They DON’T HAVE a viewpoint, much less a valid one. Doing anything that gives their nihilistic ‘philosophy’ an illusion of respectability is suicidal.

They cannot be reasoned with… If we argue that their social policies are draconian and regressive and present data to back that up, they respond with “Your guy has engaged in a lifelong plot to cover up the fact that he was secretly born in Kenya and sympathizes with terrorists”

If we point out that being the host of a reality TV show really isnt preparation for being President, they respond with “Well Hillary is running a pedophile sex ring out of a pizza parlor!”
In the face of this, what is ‘fair’? What is ‘over the top’? Fuck ‘manners’!
These people cannot be reasoned with, the people that pick the same side as these monsters cannot be reasoned with- whatever positions the left adopts, these cretins will violently oppose it.
Rob and TB aligned themselves with this insanity, this madness- they defend it… so they own it- they may share that guilt with millions of others, but it does not mitigate their guilt… They chose to be the enemies of decency, of democracy, of reason… and humanity- they should be treated as such.

You can have honest debate with people that have different values than yourself, but not with people that have no values at all.

And this debate isn’t just about economic policy, or what constitutes fair trade, or is abortion something that should be legal… this is about the future of human civilization… it is about how we navigate the incredible hardships that are coming in a way that minimizes the damage… The trials that we face in the coming years can only be understood with facts and science, can only be mitigated with science … and this willfully moronic minority elected a president that declares war on science and reason. They close their eyes and cover their ears and assert loudly there is no problem to begin with.

I am 45- so probably in my lifetime I will live to witness the start of global catastrophe as growing areas of the planet become uninhabitable:

The refugee crisis we see now? It is a drop in the ocean of what is to come… thanks to the criminal behavior of those that people like Rob and TB work so hard to enable and defend.

So no, I will not be polite to those that giggle while slitting the throats of billions, I won’t be respectful to those that are determined to drive us all off a cliff, I won’t pretend they have a valid viewpoint while they act to destroy their future and mine. I will treat them as the insane psychopathic imbeciles they are… I hope they burn in the hell that they are so intent on creating for others.

So that rant was not addressed to him personally, but to the generic Right winger that he sometimes overlaps with. He is not responsible for Trump. I suspect he can’t even stand Trump. But he still feels compelled to make excuses for that turd because Trump is the Conservative standard bearer and he (they) don’t want the Libs to get a free ride off the Donald’s grotesqueries.

And of course, RL is a bit over the top, and a bit unfair, and has atrocious manners, and flaunts an insufferable I-told-you-so attitude. But having said that, the man is right, and maybe he’s entitled to be obnoxious, just this once.

I’ve always considered myself “left-of-center”, a “New Deal Democrat”, a hippy-dippy flower child, a “wine and cheese neoliberal”, and (oh yes!) a pinko intellectual and elitist.
And proud of it. But I’ve always known that Lenin and Mao and Castro were all in their own way just as bad as Hitler. If I were a British subject I would probably vote Tory. But that’s not enough for the Righties. With them, its their way or the highway. They don’t want compromise, they demand whimpering submission and nothing less. Fuck ‘em.

Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative, are relative terms like hot and cold, or up and down. They are directions, not points, on the political spectrum, and in different political environments they mean different things, are actually pretty meaningless terms. I’ve mentioned my cousin, Bolshie Bob, who makes excuses for Putin and Che Guevara and thinks Obama was a capitalist tool in the employ of George Soros and Warren Buffett. Of course, some Conservatives believe that too, which just goes to show you there’s not much difference between them two.

Anyway, I’m tired of explaining my politics to people who have already decided how I think and what I believe because I don’t subscribe unquestioningly to their bullshit. But in America, I see an arc that goes back to before Reconstruction and the Civil War, that found itself again with Joe McCarthy, the John Birchers, then Barry Goldwater and George Wallace It came of age with Nixon, and fully matured with Reagan and Gingrich. And now it is rampaging across the nation, a foul and toxic pestilence growing daily indistinguishable from fascism, and feeding off the wreckage of the working class it has systematically conned out of the American Dream.

Historically speaking, the defining characteristic of a yawl (as opposed to the similar ketch rig) is not just the shorter mast aft of the main, but that the mizzen is stepped aft of the rudder post.

http://www.woodenboat.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/plans_kits/logo/103.jpg?itok=1B2gcJTK

One thing I want to point out, though: Rob isn’t the only conservative in the world, nor the only rightwinger at the HabitableZone. The “you” in your essay is a group of about sixty million Americans who voted for Trump (though I’d say by now only about 40 million still support him). Rob is one drop in a badly polluted ocean.

I think I’d have a hard time defending all of Progressivism/Liberalism/”The Left” by myself, especially those situations when someone who can be tied to the left somehow does something awful, and the apes are capering in glee.

Yet, while I didn’t vote for James Hodgkinson, it’s true that Rob voted for Trump. I’m not saying Rob isn’t responsible for Trump, simply that the blame doesn’t rest on his shoulders alone. He had help electing Trump.

Damn, English really needs a third-person plural, y’all!