ARLINGTON, Tx – Let’s just file this one under the title, “You’re Not A Good Debater….if you’re calling me an idiot.”.

Follow me and you’ll get my point here in a bit.

Let me start this off by saying this: if you have to debate someone and you call them an idiot, they aren’t the idiot…YOU ARE.

It’s really that simple.

When you decide to not only disagree with someone’s beliefs and then go so far as to call them an idiot, not only is your argument now moot, you are fair game to be ridiculed by others; at least in my book.

Fair game pardnah and I am better at trolling than you think.

And so, with that said, let me get to the meat of this blog.

Early this morning, well before 0900 anyway, I sat down at my Mac in my home office and banged out a series of tweets that began with this sentence: okay so I wanted to take a day before I chimed in on ⁦‪@realDonaldTrump⁩ wanting to yank the security clearances of Brennhan, Hayden, Clapper and Rice. Notice, I didn’t mention Comey and McCabe: when they were terminated. Now, do you remember this? youtu.be/UFBAjhxjQ90?

If you go to @nbascribectx on Twitter, you’ll find the whole string. The gist of the series of tweets was simple: President Trump needs to turn off the TV.

That’s it. The bottom line to the tweet.

You don’t like what people are saying, turn off the dang television dude and read a book, pillow talk with Melania, go bowl with Barron…something.

Anything.

Just stop watching tv and you’ll be fine.

And of course, I get just one person who decides that my personal tweet on the subject at hand. And you can read the comment for yourself.

SIDE NOTE: I can be an ass but I’m not going to give a twitter handle the time of day….so of course I cropped out the contact info!

I’M NO POLY SCI GURU….BUT I DABBLE

Okay so now that I’ve set the scene here and you now have the context, let’s continue this idiot theme.

First off, I’m proud to have been around politics since I was twelve or so years old. Call it having parents who knew how to move around in circles in Cincinnati and San Antonio. And I like a good debate. Hell, at work, a co-worker and I have discussions every day and we have actually moved each other off of positions just by sharing some knowledge.

As a matter of fact, that co-worker paid me a hell of a compliment: man, you’re no idiot. You do your research and you state your positions pretty damn good. And on a few of those, you have personally moved me off of some ones I once thought were steadfast.

Thanks EH….appreciate it old man. (We’re both in our 50s…the old men on the team!)

I try to be knowledgeable on political positions because I look at politics through a very customized prism; my life.

You see I once a Democrat…didn’t like the shenanigans. I tried being a Republican….didn’t like the shenanigans.

It was around 1992 when it dawned on me…..vote for who fits your bill; not who makes the best kool aid pitcher.

And thusly, an independent ever since.

So what does that mean, especially in 2018, and why is it relative here.

Its simple people: I’m my own boss; I am beholden to no political party whatsoever.

Now that doesn’t mean I despise political parties; they just aren’t for me.

And that doesn’t mean I hate any of my friends who are a blue jersey or a red jersey. Far from it. I love all of them because they are at least involved.

And so, I read up on a lot of issues on a daily basis. And yes, I like a spirited debate.

I simply like to opine on what I see….that’s it.

It’s how I stay connected to the world.

Yeah I’m a strange bird.

BUT I AIN’T NO IDIOT….

With that said, just because I dabble, that doesn’t make me an idiot.

Nor am i ignorant of fact either.

I have a POV that is different from what you see.

An idiot is someone who just doesn’t know much of anything. Or as dictionary.com says: 1) an utterly foolish or senseless person; 2) [once used in psychology but is now offensive] a person of the lowest order in a former and discarded classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.

Let that sink in for a minute and ask yourself this question: would you walk up to your friend, family member or someone who you say you cared about and call them an idiot? And if you did, what’s the consequences?

So if you wouldn’t exactly do that to your friend, family member or loved one in person because it may cause some serious relationship issues, why do it on social media?

Here’s the thing about me and social media: it’s all about just exchanging ideas for me. On Twitter I get to follow many of my friends, converse with them; I follow others who have some great insights on some issues that I know nothing about AND it’s a quick read for me on daily news items from a myriad of my interests.

That’s it.

Am I some poly sci savant? Hell no.

Am I looking for attention? Nope. I get plenty of that without having to pop off in 280 characters or less.

But what I do try to be is very respectful.

And I do mean TRY to be.

OTHERS THINK ‘YOU’RE’ THE IDIOT….AND IGNORANT

So before I end this I had to tell you how that response ended.

Seeing that response just took me aback.

“Wow…and that’s a friend???”, were my thoughts.

I was so struck I just decided to share it with a few co-workers because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t an idiot.

Let’s just say that of the twenty or so people who FIRST read my tweet and then saw the response, I’m 0-20 on being an idiot.

That doesn’t sound like a big deal but over here, that’s huge because I respect those individuals. A few women wanted to know if the person who sent that was married and why. (okay that’s a different topic….)

Here’s my point on this: those twenty people all pointed out that this individual had no respect for me or my opinion ON MY FEED.

Bingo….winner, winner….chicken dinner.

They’re right.

You see peeps, I don’t mind putting my thoughts out there in the cybersphere. Hell I have a frigging blog that I don’t blog enough into but I’ve had it for years now.

I’ve always voiced my opinion and whether it be right or wrong, it is MY OPINION.

But when a person decides to disrespect you on social media, you can be pretty sure that they will disrespect you in person. As Maya Angelou says, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are.”

If you are my friend, you don’t disrespect me because you don’t like my opinion. Hell, I may not like yours. But at the end of the day, I’ll wipe my bootie hole if you wipe yours, wash our hands, and we move on. Know what I mean?

But if you’re going to call me an idiot, go out of your way to actually justify why I’m an idiot in your eyes, then the best thing I can do for you is to just walk away.

See here’s something else I learned about those who want to “impose” their thoughts on me or others: there’s something wrong with them; not me or that person who is having the will imposed on.

How do I know this?

Because I have a bad habit of it and I’m working on making sure I don’t impose my will or thoughts on my friends and loved ones.

So let’s just call this a full circle lesson learned then.

In order for me to NOT be the asshole and impose my will on my friends and family, I’m going to STOP letting some other asshole impose his/her will on me.

That way I’m not an idiot by any stretch of the imagination.

Peace and love people……