Guy on the Plane

[BarTopDancer]

I totally see what you're saying CP and while it probably would have been a bad idea to say what you were thinking it'd still be interesting to hear why an openly gay man would support a party that has been hijacked by religious wingnuts. I'd add a comment about religion too, but I suspect it's easier to change political affiliation then religious affiliation.

[Capt Jack]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

I encountered a...who had her dogs debarked. When I asked how that affected them socially, she said, "They like it because they don't get the crap beat out of them for barking." I was like, uh...

oh man, that would have been all but impossible for me to resist getting over that

[innerSpaceman]

While I can appreciate your not wanting to rock the boat on an airplane, I think you missed a great opportunity for an interesting discussion with a total stranger.

No biggie ... but think about that next time you're presented with a similar situation. If someone you don't know but are stuck with for an hour says things that totally press your buttons .... why not see it as having a purpose, the least of which would be to have the conversation that - you being strangers - risks nothing but expresses so very much?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

While I can appreciate your not wanting to rock the boat on an airplane, I think you missed a great opportunity for an interesting discussion with a total stranger.

No biggie ... but think about that next time you're presented with a similar situation. If someone you don't know but are stuck with for an hour says things that totally press your buttons .... why not see it as having a purpose, the least of which would be to have the conversation that - you being strangers - risks nothing but expresses so very much?

Like I said - I know that no matter what I would have said, it would have come out wrong. And I didn't feel like making this guy feel belittled or labeled. I knew that I'd be at the very least an annoying person to him. That seemed enough of a risk to me to keep quiet.

Believe me (and as many of you know), I sure can mangle delicate conversations. Sometimes I am smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

As an aside, add to that the fact that I was (and still am) plenty sick. By the time the plane landed I was in a good deal of pain from the pressure in my ears. I may not have been in pain when were talking but I wasn't in a feisty mood either.

[jdramj]

You know, maybe he opened up to you because you seemed like a nice person who would listen and not judge and needed to talk to someone?

Or maybe he is just completely confortable in his own skin, in his relationship, in his politics, and in his religion and feels he can freely discuss any of these aspects, a free spirit.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Capt Jack

oh man, that would have been all but impossible for me to resist getting over that

I was so stunned I didn't know what to say. I just sort of played it off like she must be joking and said something like, "No, we don't hit dogs," while petting one of her collie's. Then she went into something about shock collars and having fifteen dogs and I just had to leave. Honestly, I've never met a breed specific rescuer that wasn't nuts. And I've known quite a few. [/hijack]

[Janie]

Originally Posted by jdramj

You know, maybe he opened up to you because you seemed like a nice person who would listen and not judge and needed to talk to someone?

Or maybe he is just completely confortable in his own skin, in his relationship, in his politics, and in his religion and feels he can freely discuss any of these aspects, a free spirit.

Maybe but could he be trying for a shock factor to see if CP had something to say about it?

I've known quite few people like that especially at airports while waiting in the line to board the plane.

[Alex]

From one point of view, if you can only join a group you support wholeheartedly then you will either never join any group or can only join small single issue groups.

And I know several gay people for whom gay marriage is not even in the top ten of their personal big issues. They would like to have it but other issues are more important to them. I know one gay man back in Seattle who is essentially a single issue voter. If you're not pro-life you aren't getting his vote. He's not religious at all, but has just reached the personal moral conclusion that after conception, a fetus is something worthy of legal protection and that worthiness is more important than just about anything else he can think of.

Is that hypocrisy to be gay but not consider gay rights the most important issue, or is it just a different prioritization than yours? Perhaps for this man, the Republican position on the war is more important than the position on gay rights. Or he thinks it is an important issue but doesn't agree that one party is more likely to produce the desired result than the other (or perhaps Republicans are more likely to be the tipping point in a kind of "only Nixon could go to China" and my view that only the Republicans could get a black elected president).

While both parties are big buckets containing people with a wide range of views, I do think that overall the left has a bit more of a tendency to say "you're with me on everything or you not with me at all" than the right (though there are plenty of examples of such factions on either side). In the end it all settles down to arguments about which end of the egg to break and whether you can live with the other viewpoint or it means war (figuratively or literally).

[€uroMeinke]

I haven't renounced my citizenship yet - but when I travel abroad, I identify as Californian...

[Not Afraid]

Yes, our nationality is Californian.