How do you respond to idiots or the uninformed?

I have been doing alot of lurking rather than posting here because this last stolen election has me terribly depressed about my country.
But I have not been silent outside of cyberspace.

I am sick of being called a "radical, left wing fanatic." !!!!!!!!!!

I get it all the time because I believe the election was stolen.
Rather...I KNOW IT WAS.

Some people are nice when the subject comes up. A handful actually believe there "is something to it."
But most, including some loved ones, think I am out on the "far fringes of reality" and I am "a blinded partison" because I believe the election was fixed.

Sometimes I feel like that guy trying to wake everybody up at the end of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers! But I will not be quiet.

I guess I'm just looking for some help here. Does anyone have this problem? Does anyone have a short rebuttal for these people who refuse to see the truth?

My explanations turn into sermons and long detailed lists of what happened on November 2nd. After a while you can almost see some peoples eyes glazing over.

Thanks DU. Even if no one replies to this I feel a little better just venting.

Just keep in mind that YOU are the one who is informed and THEY are the ones who are actively divorced from reality. Facts are facts.

OK, the main problem is indifference, but let's assume we can't do anything about that.

Most people believe whatever they hear on TV or the radio. They're hearing a lot more slanted coverage. That doesn't mean your arguments are worthless, just that it might take a while...

We've all worn tin foil on our heads at one time or another, I had the surprise of my life over Xmas when one of my Republican relatives asked me about what was going on in Ohio, and we actually had a great conversation about election fraud. She was following the story also and agreed there was an overwhelming number of things that didn't pass the "sniff" test.

Stick to the facts and you'll do just fine.

I don't bother talking with them. Waste of energy.

I state my beliefs in as brief a manner as possible. If they don't like what I say, I reply, "Well, that's too bad.(or "I'm sorry") but I happen to disagree with that point of view (or whatever)."

It's best to focus on one issue at a time.

Say what you want to say in a calm, non-accusatory manner. Keep it short. You don't have to respond to everything someone says.

Use "I-messages" instead of "you-messages." For example, instead of saying "You shouldn't support a torturer and liar."
try:
"I don't support torture or using false information to bring our country into a war."

hope that helps.

If you find yourself being spoken over (typical tactic of discourteous Repugs) try saying "Do you mind if I speak while you're interrupting?"

Disclosure: I stole that from Bob Nofacts, it actually works when trying to shut down a blabbering Repug.

Say anything at all you know and let the documents speak for themselves. I would walk up to them, hand them a file from the official archive of voting machine problems and then walk away.

I actually found so many people call back. Paper does the trick.

Heya Nightjock (waves)
They are mis-informed/under-informed, they have been duped.
Don't start out by drawing lines in the sand, or picking sides.
They have been trained to tune you out, put you in a box, and get hostile at the appearance of certain keywords.

If you feel the election was hacked, talk about fixing the elections in this country. The less you bring up names like Kerry, Bush, etc., the better.

Read this excellent article on how to talk to conservatives....
http://www.chuckherrin.com/LiberalEmpathy.htm
He is conservative, but realizes something was wrong with the election.

When your done, read the one for conservatives too.

Enjoy

they like that "might makes right" way of thinking,so when a 6'2" 300 lb.gorilla offers to kick their ass they decide to give the facts a listen.

Heya yorgatron
Though I wouldn't go that route myself...it would sure be a little fun watching you do it (EvilGrin).

Because out there, we need to be completely calm, cool, and collected.


There are a lot of deceived people to educate. And we don't want to make the phrase "radical, left-wing fanatic" a self-fulfilling prophesy.

(even tho he didn't)

and they shut right up and go back into their brain-dead state happily

With them , and all of KKKarls children of convenient idiocy.

I live in a red state. I'm surrounded by right wingers and Christian Evangelicals at work. You would not believe the crap they come up with. Total Bush sheep. I try to be factual with them. It's hard, because they make up shit. Like today, I had a guy tell me that the ACLU supports terrorists and Scott Peterson. Every day, the local TV news station airs rants from Dr. James Dobson (of the SpongeBob SquarePants Gay Alert fame). The newspapers here are right wing, and Clear Channel rules the radio waves - yes, plenty of Rush "The Big Fat Idiot" Limbaugh, but no Air America. It makes me fear for the future of this country.

Can you wear a CD player put in some RATM. A judge will sometimes give people on the edge A little rope just to see if they hang them selfs. In this case 41 gave 43 the rope LETS SIT BACK AND WATCH HIM HANG.:nopity:

even people who refuse to see logic will have to admit that bushinc indeed try to blackmail the UN into okaying the iraq invasion by sending 150 thousand troops to iraq borders...the UN refused but the US congress was FORCED to unite behind bush and the invasion....and that's blackmail. If a president openly, brazenly blackmails his own country, and if no one mentions it because the media has been corrupted (to this day, no one really talk about what is blatantly obvious)...then shouldn't citizens be afraid that the same media abetted in bush's phony 'elections' in 2k and '04?

...are worth talking to (open-minded people, and Kerry voters): People now know they were lied to about Iraq WMDs. Funny thing, it's common knowledge now--but it wasn't at one time. It took a YEAR for that bunch of lies to be exposed. The same thing is going to happen with election fraud. But THIS problem we can do something about: verifiable, auditable elections. (Tell them how bad this election system is--really, really, really bad.)

"Left-wing radical extremists" or whatever (someone upthread mentioned it): Yeah, well, when things get pushed this far toward the right, demanding paper ballots becomes some radical leftwing idea. Go figure. We ARE radical--we want democracy! (very radical idea at one time, revolutionary, in fact).

You aware of all the polls that are saying Americans hugely disapprove of Bush and all his major policies, foreign and domestic--in the 60% to 70% range? That's proof enough of election fraud--Bush doesn't represent the majority of Americans on any important policy. Check out recent NYT/CBS polls at

http://207.44.245.159/article8191.htm

Also interesting, the Democrats had a blowout success in new voter registration in 2004: Dems 59% to Repubs 39%. What happened to all those votes?

that I don't mean people like us--the ones that know what occurred while the media was covering Scott Peterson.

I say, Did you know that most people don't even know that Jimmy Carter refused to monitor our last Presidential election, because we didn't even meet his MINIMUM standards of hygiene-- but do you know who did? El Salvador!!!

Then I conclude by saying these pirate Neo-Con-Jobs, who've fooled even the good republicans, their days are numbered, because NO American likes liars, cheats and thieve. The ol' Rove pirate ship is coming apart plank by plank.

It becoming so obvious--everyone is beginning to wonder why they refuse simple accounting standards, the checks and balance measures of double-entry accounting to audit our vote, to ever come out of committee.

They've got a good thing and they're hanging on for dear life.

That's what I say!

It becoming so obvious--everyone is beginning to wonder why they refuse simple accounting standards, the checks and balance measures of double-entry accounting to audit our vote, to ever come out of committee.

Or you could say:

Why is it that congress won't pass a bill, legislating our votes to be counted using the best established accounting procedures?