I just hung up from being blindsided by a Tea-Party loving "friend" - I'm speechless, shocked.

[markpkessinger]

75. I've had this experience, and so has almost everyone else I know -- very disturbing

I have one sister who has gone over the cliff of rationality in Fox/Tea Party insanity. I pretty much avoid any discussion of politics with her, because it has become impossible to have a reasonable discussion with her. Her rage and vitriol is positively volcanic (and frankly, is out of all proportion to her stake in the issues under discussion). I'm now watching something similar happening to a 25-year-old, recently married niece. She (my niece) has been on a kick of late railing on Facebook against recipients of Social Security Disability. She is absolutely convinced that all it takes to qualify is to find a doctor who willl provide a diagnosis of depression or anxiety (which, to her way of thinking, are trivial, 'made-up' conditions), and you'll be set up for life. She bases this conclusion on someone she knows who, she's convinced, is perfectly capable of working. I tried to point out to her that not all disabilities are visible, but she wouldn't hear it.

Recently, she shared on Facebook some right winger's letter to the editor that appeared in her local newspaper, which was one of those ridiculous rants about all the evil things people buy with food stamps Virtually everything in the letter (to which my niece added her wholehearted agreement), was either factually untrue, or was an absurd distortion of facts taken utterly out of context.

I learned my lesson a while back about trying to argue with these folks. Instead, I posted my own status update:

What is it about the American character that so many of us choose to spend far more time and energy being embittered and resentful of the help someone else might be receiving rather than being happy and grateful they themselves don't need it?