Grappling with reactionaries in the break room.

[Vexatious Ape]

Tonight I overheard two coworkers chatting about Immigration—both are rather red-of-neck therefore they suffer greatly from the psychology of the discontinuous mind—among other things. It was the same old thing: ”Round the bastards up and bus their asses back to Mexico—all of them”. Another coworker came into the break room, a black man, and one of them asked him if he agrees that we should “round them all up and bus their asses out”. He replied: “Nooooooo, cause the next bunch that’s going to get rounded up will look like me.”

Bravo.
This is where I jumped into the conversation—I suffer from poor impulse control and a pathetic fondness for the soapbox.

“Here’s a better idea, lets punish the people hiring the un-documented workers—how about that? If all the CEO and other management types faced oh, say, ten years mandatory minimum sentence in a federal prison I bet that would be a cause for some change. Criminalize those bastards instead of the poor working guys trying to do right by their families, who just happen to have been born a few hundred miles South of were you’re asses were born”.
They all seemed to agree with me on that one which is somewhat of a surprise—so I went a little further:
“And of course that would include all the redneck country boy construction contractors—you know the ones who drive the colossal pickup trucks with the American flag decals and the Bush Cheney04 stickers plastered on their bumpers. They hire Illegal’s to build all the houses around here. Lets round their sorry asses up and toss them in jail for a decade or so, along with all the guys with their landscaping business who depend on illegal immigrants to do the actual work—see how they like the fucking cell”.

This is where they wanted to change the conversation and accuse me of being a bleeding heart liberal. So of course I had to continue:

“But I guess our society isn’t quite geared up for locking up the rich powerful white guys who run the whole show is it? Or the good old boys who go to church, pay their taxes and tend to vote for the right-wingers”.

What was my response to all this? “Whatever John”.

[LunaC]

1. Logic tends to cause mental gridlock in freepers nt

[Vexatious Ape]

2. sometimes I get so

pissed off at these guys it disrupts my sleep.

[ReverendDeuce]

3. I've learned to be a bit more subtle...

You jumped the shark when you went into your second rant.

The key is, work away at them, little by little. Use the Republican dirty trick of wrapping everything up in patriotice flare. You started out right, painting the CEO's and such as greedy, pushing the common man down. Those strings can still be pulled until the GOP convinces them that wealth = divinity.

Instead of saying "Bush and Cheney", just say "these idiots that control congress right now", etc. Since it's popular to be distrustful of the government, you just planted that seed and fertilized it with an issue that they care about. Later, they will catch something in the news about "Republicans who control all three branches of the government" and subconsciously, the connection will be made. That sentiment will grow and grow. Until one day, they will admit to themselves, that Bush was the wrong choice. They may not come right out and say it -- people hate to be wrong -- but they will certainly think twice the next time they go to the polls.

When the ball is in our court in 2008, so help me we don't screw up...