Many conservatives are intellectual bullies.. And I know the best way to deal with bullies.

In grammar school I was small for my age and _two_ grades ahead of my class.

Needless to say, I got bullied unmercifully.

And then I found the secret to keeping the bullies at bay.

All you have to do is convince them that you are completely psycho and will fight them no matter what the outcome might be.

After I bit part of one bullies ear off, the other bullies wanted nothing to do with me.

It was worth getting suspended for that.

Oh, and my dad didn't punish me, he praised me.

Why else would they be "conservative" if they weren't afraid of their own shadow? The republicans/conservatives I know are the biggest bunch of cowards you would ever want to meet.

Yet.

I'm all in favor of intellectual violence though.

My point is that bullies *must* be confronted and challenged, else they continue to bully.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson

If the Democrats had been calling it like it is since 1980, taken their lumps and kept fighting, the Reagan-Bush-Bush neolib/neocon/fundamentalist/know-nothing alliance would have never come this far. Unfortunately, many of the Democrats are part of that alliance and the rest think fighting back will lead to worse results than collaborating.

system had me officially rate retarded to near normal IQ in 8th grade only to change that to best in my state in 10th grade.

Until 8th grade I was into no harm, no foul, ignore regarding the bullies - then one bully got really in my face and I surprised him and fought until I tired of hurting another and let him run away. It was on the playground and continued into class time and so was seen by many.

I never had a problem with that group after that - and have all though life had only one response to bullies - get in my face and I'll get in yours.

It makes for the occasional quiet job change since after you get a mortgage, bluster or physical response is contra-indicated with bosses.

But the idea remains the same - there is no reasoned response to bullies.

As an aside, the bully involved in that 8th grade todo is an email friend today with whom I discuss grandkids. Moderation in all things - I don't recommending biting off someone's ear as you may lose a nice email friend you could have had a half century down the road.

You do what you have to do.

Today I can go onto right wing websites and if I don't get banned immediately I can quickly get to the point where no one will reply to me.

They are terrified of anyone who will stand up to them.

... and had the same experience. When I finally realized that the bullies were the cowards, everything changed.

Too many of our Dem leaders allow themselves to be bullied.

I got our star football player through school and he got the jocks off my back. On edit, I couldn't fight back I was just physically inept.

told me to fight bullies by calling them "pusilanimous pups"--no one understood what the phrase meant, and they didn't have a comeback. I've found since then that using intellectual vocabulary tends to quash those who would bully verbally.

Luckily, I never had anyone attempt to physically assault me. My husband did, though. His solution? The bullies were chasing him in their truck. He pulled over his van, got out two tire chains and twirled them around, saying "Kill! Kill!" The bullies got into their truck and left. My husband wisely never went back to that particular bar. (This was Texas, btw)

So perhaps tactics depend upon the situation. But both of us, I feel, were attempting to make ourselves out to be a bit strange and so the bullies left us alone.

BTW, when I taught elementary school in the 70s and 80s, I had zero tolerance for bullying, and explained in very forceful language how hurtful it was. One time had a group of bullies in tears by the time I was done--and they stopped bullying.

I had a similar experience with a bully back in high school gym class. At the beginning of each class we all had to line up in rows and do calisthenics. I was the prototypical nerd in high school (heck, I still am 35 years later), and there was this guy in my row who constantly was taunting me, hitting me, etc. One day he pulled my gym shorts down to the laughter of everyone around me. After I pulled my pants back up, I spun around and punched him in the chest and yelled "knock it off!". I wish I would have had a camera to take a picture of him, because his eyes were as big as softballs and his jaw almost hit the ground. From that point on, he never bothered me again.

It's the age-old saga of the strong preying on the weak - as long as there aren't any consequences to their actions, bullies will continue to bully - but once they're confronted, they put their tail between their legs and run.

How to apply this to the bullies in our government? Don't ever back down, and don't let them get by with the wrongs that they're doing! Never stop until they're brought to justice! Obviously, with the government, violence is not the answer - but investigations and trials are!!

I heartily endorse the ear biting method of political discourse. The goal in discussing politics shouldn't be consensus it should be humiliating and hurting the person you are arguing with.

This is well worth considering. If we are going to battle monsters, we must become monsters. And if the abyss is going to stare at us, we damn sure better stare right back!

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

The goal in discussing politics shouldn't be consensus it should be humiliating and hurting the person you are arguing with.

That is exactly the goal of the neocons. All you have to do is listen to their rhetoric to know this.

If we allow them to do so they will run over us just like the bullies in school will run over those who do not fight back.

All the consensus building in the world won't stop a bully from bullying.

We need to bite their ears; and I'll tell you what, there are a lot of liberals who don't agree with me either, and their ears aren't exactly safe either. We aren't going to get anywhere being nice guys. On the contrary being nice guys is not only going to get us nowhere it will hurt the causes we believe in.

Bryant