The meanest, dumbest, nastiest people from my high school are mostly Republican Christians.

[Rabrrrrrr]

Funny - now that we're "re-connecting" via facebook, it's fun to go back and see how so many of the hell-raisers, suckups, mean people, bullies, rude bastards, intentionally ignorant, and dickheads are so proudly self-described Republicans AND Christians (and when they list their church, it's invariably some racist, theology-of-hate-and-fear independent non-denominational and/or mega-church).

And most of the kids who were kind, decent, tolerant, smart, critical thinking and non-cliquey are liberals, and some of them are Christian, as well as other liberal leaning religions/spiritualities (as well as atheist, of course).

Not surprising, but it's good to have my assumptions confirmed.

These are folk from a blue-collar Wisconsin city that lived and breathed sports-worship, by the way. Guess which group of folk were the biggest sports lovers as well.

:eyes:

[alarimer]

1. Mine too.

Not at all surprising since my school was in Newt Gingrich country. Lots of religious right assholes there.

[Archae]

2. I haven't seen the people I graduated with since then.

I couldn't stand most of them, and they only contact me every 5 years for class reunions.

The last one would have cost me $45 to attend.
No fucking way.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. I haven't gone to any reunions. Only a few I'd like to see, and they probably wouldn't be there.

Plus, the tasteless rubes that have been in charge of the reunions have had them in the most tasteless, tacky, shitty, ridiculous shitholes.

Well, what I call a shithole, anyway. It's what they (since they're mostly redneck asses with no culture) call "really splendid and wonderful places!"

Fuck 'em.

I might go to the 30 year. At some point, I simply cannot wait to rub their noses in their shit.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. I went to my 40th, and it was amazing to put all the considerable amount of

crap from my teenage years behind me and get to meet these people again on an adult level. I was really nervous about going, but fortunately, all the "mean girls" and "bully boys" had grown up enough to not continue with old business from high school and to have a good time.

I have no idea what their political or religious affiliations are now, except that one woman, who was always rather flakey, said that she was an evangelical who homeschooled her four sons. She was never a "mean girl," though, just a flake.

It was also sobering to find that 12 members of my class had died (and two have died since).

[Sheltiemama]

29. That's the experience I had at my 20th.

It was nice to see everyone had grown up, and now many of us are Facebook friends.

[bluestateguy]

3. We always like to assume that the old school bullies are now in prison with ruined lives

Yes, sometimes that happens, but just as often we find that old school bullies are now making a 7 figure income, with a huge mansion, and a knockout trophy wife.

[mopinko]

4. the boy i had a crush on throughout my childhood

grew up to be a republican asshole. i ran into him later in life, and he had the hots for ME. bwahahahahahaa

[trof]

5. Yeah. Remember Stanton Lindsay?

He'd whip your ass at the drop of a hat.
Hell, you didn't even have to drop it.
The guy just liked to fight.

Now he's head of a home construction company.
But...construction ain't doing so good right now.
Karma?
;-)

[CharmCity]

6. So true!!

Most of the people who have appeared via Facebook are not the ones I was hoping to hear from again! Ah well. You can always "defriend" them!

[Courtesy Flush]

10. I "defriended" my B-I-L

All he ever posted was right-wing vomitus, so I dropped him. Later, after my wife got cancer, he sent another friend request. I didn't want to be an asshole, since family members are following my wife's progress through FB, so I added him again. So far, he's behaving.

[Lex]

11. Just hit "hide" on his status updates if you don't want to see them

if he begins the right-wing crap again. I've done it to several high school friends who are as dumb as Glenn Beck.

[caitxrawks]

14. there was an asshole on my FB that was doing that.

Every time I would say anything about liberalism, this guy from school would hijack my status and be like "OMG YOU LIBS ARE ALL THE SAME OMGOMGOMG". What a douche. He regularly talked about how proud he was to be a terrorist killer. I deleted him quite some time ago and I am very happy about it.

One of my cousins is also extremely Republican. He posts shit all the time. I just try to overlook it, but it makes me feel bad that all my other family members rally around him but ignore me anytime I post anything liberal. I am the black sheep of the family and it sucks terribly.

[av8rdave]

8. The most arrogant prick from my HS...

I still an arrogant prick! Imagine that.

[HopeHoops]

9. That was the case in my high school as well - late 70's

[Aristus]

12. A girl I really liked and was very nice is Facebook friends with my sister.

Turns out, nowadays, she's a 'concervative christian' {sic}. :eyes:

[caitxrawks]

13. OMG dude, wow!

Seriously, I know how you feel. I'm from NC, and EVERYONE is a conservative Christian. Makes me want to puke. The only agnostic people I know are crazy libertarian/conversatives as well! I just can't catch a break. I wonder how I was born into a town full of crazy inbred conservative hicks. How in the world did I escape that fate?! I can't discuss atheism with ANYONE on my Facebook except my husband. My own best friend deleted me and basically said "Fuck you!" because I'm not a Christian.

It's beyond me.

[seabeyond]

15. i put kids in a christian private cause son slim, glasses, intellectual. pulled them out

cause kids more mean, out of control and bulies than any public school. figure boys had more of a chance in public than private.

the only private schools in this area is christian... no option of a non religious private.

[caitxrawks]

16. the christian school here has a marquee that says

"THE END IS COMING

PRAY HERE"


wtf?

[seabeyond]

20. it was quite a trip. with all the drama and trauma i am not sorry we experienced.

i am from calif. i had never met fundie christians. i was never religious, spiritual. and calif religious was more mellow.

when oldest first started in '99 it was religious, but ok. about 2003 the school shifted to fundamentalists.... what a world to learn from. it became that too, end of the world. especially when passion came out.

[wickerwoman]

40. That was my experience as well.

I went to a Lutheran youth group a few times (mostly for the cheap skiing trips). Those kids were the rudest, pettiest, least tolerant, most up-their-own-asses, bullying little shits I ever encountered. And none of it was discouraged in the slightest by the group leaders.

I finally got kicked out for debunking their anti-evolution propaganda publicly and in great detail.

[CBR]

18. Unfortunately, my HS validictorian who scored

a 1600 on the SAT (although he failed the driver's permit exam THREE times) is doing his MD residency and is constantly posting anti-HCR screeds on Facebook. Makes me ill.

[Arugula Latte]

19. Yep. Same here. We had a lot of Reagan Youth at our high school

and plenty of them are still rightwing Xtian creeps.

[AngryAmish]

21. What a controversial statement to make on Democratic Underground

Brave. Hope you have your asbestos undies on today.

[caitxrawks]

22. asbestos

Will make you itchy.

[AngryAmish]

23. I like itchy

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. Controversial? How?

:shrug:

I'd put on my asbestos undies, but I'm soaking them in DDT and Thalidomide.

[geardaddy]

25. Watch out you don't lose your arms.

from the Thalidomide.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

28. because had you not been christian & said this

you would get flamed a gazzilion times for being antichristian

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. That could very well be - hadn't thought of that.

[hamsterjill]

26. Same here...

Conservative. Christian, and all looking for "friendship"!!! LOL

Now I remember why I moved away!!!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. the republican version of christiantiy is mean and dumb

and thereby attracts those who are mean + dumb

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. Ain't it, though?

I find that even in the United Church of Christ, which has a LOOOOOOOOONG history of liberal, progressive, inclusive, and, dare I say, *JESUS LIKE* attitudes, there are some Republicans - and they tend to be ornery, cranky, and mean. Not all of them, but they can be. My experience has been that many of the Republicans in the UCC are more old school financial-style Eisenhower/Nixon type Republicans, and they can be pretty cool and well-reasoned: still wanting the hungry to be fed, and people to have health care, and etc. These are the people who aren't ready to be Democrats, but whose political party has entirely left them behind.

But there are some serious freeper style Republicans in the church, and I wonder, "Why are you in this church?"

The Biblical Witness Fellowship branch of the UCC is basically in opposition to everything that the church has stood for for the last 200 years.

Some people are just too fucked up to understand.

[SimonPhoenix]

32. So liking sports is strongly correlated with being a Republican?

Any evidence besides anecdotal to support it?

Also, you made that last statement out to sound like a negative. Why is loving sports negative? I love sports and I'm agnostic.

Do you think that sports are stupid?

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. Here's what I said:

"These are folk from a blue-collar Wisconsin city that lived and breathed sports-worship, by the way. Guess which group of folk were the biggest sports lovers as well."

I did not say that liking sports is strongly correlated with being a Republican.

I implied that, from my class, the blue-collar folk who lived and breathed sports-worship are strongly correlated to being Republican now.


Now, speaking personally, I think sports are a wonderful way for people to get exercise and find camaraderie - however, being obsessed about it and thinking that what professional sports people do (or even one's tribal-identified school) is somehow important, is quite silly.

There's a big difference between 'liking' sports and being a sports-worshiping idiot. My experience has been that the sports-worshiping people tend to be undifferentiated, emotionally stunted, intellectually lacking curiosity (or sometimes strongly anti-intellectual), uninterested in the arts as human expression preferring their arts to be nicely packaged for easy consumption, and generally tribalistic and fearful of anything that is 'other' except through long, slow exposure to help them overcome their natural fearful tendency. That's a broad statement, yes; but that's been my experience. And those are the people who tend to be quite naturally attracted to the more rightwing asshole style of Republicanism or teabaggery which feeds that fear, thrives on tribal triumphalism, and wallows in a soup of artless art, unnuanced dialogue, and superficial critique of the world.

[SimonPhoenix]

38. There's nothing wrong with being anti-intellectual, Rabrrrrrrr

Often people confuse intellect with intelligence. Some of the dumbest people that I've met would probably be considered intellectuals- they have IQ's of 110, tops. It's quite possible to go through life with a moderately high to high IQ and not appreciate the fine arts or the latest NOVA special on PBS. These people are the innovators in our society. And then you have the intellectuals who are always able to point to history and give amusing and sometimes relevant anecdotes to say that time period A was different than time period B because of C. That's all well and good, but it doesn't make them intelligent. Quite the contrary - I'd take the surgeon who was in a college frat and has never traveled abroad over the person with the master's degree in English literature any day of the week.

Take me, for example. I took the SAT in 7th grade and got a 1500. I went to college on a full scholarship. I also went to law school on a full scholarship. But if you gave me the choice of watching 24 hours of Survivor or going to an art museum for an hour-well the choice is clear to me. Survivor all the way. I guess I'm anti-intellectual in my outlook. It's VERY possible to be both extraordinarily intelligent and uninterested in expanding one's cultural horizons. It's also VERY possible to love reading philosophy and European history yet have an IQ so low that you can't interpret what you're reading.

And most of my friends are Republican, so maybe there is something to what you're saying. They'd never be dragged to an art show either.

[wickerwoman]

39. Lack of intellectual curiosity is the most dire form of spiritual retardation in modern society.

Who cares what your IQ is if you're not willing to even try something outside your comfort zone? You will inevitably be surpassed in happiness and fulfillment by those who are.

It's seriously the cancer that is killing America and George W. Bush is its poster boy.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

43. i agree completely. As is the hatred for those who have open minds and

intellectual curiousity.

[AsahinaKimi]

33. didn't most Fox News viewers come

From watching Fox Sports? Seems to me, the way Fox handles its sports is the same way they handle their news.

[Initech]

35. I found out a guy who tormented me in high school was a member of an insane right-wing family.

Go figure. :eyes:

[nickinSTL]

36. virtually everyone I've found from HS is Republican and overtly Christian

I kind of think it has something to do with the fact that I went to a school with mostly military kids. Apparently, they ALL drank the kool-aid.

The people I went to college with, on the other hand, are mostly liberal - and I went to a Christian-affiliated college.

[surrealAmerican]

37. This is just one of the reasons I don't go looking for ...

... people I went to HS with (like, by joining facebook). It was a very conservative area, and I expect most of my former classmates are right-wing loonies by now.

[stewartcolbert08]

41. LMAO

MINE TOO!!! Its predictable though since they were also the biggest hypocrites in school LOL

[Kaleva]

42. Of my class, I've probably changed the most.

I don't think there were many of my classmates who thought I'd live past the age of 20 or avoid serving a long sentence in prison.

[LanternWaste]

44. I've taken the friends I've reconnected with on FB

I've taken the friends I've reconnected with on FB on a one-by-one basis. Couldn't tell you about either their political orientations or their faith.

But then again, in my case it's really only been about reconnecting with old friends and classmates rather than vindication of any preconceived notions I may still hold onto.

[Terra Alta]

45. most of my classmates from high school

are rabid right wing fundies as well. Which isn't surprising since I'm from what is probably the most conservative area of NC; I have very few liberal friends on Facebook. So I don't post much political stuff, and when I do I set it to where only my liberal/Democratic friends can see it.

[MiddleFingerMom]

46. Never been to a reunion, but...

.
I did move back to my hometown (Michigan 50,000 people) after
having lived in several different places for twelve years
(including overseas for four of them).
.
Found I had absolutely nothing in common with my old buds (still
nice people, but vastly different mindsets -- thr so-called
"adventurer" and homebodies), so I made a whole new group of
friends (stayed about two years 'til the economy of the early
80's led me over to the Philly area).
.
Realized after a while that all my new friends had either returned
from living elsewhere for several years or more (and not just
college) or had been raised elsewhere and moved to Michigan.
.
Strengthened the theory of the different mindset for me, it did.
.
BTW, the BMOC of my high school -- quarterback macho jerk jock
with cheerleaders hanging onto and off of every appendage he had --
came out of the closet WITH A VENGEANCE in college and returned
home. He was the liaison for my mom's Women's Hospital Auxiliary
Group -- she was ubernaive about anyone's orientation, but did
think he was the sweetest boy she had ever known (present company
excluded, of course).
.
He had improved VASTLY!!
.