Last night I wrote a diary about someone I had spent a few months with as his computer shop. Well, there's more where that came from. This time, I'd like to introduce you to another friend, a former classmate, who we shall call 'Bob' for the purpose of this diary. More story below the fold.
Bob was an older gentleman, and from our conversations, I can tell you he's been through a lot. I can definitely respect the fact that he was trying his hardest to get back on his feet by getting a college education, as I am doing the same myself. Unfortunately though, that is where the similarities end.
Like Tim, Bob was a hard-right conservative. However, Bob was very different in many respects, and being an older gentleman, he comes from an era where TV anchors were considered the prime authority when it came to news and/or journalism, and he and I shared many discussions in and out of class about many things from the economy to social issues, and also like Tim, that is where his ignorance shines bright.
Bob and I once shared a conversation about a friend of his, whom he referred to as a 'Wild-Eyed Socialist' because of the fact that he questioned why it was people like Mitt Romney had several properties while most folks nowadays are lucky if they're able to own a small house. To that, he made an ignorant statement that the rich shouldn't have to do anything to help the poor, and that others should do it instead. In his mind, the insanely wealthy 'earned their wealth'. He even went so far as to say that the rich shouldn't have to ever pay taxes because 'you've never seen a poor person create a job, have you?'
It gets worse than that. You see, Bob was also a very avid fan of Glenn Beck, from his TV show, to his books, and even attending that rather foolish I Have A Scheme Speech in August of 2010. Because of this obsession with all things Beck, he swallowed everything Beck said and did wholesale, from his baseless rants on George Soros to his insane conspiracies about a coming Islamo-Communist Caliphate (And even believing that Van Jones, Obama's former Green Jobs Czar, was a part of that conspiracy). Of course, he also pounds on the same drum as most Republicans when it comes to Iran, meaning he believes we should go to war with Iran, no matter what destruction that might cause.
Bob is another one of those unfortunate souls on the right, who is willing to see his entire country go down in flames for the sake of preserving his artificial and rather vacuous ideology that the Constitution is sacred, even though it's easy to see that because of that very document, we're going ass-backwards. He's also another one of those folks who decries social services, until he needs them himself.
Bob and Tim are just a small representation of the demographic of people who want to take their country 'back', but they are also a representation of exactly why we can no longer rely on dated concepts such as 'Traditional Values'. It just doesn't work anymore, and it hasn't for decades. We also should not rely on patriotism, because as someone once said, it is the last refuge of a scoundrel, though I'd like to take it one step further by saying that it is the first refuge of the ignorant.
The reason I'm telling these stories is so that more people are aware of individuals like these, and perhaps to some extent, because I'm hoping that someone who shares similar values to Bob or Tim will read this and rethink their positions a bit. I'm not sure that'll ever happen, but it's worth a shot anyway.