

[XanaDUer]

33. I wouldn't sweat it

they need to be called out on this crazy shit. Hopefully you gave her food for thought.

[cayanne]

34. I would have told her that

if true, then God is a tyrant and I cannot worship tyrants.

[costahawk1987]

35. You need not apologize for that!

One of them told me the disaster in Japan happened because God was pissed gay marriage is legal here. He got a serious earful, too! A lot of us let that shit slide for too long. They speak their tripe on tv and the radio where we have almost no chance to counter. But on the streets, we need to smash their faces with reality until they think twice before spewing their hate.

[bobbolink]

38. I haven't lost it like that more than a couple of times, and I know it doesn't make you feel very

good.

But some things deserve outrage.

IMO, being silent is worse..it is complicity.

Maybe if enough people blow up at them, they will take a closer look at themselves.

[Terra Alta]

39. You did the right thing.

At least it wasn't a member of your own family saying these things. I have a very racist, redneck uncle who makes racist comments all the time.. I really have to hold my tongue.. it's sad that in 2011 there are still people out there who think this way.

[raccoon]

41. Then why didn't God sent a hurricane to clean out Wall Street?

Sometimes you just can't take any more. :hug:

[Brewman_Jax]

44. Sometimes outrage is required

because the dimbulbs and heartless among us need to be shocked.

[Prof Lester]

45. She slandered God of course

It wasn't God dynamited the levees! It was human greed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

46. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

What did she say about the Mexicans? Do tell.

[AtomicKitten]

47. Good for you for speaking up; I can't even imagine the provocation.

I have the luxury of living in SF, however, I have no doubt I'd have been shot long ago if I lived in a red state/adjacent. That kind of hateful ignorance cannot be left standing unscathed to stink up the political discourse. Kudos.