From Burr Deming:
Part of a comment thread in response to
I’m Voting Against Trump in November. I’ve Already Won.
Thank you for your comment, Darrell. Your thoughts have always been welcomed here.
It strikes me as unreasonable for us to expect Dave Dubya to summarize your views in a way you will find accurate and fair. He does, after all, disagree with those views. He does acknowledge your factual points, when they are factual. He agrees, for example, that an early member of BLM proclaimed herself to have been trained in marxist activism. I’m going by memory here, so forgive me if I got her wording wrong. You and Dave seem to have it down.
Dave disagrees, as do I, with your exercise in guilt by association. When you simply repeat that logical flaw, it does not deflate that disagreement.
I address it this way: BLM began after Trayvon Martin, on his way to his uncle’s home (I think it was) from buying candy, was stalked and killed by a gunman who thought he didn’t belong. The gunman got off by saying he felt threatened and was attacked by the youngster who was armed with a bag of skittles. BLM was, at the start, composed of three young folks. One of them did proclaim herself to have had marxist training.
The movement grew in a tsunami of support, way beyond those three, after we watched a police officer smirk at a camera as he casually knelt on the neck of a victim for nearly nine minutes as the dying man whispered pleas for his life. The kneeling stopped only after the man was dead. Those three young individuals have been overrun by 26 million people who were horrified by what we all saw.
I suppose you could claim that those 26 million are participating in a marxist movement in the same sense that you could claim that Donald Trump leads a pro-voting rights movement because of Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens. You could claim that Volkswagen is a Nazi corporation because Hitler once smiled at an automobile. You could claim that most Americans, for instance you and I and Dave, chant socialist slogans whenever we recite the Pledge of Allegiance because the author of that pledge was an avowed socialist.
I don’t find much to support the rest of your accusations against the BLM movement. Perhaps supporting evidence would help.
Your unsupported opinions are welcomed, however. That is not because you are my longtime friend, and not because you are a genuinely good guy, although those descriptions are true. Your views are welcomed because they deserve to be aired and examined.
Dave’s well argued vivisection of those views are welcomed as well, for the same reasons.
Burr,
Thank you. I appreciate your tolerance for contradicting viewpoints. I, too am happy to publish anything Darrell has to say. We differ from him in this regard.
For some reason he cut me out of the conversation at his blog.
Maybe I’m too snarky in presenting facts and evidence that disprove or expose his false accusations and statements?
Or maybe it’s because he cannot tolerate contrary facts and evidence. He refuses to rebut my points and supporting documentation. Or should I just say, he CANNOT refute my points and documentation?
Either way, I am persona non grata. The fabled “marketplace of ideas” so often invoked by the Right has been shut down in Darrelltown.
Dave Dubya does NOT differ from me “in that regard”. He routinely blocked a commenter named “Just the Facts” from his site because JTF vehemently disagreed with Dave, and admittedly sometimes in an inflammatory matter. Such is Dave’s right to do so, but he cannot position himself as the champion of free speech on his site that he claims to be, and then cast aspersions at me when I do the same thing regarding him.
Further, Dave’s “snarkiness” is not the problem. His ad hominem and personal attacks on me and other conservative commenters on my blog is the problem. I have no problem posting contrary points of view, including Dave’s, WHEN they stick to the point at hand and have some semblance of common decency and respect for others. Evidently that is a bridge too far for Mr. Dubya though and he doesn’t understand why, as he is only trying to do his “patriotic duty.”
Here are some examples directed toward me personally and another lady that comments on my site occasionally as the most recent examples.
“If it was up to Darrell, we’d never know of a cop using a shield for an offensive weapon against a defenseless cameraman in that attack on our Constitutional rights. Such is their hate for journalists and journalism.”
“Have you seen the picture of the gloating criminal Roger Stone, flashing the white power hand signal with a group of racist Proud Boys? Did I touch a nerve? I’m beginning to suspect Darrell is one of them and doesn’t want to admit it.”
“I would appeal to basic decency, a sense of shame, humanity, and conscience of someone uttering this. But authoritarians…have no use for those qualities. They have surrendered their souls to a monstrous cruel ideology.”
“This sure as hell isn’t the message of Christ. Hypocrites. Yes. I mean it. Your hearts are darkened with anger and fear, and you believe the very worst of people you don’t like.”
“Trump has really brought out the inner fascist in conservatives.”
“Are these your kind of people? Are you a “Proud Boy” too? It is abundantly clear you would never accuse those racists of the same hateful qualities you want us to think BLM has.”
“You never did tell us what you think ‘real racism’ is. Maybe it’s time for a look in the mirror.”
“I hope you find a conscience, so I can say you are not racists and fake CINO, Christian-In-Name-Only, hypocrites.”
“I really don’t have much more to say to Darrell. It is entirely up to him to examine his conscience and beliefs. It is sad that we cannot hold much hope for this from the right-wing authoritarian personalities.”
Now I am not harmed personally by Dave’s comments, but I am not going to tolerate that sort of nonsense directed at my readers. Would you put up with that, Burr? Knowing the caliber of the decent gentlemen that you are, I suspect not.
Dave is welcome to post comments on my site any time if he wishes to argue his positions or state his opinion on a subject. He is not welcome to be a bomb-throwing, name-calling bully. At least not at Unabashedly American. Cheers!