OMFG, I need to take a shower....

[Dickster]

Took my bike and rode to a nice little coffee shop here in the Panhandle of Florida, was sitting at the only open outside table when three gentlemen came out looking for a place to sit, I invited them to join me, as it was the only open seating. Good chitchat, one guy from Nebraska, one from Illinois, one native Floridian, and me from Minnesota. Everything fine until the Floridian lets us know he was carrying a firearm, concealed, of course.
The conversation went downhill after that:

1. Need to change the law to open carry so everyone can openly carry, teachers, kids in school, janitors, , that’s the only way to stop the crazies.
2. DeSantis is God, the best governor ever, anywhere.
3. Minnesota is a communist state.
4. Kids are getting their penises cut off, encouraged by teachers in school….🤷
5. Thousands of babies are aborted at birth and cut up and their body parts sold, and Hillary has made millions on this.
6. CNN is communist.
7. Joe Biden is a dictator, because of all the presidential orders he has signed.
8. White kids are being taught that they are bad because of slavery, shouldn’t have to feel bad about that.

I tried my best to counter their talking points in an amiable fashion, I kind of enjoyed sparring with them. But it was three on one, and I decided to split before the Floridian pulled out his gun…I thanked them for the company and said I had to go. Florida man’s parting shot was to tell me not to bring any of my Communist Minnesota friend down here. I got on my bike and headed back to our condo, half way back I decided I need a shower…

[underpants]

1. Who brings up that crap with someone they just met?

Especially someone who offered you seats?

I’d never bring my politics up when meeting someone, rarely after that, and certainly none of that crackhead s.

[Bettie]

6. People who assume that everyone thinks like they do

my DH is a middle-aged white man (OK, he's 60ish, is that old or middle-aged?)...but I'm amazed at what other men will say to him, thinking that he's "one of them".

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. As a MIDDLE AGED 60-something white guy, I get a lot of that, too.

I'm in a fairly conservative-leaning area and the worst part is probably that when I hang with progressives for some event I think a lot of them suspect I'm infiltrating them. But that may just be in my head.

[spooky3]

15. ITA. If you are white and middle aged or older

Chances are good that you will often encounter people like this.

Luckily I live in a blue area so don’t have to deal with this often. I like to avoid unnecessary conflict. But I have a few dear friends who lean right and will bring up topics even though they know we disagree. I think there must be an evangelical glitch in right wing thinking too. For example, recently a couple said they couldn’t understand why a national increase in minimum wage was being sought. When I reminded them it hadn’t increased since 2009, they claimed there are still places you can live on that; I said multiply it times 2000 hours average worked per year full time. Even the proposed $15 per hour would yield only $30000 per year, and you can’t live on that even in (my cheap midwestern hometown). Their response: “well, there are cheaper places to live than that…”

[Joinfortmill]

100. Like banging your head against the wall. Also, the lack of empathy is astounding.

[underpants]

19. Yeah I guess so

Can’t say I’ve run into that

[Midnight Writer]

26. Yep, I am an old white guy in a rural area and I get this often.

These folks don't think there is anything wrong with these views.

They are proud of their bigotry. They see no reason to hide it. In fact, they trumpet it so everyone knows how righteous they are.

[LakeArenal]

55. They hear it in church run by a white guy.

They hear it at work run by a white guy.

They hear it from their old white representatives.

They hear it on Fux run by a white guy.

Of course they think they can spout off

[Midnight Writer]

68. We learn as children to say "Hallelujah!" to the preacher and "Yes, Sir!" to the bossman.

That is how you get ahead.

[LakeArenal]

74. That's not my experience at all

My dad always said be honest and stand up for yourself because no one else will.

And I quit “witnessing” by the time I was 12

[Mr.Bill]

60. Happens to me often.

I'm an old white guy and other old white guys just walk up to me and start talking as if we were both at the Trump rally last night.

[GodlessX]

64. This is generally true in the South

When they come in contact with another white
person, (me-a pleasant middle aged white girl)
they auto assume that I must hold their same
racist/bigoted views. I get old men telling racist
jokes, the ‘n’ word. The South has never gotten
over losing the Civil War. Also they’re not very
smart.

[Wonder Why]

102. I just quit as president and member of a club because too many

members thought and expressed opinions like that - and worse.

Moreover they were all retirees from the north.

As for me, I was born and raised in the north, spent more time than that out west and have lived in the south now for over 30 years.

That's the problem. The bigots are everywhere. They're moving south and instead of liberalizing this part of the country, they are bringing their bigotry with them, making it worse.

[lonely bird]

111. They may have lost the war

The won the peace.

Sadly.

May I recommend Jeremi Siri’s “Civil War by Other Means” which discusses this?

[BlackSkimmer]

120. Wow, really?

Jimmy Carter is not very smart? How about John Lewis?

Stacey Abrams? Bill Clinton?

Nobody talks about the Civil War in the south. Except in jest.

You are a “pleasant, middle aged white girl?” Been white and female my whole life, and I never described myself as a “girl” after my 18th birthday. I’ve not had this experience you note here…bigots using the n word, jokes, etc.

Where do you live, pray tell? Maybe moving is a good idea since you hate where you live? So glad I’ve never done that living where I hate everybody and everything deal…so many people do that for some reason.

Keep on with your region-bashing though…Oh and welcome.

[Rebl2]

21. Folks like that

[Native]

23. This is what it's like living in Florida. They all broadcast their BS like they're getting paid

to do so. It's as commonplace as talking about the weather. At least twice a month I'm at our nearest big box gym when cops are called because there is a "verbal" disturbance.

[BlackSkimmer]

122. I think I'd find another gym. I lived in Florida for more than 20 years.

I’ve worked out my entire life…politics generally have not been a huge topic in any gym I’ve visited. And no, that’s not what it’s like there.

Maybe between individuals, but people serious about workouts are generally not having “verbal disturbances.”

I’d get out of that gym if I were you.

[Takket]

38. It's kind of not surprising

MAGAts actually think they are a huge majority and that when they talk to people, even strangers, they are in like company.

That comes right from drumpf constantly saying how popular he is and how he wins huge.

[Fla Dem]

63. Guys with a small dick who think carrying a gun & bragging about it

makes up for their perceived deficiencies.

[ShazzieB]

92. Good one!

[dchill]

106. A condition called "tinipini."

[Fla Dem]

118. LOL, never heard that phrase, but it fits!

[dchill]

127. I made it up! 👋

[Xavier Breath]

88. I'm always amazed at the number of political-themed confrontations

people here seem to have with strangers. I'm somehow able to navigate through daily life and interact with strangers without ever having a verbal spat or being subjected to MAGAt spewings as I do so. We live in a red area that's in a blue-ish purple county, and I've yet to have one of these confrontations. Maybe it's partly because I never bring up politics unless I'm in familiar company. I don't like others introducing politics into a discussion so I refrain from doing the same.

[Rabrrrrrr]

99. small, miserable, terrified, dumb as shit people.

You know, GOPers.

[barbtries]

112. back in the trump admin,

when they were stealing babies and incarcerating them in dog pens, a colleague and I were having dinner in a hotel restaurant, minding our business, when suddenly a woman in the room walked up to us and began spouting fox talking points at us. I was enraged. "Who ARE you? Who DOES that?"

now you know. republicans. they bluster away to enable their delusions and reinforce their hate. fuck them all the stupid assholes.

[Woodwizard]

115. I run into it fairly often.

I am white 50's with a crew cut. Amazing how many nuts think I am like them, then they get a suprise.

[underpants]

116. That I could see

I’m pretty strait laced looking white guy but I can’t remember anything like this happening to me.

[Kennah]

117. MAGAts

[Ocelot II]

2. *Sigh* And this is why we can't have nice things in this country.

Say what you want about Minnesota's shitty winters (we are awaiting the arrival of a huge snowstorm), but you couldn't pay me enough to move out of MN to some other states. Before I retired my employer transferred my job to GA. I took early retirement instead.

[Ilsa]

9. Depending on where you'd have to work, a few years here

wouldn't have been **too** bad. I moved from Texas, though. Many areas of GA are good to live in, promote healthy activities, etc. You could have established a second home here to get away from the Dec-March winters.

[Ocelot II]

13. The hot, humid summers would kill me. I'll take snow and cold any day.

[Ilsa]

16. That's down south. The north is much more temperate unless you're living in

Atlanta. Summers here are heavenly compared to Texas. August is the only time I'm inside more.

[Ocelot II]

17. Anyplace south of Iowa is too hot.

[Bettie]

71. I'm with you

you can always put on another layer, but there's only so much you can take off!

My DH says some people heat efficiently, some cool efficiently, few do both. I'm always warm, he's always cold.

[barbtries]

113. i have to agree

Came from CA to NC 15 years and still not acclimated to the sweat. i mean the summers.

[yonder]

72. Agree.

[wnylib]

39. I have relatives who live in Florida.

My brother moved there after the end of his Navy career, still young enough to work at a second career, when his children were still in their teens.

My brother was an anomaly in my family, a life long Republican and a supporter of Trump. I tried to avoid political discussions with him for the sake of peace in the family when he brought it up, but occasionally we sparred over it. He passed away in 2020 when covid was raging throughout Florida. His wife, one son, and grandchildren are still there. His other son is in Georgia. That son's children remained in Alabama with their mother after his divorce.

My brother helped my parents move to Florida for retirement. The whole family put a LOT of pressure on me to join them, but I did not consider it for several reasons. I was not retired yet and had a full time job with benefits that I'd have to leave behind and start all over again in a new place when I was nearly 60. Second, visits had shown me that the humidity in the South is too much for my asthma. Third was Florida politics. This was before 2016 and Trump. Bush and 2000 were enough for me.

I know that there are many good people in Florida, as we can see from Florida posters here. But the further deterioration of politics in Florida has convinced me that it would have been a mistake to go there.

[CrispyQ]

3. I've heard 5 & 8 from some right wingers I know, but 4 is new to me.

There's no reaching common ground with people who believe this shit.

[Dickster]

7. I was baffled too..

It turns out he was talking about trans kids, but he was certain that teachers were encouraging kids to get their gender changed, that’s what the penises getting cut off was about

[ShazzieB]

94. I figured that one was about trans kids.

It's right in line with all the RW hysteria about outlawing gender affirming health care.

Between that and the extreme abortion laws, I am REALLY sick and tried of piss ant GOP politicians acting like being elected to office comes with a license to practice medicine.

[calimary]

29. Holy Cannoli but they're threatened by Hillary Clinton!

What on earth is the effect she has on weenies like this??? I just don’t get it! Good Grief!

But on second thought, maybe the word “weenies” offers a hint…

[halfulglas]

44. That's because to so many of them even being allowed to talk about it

Much less accept it means you're encouraging it. You know, if you don't say gay it doesn't exist. If you say it's just another variant on the sexual spectrum, you must be encouraging even elementary kids to "turn" to something other.

[Native]

32. A family 3 doors down from us used to be on our trivia team (pre Covid)

Last edited Tue Feb 21, 2023, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Super smart family. One day the son stopped by to chat, older guy, late 40's, and informed me that they were no longer watching Faux news. Why, you ask? Because Fox had become too liberal. This was during Trump's reign of terror. Their new go-to for news was OAN. He then went on to talk about how great Parlor was.

[subterranean]

56. Don't you mean Fox had become too "liberal"?

I know some right-wingers believed that because a few people at Fox (who no longer work there) were mildly critical of Trump, or gave some airtime to Democrats, so he told his followers to go watch OAN instead.

[Native]

67. Yes. Gah. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ilsa]

4. You poor thing. I don't envy you. I probably would have laughed sand said,

"You believe all of that fascist propaganda? I better leave in case it's contagious." No good deed goes unrewarded?

My spouse said some of the dumbest, most racist people he ever met were in the FL panhandle.

[snowybirdie]

36. Good idea on the surface

But one of the fools was packing. They shoot people here if they disagree. i.e. old guy that killed another patron in a movie theater because he used his cell phone in Tampa area.

[brush]

5. Wonder how many like them are out there?

Hope it's still just trump's 32 percent of the electorate. If there are many more the nation as a democracy is in peril.

[Wednesdays]

8. That 32 percent is enough to take over the country

if enough people stay home on Election Day.

[brush]

12. I don't think so. trump and his magats lost in 2020.

Dems, Indies and sane republicans outnumber them.

[Wednesdays]

34. I agree, it's highly unlikely

but we must always be vigilant.

[Meadowoak]

95. 2 to 1 if we all vote.

[CrispyQ]

10. If it were just the whackos & racists voting repub it wouldn't be a problem.

The problem is the millions of republicans who aren't mean-spirited bigots or delusional zealots who still believe any republican is better than a democrat. I know a lot of them. They hate what they see their party becoming but they will never vote for a democrat. Our best hope is they vote independent or don't vote.

[brush]

18. Nah, trump lost. We outnumber them.

Biden is in the WH.

Again, Dems, left-leaning indies and sane republicans outnumber them. Dems have won the popular vote 6 out of the last 7 presidential elections.

[CrispyQ]

25. And yet we didn't occupy the White House after all of those elections. -nt

[brush]

105. I cited that to show we outnumber them. They've figured out...

many ways to cheat before, but it's not so easy for them now as voters are more vigilant and fight against their vote suppression.

[SouthernDem4ever]

76. I wonder what stupid shenanigans the house will pull during the next certification process

with anti-democratic assholes in charge.

[Meadowoak]

96. We still outnumber them by a lot, if we GOTV.

[CanonRay]

24. Hitler only got 36% of the vote in the 1932 electoins

Sometimes I'm glad we're not a parliamentary democracy.

[Celerity]

78. The Nazis failed to take power in both of the 1932 German federal elections They actually lost votes

in the 2nd one, in November.

[Midnight Writer]

70. 75% Trump voters in my precinct.

My Representative quotes Hitler and drives a pick-up with an Oath Keepers sticker on the windshield.

[Mariana]

84. In Florida they're probably the majority.

Take a look at the margin when De Santis won his re-election.

[MOMFUDSKI]

14. My husband goes out every morning

with his pick stick and his bag and picks trash. This morning a 50-something guy on a bike ON THE SIDEWALK had to go off into the road because my husband (who is 75 years old) was in his way. Guy goes crazy and tells husband not to hit him with his pick stick. Husband says he has no intention of doing that. Husband reminds guy that the sidewalk is for pedestrians and the road is for bikers. Guy says he is a retired cop and he will shove that pick stick up husband's ass. Husband walked on. He wanted to tell the copper that if he got stupid and wound up in the slam, he would have some guy's pecker up HIS ass daily as the inmates really hate cops. Husband also told him the biggest bully in his high school graduated and joined right up to be a cop. This happened on Gulf Boulevard in Treasure Island, Florida. Red State fun. They are getting downright brazen.

[Oppaloopa]

110. I live near you in Clearwater. I pray I will not die in this state. It really keeps getting worse

and worse. The book banning was my personal limit.

[usonian]

20. Projection.

Every accusation is a confession.

They need to shower in holy water.

[Otterdaemmerung]

22. Wow.

After just reading that I think I need a full Silkwood shower.

[Hope22]

27. Brother, sorry you had to be exposed to that.

That parting shot was so true to form. Can’t wait for the day that guy runs into my Canadian friends who insist on coming to FL regardless of the situation. They think it’s a joke until some right wing nut tells them he’s packing. Canadians do not help by visiting this country at this time! It’s time to cut off aid to FL if Floridians think all Americans are not welcome there!

[Randomthought]

28. No worries, Florida

This Minnesotan will stay out and also my communist money

[RedSpartan]

30. Florida is a disgusting pile of crap.

Nothing but swamps, strip malls, racists, and morons.

Why anyone would live there voluntarily is beyond me. (I understand many are born there and don't have the means to leave; they have my deepest sympathy.)

[GodlessX]

57. And trailer parks. n/t

[BlackSkimmer]

121. Do you realize there are trailer parks all over the US?

Do you realize we have DUers who live in trailers?

[Florida Dem]

82. Disagree

I live in the Florida Panhandle I find it to be a GREAT place to live. It has long stretches of unspoiled beaches, excellent seafood, beautiful national and state parks, and many cool micro-breweries. There's no state income tax and it's also home to the Blue Angels who perform an incredible show on Pensacola Beach every year. The rest of Florida also is filled with many unique and interesting locales.

I'm originally from Southern California and I've lived in various places throughout the U.S. during my career. I work remotely from here now because I choose to do so. Granted, the politics are not what I'd like them to be recently, but I'm not the type of person who is going run away with his tail between his legs just because I'm in the political minority. Occasionally, some Trumper will start in with his conspiratorial BS (doctor's waiting room recently). I stop them before they get started and let them know they're coming at the wrong guy with that kind of crap and that I that I don't want to hear any more of it. It has always stopped there. I don't know if it's because I'm very direct or if it's because I'm 6'2" 200 lbs and they're a bit intimidated. Mostly what happens is that you will overhear people talking amongst themselves; I don't let that get to me. I just laugh to myself at their utter stupidity.

The bottom line is that I absolutely disagree with your statement about Florida being a disgusting pile of crap. The Florida-bashing is getting kind of old on DU. The politics are undesirable but it's still a great place in many other aspects. I live in one of the reddest counties in the U.S. and I just don't take any sh*t from anybody. There's MAGATS everywhere, we just have a few more of them here.

[Scrivener7]

31. Here's my question, though. I'll apply it to one of the points so the question is clearer.

As you were talking to them, did you get the impression that they REALLY believe Hillary is selling baby parts? Or are they just spouting a company line to identify themselves to each other as members of the same club, and to gaslight you?

Most of those points they covered, I believe they believe what they told you. But as you spoke to them, do you think they believed all of it?

I don't get a chance to talk to MAGAts a lot. I have engineered my life that way. I'm interested in your impressions. Because I have such a hard time believing they believe that insanity, and on much of it, I think they are just saying it for reaction. But I suppose I could easily be convinced otherwise.

[Dickster]

79. Oh they believe it..

The shit was flying fast and heavy, every time I countered with a rational thought they doubled down and just kept shoveling. They guy with the gun was starting to spit, he was jackin his jaws so fast, that’s when I decided to depart before it heated up more. I have Republican friends that I spar with back in Minnesota, we argue and make our points, and then move on. This was more intense, I didn’t move the needle at all.

[Scrivener7]

90. Wow. They live in a different world than we do. They're just as dumb as mud fences.

[Timeflyer]

33. The Magats who infest/attend FL school board meetings believe and spew similiar propaganda

during "public comments." It is part of living in the hell-scape that is DeSadist's free state of FL. Maybe my family could impersonate immigrants and get free bus rides outta here.

[OMGWTF]

35. Just got back from a trip to two Arizona cities to visit friends and I hated being in that state.

Even though there's now a Dem governor and two (almost) Dem senators, I saw many Trump flags, a Women for Trump store, gun nut shops all over the place, crazy-ass freeways to get anywhere, Fux News was on in every hotel and restaurant we went to, and there was horrible country music playing everywhere. I was so happy to get back to beautiful California and will NEVER go back to Arizona or anywhere in the South.

[momta]

37. My very liberal brother who lives in Texas says he loves open-carry laws.

He calls them "Moron Identification Laws".

[Bristlecone]

40. It never ceases to amaze me

How readily and easily these folks accept this garbage as fact without requiring even the smallest shred of proof for themselves.

And the minute you suggest that what they are saying is pure made up bullshit, ask to provide even the least notion of facts to support the seriously outlandish notions they are spewing, they get angry and suggest you are stupid. Never once providing anything to back it up.

Like others have said, there is no getting through to them. They want to believe these things.

[hadEnuf]

54. They are brainwashed by right wing media. They literally live in a different reality.

And they are emboldened by that same media. The Fairness Doctrine saw the possible influence of a mass media situation like we have now in 1949, but nothing was done to prepare for cable or consolidation after its demise in 1987.

And here we are.

[GP6971]

43. Welcome to DU

I guess

[EYESORE 9001]

45. You're faster than me

It’s gone now. We’ll never forget you, ummm…who were you again?

[djacq]

42. Bugs Bunny had a solution;

[link:

[Emile]

46. Sounds like Indiana. .

[halfulglas]

47. About 7 - EVERY president signs a lot of orders.

Some they are part if his constitutional powers. Others are because Congress is paralyzed on some issues and somebody has to move things along.

[Mariana]

86. Yes, but that's completely different.

When Republican presidents sign a lot of orders, it's because it's the right thing to do and it's for the good of the nation. When Democratic presidents sign a lot of orders, it's dictatorship. See how that works?

[Evolve Dammit]

48. I would have walked away at the onset. No tolerance for the brainwashed MAGOTT fascists.

[dai13sy]

53. Same

I really have no tolerance for stupid and MAGOTTS have a bounty of stupid and lunacy

[Evolve Dammit]

87. Not even worth engaging the brain-dead. There is no rational thought capability. Welcome!

[csziggy]

49. Not surprised - the Panhandle is deeep red until you get to Gadsden and Leon Counties

I've lived near Tallahassee for 45 years and don't like going much west of here. My husband's family - also originally from Minnesota - lived in Panama City and always disliked the politics of their adopted city. But they tried to alleviate it - as white people his mother joined the NAACP and worked for liberal causes. All but one of my husband's siblings are liberals. (No one understands what happened to the other sibling.)

I'm still pissed that DeSantis gerrymandered our district so we're now represented by a RepuQ from Panama City, Neil Dunn. We had a solid Democrat before, Al Lawson, and DeSantis wanted him out. And now the Democrats in this immediate area don't have a chance of getting anyone who comes close to representing us because we're lumped with right wing crazies like you had your talk with.

[IronLionZion]

50. How do we know who is crazy or not?

Open carry laws protect a mass shooter because they didn't do anything illegal until they start shooting. By then it's too late.

There are only so many types of guns a person can conceal carry. But they can open carry big guns.

[Sky Jewels]

51. My eyes have been opened to how many American white guys of a certain age are deeply insecure

and desperately looking to compensate for these insecurities while holding on to their place of privilege in society. I find them all deeply repulsive and pathetic.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

52. Isn't south Alabama another name for the panhandle?

Kind of explains the mindset.

[Freddie]

62. The further north you go, the further south you are

In Florida. My son and wife live in Palm Beach County, a blue island in a Red Sea. They’d love to come back to civilization (PA) but they have really good jobs and recently bought a house.

[SheilaAnn]

73. I'm in West Palm Beach, originally New Jersey. It was quite the culture change but you get used to

many things. Lawton Chiles was gov. when I moved here in '89.

[Ligyron]

123. Hi Neighbor!

[SheilaAnn]

125. Hey Neighbor, hope all is well. n/t

[Initech]

58. Fox News is a hell of a drug.

[geardaddy]

59. This Minnesotan won't go anywhere near Florida

I like living in the People's Republic of Minnesota.

[Ocelot II]

66. Same here. Haven't been there in years. It's full of Florida Men

(including a big ugly orange one and a small pudgy weirdo in white go-go boots), huge flying cockroaches, and snakes capable of swallowing whole cows. I'm holed up waiting for the latest blizzard to pass, thinking about how nice it is to live here anyhow.

[geardaddy]

81. Haven't been there in years either

The only way I would go is if I had to catch a cruise to the Caribbean

[Hortensis]

126. Maybe some unconscious cherrypicking of impressions for both states?

Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2023, 08:01 PM - Edit history (1)

A whole LOT of Minnesotans, Michiganers, etc, are all over Florida, both those who moved to FL permanently years ago -- and vote their typically elderly, mostly white-state notions (83% in MN, 7% black,Hispanics almost too few to list, very different from FL's invigorating diversity) -- and those who come for a few months, like us. We run into them constantly down there. MN and other northern license plates fill the interstates during the seasonal mass migrations. Many (most?) search out gated and otherwise home-state-ish enclaves to live in.

Fact is, all you dislike and attribute to Florida is alive and well in all the rest of the states, including the bigotry that always finds excuses, race, religion, geography, whatever, to despise whole populations. It's constantly brought TO Florida by those prone.

AND, to the point, most of it does return where it came from -- both MN voters who just vacation in FL and also eventually, people who moved there to exchange snow shovels for golf clubs (and vote!) get older and no longer want to live that far from their families and move home (and vote!). LOTS of the latter.

[Ligyron]

124. Yeah, but while you'll be buried in snow tomorrow, I'll be out in a boat.

In nothing but a bathing suit, cruising the ocean and fishing, cause I love the free, fresh seafood here. Yum.

If I'm not fishing, it's only because the surf's up and I'm surfing in which case I'll just go fishing later.

Unless someone tells me the spiny lobsters are walking, in which case it's scuba time!

[geardaddy]

128. Good for you.

I'll take the snow.

[hunter]

61. Nobody ever tells me shit like that.

They're afraid I might laugh.

[Hortensis]

65. This is why I regret not being a social scientist of some discipline in this era.

What a fascinating time for those who bring educated insight to these interactions. A golden era of societal pathology.

Seriously, I'd choose delighted opportunity to observe subjects in their own environment over disgusted and helpless upset any day, but I'm stuck with the latter.

[PatSeg]

69. Damn, that's depressing

[friend of a friend]

75. Every once in a while, someone in the gym will want to talk to this old White man about politics.

I just tell them that I am there to work out and I have to count the seconds between sets. I really do have to count the seconds and they just say for me to have a good workout.

[Warpy]

77. You're lucky you've still got some brain cells left

I think at the first splat of right wing bile, I'd have drained my tea (I hate coffee), wrapped my pastry up, and thanked them for spoiling my breakfast with that much gullibility and decamped, vowing never to invite another Florida Man to sit down with me as long as I lived.

Oh, they're not all like that, I knew some who were quite rational, even some my dad's age. However, I noticed a big change in Florida over the years, people just seemed to get angrier and angrier. I am delighted I don't have to go there any more.

The problem is that idiots who consider guns to be fashion accessories are itching for an excuse to use them. I see one or some guy announces proudly that he's packing, I just leave. The risk aint worth it.

[barbtries]

114. i agree.

there are definitely people out there who are itching for a reason to use that gun. lots of examples, but i gotta go to work

[NowISeetheLight]

80. It's True

I was on a cruise a couple months ago. I get invited to free wine tasting and stuff because I’m “Elite” level (20+ cruises). Last cruise I was at a table with an old guy from Florida. It was kind of the same. All the Faux News BS. DeSatan is the “best Governor we’ve ever had”. All this culture war crap. Totally brainwashed. Maga-morons.

[RandiFan1290]

83. Cool story, bro!

Welcome back to DU

[Sympthsical]

85. Where were the baristas in all this?

Were they thumbing up, knowingly nodding, anything?

The encounter feels incomplete unless I know how the employees were taking it all in.

[Aussie105]

89. Never forget

That these people will spout their venom at anyone who stands still long enough because they are looking for confirmation.

And only the insecure and befuddled require constant confirmation.

"I've got my shit together!" they will spout.

Do not engage, logic has no meaning to them.
Don't argue, do neutral grunts at their talking points, disengage as soon as possible.

And yes, a shower might help.

[pnwmom]

91. Glad you found DU to talk to. Good luck on maintaining your sanity down there. nt

[Jilly_in_VA]

93. This sounds a lot like

the bunch of old white farts who inhabit a booth at the local 7-11 in the mornings. Apparently they got chased out of the neighboring Burger King for being obnoxious. (who'da thunk?) I Don't think any of them work any more so all they have to do all day is sit around and bitch. I don't know why the owner of the 7-11 hasn't booted them. But they are everywhere.

[3catwoman3]

97. ROMEOs.

Retired Old Men Eating Out.

[Joinfortmill]

98. I hear ya.

[dflprincess]

101. Come home Dickster

Granted the weather in Minnesota the next few days is going to be awful and Minnesota has some real Floriduh like spots outstate, but at least we're sane in the metro and we'd love to have where you belong.

[sarisataka]

107. Unbelievable

The things people say...

[soldierant]

108. "I hate Illinois Nazis"

and I'm not really particular about the state.

[musclecar6]

109. Best Bet

When that shit starts with people like that, is to say " I just remembered I've got to go, nice chatting with you and leave. Trying to have a balanced dialogue is a waste of time.

[Polybius]

119. Interesting username

Makes me think of High School jokes.