What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
As a resident of Portland, Oregon, I've seen my share of red-faced liberals. Rage is sort of like an accessory around here -- like Birkenstocks. For this reason, I don't volunteer my political opinion, but if someone asks I will certainly tell them. In return for being frank, I have been called a "toady," been told I don't care about other people, and have had numerous inquiries about my ability to sleep.
My very favorite (and bizarre) incident came a few years back. It was not the loudest encounter I've ever had. There was no profanity. No Reductio ad Hitlerum. In fact, only a few words were spoken -- none by me.
It goes like this: I was invited out to lunch by a friend, along with several other of his friends whom I did not know. I got there a few minutes late, so people were already eating. The conversation proceeded pleasantly enough; very general, not political in the slightest. Then, out of nowhere, my friend announced to the guy sitting next to me (I'll call him Mike) that I was a Republican. Mike looked up from his plate, stared at me for a few seconds, then looked back at his plate and said "that's too bad." He sat silently for about a minute and then, without a word, stood up, dropped his napkin on the table and walked out, leering at me as he went like I owed him money. He did not return.
I've never angered a liberal without uttering a single word. Yeah, there are more interesting stories, ones with more fireworks, but this one almost seems like an accomplishment. Like pitching a no-hitter.
Any personal brushes with liberal rage out there?
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Nov '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I once responded to a facebook friend's post in which he felt moved to excoriate Newt Gingrich. I responded by agreeing with his assessment, contributing further attributes (Spawn of Satan, the Guy that gives sleazy opportunists a bad name) but also adding: I'd still vote for him if that's what it took to get rid of Obama. My correspondent expressed his disappointment in me. To add insult to injury, I am a Birkenstock wearer. There, I said it.
Edited on August 3, 2012 at 1:08pmJun '12
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
The number of comments in this thread that mention how they view perpetrators of liberal rage positively before revealing an example of their rage is instructive. As conservatives, we should expect to find little to confirm a faith in humanity, and a great deal of warped wood.
Aug '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
In my own experience (living my entire life in Texas and Tennessee), I know plenty of conservatives that think liberals are foolish and uninformed. (I count myself in that group.) But these conservatives also tend to be so unfailingly polite they wouldn't resort to name-calling.
Then again, most of my social group tend to be well-educated evangelical Christians, professionals in their field, who have thought about what they believe and are articulate enough to defend their positions.
Apr '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Personally I like to send them into a rage. Usually by saying something like, "If I may interject and put this conversation in some sort of perspective.......Personally, I think Rush Limbaugh is a Liberal. You may proceed." Reactions range from 2 hour rants to stunned silence. I especially enjoy the silence.
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Wow. Wow. Wow. I think that's my favorite on this thread.
Dec '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
My reaction to irrationality is to go all Spock (coldly rational) all over the situation. This is a coping mechanism developed by being raised by a very, very smart, but emotionally and rhetorically erratic liberal mother. So, I tend not to provoke liberal rage, but prefer to slip the logical shiv between their ribs when they're least expecting it.
The last incident was when we were socializing with some friends of friends, with whom we've had several occasions to get to know one another. We respect each other's intelligence, but our politics are opposite.
The British man, believing it would be one of our last encounters because the couple was moving an hour away, asked (provocatively) if I believe Barack Obama is a Muslim.
"No, he's clearly an atheist. It's not possible to hold his position on withholding protections for infants who survive botched abortions and believe in accountability to God."
There was a moment of stunned silence, but really no argument because a) they agreed, and b) they respect his atheism, being atheists themselves, and c) the tacit admission that he lied to get elected doesn't bother them.... at least no one died.
Dec '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Sadly, living in the land of Cornell University, I can relate to so many of these stories. My own favorite episode was when I was picking blueberries with my children out in the blazing August sunshine, and a man several rows over was "talking" to his companion at lecture volume about how Bush voters should be dragged out and made to publicly apologize to the rest of the country for what we foisted on the nation. The field was full of people, but very quiet. Now, of course, I totally agree with his impulse as I would like Obama voters forced to admit their own idiocy, so I guess I'm no better.
Mar '12
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Outside of an abortuary where several young men attempted to provoke us into a physical altercation. Did not work. We kept praying and added them to the prayers. They finally figured out that they'd actually have to start the fight, and being faced with multiple witnesses, they'd have faced a testimony problem in court.
Jun '12
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I have so many of these stories from the reactions of all of my podcasting, fiction-writing friends on social media, or from living in Austin, TX, but a few do stand out.
I went to law school in Portland, OR, after being raised in Southeast Idaho, and living for years in the SLC and Provo areas of Utah. I had a regular group of friends that ate together for lunch. One day, I wasn't able to join them for some reason, and the topic of conversation became whether I was more a pro-imperialist, or more a warmonger.
When someone asked me about it later, I responded "Ummm... both. I mean, you play enough Warcraft, eventually the lesson sinks in that hoarding up resources with which to build a massive military-industrial complex with which to go forth and smite your enemies is... in the words of Martha Stewart... a very good thing."
Apr '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I've never experienced liberal rage but I have unintentionally caused liberal fear. I was in Minneapolis visiting family and was standing, chatting with three other people. When I mentioned something that I heard on the Rush Limbaugh show, someone gasped and asked if I really listened to him and all three took one step back, as if I had just announced that I have a terribly contagious disease.
Jul '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I was in a conversation at lunch one day when one of the libs blurted out, “You are more conservative than Hitler.” After a moment of puzzlement I answered back, “Of course I am”. This caused a moment of glee as every leftie at the table realized they had a conservative confirm their suspicions; that Conservatives were indeed worse than Hitler. My follow up, “If you are asking if I am more conservative than the man that led the National Socialist Workers Party in German during the 1930s, of course I am. What I find disturbing is that you identify yourselves as more liberal than he.” What followed was a mean spirited discussion of them trying to prove that Hitler and Nazism was a conservative ideology, by pointing out that Nazis were nationalist, racist, homophobic, militaristic so thus conservative. I countered with that the word Nazi was an acronym with one of the words being socialist, a known liberal ideology so it would be unusual if it leader were not one and that the Nazi’s were known to be hostile toward capitalism, business, bourgeois, religions. Oddly I have never been asked to lunch by that group again.
Dec '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I told a friend/colleague that I, too, was attending a Tea Party meeting when she mentioned her husband was going. Apparently, he was going to "live blog" it hoping to catch some racism or hate. As long time co-workers she was shocked and asked me what it feels like to "hate minorities." Her husband is a minority himself and one of my best friends, so if I hated minorities she would have known already. She later apologized.
Apr '12
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
profdlp
RetroGeek: ...Apparently, in running to all those Duran Duran concerts in my car, she never noticed my "W" stickers. · 13 hours ago
Edited 13 hours ago
Maybe she was dyslexic and thought it was a "W". · 10 hours ago
Well, I have stayed at a "W" hotel before. Maybe she thought I really liked their beds? :)
On a related note, one of my more frequent sources of Liberal Rage is my car. On the rear window, I have a "Sarah!" sticker, the American flag (leftmost, higher, proper orientation of stars to stripes), and... a pride flag (lower, to the right).
I can't tell you how much it's increased my enjoyment of stoplights, watching liberal brains ooze out their skulls as they gesticulate wildly towards my car, unable to comprehend how these items could share real estate. Further proof of who has the narrowest mind on that stretch of road...
Apr '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
My most recent such encounter was this one: https://plus.google.com/u/1/107396192137632466407/posts/gni9Zhw1dbg
May '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Excellent.
Jul '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Dumbest thing I ever heard a liberal say:I was talking with a man who is a business leader in his community, educated, served in the military for 20 years. In all seriousness, I asked him what he liked about Obama. (It was 2008, before the election.). His reply veebatim was, "Because evervody in the world is smarter than Bush." I'm sure he thought it was a brilliant statement.
Aug '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
My favourite is, "I know you're a conservative, but come on, how can you possibly defend x?!"
Most recently communicated to me when I argued that it was wrong for the Ottawa Police to refuse to protect Ann Coulter's right to speak in the event that protesters became violent. (In fact, I believe the officer in charge violated Section 33 of the Criminal Code when he told organizers that he would not be able to protect them if violence broke out).
"I know you're a conservative, but come on, how can you support Ann Coulter?"
I didn't say I agreed with Ann Coulter. I didn't say I was a fan of Ann Coulter. I didn't say I had ever read anything by Ann Coulter. I didn't say I supported Ann Coulter.
Nov '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
I had an ex who used to out me at parties as a Republican. Like out of nowhere. Then there'd be that record scratching sound, and conversation would talk, and then I'd get to listen to everyone yammer on about their ignorant opinions on politics.
But I'm sure a lot of us have gotten that.
So here's a more positive story:
When I first began seeing my fiance, there was talk since I'm registered as a Republican. It spread around her family and then around her father's office (he was an elected union official) and then when I'd go to functions, like that's how I was known.
And eventually, as her father took a liking to me, he took a dislike to me being thought of one-dimensionally like that. So it got to the point where someone would mention it and he'd say "That's not all there is to him."
Apr '11
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Barfly
Here in the Rockies it isn't so bad. When I lived in Montana, we kept our liberal slaves in an unheated shed and fed them scraps. Can't get away with that in Colorado; the SPCL has offices here. Those monthly trips for liberal feed are a drag, and I can only work them 16 hours a day.
Sorry to hear about NY. · 15 hours ago
This reminds me that when I was a bit younger, I would on occasion play into liberal fears. After I moved to the S.F. bay area and took a job for a Silicon Valley startup, I was talking to a (super nice) co-worker late one night. He mentioned, disapprovingly, something Rush Limbaugh had said. I couldn't resist, and since he didn't know me, said "well, I disagree too, but because Rush doesn't go *far enough.* When Brother Robertson [then running for POTUS] restores this nation to its white, Christian glory, all will be well." While I was saying this, his eyes got wider, and wider, and wider. I finally let him off the hook with a "nah, just kidding." The look on his face was priceless.
May '10
Re: What is Your Favorite Encounter with Liberal Rage?
Fred Cole:
And eventually, as her father took a liking to me, he took a dislike to me being thought of one-dimensionally like that. So it got to the point where someone would mention it and he'd say "That's not all there is to him." · 19 minutes ago
I suppose that's a positive development. But it's still really sad that even has to be pointed out to anybody. What kind of person defines ther people primary based on their politics, and has to make a conscious effort to see the rest of the human being?