Went to Home Depot this weekend to return an incorrectly purchased item.

[Populist_Prole]

22. Happily ignorant is the key

The less they think, the better they feel. Upset their apple cart by dissecting their views logically, and they become indignant like an angry sullen drunk.

Recently during a conversation with my rightward turning friend, he began spouting ignorant talking points bashing Obama about the economy, raising his taxes, trying to cut social security and medicare blah blah; Not just half truths, but blatant falsehoods. Despite my irritation, I kept my cool and corrected him in a tactful way. ( He knows I'm much much more well read than he is ) I would think he'd be relieved to hear such things but he got really angry and defensive and almost spitted as he snarled "We'll he's gonna take your guns away, you just watch!". Like the clerk in the OP, the gun thing is their last refuge when they know they're wrong.

Interesting post script: This same person recently told me he was angry with his high school age son because his son says he's a bigot ( and he is ) and he snarled, "he's just a kid, he don't know dick about the world". I dryly asked him that would he be of the mindset that if his son was more worldly he would dislike black people as much as his father? We're drifting apart anyway, so I figured why just bottle it all up inside?