Yesterday was not a good mental health day; I didn’t do anything. I lost myself on Facebook. I am not one of those people that thinks it’s toxic. I love Facebook. It’s made my life better. Perhaps because of my own problems I was getting annoyed with people yesterday. No, that’s not true. I always get annoyed at the kinds of things people were saying. What was different is that I engaged them more. Sometimes there’s a bright side to people saying things that make me mad. On one of my baseball groups someone made an anti-intellectual rant against sabermetrics, modern baseball analysis, especially the ubiquitous WAR, Wins Above Replacement. The way they speak reminds me of the rage of Trump supporters against climate change and any use of data that goes against their ideology. I started to check the politics of those ranting against WAR and found that with just a single exception those whose politics I could determine were Republicans and or Trump supporters. This person I talked to yesterday was particularly rude and anti-intellectual. Instead checking his profile, I said, “WAR like gravity and climate change it doesn’t care if you believe in them, they still happen.” He took the bait and made a climate change rant. “I live in Chicago and it’s still hot in August and cold in February.” It’s good to know that it’s the same people being irrational, not two groups of irrational people.
In 2016 there was one Hillary supporter that drove me nuts. She would quote unreliable sources and make baseless rants. This election they’re not supporting Warren. So sure, they rant against my candidate, but it makes me feel better that they’re not on my side. I don’t want them on my side. Of course, I don’t confront them as I want them to vote for the Democrat even if it isn’t Buttigieg. Hey! I spelled that right! First time! I’m using they, them, their to not give away the person’s identity and possibly reinforce prejudices.
I had a frustrating argument with a Bernie supporter. This is someone I very much like, as long as they’re not talking politics. They are intelligent and talented. The Bernie supporter said that the most important thing is to stop Trump so we need to be unified behind the nominee and people should stop saying they won’t vote for Bernie. I pointed out that she should be preaching to Bernie supporters as they are the ones least likely to vote for a Democrat that is not their preferred candidate. One person responded by saying I’m wrong and to prove it showed a tweet by a person that said he wouldn’t vote for Bernie. Yes, one person is proof. I showed the poll results saying how only 54% of Bernie supporters will definitely vote for another Democrat. Only Yang had a lower rate, everyone else’s was far higher. The next lowest was Bloomberg, a Democrat-come-lately at 78%. The percentages for supporters of Warren, Biden, and Buttigieg are 90%, 87%, and 86%. I’m proud that Warren supporters are the most reasonable. But that’s not my point. My point was the friend comes back with, “You’re right, that’s why we have to nominate Sanders.” They went from criticizing people that wouldn’t vote for the eventual nominee to saying, that’s fine if you support their guy. It makes my head explode. Foom! Did you know that’s the sound a head makes when it explodes?
I generally make it a practice to not criticize people, I won’t to change their minds, not win debate points. Today I indulged myself. Part of me is saying to not publish this but perhaps this can do some good, other than making me feel better. My new motto that I learned from the father of one of the FiveThirtyEight political writers is, “Serve your goals not your rage.” That’s great advice, those that disagree with you aren’t the enemy to be destroyed. You might not be able to convince them but there are always others less extreme that are persuadable, and attacks are not the way you persuade people.
Wise Madness 