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I'm an easygoing guy, I really am, but this crap has to stop. Honest, hardworking, well-meaning people are acting like assholes, and I've had just about enough.

Politically, I have no affiliation, and am free to ask any question, explore any line of reasoning, and come to any conclusion I want. Some of my friends are not so lucky. They have been drinking the Kool Aid of the G.O.P. and insisting, like a football player at a keg party, that everyone else drink.

I don't mind opinions when they have a reason for existing. Even if I don't agree with the reasoning, I try to listen to other viewpoints with an open mind - I might learn something. It makes me achingly sad that this is a minority stance.
When I talk about politics with these friends, inevitably I get the same responses:

"Come on, Jon, I thought you were smarter than that."
"Seriously, you need to get out more."
"Wake up, Jon."
"Don't be so naive."
"You listen to too much N.P.R.."

This makes me so furious, I'd like to slap the crap out of them every time I hear it. How can educated, God-fearing people act so prickishly arrogant, self-righteous, and condescending to good friends? How can they be so blind to other points of view? What would Jesus do? He certainly wouldn't talk down to someone if they politely disagreed.

Throw the Socratic method out the door, toss out Democratic discourse, eliminate all opposing points of view, and then they'd be happy. Argue from an informed stance, and they get enraged, insisting that the liberal media has poisoned your mind. This one has my fists in a ball, even as I write this.

I read news from dozens of organizations every day, including, but not limited to, Fox News, 910AM (in SF it's a conservative radio station,) NPR, the BBC, CNN, ABC News, SF Chronicle, Yahoo News and Google's News Aggregator service, which collects news stories from all over the world and programmatically clumps them together by topic. I watch the news in three languages, and read books from Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Savage. (I sent a friend the Al Franken book on lying, and he promptly put it in the attic and refuses to read it.) I don't blindly believe anything in life, and politics is no exception. How have I been poisoned?

Unlike these pals of mine, I have studied science my entire life. Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Philosophy, all got and still get time on my radar. My entire life revolves around viewing the world, assessing what I see, forming an opinion, and acting on it. That's all I do - I see, I think, I act. For anything to get a place in my belief system, it first has to run the gauntlet of the Scientific Method - no exceptions. Nothing gets spoon-fed from another's mouth into my brain; people are too full of B.S..

My right wing mates, who feel perfectly at ease asking my opinion about any of a myriad of diverse topics, suddenly think I'm a drooling, brainwashed idiot when it comes to reading, interpreting, and understanding the news. Why the dichotomy?

In most other countries on Earth, politics and religion are not taboo for dinner conversation. In Europe and Asia, they exist peacefully alongside sports, drinking, and television as fair game. People talk about this issues, they discuss solutions. It might get heated, but not in the same way. The right wing here gets incensed if you even question their stance.

"You're either with us or against us."
"How can you be so stupid as to question me? How dare you?"
"You are a puppet of the Liberal Media."
"Enjoy your same sex marriage with Michael Moore."

I learned in debate that the first mistake novices make is to attack the other speaker, not what he says. It's completely irrelevant and only undermines the discussion.

"There is no evidence of any Weapons of Mass Destruction."
"You commie."

It never even gets to be a discussion of topics or issues - it's an argument of beliefs. And it seems the right would sooner die than relinquish beliefs they hold to be true. For a scientist, this happens all the time. The most famous scientist in the world recently admitted he was wrong and something we had held to be true about black holes was overturned. In the blink of an eye, a fundamental belief was flipped around, and there were no brawls, no name-calling, no scowls, sneers, jeers, or snippy discourse. It just happened,

Our entire country is founded on dialogue, discourse, arguing, and polite dissent - that's why we vote. That's why we have trials, hearings, elections. For them to say, "You're either with us or against us" makes me violently ill.

Let's throw out the entire constitution, all laws, rights, and discussion. Let's cap the media, give ultimate power to G.W. until the terror alert goes back down to green. Please tell us when to feel safe again. Then who would free us from his regime?

I'm not giving up on them. I know they're good people, and smart, too. That's why it makes me sick - not because they believe differently than me, but because they're so whiny and arrogant about it. While they wait for the political version of the Rapture, I'll be thinking, exploring and talking about the issues, even more so now that the gauntlet has been thrown. While they're goose-stepping and calling people names, I'll be using my brain.

"It's maddening. I don't know why you bother arguing with these people. A liberal will never understand the threat of terrorism until it happens to his city. And then he'll ask, 'why didn't someone do something to stop this?' "

Why bother? Because that's how you get at the truth. Not by swallowing what RNC-approved sources are telling you. And why is it maddening? Because we don't agree, or because I'm questioning your beliefs? In a previous life, you may have sold Socrates up the river as well.

I end with a quote from a good friend:

"It's good to be able to share views on things without the fear of backlash. Unfortunately in this day and age, it's nearly impossible."