Political discussions in the workplace
I like the people I work with. All of them. But we do have a couple of people who do that "I'm forwarding this to all of you because it's IMPORTANT!" kind of emailing from time to time, and it's often some kind of conservative propaganda. As in, already debunked falsehoods, misleading insinuations, and cowardly smears. I sometimes respond, but I normally shrug it off...
The latest batch of brought me up short with a sudden hard realization - Liberals (a catch-all term for anyone who is at least slightly to the left of Attila the Hun) simply don't do this. Ever. Mass emailings of any propagandistic nature, fact-based or otherwise, simply aren't found ouside of political action groups on the liberal side, and even there the most odious of them is a ray of sunshine compared to the other side. Certainly neither I nor anyone else I know has ever been involved in something like that.
We certainly do get into these things on our blogs, though, and I just happen to have one. Below is an email forwarded by a co-worker, followed by my response. The first email was originally sent in an oversized green font.
An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States. A point to ponder despite your political affiliation:
We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States ...
On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!
Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!
What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies!
Well. I couldn't let that go by unchallenged. So I hit 'Reply to All' (it was a group email) and typed the following -
"Dear Ireland,
Thanks for your kind letter offering your thoughts about our upcoming election. It offers us a lot to think about regarding the many cultural differences between America and the Old World.
For example, most of us in America aren’t at all bothered by the thought of a woman wearing pants, or being a lawyer, or both. Many of us who didn’t support the person you’re referring to had many other reasons to choose otherwise.
Another way in which we’re different is that most of us don’t look at someone’s religious affiliations and decide that they go to the “wrong” church. You may recall that our Founders fought a war that dealt in part with that very sort of issue. Obviously, there are some Americans who’ve lost sight of that heritage by feeling free to bandy such labels about, but many of us still remember and still honor the ideals of those who created this country.
As to the “nice old war hero”, well, he certainly is old, and he did briefly fight in a war before being captured, but he’s actually not at all nice (the word used on your side of the pond would be “arsehole”), and while surviving as a prisoner of war certainly requires a measure of toughness, it doesn’t actually provide many opportunities for heroism unless your situation involves a daring prison break or some kind of covert action behind enemy lines; his situation involved neither. It certainly isn’t to be diminished, but making more out of it than it was is also highly inappropriate and looks a lot like egotistical grandstanding.
He also hasn’t been able to keep his pants on any more than the husband of the “pants wearing female lawyer”; when he came back from the war he immediately started sleeping around like he thought that women were going out of style. His justification was that his faithful wife, a former beauty queen, had been crippled by a car accident she’d had while he was away and so wasn’t as pretty any more and walked with a limp. Their friends were disgusted with him, but he found some new ones who didn’t care so much. The most awful thing was that he didn’t even try to keep it a secret; he paraded his women around openly, obviously not caring about how that would make his wife feel. He only toned that behavior down when he met the heiress he’s currently married to, which was probably a smart move - after all, her money and connections have been a huge boost to his political career.
Your comment about the lawyer “who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run” must be a reference to the speech where she said that she hadn’t felt real pride in America until now. Actually, that’s an awful lot like something that was said by the old guy you like; he commented earlier in his political career that he never felt any love for America until he was locked away from her in Vietnam. I’m sure that you didn’t mean to imply that such comments are fine coming from a member of one political party but not another.
And besides, speaking as someone whose roots are planted firmly in the soil of the isle from whose shores my ancestors routed invading Vikings, I find the name Barry O’Bama to fall quite nicely on the ears.
That’s what us lads are thinking over in the Colonies.
Sincerely,
The United States of America"
There was another one a bit later; I'll post that one tomorrow.
The latest batch of brought me up short with a sudden hard realization - Liberals (a catch-all term for anyone who is at least slightly to the left of Attila the Hun) simply don't do this. Ever. Mass emailings of any propagandistic nature, fact-based or otherwise, simply aren't found ouside of political action groups on the liberal side, and even there the most odious of them is a ray of sunshine compared to the other side. Certainly neither I nor anyone else I know has ever been involved in something like that.
We certainly do get into these things on our blogs, though, and I just happen to have one. Below is an email forwarded by a co-worker, followed by my response. The first email was originally sent in an oversized green font.
An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States. A point to ponder despite your political affiliation:
We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States ...
On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!
Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!
What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies!
Well. I couldn't let that go by unchallenged. So I hit 'Reply to All' (it was a group email) and typed the following -
"Dear Ireland,
Thanks for your kind letter offering your thoughts about our upcoming election. It offers us a lot to think about regarding the many cultural differences between America and the Old World.
For example, most of us in America aren’t at all bothered by the thought of a woman wearing pants, or being a lawyer, or both. Many of us who didn’t support the person you’re referring to had many other reasons to choose otherwise.
Another way in which we’re different is that most of us don’t look at someone’s religious affiliations and decide that they go to the “wrong” church. You may recall that our Founders fought a war that dealt in part with that very sort of issue. Obviously, there are some Americans who’ve lost sight of that heritage by feeling free to bandy such labels about, but many of us still remember and still honor the ideals of those who created this country.
As to the “nice old war hero”, well, he certainly is old, and he did briefly fight in a war before being captured, but he’s actually not at all nice (the word used on your side of the pond would be “arsehole”), and while surviving as a prisoner of war certainly requires a measure of toughness, it doesn’t actually provide many opportunities for heroism unless your situation involves a daring prison break or some kind of covert action behind enemy lines; his situation involved neither. It certainly isn’t to be diminished, but making more out of it than it was is also highly inappropriate and looks a lot like egotistical grandstanding.
He also hasn’t been able to keep his pants on any more than the husband of the “pants wearing female lawyer”; when he came back from the war he immediately started sleeping around like he thought that women were going out of style. His justification was that his faithful wife, a former beauty queen, had been crippled by a car accident she’d had while he was away and so wasn’t as pretty any more and walked with a limp. Their friends were disgusted with him, but he found some new ones who didn’t care so much. The most awful thing was that he didn’t even try to keep it a secret; he paraded his women around openly, obviously not caring about how that would make his wife feel. He only toned that behavior down when he met the heiress he’s currently married to, which was probably a smart move - after all, her money and connections have been a huge boost to his political career.
Your comment about the lawyer “who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run” must be a reference to the speech where she said that she hadn’t felt real pride in America until now. Actually, that’s an awful lot like something that was said by the old guy you like; he commented earlier in his political career that he never felt any love for America until he was locked away from her in Vietnam. I’m sure that you didn’t mean to imply that such comments are fine coming from a member of one political party but not another.
And besides, speaking as someone whose roots are planted firmly in the soil of the isle from whose shores my ancestors routed invading Vikings, I find the name Barry O’Bama to fall quite nicely on the ears.
That’s what us lads are thinking over in the Colonies.
Sincerely,
The United States of America"
There was another one a bit later; I'll post that one tomorrow.