o I’ve been thinking about the divided nation we live in. People are so touchy now (and being a “people”, I suppose that extends to me). In my wife’s weekly coffee club, someone invited a clod who sat across from me and talked politics to the person next to him (in rude and belittling ways) until I silently got up and walked out.

So I figured to try that reach-across-the-divide thing that people always tout. On one Facebook post, someone was claiming that it was right for the VA to be shuttered since there was supposedly massive fraud taking place. I frowned at that, and without flaming, belittling, or chiding, I asked if he could note a source for this.

The next thing I knew, I had a steaming pile of paragraph in front of me. DId I serve? Was I educated in college? How dare I imply whatever I was supposedly implying. Was I a member of law enforcement? A first responder?

I mean, whaaa….?

I noted that that was not an answer for a source, but looked forward eagerly for one.

In short, we went around this about four times, he questioning my patriotism (it’s patriotic to cut off veteran’s benefits?)  and me asking for sources. Finally I just gave up and left the thread behind.

The next day, he was popping up on my thread, seeking chinks in my armor. Okay, since he followed me home, I suppose it was my duty to delete his simplistic post and block him. I’d given him the chance to discuss and expand a topic. He failed. That’s as far as it goes.

Oddly, before posting this, I was looking at the forum of a Steam game I’m playing, Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol. While it’s a fun game, but weirdly it has women flying. Half your squadron are women. And that’s just odd. Now, there was a black who flew for the French (the Americans wouldn’t have him). So while in reality there was only one black, there were NO women. Yet Sid seems to have bowed to gender and not race. Frankly, your squadron should be a bunch of whites and that’s it. Just going historically here.

The funny thing on the forum was that there was a screaming cat-fight on a thread about this very subject. All one guy was doing was asking if there was a way to get rid of the women in the game. The next thing you know, it was a cyber-barroom brawl, so typical on the internet. And oddly, this cannot be attributed to our current political passions. This was in 2015, a decade ago.

I guess this sort of small-potato, big-words fussfests has always been with us. Nothing new. And nothing to be done. Just back out and let it go. Nobody every changes anyone’s mind.

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