I live in Washington State, Unfortunately I live on the wrong side of the state and in a fairly small town and as such I am surrounded by hard core, right-wing, Fox News watching zealots. This being the case, our local papers letters to the editor section is always filled with Conservative hate speech. I try to counter-act this as much as possible with my own letters but in all reality I'm fighting a losing battle.
If you want to read some of my letters to the editor then follow me below the fold....
Confirmation Bias - Conservatives in this country love to be lied to. They believe anything they hear on Fox News and hungrily consume the bald face lies that flood their e-mail inbox. Liberals might be idealists to a certain degree but at least they can recognize facts from pure fiction. Liberals don't send out chain e-mails saying that Mitt Romney was born in Switzerland or that McCain is really a lizard man. Liberals use google to research wild claims while Conservatives just gladly accept any information that fits into their warped world views. We will make no progress as a Nation until both sides are working off the same set of facts. Conservatives need to turn off Faux News and start accepting the reality of our situation. Evolution is a real thing, Man evolved from a primate. Man made Global Warming is also a fact and something we desperately need to start addressing. These are facts. Obama being a secret Muslim born in Kenya and planning to start putting people in FEMA camps as soon as he gets elected to his third term, Those are just Conservative lies. Maybe now you will be able to recognize the difference ?
Taking Care of the Poor - Dear Christians, Please follow the lead of your savior and take up the cause of the poor. Don't believe the Republican lie that all poor people are just lazy. I know this to be a lie because I am one of the poor people and I work 40+ hours a week in a state where the minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour. I am a single father of two boys and because we don't pay a living wage in this country the state and federal government has to subsidize my income with food benefits so my children don't starve. If we honestly value work and a strong work ethic then we should reward those people who do work with enough money to feed, clothe and shelter their loved ones. We should also have a single payer health care system so everyone can see a doctor and get the care they need. When considering these policies think of what your savior would do and try to block out the noise and lies of the ultra-wealthy about lazy poor people. What would Jesus do ?
Creationism = Fairytale - If you want to believe the fairyland tale of humans being created complete and wholly formed on day one by some all powerful white bearded man then that is your right. You absolutely have the right to be wrong. What you do not have the right to do is to force anyone else to even consider this pure fairy-tale as a legitimate alternative to the time tested and fact backed scientific theory of evolution. I don't hate you for being so weak minded that you need the comfort of some all powerful god to take care of you and watch over you as if you were a newborn baby. I just don't want you getting the notion that your ideas are valid enough to share space with scientific facts and hard data. If you want to go to church and make believe that the world is just as you've always been told it is then that's fine. Just don't bring it into our schools or try to sneak it into our Government. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion and on behalf of all the non-Christian Americans I would like to kindly ask you to keep your crazy fairyland ideas to yourself.
Our Communist, Socialist, Muslim President - On a daily basis I am subjected to people telling me that our President is evil, illegitimate, communist, socialist or Muslim. Not that there is anything wrong with being a Muslim at least nothing more wrong than being a Christian. The fact of the matter is that these people harbor deep racist roots that they themselves might not even know they have unless some soul searching is to be done. There are plenty of reasons to be unhappy with our current President. Prosecuting whistle blowers, letting the torture carried out in our names by the Bush administration go unpunished, the unconstitutional spying programs aimed at journalists and average citizens alike. My point is that if you'd stop spouting scared racist nonsense and start fighting against the real injustices than maybe we could start fixing our nation. You just have to get over the fact that our President is black and open your eyes to the real injustices.