Right-wing Vitriol

January 22, 2009 by Curt Siters

I am a member of LinkedIn. The have groups where you can join people of like thoughts. I signed up for one that was, I thought, a pro environment group but soon found out otherwise. So I am lurking.

What I am learning is very VERY frightening. The people, or at least one member, sends out these messages that are so full of hate. I cannot understand it.

Even if there was only a 1% chance that the changes in our environment are due to man made causes - why, WHY - take the chance when the ability to remove our effect on the environment is within our grasp?

In the latest email there was a link to a Canadian Conservative “news” source (caution: generates pop-unders.) The hatred is mindboggling and mind-blowing! The article was about the inauguration of President Obama and how he is going to destroy the U.S. and some of the comments were about how great the Bush administration was.

Personally, I don’t think Bush rates in the top 43 Presidents - but only the future will determine where he stands. He has almost single handedly destroyed this once and future great country.

Will Obama do any better? I hope and pray he will, but as ever, the future is unwritten.

So, a word of advice to all you eco-freaks out there…

Go ahead and lurk. Learn what the anti-environment crowd thinks. Learn what their thought patterns are. Learn what their arguments are. However, don’t get involved in the conversations - just listen. Read what they write.

“Lord grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in their shoes.” Still sage words and very apropos.

After you have learned from them think of a way to get your point across in an unexpected way. Use an argument (I don’t mean the heated kind) like I have written in “Forget ANWR…” You need to argue in a way that speaks to their core values.

These core things include - money, family, security, any number of fears.

Good luck my friends!

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Curt Siters is an Independent Associate for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. He is also aYoung Living Essential Oils Independent distributor and publishes articles on YourWebReference and at TheVeryEssence. He also does web work such as website design, website maintenance and SEO for websites.

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