My personal policy on Facebook is to accept friend requests from almost everyone who asks. As a result, I’ve become social media “friends” with a very wide cross-section of society with friends who range from evangelical Christians to atheists, with representatives of every faith welcome as well, but only up to a point.
On the political spectrum my friends range from transgender conservative to fairly radical liberals. No two people think exactly alike. My personal opinion is that it’s impossible to learn if you never listen to people who disagree with you. I’m a firm believer in open dialog and listening to what the other side has to say.
Up to a point. The price of my willingness to listen to a contrary or even disturbing argument is the opportunity for me to speak in turn. Sometimes I find out the door of friendship was left a little too open to virtual strangers, and a raving lunatic reveals himself. It usually doesn’t take very long.
In fairness, I already knew the Bernie Bro in this conversation was considerably more liberal in his philosophical worldview than me, but this conversation I’m about to share revealed exactly how insane these people are. I cleaned up his grammar and spelling only as necessary to maintain readability. The content has not been altered.
The conversation begins as the Bernie Bro’s comments on a parody article from the Babylon Bee. In other words, this all started with his response to a JOKE, proving that socialists are humor-impaired.
Bernie Bro (BB): Show me (where) Bernie (is) promoting for violence. Show me what words he used to promote violence. I’ll wait.
Me: Bernie is angry, and his followers are angry. Angry people who don’t get their way often become violent. (In addition to the above link to Project Veritas’ video about Sanders campaign field organizer Kyle Jurek threatening to burn cities and put American citizens into gulags, I provided this link to an article about Sanders campaign volunteer James Hodgkinson attempting to murder Steve Scalise and other Republicans at a baseball practice.)
BB: Yeah. We are angry. But Bernie isn’t the reason for it. He just gave the anger voice. If not for Bernie, the anger would still be festering and would eventually erupt in violence. Bernie is America’s chance to avoid it. He is the alternative to violence.
Me: You really are delusional. Who do you think Antifa and BAMN support? BTW, Bernie didn’t fire Jurek even after he said cities would burn if they lost and I’d be sent to a gulag if he wins, God forbid. Are you saying that if Bernie is elected there won’t be violence, but there will be if he loses? Sounds like you’re validating the claim that Bernie’s people are violent and scary, not refuting it. They are only scary in places like Portland and Berkeley, of course. Bring that <excrement> to Georgia and it won’t fly.
BB: I’m saying that an uprising was coming with or without Bernie. My generation and younger. The majority of us are pissed, we have been screwed over and lied to and we are done. With or without Bernie we will change shit, because we are tired of being taken advantage of. Bernie is a way to change <excrement> without violence, we are excited because we don’t want violence. But if it came right down to it, we would have gone full on America and revolted. You act as if violence is inherently bad. It isn’t. When applied for a just cause it is just. Slaves are justified in killing their slavers. The oppressed are justified in killing their oppressors. (emphasis added) Also, if you hadn’t noticed, I’m not arguing that we aren’t violent or angry. I’m arguing that Bernie is not the reason for it, just an expression of it.
Me: I sincerely feel sorry for you, BB. You’re going to get hurt or killed if you don’t come to your senses. You’re following the damned people lying to you! No way in hell Bernie gets elected POTUS. No way we become a socialist country. Bernie thinks bread lines are good. Have you ever lined up to buy bread, or to get a government handout? Ever seen bread rationed? I’m losing all hope for you.
(At this point, the conversation has become completely divorced from reality. However, I was reminded of this earlier exchange with BB on yet another political post.)
<begin flashback>
BB: Do you know how wealthy people get wealthy? Like the actual dynamic of it? Allow me to explain, you see, value is created by labor, and billionaires have the same mental and physical limitations as other humans, a mother working three jobs is doing more labor than a CEO with a single job, but she does not have more value, why? Well it’s because what’s actually happening is that the CEO takes the value the mother generates and gives her a miniscule fraction of it. Sounds like theft IMO. So, we have theives (SIC) with more Ill-gotten wealth than they can possibly need, more homes than homeless people, enough food to feed everyone, and enough water to share. These things exist for a singular underlying reason. Greed.
Me: “They have the ability to prevent people dying and actively choose not to.” — I’m always surprised when reasonably smart people say incredibly stupid things. Steve Jobs and all his money couldn’t even save himself from cancer. Nobody’s money is going to save you from the experience of death.
BB: I think you misunderstood. I’m talking about people who die from lack of clean water, food, and other such things. People do die from those in America. Those are preventable deaths.
Me: People dying from contaminated water in Michigan are doing so because the politicians they chose to elect lied to them and allowed them to be poisoned with tainted water they knew was bad, but did not fix. How does wealth factor into the equation? The rich are politicians? Okay, I’ll grant you that most politicians are rich. But you’re not demonizing the guilty people; you’re painting an entire group of people with a very broad brush because your mind has been poisoned by academia, I’m afraid.
BB: It’s the system we have itself that is the problem, but rich people could alleviate the results of it and actively choose not to. I’m not even neccesarily (SIC) demonizing them, I think there are some just as brainwashed by the system as most people. But here is a fact, they know people are dying, and they know they could help, that’s why they hold fundraisers. But they could do more and they know that too. How does that not make them responsible? Especially when they are the ones exploiting the labor of others. Unless you really think the top 1% does 80% of the labor in America.
Me: The system is not the problem. I wish I could say this without sounding offensive, but have you ever had a job? Do you understand how businesses work? I’m thinking you don’t, based on much of what you say. Let’s take a local business that liberals love to hate, Chick-Fil-A. Does the owner make more money that a fry cook? God, I certainly hope so. The fry cook would not have an opportunity to earn anything if the store owner didn’t create a business and risk his or her own capital. The problem is that your criticisms really only apply to giant corporations, and they are NOT most of America, which is largely small businesses. If that deep fryer breaks down and needs to be replaced, the bill gets paid by the owner, not the fry cook. You have an entitlement mentality that is divorced from reality.
BB: Let me stop you right there. I have a job, it’s a pretty well paying job. (Author’s Note: he’s an equipment operator.) And I’m also working on starting a business, and if I ever hired someone it would be according to my principles. I do in fact know what I am talking about. As for your arguments, they are flawed but honestly, I don’t have the time right now to undo decades of brainwashing with you, especially when you can’t be bothered to try and understand what I have already explained.
Me: The first thing I learned about running my own business is that you pay yourself last. You might think you know what you’re talking about, but you’re talking to a guy with decades more experience in the real world than you have, and you have the more recently washed brain, not me. I don’t have time for your nonsense either, but you aren’t finding me giving you grief on your Facebook wall, are you? The only rich people off the top of my head that strike me as parasitic are guys like Tom Steyer and Warren Buffett, who use their money to make more money. Even so, they serve a purpose in providing venture capital to risk takers, so they aren’t completely worthless. (Author’s note: I never dreamed I’d be forced by a liberal to speak in defense of Tom Steyer and Warren Buffett.)
As the reader can ascertain from this earlier conversation, logic and reason simply doesn’t work on BS. But now let’s return to the most recent exchange.
<end flashback>
At this point, I’m convinced this Bernie Bro will soon be a violent offender and probably a future convicted felon, if he doesn’t get himself killed first.
BB: Wait wait wait… Hahahahah you still think [Bernie] is a socialist? No dude, he is a capitalist that wants to rejigger the economy to be fair. If anything, he will save capitalism, we have seen it before with FDR. I’m a socialist, Bernie isn’t. Bernie is a social democrat, just like FDR. And FDR was elected four times! Bernie can absolutely win.
Me: Life is too short to put up with your idiocy. Bernie has NEVER held a private sector job. You’re right; he’s actually a Communist who calls himself a Democratic Socialist, whatever the hell that means. I repeat; you’re going to get yourself killed. I don’t have time to argue with you about the absurdity of socialism. If you want to be a socialist, move to Cuba. Move to Venezuela. Move somewhere that stupid <excrement> is actually in power. You’re a moron, BB, with no redeeming qualities. So I must bid you adieu.
(BB is immediately “unfriended” on Facebook.)
This is what we must be prepared to face after Trump wins reelection in November. Bernie’s supporters are openly admitting they have no qualms at all about using violence to achieve their goals, or as a form of protest when they lose. On the one hand, most of these people aren’t capable of causing serious harm because they are cowards who hide behind masks and only attack individuals when protected by the anonymity of being peer of a much larger group.
Quite frankly, they wouldn’t know how to win a fair fight.
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