Sitting on the Jersey shore beach yesterday,
I was a witness to what a great portion of America has become. About 30 feet from me was a group of 15 individuals ranging from very young to early middle-age. It looked like a combination of three or four families who were varied in appearance, but of like minds.
During three hours, I overheard the following conversations of note. Of course there were many other subjects, but I’m not going to bore you with the entire litany of hateful remarks:
1). What is this Juneteenth anyway? They just make up holidays for these people and now we all have to takeoff. Oh I forgot, I don’t get off tomorrow like they do. I never heard of this before, and do Irish like me get holidays celebrating the end of the potato famine? They’re just making stuff up to get out of work.
2). What is this monkeypox anyway? This is just another fake disease that they’ve come up with to scare us. They really took us for a ride with that Covid bullshit, I’m not getting any boosters. I got the first two shots, did you get the booster? I ain’t getting no boosters, it’s all bullshit anyway. Now they’ve come up with a new disease to try to get us to shut down again and to be afraid. They should string this Fauci guy up by his balls.
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It is rather important to mention at this point, that the word “fuck“ was used every fourth word at the very least in all conversations about nearly everything. The fact that there were young children running around and hearing this was irrelevant to the adults, all the adults,. Three of the men were smoking big fat stogie cigars which looked expensive from where I was sitting and of course using them to gesture while they were pontificating. Interestingly, I did not see a single alcoholic beverage in the time that we shared on the beach, and so one cannot describe this to the effects of alcohol upon the speechifying centers of their brains.
Thus, it has been a long week. I had a conversation with a patient last Tuesday which I wasn’t going to post, but after listening to this series of diatribes for three hours, (which interested me no end and that’s why I didn’t move to answer the question of a few here), but I’ve decided to summarize our conversation. This gentleman works in law-enforcement but he’s not a police officer, I’ll leave it at that. Mid-30s, unmarried, friendly in a south Philly style, a very good dental patient I might add, made some statements which were right out of Fox News. He was clearly trying to figure out what side of the equation I was on, and to be honest I’m pretty straightforward with people but I do not in general get into arguments with them but allow them to have their opinions without prejudice. His subjects for discussion were President Biden's mental state, Fauci being a fraud, the whole alternative lifestyle scene, and you get the drift. The interesting part was that he didn’t just state it but asked me what I thought of XYZ and then would append his opinion. I was honest in my statements to him about how I felt in regard to each subject which she brought up, and then I believe he was testing me by saying that the person he really liked was Bernie Sanders because he told the truth. My response was: You just sat here and told me that you subscribe to virtually every right wing statement out of Fox News but your big hero is Bernie Sanders? Whom do you think you’re kidding , I’m the one with the 3 inch needle and you’re beginning to get on my nerves I said with a laugh. He laughed too and we kind of called it quits.
The thing which I found upsetting concerning this particular interaction was that he was trying to feel me out without insulting me and posit various statements of “fact“ almost none of which were in fact true, and attempt to measure my response. I have felt that I had to skate carefully, like Peggy Fleming doing her compulsory figures, because the last thing I want to do is alienate people and have word get out there that I am an angry political operative of the left. Now it may be true that I am an angry political operative of the left, but it does not belong in the professional sphere and is bad for business as they say. Also, my job is to render healthcare, not judge peoples political beliefs or the validity thereof and render appropriate punishment .
I’m getting old and tired of this, and wish it would all just go away… But I know it won’t.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Free parking at my house…
I remember them saying that Bernie was great for ONE reason .. they hated Hillary. Yes made zero sense
. But I took it like they had a hierarchy of bigotry white man trumped ( no pun intended) any woman..
Living in Alabama is very disheartening and not even the worst state in which to live. 
The feelings you overheard are much more widespread than we realize. These people felt comfortable spouting such hateful speech because they were in a group of like minded individuals. It is, indeed, a cult. Some are just more openly racist and homophobic than others.
He must be related to Demosthenes.
But, you hold the needls of Damocles.
Heaven forbid any of us kids to use the N word. You got spanked and sent to your room with no dinner.
If you used the F word, you got your mouth washed out with soap. Lesser cusswords like "shit" and "damn" weren't encouraged either, but they were sometimes tolerated.
My parents and grandparents were careful with the language they used around us kids. We were encouraged to express our opinions, don't get me wrong. We could be liberal or conservative and that didn't matter so much. But we could never insult anyone or use swearwords of any kind.
What the world is coming to now, I don't think my parents would have been able to deal with this. We were just a normal middle-class Midwestern family, growing up in the 50's and 60's.
“What church do you belong to?” 
I’d just name the last church I’d been to for a wedding or baptism. The business and social situations in which this BS occurred would not have been helped by the correct response of “who the F needs to know and what F’ng business is it of yours?”
I love Island Beach State Park. So beautiful, and less crowded than other places.
Also, is your dental practice anywhere near Toms River? Thinking of moving there.
Live out in Hunterdon County - so the County is as red and ignorant as the 'Southern NJ' states. 
Hard when you have great parking right near the beach.
Cape May and Asbury (jmho) tend to be quite a bit more liberal in the beach goers and restaurant/bars that surround them.
I was from Edison, and roamed the beaches, river towns, and mountains in my motorcyle.
Great date activity also.
