Posted on 05/04/2015 9:30:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Do you know how to get lots of people to hate you in America? In the age when people seem to bend over backwards to let you know that they’re offended, it’s actually pretty easy.
You just need to be successful at anything or you can try to be successful at anything or you can even tell OTHER PEOPLE that they CAN BE successful. Having money will also definitely do it. So will being white, male, Christian, conservative or Republican.
For that matter, all you really need to do is have an opinion of some sort and somebody who holds the opposite opinion will hate you for that. If you don’t believe that, just tell a few people that you don’t support gay marriage, you aren’t a big fan of women breast feeding in public or that you think Islam seems to be more violent than other faiths and you can get your earplugs ready to deaden the screams of outrage.
But, if you really, really want to be hated, then try to change something. That’s true today, it’ll be true tomorrow and it was true 500 years ago when Machiavelli wrote this,
“And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order to things; for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies; and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new. This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have personal experience in them.”
The problem for those of us who engage in politics is that it’s all about changing things and thus, you’re constantly going to be making people angry. In fact, just protecting the rights you already have infuriates people -- as Christians who’ve declined to participate in gay marriages or provide abortifacients have found out to their dismay.
Although some people who are hated deserve the scorn they receive, as often as not, you’ll be hated for being effective or setting a GOOD example.
How dare Clarence Thomas be an intelligent, well-respected BLACK CONSERVATIVE who sits on the Supreme Court?
How dare Sarah Palin be such a wildly popular, highly successful, groundbreaking CONSERVATIVE WOMAN who ran for VP?
How dare Ted Cruz be a charismatic HISPANIC CONSERVATIVE who tries to get the Republican Party to LIVE UP TO ITS CAMPAIGN PROMISES?
Additionally, because of social media and the blogosphere, the hate out there is amplified. A dozen people on Twitter with two dozen phony accounts each start attacking someone, a few other liberals follow along, a handful of lefty blogs write about how the target is “under fire” and the Washington Post or New York Times writes an article about the “controversy.” Also, as someone who’s been there, done that, let me tell you that your friends and allies tend to step away from you when you’re being attacked and until you’re used to it, it can be very intimidating to stand alone in the spotlight while the bad guys are whipping tomatoes at you non-stop.
Unfortunately, that’s the gauntlet you have to run if you want to accomplish anything. You’re going to get called a “Nazi” for supporting Israel and a “racist” for saying people should be “judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.” If you push anti-abortion legislation that would save the lives of millions of female babies, you’ll be called “anti-woman.” If you fight to protect the First Amendment rights of Christians, people will claim you hate gays. It’s not logical; it’s not rational -- it’s hordes of shrieking brats having a tantrum in the mall because they aren’t getting their way.
If you’re a Republican politician and you’re not getting those kind of attacks, you’re doing something wrong. You should be getting death threats. Your local liberal paper should be endorsing someone else. Illegal immigrants should be threatening to picket your office and Al Sharpton should be calling you a racist.
If you’re a church and there aren’t liberals getting upset with what you have to say about gay marriage, abortion and standing up for your faith, you’re doing something wrong.
If you’re a conservative Christian and nobody would ever know that about you unless it’s dragged out of you in a deep conversation, you might want to consider whether you’ve been intimidated into hiding what you believe.
Liberalism eventually destroys everything it touches. It creates riots in Baltimore, exacerbates water shortages in California and it decimates cities like Detroit. When the American people are clearly presented with a choice between liberal ideas and conservative ideas, they vote conservative.
Liberals know this; so they screech, they whine, they caterwaul, they complain, they name call. These are the sort of people Eric Hoffer described when he said, "We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails." Most of them aren’t good people, even fewer of them are happy people, but they’re certainly loud people who’ve learned that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
So, it’s tempting for some people to put their heads down and try to avoid trouble. The politician doesn’t want to be attacked for supporting legislation that his liberal home town paper won’t like. The pastor wants the church to be liked by hostile atheists and liberals who think the world would be a better place if Christianity disappears. The ordinary person doesn’t want to say anything that might make someone on Facebook or Twitter mad.
The next thing you know, you’re the living embodiment of this brilliant James O’Keefe quote:
”I think the problem with the Right…is…they don’t like blood in the water. I mean that in a figurative sense. They don’t like shaking things up. They’re afraid to be effective because to be effective is to be hated.”
It doesn’t matter how nice, giving, tolerant, compassionate or wonderful you are, you will be hated by many people if you’re doing something worthwhile. Taylor Swift had Kanye West “Imma Let You Finish” her in the middle of receiving an award at the 2009 VMAs; people were turning on The ALS Association Ice Bucket Challenge by the time it was over. There are even people who despise Mother Teresa.
Get used to it because it comes with the territory.
That doesn’t mean you should deliberately be obnoxious or hate your enemies right back, but if you’re going to let other people’s anger and outrage stop you from accomplishing what you need to get done, you’re doomed to live a mediocre life. There were liberals celebrating when Andrew Breitbart, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher died and if you do enough good things in your life, they’ll be celebrating when you die, too.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
You know who also was hated a lot? A certain man from Galilee...
Was and is.
Loved by All, Respected by None.
If nobody likes you and everybody hates you, that doesn’t mean you are obligated to eat worms.
He drew enemies and fans alike.
And yet when i worked at an investment bank in midtown, working with fruits, freaks and God knows what else, and was the only Outed Republican in the room, i was Very well liked and respected by many.
They couldn’t imagine saying what you think when a room full of 20 or 30 people disagreed.
My manager once told me while i was on FR “you shouldn’t read that but oh, i cant tell you what to read” Damn straight.
others would come up to me and whisper that they agreed with something i said :) I was an underground sensation. ‘
One guy Neil, a Jewish guy, knew I was the only sane one in the room when it came to Israel and we agreed on that. Other that that, he was very liberal but not stupid at least.
He would argue with the other liberals who thought Cuba and Stalin were great. Yes you read that right. I think he would be disappointed in his pick of Obama right now.’
I also respected the girl who went to a poor region in Africa for 3 months and almost died in a hospital there on a humanitarian mission. At least she walked the walk.
If you explain your convictions and stick to them you can start change people’s minds.
I didn’t’ make any die hard conservatives, but i think i helped create a few independents and that’a a start.
Apparently I am doing an awful lot of things right! And I don't even really try that hard, it just has always come natural to me.
Well said, and I don’t care who hates me, it hurts at times, but t it should not make a difference in how I live my life, otherwise we are slaves to the feelings of others. I am guilty of that, hard to change but working on it ever day.
Re: “When the American people are clearly presented with a choice between liberal ideas and conservative ideas, they vote conservative.”
Really?
1984 - 91% of Black Americans voted AGAINST Ronald Reagan.
1984 - 66% of Hispanic Americans voted AGAINST Ronald Reagan.
The black vote is baked into the cake. A Hispanic nominee might garner the GOP about 40% of that vote, sufficient to win, all else being equal.
“Do you know how to get lots of people to hate you in America?”
No Idea. I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t love me.
I look at it like this. If you genuinely believe in something, whatever that may be, you probably believe it because you have a solid reason for that belief. God, Conservatism, Basset Hounds being the supreme breed of Dog, whatever. It doesn’t matter.
If someone disagrees with you, the onus is on them to prove to you why your wrong. If you did your homework, that ain’t gonna happen. Because you KNOW why your position is correct. You know it. Because you based it on something very solid.
If someone hates you for it, don’t ever feel bad. What could a lib say to a person strong in his faith in god to make him feel bad? Or his conservatsm? If that makes them spin out and hit the wall when you refuse their ‘better’ way or their criticism, That too is on them. Not you. Ever.
Black Americans and Hispanic Americans are clearly Americans.
But they do not vote for Conservatives when they have a clear choice.
And having a Black Conservative candidate does not help, either.
In 2012, Allen West's new Congressional District had about 30% non-white voters, plus a large bloc of retired Jewish voters.
Those two voting groups refused to support West, and West lost a close race by about 0.6%.
They let you surf during work? Really? Wow, good for you.
an elite investment bank no less :)
of course they probably wouldn’t have approved of me looking at model shoots :)
LOL. True.
“There were liberals celebrating when Andrew Breitbart, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher died and if you do enough good things in your life, they’ll be celebrating when you die, too.”
When Neil Armstrong died, there were comments about him that made me want to find out who made the remarks and where they lived so I could get on an airplane, fly all the way out there and kick their ass. Unfortunately, I missed my flight!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.