I like to follow the advice of Socrates when it comes to politics and religion and not talk about them. Unless I am in a religious or political setting it really makes no sense to engage in the discussion because nowadays they are more likely to devolve into a screaming name calling tantrum than anything else.

People don’t debate to find clarity or consensus anymore but that isn’t what this post is about.

This post is about something I learned yesterday about the maga herd that I think is not only of critical importance but it is the reason I titled this post as I did.

To be clear I am not so much against anything as I am for things. Things like women’s rights and sexual rights and identity rights and of course no white racial rights. These beliefs of mine not only make me the enemy (according to them) of the more vocal meme ears of the Republican Party but apparently of some of my own family members.

Much like the plot to the civil war novel North and South, the current political climate in the United States (a country I enlisted in the USMC to defend out of high school) is no longer one of differing opinions but of bitter enemies.

I am also an academic scholar and a scientist. I believe in facts and data and seeking the truth of a situation or experience. I admit this can make me an annoying person to debate with because I will cite my sources and ask the opposing side to do the same, and I very rarely will accept “I read it on this or that website” as a valid source. Without peer review we can have no validity and that is important.

Well it is important to some people but as I found out yesterday, it is not all that important to everyone.

I was engaged in a “conversation” about politics yesterday with a family member whom I love dearly and have always looked up to. This person said something about border security being necessary and I asked, that being the case, why his party has refused to discuss the senate bill which would do just that.

The response? “We can’t discuss that bill because the Dems won’t let anyone read it. They want to pass it in secret.”

I stated simply, I thought, that is not how the process works. The US government is steeped in ritualistic traditions, there is actually a ceremony of sorts at which a member of one house of congress literally presents a bill to the senior member of the other house. It’s a big deal albeit a bit boring and it is often televised on CSPAN. If nothing else it is outlined in Article I of the constitution. Anyone who paid any attention in the government class I know we both had to take (or paid any attention to the Schoolhouse Rock commercials during Saturdays morning cartoons) should know.

Of course this just sent the other person off into a trumplican tantrum of epic proportions which went on until I asked a question I senserely thought would settle at least this issue.

“That is simply not true,” I stated as calmly as I could, “don’t you care about the truth?”

I honestly believed at the time as I do now that my question would cause any reasonable person to take pause and rethink their argument. I was and am still wrong about that.

“No, I don’t,” was the reply.

And that, dear readers, is why this current political climate may never change. In fact it may be unchangeable.

As Mark Twain once famously stated, “Never argue with a fool. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience.”

Is this segment of the political landscape 1) doesn’t care about facts or the truth and 2) is not reasonable enough to examine their argument when it would be prudent to do so,there is no way to change anything or even crest a dialogue which could be advanced.

The only likely outcome is higher volume and more outrageous behavior. Lies presented as facts and opinions presented as news.

I continue to hope that all sentient creatures achieve enlightenment and know the peace of the pure Buddha state, but I imagine for some that is going to take a very long time…..