As you guys all know, I love reading Wil Wheaton’s blog on a daily basis. Unfortunately, as of late, he’s been sick, and I think the sickness is Going to his brain.
Honestly, Wil, this sounds more like a Left Wing conspiracy theory than actual political debate or opinion.
Yes, I consider myself a Republican, but that doesn’t automatically mean that I’m a total far Right-wing Bible-thumping whacko. Even though I AM a Republican, I don’t agree with this Real ID act. Even if I were a Democrat, I wouldn’t start issuing blanket statements condemning the entire Republican community and claiming that they “don’t care at all about upholding the Constitution.”
I’m beginning to lose my respect for you, Wil. If you were throwing out these random blanket insults about blacks or Hispanics, we’d call you a racist pig, but since you’re only doing it against the lousy Republican scum, for some reason it’s ok. When will people realize that the acts of a few bad seeds don’t automatically influence or represent the feelings and opinions of the community as a whole? When will people learn to try and see the matter from another angle, and why are we always so suspicious of politicians, expecting them to constantly have some kind of ulterior and nefarious motive?
I’ve gone over this topic in the past when referring to Inter-Company Politics here at work. I’ve tried numerous times to put myself in my boss’ shoes and see a situation from his angle, and met with varying degrees of success (and failure). The point is I tried! I was willing to put aside my own feelings for a few moments and try to picture myself sitting in his office, looking at things from his perspective and then and only then pass some kind of judgment on his actions.
All I can suggest to you Wil is this: pull your tinfoil hat out of your ass and take an objective look around. Given your radical Left-Wing comments, I have no doubt that you’ll find a way to prove your opinion yet again, but at least make a concerted effort to TRY and be a reasonable logical human being. It’s people like you that make people like me hate and despise politics and all the drama involved with every little nuance of a politician’s daily life.
4 Comments so far
marco0009, on May 13, 2005 at 8:03am, said:
We need to move away from politics and the blending of it in how we judge a person’s character. Part of the problem has become that people tend to call those with opposing views ‘bad people.’ This adds a personal insult to an already heated arena in which a single comment can start a flamewar. We need to learn to separate politics and our daily lives and realize that just because a person’s political views may differ, that does not necessarily make them inherently bad.
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Chris Meller, on May 13, 2005 at 8:46am, said:
Preach it, sister!
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chrissy, on May 13, 2005 at 3:19pm, said:
Meller, after reading your entry and Wil’s, I must take issue with your attack on him. Reading your entry, one would think Wil’s entry was accusing every registered Republican in the country of being, as YOU say, a “total far Right-wing Bible-thumping whacko”. Nowhere in Wheaton’s post does he ever say anything about “the entire Republican community”, nor are there any real undertones to this effect.
I quote Wil:
“The Republicans in Congress don’t care at all about upholding the Constitution. They have abandoned their traditional belief in limited, non-intrusive government. They are the collective bitch of the Extreme Religious Right and groups like the NRA. They are tyrants, and Democrats who allowed this to pass without discussion or debate are cowards.”
The Republicans IN CONGRESS. Meller, there are currently 287 Republican representatives in Congress. There are millions of Republican citizens in the United States of America. Wil’s comments are accurate (this bill passed with hardly any issue whatsoever on the part of Republicans) and are CERTAINLY not by ANY means “blanket statements” on all Republicans in America.
Please also note that in regards to this bill, Wil criticizes the Democrats who “allowed this who pass” as well, further proof that it is not truly the Republican party he is speaking out against, but instead the Real ID bill itself.
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Chris Meller, on May 13, 2005 at 3:46pm, said:
I still think my point is entirely valid. He’s still singling out 287 people with a blanket statement because they are Republicans. Regardless of the scale, singling out a group (of any size) of people because of whom or what they are is morally and ethically wrong (at least according to me). When you provide proof that all 287 Republican members of Congress were proponents of the bill, I’ll relax my case. Until then, my statement stands. We won’t even get into his statement about Republicans being “the collective bitch of the Extreme Religious Right and groups like the NRA”, nor about the “Democrats who allowed this to pass without discussion or debate are cowards”. Both are horribly derogatory blanket statements as well.
Anyone who knows anything about politics knows that it’s all about compromise. For all we know, these Democrats could have made deals with other lawmakers not to argue this bill in order to get their support for another that they have deemed of greater importance. Is this wrong? Possibly. Would I have played my cards differently? Most likely. Does it make them cowards? Definitely not.
I would also like to point out his first entry about the subject, in which you’ll find this statement:
I’m sorry, but I think “Cynical, Evil, Totalitarian Congressmen” is a bit harsh. Simply because you don’t believe in his goal or agree with his opinion, doesn’t make him cynical or totalitarian, and it certainly doesn’t make him evil. As marco0009 said, people have the nasty habit of assuming that a single political view is indicative of a person’s entire personality and moral compass. This is certainly not true. While I’m sure there are many good examples, to simply assume this fact right off the bat is a lot like judging someone by the color of their skin. You don’t know what he’s like with friends, at home, or around his children, and to pass judgment like this without all those facts makes you more evil and cynical than it does him.
I don’t know about you, but I think the majority of Americans in 2005 would agree that judging someone based on their pigmentation is wholly wrong, yet we don’t seem to hold that standard to any other characteristics of a person.
I’m all for standing up for your beliefs, whatever they may be, but I think it should be done in a calm, logical manner. The pure unbridled emotion in Wil’s post (in this case, hatred) is what turns political debates and disagreements into shit-flinging contests. This is also why every advertisement you see for political office today is badmouthing the representative’s opponent, rather than trying to highlight their own positive points, motives and goals.
As for your final point that he’s speaking out against the bill itself, not those involved
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