First let me say that micadelic, the Right-leaning commenter on this blog, is someone I know in real life and he is a very nice person. I don’t hate him in real life. But I HATE him in “cyberspace”. Here is why.

There are people I almost instantly like and respect and I’ve been thinking about why that is. I’ve narrowed it down to 2 things: they are intelligent and they are fair-minded. The first criterion is obvious — I’ve always liked smart people because I like to be challenged and I like to learn. I am also constantly seeking self-betterment. So intelligent people are usually people I am drawn to.

But that is only true if they are also fair-minded. Being fair-minded means at least 2 things: they acknowledge the interests of others and the leave room in their thinking to be wrong. They are authentic, genuine people who are confident enough to be willing to listen and willing to be wrong. Often they demonstrate this by giving a nod, if you will, to dissenting opinions.

This is why I didn’t hate John McCain. Some people are like lawyers and they never give an inch under any circumstances. John McCain, among others, was always willing to be fair-minded (with the possible exception of his Presidential campaign).

So when I debate I always try to give in a little, as a show of good faith and to show, hopefully truthfully, that I am not a brainwashed Leftie. Here, I’ll do it right now: I think government should be as small as possible (but no smaller). I think American needs to vigorously defend our interests abroad. I think law-abiding citizens should be able to own and collect virtually any gun on earth. This list goes on. There are many issues that Conservatives hold dear that I agree with. I am not a brainwashed Leftie.

Let’s take Obama. Obama is not my own, personal Jesus. He is less liberal than I am, he is part of a large party that I often disagree with and he will for sure do things that I oppose. I admire and respect him greatly but I expect to disagree with him often. He is not perfect.

Now take as counterpoint to this your average Right Wing retard such as Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck or the entire Fox News network. They guys are shameless hypocrites. They have no credibility whatsoever because all they do, all the time, on every issue, is try to spin it to make the Right look good and the Left look bad. No one should take these guys seriously. On the other hand, someone like George Will, I would argue, is not a brainwashed Right Wing kook. He’s wrong a lot, IMHO, but he is largely intellectually honest and he’s not going to carry the party line if he disagrees with it.

Now back to micadelic. I virtually never get the slightest nod of fairness from this guy. I saw him tweet to the effect that the pirate/hostage situation was a failure of Obama’s! Someone explain that logic to me. Rush Limbaugh criticized Obama and the US military for “shooting teenagers”. Had Bush been President, they would have been terrorists for whom death was too good for. Under Obama they are innocent teenagers. Why would anyone still listen to that asshole?

Micadelic admired Obama before he was a candidate and hated him as a candidate. How does that happen? He repeats the same half-truths that Limbaugh and Beck circulate. His position seems to be that if liberals believe it, it must be wrong. Ann Coulter must be proud.

So here’s my advice to micadelic, Hannity and every other rapid Right Winger. When you debate, agree with some stuff the other side says. Every once in a while, pull your head out of your sphincter and agree with some obvious shit. I do this all the time. I agreed with Bush on immigration. I agreed with McCain on torture. I’m not so stupid that I think that every single thing Bush thinks is wrong. Hell, even dumbshits like Hannity are right every once in awhile. When they are, I admit it.

Be fair-minded. The very best words to start with in a debate are “I agree with you that…”.

Try it sometime. And maybe I won’t hate you so much. 😉