At What Point Does Activism Become Assholism?

[CapnAwesome]

I think the moment someone thinks people who hold opinions other then their own are stupid or evil or bad in someway for holding those opinions, they are an asshole. It isn't necessarily an extremist thing either. There are plenty of people who aren't extreme who think all Republicans are stupid (sure, lets see you perform the Neuro-surgery that Ben Carson does.) and there are people with extreme political views who are perfectly nice and can engage with people in a fine rational manner, Noam Chomsky comes to mind. He's probably never raised his voice in his life.

I think the assholery really comes into play when it involves how you view the other side rather then what positions you yourself holds.

Yeah. I can see thinking an individual of a group is evil or stupid from experience with that person, but any blanket feeling/statement about an entire group is inherently ignorant, with obvious exceptions.

The other day, I read a facebook thread my uncle was involved in. A right-wing fella called a friend of my uncle "high," "stupid," and a "Liberal," but in that "I'm not sure if you're actually a liberal, but this is my favorite insult" way. Someone came back and called him a brain fart after several paragraphs of this man's ranting. He replied with "Typical liberal argument. You have nothing to say, so you start with personal attacks." He absolutely could not have a reasoned, considered discussion with these people, and he could not see that he was guilty of the very thing he complained of. He was completely blinded by which "team" he perceived them to be on. They were the enemy and that was the end of it. That man is a moron.

Totally agree.

That same thing happens to me on here from time to time. I got accused of 'being a right wing fanatic' the other day over disagreeing in piddling nuance in a larger discussion. Uhhh, I'm pretty sure I'm left of center nowadays, just not on every single issue. In fact that story reminds me of another thing that I think is part of asshole activism, which is that if you don't agree with someone on every single little detail of their agenda, then you are just as subject to their derision. It's like a Vegan who lumps vegetarians and people who own slaughterhouses into the same category.