My run-in with a Right-Wing dittohead.

[happydreams]

I was discussing the BBC documentary "Power of Nightmares" with some people at a local watering hole when the bartender called me a conspiracy theorist and a loon. I asked him if he graduated from high school. He got pissed and said yes. "Well, I can admit mistakes," I said, I didn't think you had". Laughs from the customers.
"Tell me, what's the last thing you've read besides a STOP sign or "Guns and Ammo".
He said he believes in America.
"So you don't read?" I said.
I said a good part of what makes America great is questioning authority. He went on about how I was unpatriotic, etc.
I told him I am an honorably discharged veteran from the Vietnam Era and then told him I could tell he never served and would fit in nicely with the Chickenhawk fascist regime presently occupying the White House.
He said: "This is the free country in the world"....
"Christ you don't even know what freedom is, you don't read, ..."What drug do you take to kill it?"
This torqued his jaw.
I called him a fucking coward and walked out.

[Ninga]

1. May I quote you on that??? Great stuff.

[BOSSHOG]

2. I loved being called a coward by a chickenhawk in a bar

November 2002. He wasn't too happy with my opposition to the upcoming war. I told him I had served 24 years and such experiences shapes ones views of life and war and violence. I showed him my retirees ID card and told him about my last deployment to a combat zone. I asked him where he served. He said "I haven't served (yet)."

If I were the bar owner in your case, I would have fired the bartender. Not for his political views but for running off a paying customer. Bartenders are supposed to add to a conversation and lend a sympathetic ear. I guess when you are an ignorant motherfucker with nothing to show for your time on earth it doesn't matter.

[VolcanoJen]

4. I'm a bartender, and I often inject myself into political conversations...

... at my bar.

I hope your "fire the bartender" thing doesn't swing both ways.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Do you argue

with patrons and establish a hostile environment? I would think not. I think discretion would lead a bartender away from such activity. I've had some fiery discussions about politics (mostly bush) in a couple of bars and I am happy to say none of them were started by me. And in each instance the bartender remained moot. Chitchatting about politics is one thing, pissing off customers is another.

[VolcanoJen]

7. Thanks for the bartending lesson.

I've pissed off plenty of customers through the years, and they still love me, and still keep comin' back for more.

I don't hold my tongue when someone says something staggeringly stupid just because some people feel it's my job to be attractive, charming and quiet while I pour.

[Selatius]

3. There can be no freedom without knowledge.

You can't have a functioning democracy if nobody bothers to read and think critically. The two are inter-connected. A person can read a lot of things, but thinking critically can help you distinguish truths from lies and half-truths.

[happydreams]

5. It is amazing how utterly out of it people are like this guy.

A non-thinking knuckle dragger without a clue trying to shut down freedom of expression as he was with me. There was no substance to his claims.

It seems they get pissed because discussion forces them to think.

[Selatius]

8. Thinking is not something encouraged with the working class

Thinking critically + unhappy working class = upheaval

When people start saying, "I think there's a better way than this," that automatically means trouble for people who make a profit on the existing status quo. You can't have that in a society where kings and emperors and aristocrats rule.

[loves_dulcinea]

9. yup

right on the nose. i manage a troop of people at my job, i'd like to think i encourage thinking, but if the thinking gets in the way of production, i bull rush them. it's kinda funny to see them separate with these moues of dismay. i'm really a softy, but goddammit, i have a job that needs to be done. wish i made more money for it.