James wrote:

Irish and Flagg....

Let's drop the criticisms of what time someone posts or how long they're logged in.

People have odd hours in today's world...even people with jobs. People are also inside more due to the pandemic.

It's a lame cheap shot and you're both better than that.

I give two shits what Irish says about me personally.  The notion that he thinks he has more family in the US than I, a citizen, with no knowledge of who I am, with all the attention he's given me, tells me I've got another fan.  One of the lurkers who gets rubbed the wrong way about something I said, regardless if their offense was based on something I said or something they think I've said because they've never really engaged in any debate over the idea they hold.  And then spends a day ignoring my citations by even acknowledging them, let alone refuting them.  I'm an entirely entitled to respond to someone who ignores my posts and citations with the same disdain they gave for me.  It's not ok to be objectively wrong, and refuse to acknowledge it.  It definitely isn't ok to be objectively wrong, then continue to repeat bullshit on topic allegations, meanwhile repeatedly making false personal ones.  When I was wrong on the Floyd video, I owned it.   Notice I never say anything negative about Mitch in his personal life, just the horribly offensive, uninformed, and incredibly antagonistic posts he makes at me. I have no idea who any of you are, you could all be 90 year old midgets living in Egypt for all I know.  But I think it's horseshit that some posters are allowed to just post utter nonsense, insult others, then feel like they've been talked down to when you not only refute their criticism with effort, but point out what they got wrong about your position with the same candor they offered you.   Is it not reasonable to point out when Mitch repeatedly mocks my service injuries and record, and intentionally degrades my time in service while of his own admission never working for anyone but himself in his adult life, that by any objective standard, he doesn't get to talk to me about sacrifice?  How absurd that position comes from him knowing our stated shared experiences.

Irish just suggested I was a homophobe because I called a crowd of assholes "faggots".  Every person over 30 knows that term is synonymous with a million other insults that have nothing to do with a dislike or disregard for homosexuals.  But he gets to grand stand and pretend he's "won" against me or exposed me as a bigot, because he can't match the effort and knowledge I have in my own posts.  I write my posts for me as much as anyone else, it's how I evaluate the right position on an issue.  But after the election we had people demanding thought crimes were now real and those that suffer them needed to account.  A poster celebrating a police officer shooting an unarmed protester, while also celebrating and justifying the wholesale destruction and assaults committed by Antifa, because anything done in the name of standing up to fascism is ok.  And me calling a group of pieces of shit who surrounded a cop car and got runover "faggots" is an idea or expression to offensive to speak.  Are you fucking kidding me?  Are we really playing this game?  Out of all the intellectual dishonesty, people celebrating violence, racial slurs in the offensive context, wishing harm on others and vicious personal insults with no basis in reality but solely sent to injure, this is the line?  Are you fucking kidding me?  James hit the nail on the head, everyone here knows I had no malice towards homosexuality, but we get a crowd who gets to peacock and pretend because they can't be bothered to say any of my arguments are wrong because my interpretation of the data is.

I find it weird a guy from Ireland has stated that it is his job to keep me in check, claiming his knowledge of America and the American experience is equal or superior to my own, stays up into the wee hours of the morning trying to pick a fight with me on the internet.  Even going so far as to claim he's 'pwning' me.  I acknowledge that he is capable of really excellent thought out posts when he's interested in doing so.  He's also capable of feeding posts and karma to Mitch to egg him on in his war against me and logic.  I think someone who continues to do that has a lot of gall to then pretend he doesn't want to be part of forum drama.

I want this place to have as many posters as possible, and people from all over to share their views and experiences.  I just ask that if you make a claim, you have something other than the text you typed on your phone to contribute to that.  That you don't get to assume another person's position, least of all manufacture one.  And you don't get to repeatedly repeat statements about someone you know to be false. I don't think that's unreasonable to ask when a person claims Black Americans have it worse off than White Americans in 2021, they have a little more thought and evidence for that statement than Slavery existed until 1865 or that Jim Crow existed until the 1960s.  That when someone provides specific examples of legal changes to improve that disparity and specifically asks for examples of modern injustices and who qualifies, and what should be done, that those people engage in that conversation and not avoid it and suggest I'm a racist because I can't see the point so simple they're unable to articulate it. 

If you took offense to my use of the word, offense wasn't intended.

Irish and Flagg....

Let's drop the criticisms of what time someone posts or how long they're logged in.

People have odd hours in today's world...even people with jobs. People are also inside more due to the pandemic.

It's a lame cheap shot and you're both better than that.