Political Rant
October 19, 2008
I desperately try to keep both politics and religion off this blog – it’s a personal thing that I don’t mind chatting about with people that ask, but as this is public, no-one really coming here really wants to read about my personal views on these subjects. However, the following email landed in my non-spam (i.e. not very public) email box, I just have to comment. It is not for or against any side – if the opposing person was used in this way I would have exactly the same response.
Anyway, for those that want to see this, and my reply email. Read on…
—
From: [withheld]
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:18 PM
To: ME!
Subject: What does Obama prefer to read?
"The Post-American World". It is Muslim’s view on the fall and collapse of the United States as a Super Power. WAKE UP AMERICA !!!
—
I just cant stand this type of ignorance. READING IS NOT A CRIME! There are plenty of topics I expect Mr Obama and Mr McCain do not know about, and I EXPECT them to seek out more information, be that from books or subject-matter experts. If it’s possible to read/learn about "the other side" of a topic, is it not prudent to seek that out as well?
In any case, I just couldn’t hold myself back so sent out the following reply…
—
From: ME!
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:21 PM
To: [withheld]
Subject: RE: What does Obama prefer to read?
I have no idea who you are, or why you are sending me this email. If you know anything about me, you know that I can’t vote in the US elections this year, so this is totally pointless.
However, I do have something to say, since you sent me this unsolicited.
Since when has reading a book, especially to get a viewpoint on another topic/situation/strategy/people, ever been a "bad" thing? This is a problem that the current US administration has had since the beginning in that "they know best, and know everything". I wish people will have some hubris and know that they don’t know everything (thus reading isn’t a bad thing), and there are people out there that are smarter than you (especially in certain areas).
I don’t know the book you’ve pointed out, but just a cursory glance in Amazon or Wikipedia tells me that the only the only evidence that it’s "a Muslim’s view of the collapse of the USA" is the name of the author (who BTW is "not a religious guy" – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareed_Zakaria#Personal).
I’m not for or against any of this stupid propaganda BS on either side – if McCain was walking around with "The World is Flat" would you be saying the same thing, but replacing Muslim with "old white guy"?
Whatever your political affiliations are, by all means campaign on them. But stupid stuff like this, *on either side* just shows why America is on the decline.
Cheers,
Mike.
—
That made me feel a little better. To the guys credit he replied and said he mixed up the emails (his friend was the old owner of this domain – not sure I buy that as it was an old baseball camp) but I accept his apology, and him at least having a look and "have[ing] read and digested your reasoned response".
I really don’t mind people having differing views/politics/feeling/etc – that’s what makes us as a species so varied and interesting. What gets at me is if we start picking on each other over stupid things, and trying to be more informed about the world is one such example.
Posted in 
