Profiles on Hate

This is a new segment on Old Spice entitled Profiles on Hate, where I share with you individuals claiming to be intelligent and whose views, whereas not always derived from them per say, possess a cult and growing mainstream following in America. The names have been changed.

Ivan Burgundy (Facebook status):

I thought my generation was jacked up....then I looked at the kids younger than me. The world is screwed now

I know, right? 13 year old boys thinking they're badass and picking fights to prove their "manliness" when their voices haven't even begun to change and 14 year old girls with babies and STDs!!! I mean come on, America, do SOMETHING to make me glad I live here!!!

Whereas possibly true to some extent in the area he frequents, he appears to preoccupied with dismal side of humanity and would not likely give credence to any positive aspects if he did see them. He clearly is not being objective in his argument, and has only used the evidence that reflects his initial hypothesis. A pattern, which will be highlighted further, in the next example, has arose in which his conclusions are driven mostly by emotion; a dangerous precursor to hate.

Keith, I really agree with you. Jesse, agreed. Chris, I know what you mean. Rita, I've been registered to vote and HAVE voted ever since my 18th birthday. I read so many political issues that I swear they're going to give me chronic depression hahaha. And while we're on the subject of how incredibly jacked up America has gotten, a mosque on ground zero???? Seriously???? A memorial to the fallen? Rejected. A mosque for the same ppl who dropkicked our country for no reason? Accepted. WTF AMERICA??????

Ivan has begun to gloss over crucial facts in his passion.  The mosque most certainly is not on ground zero but merely near it.  For all Ivan's reading he has not allowed facts to change his predetermined conclusions. It is not intellectual in this sense, for him to even read these political issues.  He is only using them to further his own views and not, as normal, gain insight.  Has anything he read I wonder told him that not all Muslims are terrorists?  Has he read that the imam of the proposed mosque is of the mainstream sort that even George W. Bush attempted to promote? And, through all his chronic depression, does he really not know any of the history leading up to 9/11? There was indeed a reason, even if you don't agree with it.

He seriously said that? Wow, we have an Islamic terrorist in our President's office. Wonderful. Whatever Obama is, he's NOT American. America used to be about strength, individuals banding together to do what needs doing, we were about leadership, the world saw us as a leading power, we were on top. Now thanks to Obama (I swear it's Osama with a name change) our country just bends over and takes it from anyone and everyone. Instead of growing crops we're eating the damn seeds. Even worse, our "commander and chief" is our nation's worst enemy. I don't care if the president is white, black, yellow, red, or freakin' polka dotted, a shitty president is a shitty president hands down.

I fail to see any truth at all in this argument, if it can be called that.  I think at this point hate has finally gotten the best of poor Ivan.  He may not care if a president is white, black, yellow, red or freakin' polka dotted, but certainly seems to have a problem with their fictional religion. His idea of strength should be brought to question as well: what brand of strength does he believe America should have? If he's opposing freedom of religion and places of worship it certainly isn't strength of its values or its constitution.

Despite it's many inaccuracies this brand of argument is a growing force, both social and political, in America through the fringes of Fox News and the Tea Party movement.  Ivan, no doubt, exemplifies this on this week's edition of Profiles on Hate.
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