I know you are but what am I...?

Seems pretty childish right?  Well it is.  And I guess my problem is this... Why has name calling become the norm in attempting to make "your sides" argument?  I mean it is everywhere.  Whether you are Red, Blue, Purple or Green it all ends the same.  Well that's stupid.  He/She is dumb.  That person is such a (enter expletive here).  Do we really have to allow our discussions and debates to end in such a puerile way?

I see this everywhere, from simple every day conversations up through heavy political debating.  Some things in life are stupid or ridiculous.  That's the way it is.  But how can that be your final word?  EXPLAIN!!!  Tell me how and why something is unsatisfactory.  Give me educated solutions to the problem.  Simple name calling will not solve anything.

I am clearly not the most intelligent person out there.  At best I have an average IQ, and I have not completed college and/or earned a degree.  But if I am feeling strongly about a particular issue I can tell you why!  Will you agree?  I have no idea,  (and since somehow I have an even split of liberal and conservative friends there is a 50% chance that you don't agree with me) but I will give you the reasons that I agree or disagree with something, whatever the topic is.  I will admit, I've had to stop and research things that people have presented to me, things I had never heard before, but just because I didn't know a piece of information doesn't give me the right to stick my tongue out and say well that's just stupid and walk away.  I will listen.  Sometimes in the end we may have to end with agreeing to disagree, but won't that make us feel a little more like, say, Adults?  Maybe even Professionals?

You know, even as I am writing this and going back and rereading it I realize it might come across as a little condescending, and maybe it is. This doesn't apply to everyone, because there are civilized people out there (and I consider you civilized if you have the discipline to refrain from using slurs to make your point) and those are the people that I will give my time over to.  Do you remember when your mother told you "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"?   I'm going to amend that a bit... If you don't have something nice to say, just don't resort to name calling.

*update*  For the record, throwing things even something as relatively "harmless" as GLITTER  (harmless unless of course it gets in your eyes and blinds you) is not only the epitome of childish, IT IS ASSAULT!  Those people that resort to these kinds of methods are people that don't truly have anything to say.  They want glory and prestige, their 15 minutes if you will, and nothing else. They only harm their "causes".


Dave Barry "The word user is the word used by the computer professional when they mean idiot. "