More

Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Steven Weber

GET UPDATES FROM Steven Weber
 

Civil Discourse

Posted: 06/29/11 12:58 PM ET

I'm sorry everyone, I do apologize.

I certainly don't want to inflame passions unnecessarily or get people mad. I just want to state a fact that we should all be aware of and all be able to deal with in a sensible fashion, free from incendiary hyperbole and devoid of misinformation, distraction, lies and outright intimidation. After all, if one has truth on one's side then why resort to any of those tactics which instantly give away the fact that the one propagating said lies, etc. would be summarily rejected by any and all reasonable persons, along with those ideas which apparently need to be wrapped in deception in order to get any traction at all.

So again, it is with complete and utter respect and deference for anyone who might hold an opposing point of view that I direct this little, admittedly bit-o'-fluff blog, knowing that anyone in possession of even the rudiments of reasonableness would surely be in agreement with me that facts are facts and civility should reign over contrived division and ad hominem attacks, and openly -- nay, proudly -- reject the purely tactical actions of groups with no interest in constructive, benevolent policies which would help all citizens rather than a privileged few, but rather whose sole purpose is to consolidate power and wealth at the expense of the very citizens they purport to represent (and who do so through the widespread and coordinated application of the aforementioned lies, etc.).

So, with the unarguably earnest pronouncement you've just read, along with the assurance that my own personal goal in regard to this admittedly fluffy, eminently disposable screed -- being the mere sharing of one man's opinion (though an opinion which is actually shared by many, many, many, many millions of fellow citizens of all stripes, persuasions and professions) -- please oh please be advised that you might not agree with what I have to say and that, most wonderfully, in America is absolutely fine and should in no way incite a kind of brain-boiling rancor or censure or pitchfork and torch kind of response that such opinions have caused with alarming frequency. We are all, I am assuming, citizens bound by the precepts so gloriously stated in our Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, etc., etc., etc.

So here it is:

The right wing seems to be made up of dangerous, possibly sociopathic, treasonous, democracy-hating ass-pies.

Again, knowing that even people who may not find agreement with me on that particular statement would respond with civility, reasonableness, deference and respect, especially in light of being given as justification for my statement (as only one among many such justifications I and the tens of millions of my fellow citizens might indeed give) the recorded and observed fact of unrelenting and blatantly opportunistic opposition to our current duly elected President to the extent that such opposition goes well beyond the boundaries of reasonable political processes and actually hampers the daily necessary act of governance as well as negatively impacting the natural goodwill and can-do nature of the American People, by using a manipulated media to disseminate the aforementioned lies, etc. to all of us -- people -- who want only to be ably and humbly led by fellow citizens duly elected with awe and reverence to the great experiment in Liberty known as The United States of America. Anything else would be a cynical plot to take advantage of that people's genuine desire for freedom and democracy, to live their lives in peace and security, and to provide even better lives for their children.

And if anyone reading this disagrees with my opinion (and thus the opinion shared with many many many millions of their fellow, law abiding, patriotic citizens) then it would only be reasonable, right and proper to prove why my belief on this matter is at all false and to do so in a civil, articulate fashion, devoid of character assassination, manipulation of data, weird and obvious "trolling" and just general "crazy talk."

Sorry to intrude. Please have a lovely day, fellow American!

 

Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber

 
 
  • Comments
  • 68
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3  Next ›  Last »  (3 total)
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
proveit2me
Snarky Cold Medina
10:38 PM on 07/06/2011
I want that on a bumper sticker.
01:36 PM on 07/06/2011
Ah, Steven...never will it be said that you are a man of few words! You do know how to put those words together, and with nary a typo or grammar boo boo to behold! Bravo, sir, bravo!!

As I read your humble screed, I thought to myself, "I wonder how many people will actually be able to read these lovely sentences without getting hopelessly lost?" Only the ones who do are of interest to me (grin). I don't usually favor lengthy sentence-paragraphs such as yours, but these were beautiful to follow and a delight to decipher.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
wulidncr
Believe nothing. Question all. Love boundlessly
07:25 PM on 07/05/2011
Brilliant!
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Randolph Greer
I am a Poet .
04:24 AM on 07/04/2011
Yeah ! What he said .
09:34 AM on 07/03/2011
Again, knowing that even people who may not find agreement with me on that particular statement would respond with civility, reasonableness, deference and respect, especially in light of being given as justification for my statement (as only one among many such justifications I and the tens of millions of my fellow citizens might indeed give) the recorded and observed fact of unrelenting and blatantly opportunistic opposition to our current duly elected President to the extent that such opposition goes well beyond the boundaries of reasonable political processes and actually hampers the daily necessary act of governance as well as negatively impacting the natural goodwill and can-do nature of the American People, by using a manipulated media to disseminate the aforementioned lies, etc. to all of us -- people -- who want only to be ably and humbly led by fellow citizens duly elected with awe and reverence to the great experiment in Liberty known as The United States of America
Agree with pretty much everything you wrote Steven. But this is one huge sentence. I'll bet in the history of HP, of all the blogs ever posted , this sentence gets the grand prize for being the longest run-on sentence.
We understand that you are a liberal. But could you please be a little more liberal with the period on your keyboard? I ran out of breath half way through, to be honest I'm exhausted from plowing through the marathon sentence.
photo
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Steven Weber
Winner of 1967 Pond's Cold Cream Man of the Year
06:01 PM on 07/05/2011
“Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the water of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm-chair and confuse his “Rinse the Mouth —- rinse the mouth” with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us – when we think of this, as we are frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature.” Virginia Woolf "On Being Ill". Suck it.
photo
The Smartest Monkees
Planet of the Apes? We're on it, baby!
09:32 PM on 07/05/2011
"Suck it."

Lol! Well, they asked for a shorter sentence, and they got it! Be careful what you pray for, as they say... :-)
09:39 PM on 07/10/2011
It's like giving monkeys a keyboard and after a while , they'd type some gibberish tripe like this. Did Virginia Woolf write marathon run-on sentences for HP before? If'n this is a sample of her writing, remind me not to put any Virginia Woolf works in the outhouse.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
Wanjiru
Debatably relatable ...
08:59 PM on 07/01/2011
Brilliantly humorous.
.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DocJoseph
A bleeding heart will heal; a cold heart will not
01:33 PM on 07/01/2011
Is this supposed to be controversial? I imagine even the right wing would agree with the assessment given the goals they have set out.

And the efforts they are making to hold the US hostage, sabotage the economy and undermine democracy by taking away voting rights surely qualify as treason.

"What our enemies could not do from without, they will accomplish from within: The devastation of the government of the United States."
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
11:42 AM on 07/01/2011
the diplomat-of-the-year preface, well written, per usual.
"rightwing asspies" was the winner for me.
love this smartass.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
So silly
10:05 PM on 07/03/2011
You clearly know nothing of what you speak. I preferred "dangerous, possibly sociopathic, treasonous, democracy-hating".
Might I suggest reasonable, civil, second amendment remedies for our conflict?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AAHewetson
Intelligence is just fine with me
05:30 PM on 06/30/2011
Beautifully balanced: a long-winded plea for civility - a short but sweet revelation of truth - a long-winded plea for civility.

A slice of truth on civility, hold the mayo.
03:56 PM on 06/30/2011
"eminently disposable screed". Finally, something I agree with in a Steven Weber blog.
photo
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Steven Weber
Winner of 1967 Pond's Cold Cream Man of the Year
09:22 AM on 07/01/2011
Hey, everyone! The Heckle-Baby is back! Heckle, Heckle-Baby, heckle!
photo
Thinkster
I Think, therefore I POST!
06:12 PM on 07/02/2011
Steven,

Did you see the post by the Relentless Conservative? (You didn't write this as your own antithesis, did you?).

It is a hilarious and offensive ad-hominem attack on the sitting President by an anonymous rightist blogger. Great fun!!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
TheOuroborus
It's NOT paranoia if they really R out to get U.
03:14 PM on 06/30/2011
Weber 2012
02:39 PM on 06/30/2011
Can't. Stop. Laughing. Jack Rudolph kills.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
GlassMask
Comedian/Curmudgeon
01:50 PM on 06/30/2011
How could anyone dispute your logical and calm statement? It seems concise, true and imminently verifiable.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
12:27 PM on 06/30/2011
The number of people who missed that the point of the excess verbiage is PARODY...SATIRE...is just incredible. In other words, the comments makes the author's point, that progs/libs are so caught up in their erudite, PC phrasing that you have to search frantically for the nut of the argument. I've argued for years that Dems have to take bumper-sticker lessons.

Rich Folks Need Tax Breaks - A Ferrari Only Gets 12 MPG

Big 5 Oil Needs Subsidies - $1 Trillion Profits Ain't Enough

US Infant Mortality - Better than Poland, Working on Cuba

Right Wing: Dangerous, Sociopathic, Treasonous, Democracy-Hating Ass-Pies.
photo
The Smartest Monkees
Planet of the Apes? We're on it, baby!
01:39 AM on 07/01/2011
You know (in keeping with your "nut of the argument" point) the thing that really irks me about Obama, is that he NEVER calls the Repubs on their crap by name.

During the last government shut-down "crisis," Obama kept referring to the Repubs (who were the ones actually threatening the shut-down), as "Washington."

During his press conference on Wednesday, he kept referring to the Repubs (who are the ones threatening to destroy the world economy if they can't throw the elderly under the bus), as "Congress."

If Obama had been in Ike's place before the Normandy invasion of WWll, I suspect he'd have told the US and British forces to, "go defeat the Europeans."
photo
Thinkster
I Think, therefore I POST!
10:17 AM on 06/30/2011
"The right wing seems to be made up of dangerous, possibly sociopathic, treasonous, democracy-hating ass-pies."

Yup - that sums it up. The Republican Party has been high-jacked by these "ass-pies" and is no long the party of the American right-wing conservative, but is instead the party of the Corporations and the Rich (and the incredibly stupid and vapid, unfortunately).

These people want to insist that they are the only "real Americans" and they want to "take back America" - for what? So they can give it away to the highest bidder, so that there won't be an America any more - just a land of indentured servants to those same Corporations.

They’re not Real Americans – they wouldn’t know a Real American if one bit them on the leg.