Bigoted democrats aren't serious about equal rights.

Alright I gotta say this.

On DU I see bigots throwing epithets around like lard ass,fat pig etc.to describe people they do not like or disagree with or who have done bad things.Bitch-slap,whore,redneck,SUV driving monster,fat pig, all of this speech is nothing but bigotry,and it is not'funny'.
Body size bigotry is socially sanctioned hate and it hurts large people just as much as other epithets hurt other people.Fat bigots are still hateful bigots no different than a racist and just as ignorant as racists. Simplistic insults twords big people are still INSULTS because they DEHUMANIZE human beings based in someone else's definion of a 'good' body size.You as a "thin" outside observer can only guess as to why someone is heavy and if you succed with diet,good for you your way is not for all.You might as well be proseletyizing for Jesus or selling vaccum cleaners by the way you pressure heavy people.. Too many people are assuming all heavy people are sedentary or eat too much and this is a superficial but hurtful assuming kind of bigotry..That position of ignorance and bigotry masqueraded by for your own good kinds of"expert" posturing,popular in our fat phobic culture and it has it's roots in PURITANISM. Smart ass comments fosters scapegoating and it is EXACTLY the same hate neocons like Rush do to scapegoat liberals,and the scapegoats on the right which is US too.

If you are REALLY for a respect of human rights,Why not begin practicing it with stopping the bigot talk and staying on the issue at hand..Begin with a genuine human respect for _ALL_ human beings as they _ARE_ first...Be they black white,LARGE, gay,disabled ,southern,transgender..woman,covered in tattoos ect.ect.Even when you are conditioned to think a person's body is "disgusting" by clever marketers of fashion and diet industries and you believe it's "true" fat people are "disgusting" and act as if this "aesthetic" of yours entitles you to SCAPEGOAT heavy people... just STOP it and shut your mouth.Heavy people get hatred everywhere they go why ADD to their despair and self loathing..why???.What good does your'cute' snippy ,grossly ignorant comments do to an already hurting ashamed of their body scapegoated fat person do for them?
What does saying bigoted comments like fat ass do for your ego,bully?


THINK of the other readers feelings ..before you quip.. remember there is also a human being there too,a person with thoughts feelings dreams,a heart, fears and insecurities just like YOU have in you.Think carefully at who your target is,because words can HURT.Don't shoot off your mouth at the wrong target.It's the verbal equivalent of a drive by shooting between rivals that hurts a bystander walking on the street with a stray bullet. Saying an asshole teacher is a fat ass when discussing child abuse,is a stray bullet hitting any heavy person's emotions reading that thread.Be responsible with your own speech and aim for the actual target,abusive teachers handcuffing 5 year olds..

Equality begins with each person,becoming considerate of what they say before they say it..when we respect each other as equally valid human beings first and stop trying to control others bodies,minds looks etc by slipping in bigoted crap to bolster opinions .When people begin to focus on the questions like how well does this person treat other people,what does their character look like,are they a decent person..are they genuine,do they care??...Things get better for all of us participating in a culture.Acceptance of decent people of all kinds can build allies and change the character of an entire nation and it begins with YOU choosing to not be a bigot,troll or bully or making excuses when others do it.

I have seen too much bigotry excused on DU.. too much bigotry gone unchallenged.Sometimes it looks like I'm lost in Neocon land here.With the bigots yammering sometimes it feels like I have fallen into the left brain of Rush Limbaugh.Same old hateful speech as he does,right here just aimed at different targets(fat people,mentally ill,'suburbanites" ,etc.. I am SICK of it.

I bet there are a lot of DU'ers who are sick of the bigots here too but are tired of fighting the mouthy,,arrogant self righteous insulting,trolling little bully bigots and their cliques who will just call them lard ass rather than ever dare think a "liberal" can be a bully and change themselves and get a heart and grow some compassion for someone else who isn't thin or"normal" or whatever.. I have been on DU awhile and I have found liberals can be bullies too.

I think alot of NEOCONS are made this way who wouldn't be neocons unless they were scapegoated by liberals who were being bullies to the wrong people who were not a threat to anyone. I see it everyday on DU.Christian Bashing,Fat bashing,Suburban bashing..Either you stop the hate speech twords other people who are different but are not hurting ANYONE,or ruining others lives for profit or power..and become aware that things are not always as you think they are(concerning the people you scapegoat).

Or risk becoming the Dobson crowd on the left

I admit it I am against bullies.
Bullies get pleasure by hurting people, scapegoating people,and they think it's "fun"' to abuse people.They encourage others to enjoy it and normalize it among others. This dynamic encourages people to stand by,look away and pretend it's OK. But it's _NOT OK_ Bullies and their snappy one liners distract people from discussing real important issues with their hate and snappy insults.


Bullies make humanity suffer for their "entertainment" at other peoples expense,their arrogant egos and callous ignorance is no excuse.Bullies suck.Rush Limbaugh is a bully and he sucks.Sadly so are some people on DU sucking lately they talk like Rush at a different target,calling Christians moved by an image of Mary in an unlikely place ,mentally ill,or people that disagree with the DU majority epithets(saw plenty of that during the Shiavo threads,a stubborn refusal to dialog with others.The refusal to hear a side different than your own ain't DEMOCRATIC it's REACTIONARY. ..And to me Terry was a human being in a comatose state,she was not a corpse a dead thing,or a throwaway.She was sadly disabled.Regardless of where you stand on the "right to die" issue remember it concerns life and death issues and human beings with deep emotions in grief and now,political exploitation of a tragic situation....

Issues like the Shiavo case are besides political spectacles, also a real life or death concern for the entire disabled community because the quality of their very lives depend on how hostile or accepting non-disabled people view people with disabilities.They have good reason to be afraid and History shows us all why.And the disability bigots on DU reinforce thier fears.Disabuility bigots who suck as much as obesity bigots or gay bashers do .

The scapegoats for DU are,
Fat people,Disabled people,Mentally ill,body mod people,Suburbanites, Certain types of Christians( who may or who may not have rigid beliefs on certain things,they enforce on themselves but some Du'ers forget not all Christians want to dominate everyone),People who disagree with the prevailing sentiments of a majority here on certain issues like"right to die" religion,human rights, ect...

There are scapegoats here on DEMOCRATIC underground...Why not stop the scapegoating...and be DEMOCRATIC and Kind hearted generous Liberals for real?

I have to admit on DU I been angry at rich people,I have said things in anger and I am angry at the ultra wealthy for a reason..People like Ken Lay really do hurt people,policies like"welfare reform" hurt people...Some extremely rich people in this country are never questioned about how they use their wealth to deprive and control others by financial abuse.It's taboo to ever point the finger at the dominator class and call financial abuses what they are,wrong..People shriek communist when you try to talk about economic equality,class war and try to debunk the Horatio Alger myths that hurts alot of people who have tried and lost hope. Every success story also requires a failure story for someone else in a social hierarchy like our country has .I wish more people would look at more sides of issues that effect alot of people and not bash each other for thinking differently than what's popular "entertaining"' or makes the ego feel good...

Bullies need to hear it for their bad behaviors ,instead of people being bashed for being different human beings or thinking differently .Bash the bullying people who say and do things to hurt people,let the trolls have it who get off on making others suffer unnecessarily,because"they can"..the trolls who pepper conversations with insults that have NOTHING to do with what the topic is...Bash the bigots and abusers,back !! Be fair in your condemnation of bad behaviors on all sides ,the people who cannot let people be as they are and who excuse harm done to the scapegoats.Bash the people who insist everyone has to be like they are and agree or else.
And if you are cruel be prepared to be responsible for what you do and how you speak.Language can be a weapon,so don't use it on scapegoats,people who are not hurting people and vulnerable/different people. That is what bullies do. Bullies are tyrants in a milieu.. and tyrants of all sorts government,in the home or on DU are the same and are incompatible with freedom and equality and peace.

Bash the self styled Rush Limbaugh bully trolls on the right and the left.This is what a moral backbone is.Don't make excuses for people you like when they act like assholes.Don't bash people who are simply being and not actively dominating or hurting others to control a conversation or foment a group scapegoat who is not abusing people.
How is someone else being Christian and seeing Mary on an Underpass abusing you? How is someone weighing 50 pounds overweight making you suffer.What gives you the au6thority to call people less worthy of respect or crazy?

Own up to the mistakes you make because of your own insecurities and emotions. Stop taking it out on others who are not harming YOU or doing lawmaking policies to hurt you.
Attack the propagandists,lawmakers and bigots,bullies,exploiters and manipulators with arguments reason and intolerance for abuse...it's one way they will be forced to stop.

I must admit...Time to be honest here.
I don't think _all_ rich people are evil,However when I am angry I talk that way.
I fear the misuse of wealth.Because I'm not wealthy like 90% of America.
Some policies the wealthy do come from a position of over optimistic ignorance,utopianism glorification of strife and a glorification of something that is not reality, and certain beliefs can lead to excusing a misuse of wealth which is another form bullying takes.
I am not always articulate in how I express myself.
I may have come across as a wealth bigot.
I apologize.

But I will not apologize or diffuse for my anger directed at bigots,fascists,control freaks,authoritarians, bullies,rapists, sociopaths,torturers, child abusers/molesters,wife beaters,and abusers that do milder forms of abuse like verbal abuse,scapegoating.etc. I will call their horrid behaviors all along the spectrum of wrong. I will not be quiet about the bad things bullies do to people that hurt people and I will call it wrong and I will make it clear where I stand on it to the best of my ability....I will not apologize for letting abuse enablers get an earful too.

I can be persuaded to change my stance on most things (except abuse) but that will come through reasoned debate that engages MY points,and your points together..not from insulting and bashing me ,calling me crazy,fat,ugly,weird and discounting what I am trying to say as bullshit without an attempt to understand where I am coming from.That is REACTIONARY. And Reaction isn't seen ONLY on the right or in the media.To avoid being a reactionary one must open ones mind to different possibilities,dialog,think, empathize and understand your own thoughts and motives before you shoot off your mouth.


I am a moral absolutist, on the things that REALLY matter to me.I have a desire to not abuse people or see people abusing people around me. I desire a world of peace, freedom from tyranny and human rights.Part of my morality is denouncing the abuse of a fellow human beings who are not seeking to harm others and are not scapegoating but ends up being scapegoated because of being heavy, mentally ill, too spiritually minded for some people here, or living in suburbia...

Democrats .... if you are SERIOUS about changing the hateful politics of this country ,begin with changing yourselves, stand up,stop being like the right wing and tolerating bigotry here...Instead be all about human rights,equality, and respect of all human beings who are not bigots abusers or scapegoating people..Stand up for the little guy even if the little guy weighs 400 pounds just because they too are a human being and can be hurt as easily as you can by a careless"sharp tongue" who thinks it's so damn funny to make vulnerable hearts bleed.

But remember standing up for the little guy also means standing up against"big men", popular people,manipulative and abusive people you see,people's who's politics you may agree with but who are morally bankrupt when it comes to how they treat certain kinds of people.
Bigotry is bigotry on the right and the left.There is no excuse.
To be violent verbally or otherwise to people who are not violent,not attacking you or making you suffer is always a choice.A bad one.


Thanks,

Underground Panther in the Sky

learn to use your space bar, wouldja? Please?

:yourock:

It is a shame when the left begins to sound as biased as the extreme right - things do seem to come full circle some days. I think most democrats are fair minded but extreme rhetoric reinforces all the false claims Rove uses to frame democrats.

But I know it comes from a place in you that just had to be cleared out, so I fully understand.

I've been trying to address the fat bashing on DU since January, on a smaller scale.

When I see the word "fat" thrown into the accusations or insults against a wingnut or fundie hypocrite, I respond like this:

"Could you leave the fat out of it, please? The phrase (insert rest of OP's insult here) really says it all. Those of us who are fat don't mind the word, but we do mind it being used as an insult." This generally gets a decent response.

Basically, we have to concentrate on attacking the behavior and the actions of those we oppose, not their race, religion or appearance. That's it in a nutshell. When we stoop to personal attacks, we diminish ourselves as progressives, and hurt the causes we support. We must work from a position on the high ground wherever and whenever possible.

And if we do not have compassion for each other, how are we any better than those we oppose?

If people were to replace 'fat' with gay, or black, or Jewish, and listen to how it sounds there might be less of this kind of thing. When I have gone to Free Republic, and noted how physical, innate or other personal attributes are bandied around in the most disgusting manner, it has brought home to me how often one sees similar abuse here. I emphatically do not think that abuse per se is wrong though: for example, if someone describes Bush as a 'fucking wanker', that's fine. 'Fat fuck' for Cheney, not really acceptable, perhaps because it sounds so satisfying.

I've often thought that informal political debate in the States has more of this sort of abuse than in the UK, though I may be wrong. It always strikes me that abuse of rednecks, trailer trash etc. has much less place in the UK because Labour, the main progressive political vehicle (pace Blair) is/was a working class party formed by the trade union movement. Lefty toffs learn to keep their snobbery to themselves, or they do if they want a political career. Or it maybe that politeness (often a hypocritical cover, but no worse for that) prevents open abuse.

Sorry, mustn't vie with you for length of post! ;-)

wrinkles, hair appearance, etc., etc., etc.

Just asking.

it makes you feel good, and it drives them fuckin' nuts . . .

I've posted to this issue multiple times in other threads. It matters little whether or not Rush Limbaugh is fat -- it matters that he's a liar and uses hate speech to define his targets. It matters little that Michael Moore is fat -- it matters that he's tenacious as a bulldog when going after a story. It matters little that Annhole Coulter is skinny or appears to be a transexual -- it matters that she spews hatred and doesn't check her facts.

Being fat, ugly, gay, transgendered, old, having a speech impediment, being out of style, being this race or that race, male or female etc., DOESN'T HURT ANY ONE, and therefore should not be used as the basis of gratuitous insults or discriminatory legislation. On the other hand, the type of christianity being 'bashed' on this forum most definitely *does* hurt people, and should rightly be criticized.
You are right to call for an end to fat bashing, but we need to be clear on what constitutes a legitimate basis for criticism, and IMO that is when a person's actions cause clear harm to innocent people who are minding their own business and only want to live their lives harmlessly, and enjoy the same rights and respect that everyone else gets.

Thanks for the post.