#1 by NineOneFour » Apr 03, 2014 5:24 am





GROW UP





The Apostle Paul (not exactly the most enlightened human being who ever lived, but anyway) wrote: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became an adult, I put away childish things."It is past time that a large percentage of Americans grew up, stopped speaking as children, understanding as children, and thinking as children.



Adults who have accepted the responsibility of adulthood do not view the world as they wish it to be; they view the world as it is, and then empowered with this knowledge, they try to make it better. They also view people they know as they are and accept them for who they are, and not as how they want them to be.



It's time to grow up and stop having tantrums. Yes, I'm looking at you, conservatives.



This might be a news for you, so let me be the one to break it to you: the sanitized 1950s are over. Hell, the 1960s are over, so stop viewing everything through a lens of 'real Americans' and 'dirty hippies'. This viewpoint wasn't even valid then, and that was FIFTY YEARS AGO. The 1970s are over. The 1980s are over. When you talk about how awesome Reagan was, you need to understand that you sound just as stupid as when in the 1980s old people talked about how awesome FDR was. I think FDR was awesome and you might think Reagan was awesome, but people today don't care. In 1980, FDR hadn't been elected for 36 years. By 2016, the last time Reagan appeared on a ballot will be 32 years ago. When you try to compare Obama to Carter, trust me, no one under 40 cares or even understands what you're think you're saying.



Grow the hell up and start living your life in the present.



Your childhood might have been awesome for you, whatever time you grew up in. Maybe you think it was like "Leave it to Beaver" and you didn't have to deal with black Presidents, filthy Mexicans, flaming gays, or obnoxious youths with piercings, tattoos, and weird hair, but I have more news for you: your sanitized childhood sucked royally for a huge percentage of the population. And like the guy who was the popular kid in high school who longs for his 'glory days' because he now lives in the single-wide mobile home and who's main recreational activity involves the consumption of crystal meth, you look really, really pathetic, longing for 'the good old days'. The 'good old days', depending on which decade you are referring to, involved lynchings, gay-bashing, Christian dominionism, widespread misogyny, and women dying in alleys from botched abortions. And you want to bring that back so you can feel better about yourself? Selfish, much?



Oh, and just because none of this stuff happened to you, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Adults are aware of the existence of and have empathy for other human beings. It is young children who are still narcissistic and unsympathetic to others.



So grow up.



Adults accept the responsibility of taking care of the country and leaving a lasting legacy. Adults accept the mountain of evidence that climate change is actually happening, is man-made, and that we need to find a viable alternative to fossil fuels because they are eventually going to run out, either in our lifetimes, or the lifetime of the next generation. If 90% of doctors said that smoking causes lung cancer, would you think about quitting smoking? Well, why does the agreement of 90% of climatologists cause you to think that it's some sort of academic conspiracy? It is the immature mind of a child who would want to just use everything up and who would throw tantrums because they have to drive a Prius and can't afford to drive that Cadillac Escalade SUV that makes them feel better about having a small penis, or having a husband who has a small penis. Get over yourselves.



And grow up, damn it.



Adults accept the responsibility of paying taxes. They understand that taxes fund the military, national parks, science research, transportation projects, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, broadband internet, fire stations, police departments, clean air, clean water, and yes, welfare and unemployment. Adults understand that we all currently pay exceptionally low taxes compared to historical rates, and compared to rates in other countries. There is a reason we are running a budget deficit and it isn't because we haven't cut taxes on the 1% enough. Adults are capable of doing math. Adults take responsibility and don't mind paying taxes because it keeps people alive and keeps the country going. You think you don't benefit from government? Did you personally kill a terrorist today? Did you drive on a road to get to work last week? Do you wonder if the food you buy is tainted? Do you have to worry about your air being full of carcinogens or your water being full of feces? Did you send your kids to school? Did you attend a public college? Can your health insurance company refuse to pay up if you get sick? Does your car have airbags and seat belts? Grow up and stop blaming your failures on others and taking all the credit yourself for your successes.



And stop hating the poor and hating government employees. Stop hating the people who make your burgers, fix your cars, teach your children, and protect you when you sleep. Adults understand that in different circumstances, they themselves (or their children or their siblings) could lose their own health insurance, or be hit by a bus, or be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Adults understand that they could have the company they work for be bought out, that they could be laid off, that their skills might not have translated into the modern economy. Adults understand that they might have made different choices when young and had a child when single, taken the wrong drugs, hung out with the wrong crowd, or just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stop trying to shame the poor into working harder. How about shaming the 1% into giving a rat's ass about someone other than themselves for a change? Stop trying to shame women who have had an abortion. Stop trying to shame gay people into being straight. When you shame someone, you don't change their behavior, you just make them feel like shit. And, I have to say, when I view the current mentality of some of you, you seem to take malicious pleasure in making others feel bad about themselves. This has gone beyond a drive for fiscally responsible government. This has gone beyond a desire for lower taxes. Modern conservatives are perfectly fine with drug testing welfare recipients, even though every time it has been tried, it has been utterly costly and ineffective. Some of you would rather pay more money to shame people on welfare. Modern conservatives are perfectly fine with mandating vaginal probes for rape victims to somehow shame those considering an abortion into forced birth. So much for small government. When you complain on your facebook wall about the person buying food that you personally don't approve of with food stamps in the supermarket line in front of you, you sound like an ugly piece of shit. How do you know their circumstances? How do you know the cell phone they have isn't a gift? How do you know that they didn't just lose their job? How do you even know that they are paying with food stamps at all? Do you regularly watch to see how people pay for their own items in the checkout line? And how crazy is that? Who the hell does that? Who the hell cares? You understand that the desire to make other people feel bad is sick, right?



It is the schoolyard bully who wants to shame people. Grow up and be an adult.



Oh, you say you're tired of paying for people on welfare? I think we all are now aware of the dog-whistle politics of the current incarnation of the Republican Party. We get it: you hate black people and Hispanic people because you think they are moochers, or stupid, or inferior somehow. You know what you sound like to people who actually have black people and Hispanic people as friends? Do you know that the majority of people on welfare are white, and more importantly, it is more likely that a white poor person takes welfare than a black poor person or a Hispanic poor person? A very low percentage of black people and Hispanic people who are poverty stricken are on welfare. Oh, you say that there's a lot more poor black people and Hispanic people? Oh, you mean you count white millionaires to determine which race is more likely to be on welfare? That seems reasonable. Not.



And why do you see race at all in this regard? Who the hell cares? If you walk into a convenience store and assume the guy who is standing there blinking in awe just came across the border, it shows how godawful ignorant you are. Oh, the guy's Hispanic, he must be a illegal. Oh, he's dressed in dirty clothes. He didn't just come from a construction site? Oh, he's blinking in awe. Maybe he just got out of direct sunlight. And it's not like they don't have convenience stores in Mexico like we do. Do you think that everyone in Mexico lives in a crappy barrio? Oh, you do. Well, how comfortable is that prejudice? Why immediately think "this guy's an illegal"? Hey, what if he actually IS illegal? Is he a criminal? Illegal immigrants have a lower felony crime rate than citizens. Hell, the crime rate overall is lower than it ever has been in 50 years. Did he take your job? No. Is he on welfare? No. Is he getting free health care? Unless he or his children come down with an emergency and he goes to the ER, no. And are you really enough of a jerk to deny children emergency health care? Really?



You are not paying more taxes because of illegal immigrants. You are paying more taxes thanks to the 90 billion dollars in subsidies to oil corporations. You are paying more taxes because people like you don't want to raise the minimum wage so that we all don't have to subsidize McDonald's and Wal-Mart. It is a child that whines that he got less ice cream than his brother. It is a child that whines that he wants a bigger toy than his sister. Adults care about others and not just about themselves. And I'll tell you something else: adults don't have to have a friend who's gay to give a damn about gay people. Adults do not have to know someone on welfare to not hate everyone on welfare. Adults don't have to have black friends or Hispanic friends to not hate black people or Hispanic people. And adults don't have to know someone who has had an abortion to not despise people who have had an abortion. It is a infant that doesn't feel empathy for others they do not know.



Did I mention you should grow up?



You know what else is childish and offensive? Name calling. When you call a Hispanic person a "wetback" or when you bring up race for no reason, or when you call a poor area of town "Darkietown", or you call someone a "faggot", or when you justify your race-based rant by saying you "have black friends", or you think it's funny to call women "feminazis" or "vagina-Americans", you sound like a mentally deficient five year old. Oh, those terms were okay when you were growing up? Guess what? No one wants to hear your stupid name calling. You are so ignorant, you think it remotely makes sense to mock Michelle Obama for having a fat ass because you think all black women have fat asses? Seriously? You realize Michelle Obama is pretty ripped, could easily take you in a fight, and has a smaller ass than you do, right? And is probably the most attractive First Lady since Angelica van Buren. In fact, I'm pretty sure Jill Biden could take you in a fight.



And don't hide behind the falsehood that you refuse to be "politically correct". Saying that you don't want to be politically correct is just a way to say, "I don't care how much I offend other people." And by the way, the people who you are hating on are Americans too. For people who claim to love America so much, you sure seem to despise a lot of actual Americans.



You think I'm being judgmental against YOU? Oh. Well, let me enlighten you: this is a reactionary essay. I'm not attacking you; I'm defending myself, my family, my friends, and my lifestyle from YOU. YOU regularly vote for people who would happily destroy me. I'm not out to destroy your way of life. I have no desire to take away your health care, force you to reject Christianity, or force you to get gay married (or even force your church to marry gay people). The absolute worst any of the people I have ever voted for would do to you is raise taxes on millionaires. And that's what a self-proclaimed actual real-life Socialist wants to enact. And the rate she would raise it to is likely less than it was under that socialist commie pinko Eisenhower. Your concerns about your taxes, your concerns about ex-Mayor Bloomberg banning large soft drinks, and your concerns about any other stupid "liberal" positions (most of which don't even apply to you) are not even remotely comparable.



So, like I keep saying, GROW UP!!!



You think all the "job creators" are going to 'go Galt', and loudly proclaim, "Ha, I'm just going to stop producing, or sell my company, or close it and lay off all my employees, so there, liberals!" Yeah, I got bad news for you. Ayn Rand was a selfish, sociopathic, cultist adulterer with bizarre rape fetishism who took medicare when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. And she also took social security at the same time she was denouncing it. And capitalism doesn't work the way you think. If there is a market for a product and the "job creators" don't produce it, someone who is willing to accept the responsibilities to their customers and employees and to society will produce that product. You know what creates jobs? It isn't low taxes. It's consumer demand. A "job creator" is not going to invest if the market doesn't exist, even if he has a zero percent tax rate. And, really, how childish is it when you root for schoolyard bullies who constantly threaten to take their ball and go home, so nyahhh, nyahhh, nyahhh?



Grow up. And stop being an infant.



And stop listening to shills who say Obama is going to take your guns or that the dollar is going to tank. I heard the same crap when Clinton was elected in 1992 and the only person who signed into law banning a type of gun was President George H.W. Bush and the only person who tanked the economy was President George W. Bush. Maybe you should stop voting for Republicans because Jesus, or because you think sodomy is icky, or because low taxes, or because scary brown people, or because terrorism, or because freedom, or because young people are lazy, or because 47%, or because you're curled up in a fetal position in a corner fearing terrorist attacks, or because you fear women's sexuality, or because socialism, or because nonexistent Sharia Law, or because breasts on television, or because scary black people, or because non-existent partial-birth abortion, or because guns, or because you're a sheep that does whatever Fox News tells you to do today, or because you've always voted for Republicans.



Do you get that when you vote for people who want to gut education, you end up laying off 100,000 teachers? Do you get that when you vote for people who want to criminalize abortion, you end up destroying people who cannot deal with being a parent and being forced to give birth? Do you get that when you vote for people who want to gut unemployment and welfare that people will literally starve, and their children as well? Do you get that when you vote for people who want schoolteachers to lead children in Christian prayer that you are using government to impose your religion on others (ask the Taliban to find out how that works out)? Do you get that when you vote for homophobes that you give implicit approval to gay teenagers being bullied to death? Do you get that when you vote for people who deny climate change that you are destroying your own way of life? Do you get that when you vote for people who want to limit early voting that you are essentially voting for anti-democratic fascists? Do you get that when you vote for people who want to deny people health care that you are consigning a MINIMUM of 18,000 Americans to death every year?



Adults understand that actions have real-world results.



Oh, but none of that applies to you personally? Guess what? It isn't solely about YOU. Maybe you should stop voting for people who, if given their way, would literally destroy me, my wife, and people I personally know, like, and love. If conservatives got their way, they would criminalize homosexuality, atheism, and abortion. They would make it so health care was unaffordable for the poor, killing more people. They would make it impossible for anyone but the very rich to retire. They would invade Iran, start a war with Russia, and end up killing more people. They would end the Clean Air Act, end the Clean Water Act, kill the FDA, and take regulations off of business so more oil can be spilled into the Gulf, more coal dust will pollute drinking water, more fertilizer plants will explode, and Wall Street can tank the economy again. And please don't tell me that YOU don't want to do any of that, when you vote for people who do.



You want to punish black people? Hispanic people? Gay people? Ever been pulled over for driving while white? Ever been fired from your job for being straight? No? Oh. Are you afraid of being a minority because you're white, straight, and Christian? Why? Are minorities treated worse?



Oh.



Exactly what do you hope to accomplish by voting for conservatives? Do you think you can bring the world of Leave It To Beaver back? Do you just want the first black President to be a failure? Do you just believe the insincere and paranoid propaganda about your guns being taken, the dollar being tanked? When precisely is this going to happen? What legislation has been introduced to take your guns? When has this EVER happened in the history of the country? Do you even remotely understand that the dollar cannot tank like you think it can because it is the world's reserve currency? Do you think you can make gay people to stop being gay? Put them back into the closet by force? How? Are you going to kill them? Get them fired from their jobs? Do you really think atheists should be second class citizens? Should atheists be killed, fired, or be unable to vote? Should their children be forced to pray to your God? How about the poor? You even deny them a minimum wage increase you hate them so much. Should children be denied life-saving health care? Because in today's world, you would be denying affordable health care to your own children. Should illegal immigrants be shot? I'd like you to personally explain to every child who loses a mother or a father to being shot in this way why you thought the death of their parent was necessary.



And by the way, when you say that you have no problem with gay people, but vote for those who would criminalize their behavior, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you have black friends, but you vote for a governor who has named his ranch "Niggerhead", I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you respect hard work, but vote for those who want to eliminate the minimum wage entirely, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you respect those of a different faith, but want to use government to force Christianity down their throats, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you support the troops but vote for those who would cut veterans benefits and who say that women in the armed forces should expect sexual harassment, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you respect single moms and then listen to hate radio hosts who call them "semen receptacles", I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you are okay with abortion in some circumstances, but then vote for those who would legally equate any abortion with murder and jail the woman involved and when you listen to television talk show hosts who advocate killing abortion doctors, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. When you say you think education is important, but then vote for those who want creationism in the classroom and then demonize teachers, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. If you say that you respect me and my wife and then vote for legislators who would prevent us from successfully accessing mental health care, contraception, or other necessities, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. Your actions speak far louder than your words.



I know that if I counted myself as a member of a party or of a philosophy that attracted bigots, misogynists, racists, conspiracy nuts, haters, slavery apologists, white supremacists, science-deniers, people who advocate shooting Hispanic people on sight, religious fanatics, rape minimizers, warmongers, people so freaked out by change that they're apoplectic at the thought that the pattern on their favorite brand of paper towels has been modified, and people who really don't care how many people die from lack of health care in this country, I would seriously re-assess my life decisions and my core values.



Adults understand the consequences of their actions. You, apparently, do not.



Grow up!!! I did. I used to be a conservative. If I can grow up, so can you.



Stop viewing America as you WANT it to be, or the way it USED to be. View America and your fellow citizens as they are, and accept them for who they are. And stop being childish.



Here's another quote, this time from Plato: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light."



Stop being goddamn cowards and GROW UP.