How I shut down a coworker who was pro-torture

[bleedingheart]

Yesterday as I was about to leave work I was stopped by a coworker who always exchanges political barbs with me....I respect this fellow because he is intelligent but yesterday he started in about how he had a new idea for torturing those prisioners at Abu Ghraib prison.

I looked at him and I said..."Once not a long time ago a nation that was renowned for its art, literature and music, and industry sunk to such depths...the land that gave us Goethe, Durer, Beethoven, and Mercedes Benz thought it was okay to torture and murder people....and to this day they feel the weight of that horrible period in time....I fear that today that if we condone torture that we are no better than the Nazis and where will that lead us?"

The smile he did have went away...and he said.."I guess you are right...I never thought of it that way"...

I then left.

[mzmolly]

1. Not only that, but if he supports Bush's so called Liberation (from said

torture) how does he reconcille the two?

[bleedingheart]

11. I don't really know..

but I suspect part of it is the revenge factor of 9/11 which Bush pushed and now in spite of the fact that it has been debunked there are people still clinging to that...

[mstrsplinter326]

2. shutting down

"How I shut down a coworker who was pro-torture"

Torture him...

kidding, but it would be ironic.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Perfect analogy.

Germany is still ashamed of Hiltler and always will be. We don't want to be on the same history pages as them. Perfect analogy.

How could anyone think torture of Iraqi prisoners is OK? My g-d. What has become of our country and it's citizens? :(

[skooooo]

4. .."never thought of it that way." ??!!

More like he never thought period.

[immoderate]

5. Well struck

I know how I think of the torturers of history.

It bothers me that wherever I go now I have to carry the stigma. "There goes an American. They're torturers, you know."

--IMM

[charlie105]

6. Last night, on Hannity & colmes, they ran a video of

prisoners being tortured - by Saddam's men during his regime. As if to prove that we are doing nothing they are not used to. It's pathetic that they use such means to justify our behavior.

[smada]

7. I'm skeptical

In this political climate, people are too intransigent in their beliefs to concede that easily. But if you say so.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. A lot of times people just repeat conventional wisdom

or whatever their friends are saying without actually thinking anything through.

Sometimes a pointed question can elicit an "oh, right," reaction.

[bleedingheart]

10. whether I changed his mind for the long term ...I don't know

but I know him well from a business perspective and I know that he is capable of changing his mind or at least understanding my perspective...

[zbdent]

8. Bravo! Bravissimo!

Encore! Encore!