I Have Random Thoughts

Without knowing you, I can't really agree or disagree with your assessment of yourself. But I'll say this - for a long time I was subscribed to Credo Action and a whole network of other major progressive sends-you-lots-of-emails thingies (mostly for privacy based issues), so I read about a zillion "hey fellow progressives, here's an issue that we need to do something about" things that they sent out. Nearly every one of them was worded in the most rabble rousing, demagogue-esque was possible - seemingly designed to eliminate thought by twisting complex issues into the-other-side-is-evil-and-eats-babies rhetoric.

One day, they'd talk about stopping government spying or government interference in liberal protests, then the next day they would be screaming about how the government needs to stop this evil baby killing republican from having free speech. It's like they didn't stand for anything, except stopping/changing whatever bad sounding thing happened to be in front of them at the time.

@BlueDiver: Errr, fanatics on both side are exactly that- fanatics. It is absolutely no different than reading the stuff from the alt-right. Many of the sites just take random posts from their followers, which I hate. As for the inflammatory language, both sides do that in order to get you passionate. Personally, I find it abhorrent.

As far as I could tell, these were some of the main progressive organizations, not the kind of fanatical fringe groups that don't really represent the party. But I'll admit, aside from those email groups/etc I don't have much other direct experience with any progressive organizations or whatnot, so I'm open to the possibility that they weren't representative of the mainstream progressive viewpoints and ways of doing things. And yeah, I find that abhorrent too, though in my experience there are 5 blind fools who listen to it for every 1 who sees through it and finds it abhorrent.

@BlueDiver: Well, maybe you should try looking at the people who blindly read Breitbart and The Daily Stormer. Sjw's may be annoying, but those people are scary. I will take my left wing twits any day over racist psychos with guns.

I agree with you - for every fanatical loon sjw, there's a hateful bigot on the other side. And because sjw's tend to be the loudest people in the room, and bigots usually learn to be quiet with their views (the kkk don't wear hoods for nothing) - it creates this perception that all of the crazies are on the left, when really, each side has about as many bad eggs as the other.

But still - the existence of crazies on the right doesn't counter my supposition - that the twisted demagoguery I was talking about before wasn't coming from some fanatical fringe of the progressive movement, like sjw's or hateful bigots - it was coming from mainstream progressive organizations that were representative of the progressive movement as a whole, not just the fringe.

@BlueDiver: I disagree, but to a point. The problem is that the Democratic party has attempted to cater to everyone, which simply isn't possible. There are basic principles, then there is all of the other stuff thrown in to make different people happy. It becomes a bit haphazard and loses clear goals at times.

I'll say this - talking to you, a progressive, and hearing actual coherent arguments with thought and balance to them, proves that not all progressives are 5 year olds chasing a soccer ball. Some have actually thought about the issues and have something to say about them.

@BlueDiver: Thanks. I appreciate that =) Believe it or not, I think university students complaining about statues of Woodrow Wilson and quotes from Thomas Jefferson are complete idiots. Nothing is good in excess. Even water can kill you if you drink too much... In attempting to make up for past wrongs they have gone so far that they have completely lost their way. You cannot judge history by today's values.