Everyone has personality traits, thoughts and philosophies that define them as individuals. Here are some of the things that define who I am and my views on life and the world at large.
First, I’m not a Christian. Nor am I a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or anything else. The closest thing that defines my views on life would be LaVey Satanism, though I’m not into all the rituals and semantics, as I have no need for them. My personal beliefs and views are more in line with the philosophy of it, which I’ve had as my defining views long before I ever discovered LaVey Satanism existed, I just didn’t have a name to put to it. I’m an atheist. I don’t care what you are or what you believe in. I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t need to be “saved” nor do I need to be preached to about where my soul is going after I die, how many virgins I’ll get if I become a tool for some bearded freak or anything else you like to preach to people with regards to whatever religion you belong to. My beliefs are my own based upon my own observations of the world and of humanity itself.
I have zero respect for people who can’t take people at face value rather than excluding them because they’re not part of your belief system. If someone says to me, “Yeah well I met this guy I really like, but he’s not a Christian, so I don’t know if it’ll work out,” then I just instantly lost any and all respect for that person. If you’re so insecure in your beliefs that you can’t tolerate being around someone who doesn’t believe the same way you do, then you had better take a long hard look at why you’re so insecure and start asking yourself the hard questions about what you really believe as opposed to what you’ve been brainwashed into believing since you were a child.
I understand what it means to be a real friend. Most of the people I’ve met in my life do not. They treat friendship as something that’s just there when it’s convenient for them, to be used for their entertainment, or when they need help with something, either physical or psychological. It’s a rare thing in this world to find someone who will truly give back to you in friendship what you give to them. If you can find someone who does, treasure them, as you’ve acquired a rare gift indeed.
I believe in individual freedom. This means that I vehemently oppose any efforts by any government to control the thoughts or actions of its citizenry. I despise the nanny state mentality and those who promote it. This is a big part of the reason I support gay marriage. I don’t care what your bogus religion tells you, gay people are born to be what they are, just like the rest of us. They follow the law, pay their taxes, work and play just like everyone else, and as such should be respected as individuals and allowed all the same rights and privileges of any other American. If two gay people get married, that doesn’t diminish your heterosexual marriage in any way. You still love your spouse and they still love you. You still love your kids and have the same family bond. What two other complete and separate individuals are doing with their lives has no effect or bearing on you and your life whatsoever other than the effect you allow it to have. If you can’t deal with it, tough. Get over it. No one asked for your approval, nor is it needed or required. Your opinion of their lifestyle is of zero importance. If marriage was simply a religious ceremony, it’d be fine. The religions would be free to exclude anyone they chose. However, it’s not just a religious thing. It’s a legal contract between two people. That’s why there’s a marriage license and why married couples have to file taxes differently, have their credit histories linked, can visit each other in the hospital, etc…. You can play games with semantics and say, “Why can’t they just have civil unions?” You can call it whatever you want, but its still the same thing. So if you’re ok with civil unions, then you’re ok with gay marriage.
If you ever meet me in person, you’d find that I don’t talk a lot. I talk when I have something to say, the rest of the time I listen and make random, appropriate acknowledgments to whatever someone is saying to me. I have never been in love with the sound of my own voice, so I don’t ramble on and on just so I can listen to myself. I prefer to let other people talk, as you learn a lot more from listening than you do from talking. Now don’t get me wrong, I interact in the conversation when it’s appropriate, but I find that people generally fall into two categories. People who care what you have to say and will listen to it with an open mind, and people who only care about what they’re saying and don’t really want to have any meaningful interaction with regards to any of it. They simply want to spout off their point of view and that’s it. This is one of the things you gain from just listening. You can tell with one or two responses to anything they’re saying which category they fall into, and from that point, you can then decide how much more of your valuable time you’ll allow them to take up. When someone truly wants to interact, I can talk to them for hours. If someone just wants to hear themselves talk, I’ll basically tune them out and focus my attentions elsewhere, while at the same time making non-committal “uh huh”s and “right”s just to allow them the privilege of thinking I’m hanging on their every word, while the truth of it is, I’m focusing my attentions elsewhere. This is easiest to do on the phone, since they can’t see what you’re doing. I could be browsing the web, chatting online with someone I actually want to interact with, looking at porn, playing a game or pretty much anything that gives me something to focus on other than the boredom being imposed on me by the person on the other end of the phone. You may ask why I don’t just cut them off and be done with it. I guess the simple answer to that would be, I’m too nice. In fact, I’m so nice it often gets me used in a variety of ways. I get pissed at myself that I allow that, and I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. It’s who I am. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll become so cynical that I’ll just tell people to get stuffed. I haven’t yet reached that point in my cynicism though. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.
I despise snide, snotty liberals who think they’re morally and intellectually superior to everyone else. The more I hear them making their snide, hate filled comments, the more intellectually void they show themselves to be. They can’t debate the facts, because the facts don’t substantiate their utopian desires for the world and their ultimate desire to control every aspect of our lives so that everyone has to live the way they think we should, and anyone who disagrees with them has no right to speak their mind. If they do, they’re attacked relentlessly on a personal level. For a prime example of that, look at the unfounded levels of bile and hatred spewed on a daily basis at Sarah Palin. They’ve become so obsessed with attacking her that it’s even spawned a name for it as a mental disorder. Palin Derangement Syndrome. Funny how these people can spew so much hate at someone they’ve likely never met. If they ever did meet her, they’d likely find her to be a very pleasant and friendly person. I’ve never see her act otherwise toward anyone. You can disagree with someone’s views without turning your hatred into a psychological disorder. Debate is the foundation of a free republic. Everyone is free to have their say, but once you leave the path of debate and travel down the road of snide, elitist, personal attacks, you’ve lost all credibility and ultimately, you’ve lost the argument.
I also despise the religious right. We don’t live in a theocracy, nor should we. Look at any country in the world that’s a crap hole theocracy and that should be enough to tell you why we should never aspire to that. Unfortunately, the religious right is always trying to push their social agendas through the intimidation they wield as a voting block, and by electing officials who share their points of view. I actually liked Michelle Bachman. I thought she’d be a good Tea Party candidate, until she started spewing religious crap like that she would try to get a constitutional amendment passed defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The Constitution is not a document that exists to validate anyone’s social or religious agenda, and no one with an ounce of integrity or intelligence would attempt to use it as such. The Tea Party is supposed to be strictly about re-establishing adherence to the constitutional guidelines, limited government and fiscal responsibility. It was never supposed to be about pushing the social agendas of the religious right. If she wants to do that sort of thing, she should separate herself from any association with the Tea Party, as she’s only tarnishing their image with independents and libertarians who don’t believe in religious social agendas.
I used to consider myself a Republican, but the religious right has driven me, and many others like me from the party. I just can’t associate myself with a party I only half believe in. I now identify myself politically as a Libertarian, as that more closely defines my beliefs. I not only lost respect for the party because it’s so dominated by the religious right, but also because the establishment Republicans have become no better than Democrats, and all of them, both Republicans and Democrats alike are totally in the pockets of unions and corporations and wholly owned by them, while the individual constituents suffer under the bogus laws they pass to support the views of their owners.
I could go on and on with many more aspects of my views on various things but I just realized how long and rambling this has become, and I’m tired of writing for now. Maybe I’ll do a “part 2″ at some point in the future. For now, I think I need some sleep. I always ramble a lot when I’m sleepy, and right about now I’m ready to pass out, so I’ll end this for now. Goodnight everyone.
(Current Mood: sleepy
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