More Like “Not So Online”

Tim Weaver not only quit his blog but he deleted it entirely.

This saddens me as I now have less to write about.

I’m sure in Tim’s mind he might imagine that I would feel some victory, as if I should be happy that another liberal is no longer liberalizing on the internet, or that I may even feel as though I had some hand in its demise.  That I feel proud that I have outlasted him, in a sense.

None of those things are true.

This is not, however, the first time I have seen this happen.

My cousin the socialist serially posts inane comments and links on her Facebook feed about various nonsensical liberal/socialist/pinko ideologies.  One of her favorite talking points is about Israel, an issue I’m particularly close to since I work for a 55 year-old Uzbeki Jew who was born under the Iron Curtain, fled the communist regime to Israel in which he lived during the prime of Yassir Arafat’s influence, and then emigrated to the US about a decade ago.  Having actually lived in all three environments, he unequivocally advocates the United States.  Did I mention that he’s a Republican?

We go through a few bottles of scotch a year after work and he tells me stories about life in Uzbekistan, life in Israel, etc.  When I hear someone who I am also close to, namely my cousin (who has the personality of a pet rock), write pro-Palestine nonsense on her Facebook wall, I’m not just annoyed, I’m actively angered.  She has no idea what she’s talking about.

Of course, one could easily argue that neither do I; she reads pro-Palestine crap on the internet, i.e., a second-hand source, and I hear about how last month my boss’s brother, who still lives in Israel, watched a Hamas rocket blow part of the roof off his next door neighbor’s house, another second-hand source.  If she doesn’t know what she’s talking about then I suppose I don’t either because we simply see different sides of the coin.

However her pro-Palestine stance is only one of a myriad of ridiculous world views that she announces via social networking.  A while back, I started countering her arguments in comments on her Facebook wall.

After about a month, she responded to one of my comments along the lines of, “we need to stop doing this.  We clearly don’t see eye to eye and this is not productive.”  Translation: “stop writing comments in contradiction to the agenda I’m propogating on my Facebook wall as it is diluting the message.” 

I countered by stating that it was productive.  Well, could have been.  I explained that I like to see what “the other side” says and thinks, because as I have said a number of times before, if you don’t ever bother to test your own theories by seriously considering the other side’s worldview, you can’t ever rest assured knowing that your’e right.  You’ll also be completely inept at explaining how or why you believe the things you believe and you’ll end up coming off like a propagandist, which is exactly how my cousin comes across, especially when she requests that the debate be closed.

If you know you’re right, why do you want to close the debate?  You are either a) incapable of proving the truth, b) don’t care enough to bother, c) presume that your audience will never listen to you no matter what you say, or d) at some level aware that your head is up your own ass but admitting it now would only make you look like more of an ass, especially in front of a peer group like on Facebook.

There’s an e), and that is unwilling to argue because it will only lead to open animosity between people who are bound by a higher calling to get along even when they have wildly disparate world views, such as between cousins.  It was because of this that I acquiesced and granted her wish.  Also, I already said all that I had to say.  When it got to the point that she was tired of trying to counter me (or embarrassed because she couldn’t), it means it had gone far enough.  She had to end the discussion, e.g., concede.  Maybe she just figured I wouldn’t listen.

I have been guilty of advocating the futility of arguing with liberals.  In fact I am guilty every time I post to a blog called An Excercise in Futility.  But usually when I find that a particular argument is not working and I’m not getting through, rather than give up I just try a different line of reasoning.  I know I’m right.  I just need to expose the truth in a light that can be seen by those in the darkness of delusion. 

I have also been guilty of declaring that I won’t talk about politics anymore, but I lied.  It’s like trying to boycott bowel movements.

I haven’t given up either, because in both cases, even if I fail to change a single mind on any of the topics that I write about, it wasn’t for lack of trying.  Or caring.  Or a subconscious knowledge that I am preaching false prophecy on the internet.  (I’m not).

I suspect Tim will create , or has already created, another liberal blog under a pseudonym.  This time, like a true liberal, he’ll probably be more careful about where he comments so that he doesn’t run the risk of inviting a dialogue between people who disagree with him.  After all, for a liberal, there’s nothing worse than open conversation about their ideas with a conservative who doesn’t agree.  I find nine times out of ten the conversation ends with “let’s agree to disagree”, uttered by them.

No, let’s not agree to disagree.  For the record, simply because Tim’s blog is no longer on the internet, I still disagree with almost everything he said on it.  You can’t win an argument by withdrawing from it.  Let that be a lesson to us all.

Rest in peace, Not So Subtle.  You will be missed.

P.S.: thanks to Tim deleting his blog, all of the links to his works of inanity in my own prior entries will no longer function.  Next time I’ll be sure to quote inline.

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