I have caught some flack from (presumably) angry white males over my post about why Bush won the election so handily. The inestimable Doc Rampage had the following comments to add to my diatribe…

Have you ever considered the possibility that people who disagree with you might not be morally and mentally defective? Have you ever considered the possibility of actually engaging in conversation with people who disagree with you, and taking their own statements seriously? Don’t you think it’s even remotely possible that you might learn something from this that is closer to the truth than your elitist caveman stereotypes?

Or do you really think the best way to understand people that are different from you is to make up the most insulting and demeaning mythology you can imagine about them?

Tim, if I went around making up hateful stereotypes like that about blacks, gays, women, and liberals, would you think that was OK? And if not, what makes it OK for you to do something to me that I shouldn’t do to other people?

In reply, I posted the following…

i’m sorry professor rampage. im too elitist to answer you… actually, in case you have forgotten, i engage in conversation with people who disagree with me quite constantly. take yourself for example. youre free to your views and im free to mine. they dont need to line up, but neither should they be repressed because we’re afraid that somebody isnt going to like them.

the “angry white male” in this post is not written about you, or about any particular person. it is about a broad social trend which i think they used expertly to achieve their ends. in fact, the only reason i feel even qualified to write about “angry white males” is because i am one myself.

or haven’t you noticed?

Seriously. I’m as fucking angry and white as anybody. In fact, I’m furious that my country is being run a fucking crime-family using Jesus and Osama bin Laden to trick people into giving up their freedom and their money. In fact, I’ve seriously begun to consider getting a gun to protect myself in a country which seems to be increasingly hostile to dissenting views, and which by all signs is about to become a lot worse. In fact, I’ve felt a lot of the feelings I ascribed to “angry white males” in that post, and so I can see the temptation of buying into the easy answers and 30-second sound-bite solutions being foisted on us. I don’t think the average person is morally or mentally defective, but I do think our fears and loves are easily played upon by people whose intentions are not what they say. And it is those people who I stand against. If you voted for Bush because you really believe in all this, and you want to feel safe and cozy. Fine, I respect your right to do that. I respect your right disagree with me. But understand this: I’m frustrated as shit about what’s going on right now and confused over what to do with it. If you don’t like that, I don’t give a flying shit. I’m gonna figure this out whether or not you’re going to rampage along with me.