And then today...

[shivver]

...there is a guy outside our office (which is located above the town's Democrat headquarters) waving a Trump sign and screaming, "Deplorable lives matter!"

Comments

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm impressed.... no, really, doing that right by Democrat Headquarters is impressive! In my town, if you dare put up a sign for a Republican candidate on your own property, someone will steal it. If you put a sign in your window, someone will throw a rock at your house. So much for freedom of speech!

So, why not? Was this person threatening lives or damaging property? Think what you will of the message, but either we allow free speech or we abolish our Constitution and our country. He wasn't calling on anyone to hurt anyone else...

Calling people deplorable, irredeemable and not America... well, that is an interesting point of view. Sec Clinton can use free speech as well, apparently.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Threatening lives or damaging property, no. Yelling at people who were just trying to pass by and scaring them (judging from the way they were ducking away and running), yes.

And anyway, though I wasn't clear about it, I was mostly upset at how hard it was to concentrate on work. I solved that with headphones, but I would have been just as upset about him if he were supporting a different candidate. Freedom of speech is not the issue, to me - it's that this person felt he needed to support his candidate by radiating so much anger and the need to disrupt civil behavior.

It was definitely impressive, though - our town is about as left-wing as you can get.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Well, he could have been a little more quiet and used another sign to express his displeasure. Disturbing the peace is an offense....Yelling at people very rarely gets your point across, does it?

I get it, it wasn't necessarily who he was ranting for/against, it was his method. I have to agree.

So your town is similar...

[serenityslady.livejournal.com]

The fact that he doesn't see the irony in that is just so very typical!

[rumpelsnorcack.livejournal.com]

Looking at this from the outside, as someone who has no say at all in this election:

I feel like the deplorable comment was a bad one for Hillary to have made. I understand why she said it, but it's unfortunately alienated people who might otherwise have been receptive to her, as it unfairly (in some cases) stereotyped a group of people in a way that was never going to be workable for her.

On the other hand, it gives us ironic gems like this one, so you know ...

[dm12.livejournal.com]

It's not only what she said, but where she said it that disturbed a great many people. I'm not so sure the people she was talking about were in any way receptive to her, but she may have alienated even more people than the ones she accused directly; you're right about that.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

I've seen a whole industry developed on Etsy by those comments. T-shirts & mugs with comments like "We're gonna need a bigger basket."

Could you call that job creation?

[tkel-paris.livejournal.com]

Not a great role model, but then again... I've been volunteering with the local Gary Johnson supporters, putting up signs. Signs have been stolen and replaced with Trump signs.

Yes, the campaign volunteers have contacted the police. But it raises, once again, the need for civility to be restored. The police should be involved in enforcing that, or basic law and order doesn't exist.

And also for us to demand better candidates. Hence my actions in volunteering and on social media.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

I know I'm not alone with this sentiment, but I will be so glad when this election is over.

Well, unless with a certain outcome, I'm forced to move to Canada or the UK.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

There were some fun YouTubes where people electrified their signs (not enough to kill, of course, just enough to give the thief a little shock) and apparently had cameras up. Sure enough, someone was caught trying to steal a sign, they caught it on camera. Posted to YouTube and contacted the police with the evidence. The person was detained for trespassing and attempted theft of property.

Doesn't matter who the sign was for, this is going on far too often! We still (for now) have Freedom of Speech in our Constitution, and we still retain (for now) the use of our own property. It really irks me when "free speech zones" have to be designated on college campuses to avoid "triggering" those who don't hold the same opinions as others. This is why all of this is happening: rudeness in general, and the change in college campuses to coddle the students instead of their time-honored role of exposing students to differing points of view and thereby training them how to think things through and come to their own conclusions, rather than the current teaching of what to think, and the elementary/high schools doing the same. Civics, the role of good citizens, good government is out of the picture. So is geography. People may know what Aleppo is, but they sure can't find it on a map! They likely can't even find their own state on a map! The UN has become, at best, a joke; at worst a revisionist organization run by tyrants who use the UN's own democratic ways as means to serve their own plans.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

I think it's really the attitude in general that freedom of speech (and all the First Amendment freedoms in general - religion, press, assembly) only applies to yourself, and that starts at home and in school, long before college. You are very right that people seem to think that the role of parents and teachers are to teach what to think, rather than how to think, and things will simply get worse until that notion is overthrown.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

And I just learnt a new word...

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

I wish our country was teaching the world better things...

[dm12.livejournal.com]

We used to...

[arcanetrivia]

Oy.

I dispute your tag #real life. (eta: by which I mean, I wish I could dispute it!)

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Agreed. You know how it always seems that the good ol' days were better than now? I'm absolutely sure it's true this time.

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

WTF.

*headdesk*

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

You know, I know that every country has its problems, but it always seems that the US has the lion's share of the world's crazy.

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

*non-committal sound*

It's bigger, maybe it shows more? ;)

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Maybe. Or maybe we're just louder and more obnoxious. :D

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* That too ;)

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

UGH!!! Really?? What is wrong with these people???? All lives DO matter, but there are points to be made that seem to be lost on a lot of the Republican base. I wish there was a way to get through - and show that all people (no matter the color, religion, gender, sexual orientation) are important. And that they're not trying to ruin the world. But there is no way to communicate that without having to deal with Trump supporter's horrifying aggression, anger and unwillingness to do anything other than punch (or scream) their viewpoint across, no matter how nonsensical or skewed it may be.

*headdesk*