Headache and heartache

[Chichiri]

Why my head hurts:

DU user Taverner wrote a post today called http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7138151">'So when did this place become "War Underground?" in which he(?) lamented the fact that DU has become decidedly unfriendly to those who oppose the war in Afghanistan.

As of this writing, that post is eighteenth on the Greatest list, by recs.

Of the seventeen posts above it, eleven are opposed to the war, one may be perceived as supporting it (but actually seems rather neutral to me), and the remaining five do not address the war at all.

Why my heart hurts:

I consider myself center-left, and this has never prevented me from feeling welcome on DU until now. I am a very reluctant supporter of the President's decision on Afghanistan, and I have never felt unwelcome -- indeed, more HATED -- anywhere in my life as I do right now on DU. This place has become a mirror image of the worst of the right, and those responsible should feel deeply ashamed.

[Cha]

1. I know it was hard for President Obama

to make this heartwrenching decision but that's what they all thought was the most important thing for our country to do.

That doesn't make this "war underground", "warmongers", nor does anybody get to order anyone around in anyway.

Why do feel so "hated", Chiciri?

[BeFree]

2. Ahyup

Know how ya feel. It's like freeperville these days.
Some of it has to do with supporting Obama, but a lot of it is warmongering getting the best of some. Best thing to do when ya run across one of 'em is to verbally beat them down.

Hang in there, this place has seen worse. Check my profile, been here longer than most.

On edit: Gawd, did I miss read you. You are a war supporter!!! Yeah, take the heat, or get the hell out of the kitchen. If you are a war supporter you damn sure better be ready to taste some war. Thanks PoE.

[PurityOfEssence]

3. Sometimes a reductionist, ad absurdum argument can be healthy

Sometimes it hurts.

By being willing participants in a pluralist society, we waive a fair amount of our airily-claimed right to not be emotionally hurt and attacked. If it's done or how it's done reveals much about a person's character, but the point is fair: one doesn't have a "right" to not take heat for one's positions.

I'm sick and tired of many of Obama's more fervent supporters hiding behind the unquestionable goodness and honesty of this man and expecting immunity out of some kind of affiliation with truthish, hopeful, reverentially beatific, pure joy. Some of us don't buy it. Some of us see a constantly campaigning need to chart endless voyages on the trade-winds of least resistance, not spiritual beatitude.

Having digressed, let me hit the fine point of simplicity: in this situation, you're pro-war, and some of us are against it. In fairness, you can consider yourself stoic and realistic while those of us agin the killin' are naive, childish, superficial, vapid or whatever, but the real problem is this: this is war. War is killing on a grand, institutional scale. It touches everyone in the land where it's fought, and in the land of it's participants. Breadwinners are killed. Families are plunged into disarray. People are maimed and left to fend for themselves. It's ugly. It's always bigger than it seems, and when justified by addle-headed and vague claims and not prosecuted with full, maximum zeal, it leads to middling disaster.

Sorry you feel the sting, but this is a BIG DAMNED DEAL, and you've effectively waived your right to gentility by supporting systematized murder. I'll take my heat, and you should accept that your's is justified by your actions.

[David Zephyr]

5. Brilliant.

Wish I'd written that.

[eleny]

4. Oh, grow up

You don't get affirmation here so DU is now freeperville?

Why not try finding your spine, stand up for what you believe and take your lumps. Buck up and stop blaming DU for failing to be your electric blanket.

[dionysus]

6. well, you just provided an example of what the OP was talking about.