Toxic Political Rhetoric!

A few days ago I came across something that fits right in my wheel house and exactly why I created this blog,

“Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society”

There is evidence all around us that political rhetoric has become very toxic since 2008 and especially so since the political left started reacting to Donald Trump’s political trolling in 2015-2016. A wide swath of the population on both the political left and right have completely flushed any facade of civility and are now openly verbally attacking each other with impunity and resorting to physical violence as recourse for having a different opinion. This is an extreme all or nothing tunnel visioned political stance that has caused both Republicans and Democrats to eat their own if they dare to step out of line from their ideological hive-mind and they’ll pigeon-hole anyone that opposes them as belonging to the opposing political party and therefore an enemy that deserves to be hated. This toxic political rhetoric and attitude is rapidly changing our society, it’s cutting extremely deep divisions between people who were once civil with one another. This is how bloody civil wars start.

So why am I bring this up?

David Blaska, who is a Madison, Wisconsin area blogger, past Dane County politician, and an area political activist recently posted a blog titled “Blaska has been called out!” where he talks about an outspoken Trump supporter named N.c. Bill Gillette that’s called him out on Facebook for what appears to be a one on one meeting where a physical beat-down by Gillette is strongly implied and it’s all because Blaska dared to speak out against the hive-mind of Trump supporters. Now I can honestly say that I’m not fully aware of all the history between these two social media butting heads, but how dare Blaska have an opinion that differs from Gillette’s, yup that certainly calls for one Conservative to beat-down another Conservative into a bloody pulp.

What the hell is going on? A difference of opinion causes one Conservative to loose his bearing with reality and wants to beat a fellow Conservative into a bloody pulp? Me being the person I am, I wanted a little more information about Gillette before I came to a conclusion about his character.

Full disclosure, even though Blaska and I sometimes strongly disagree on some politically related points we aren’t like Gillette, we can agree to disagree and still share some enjoyable time riding the winding back roads of south central Wisconsin on our motorcycles.

In my effort to get a little more information about Gillette, I went to his Facebook page where this took place and voiced my opinion. When I got to Gillette’s Facebook page I located the thread where this took place, it started with this post by Gillette…

That reads a lot like what an internet troll would post.

Under that post Blaska shared a tit-for-tat comment which inspired Gillette to take a running leap over the edge of civility and the conversation went down hill from there.

After that exchange Blaska wrote the blog post I linked to above and posted a link to it on Gillette’s Facebook page as a reply under the previous exchange.

When Blaska posted this on his blog is when I got wind of this and after reading Blaska’s blog I was inspired to post the following comment in that blog thread…

How did I know that Gillette was a former Battalion Commander at U.S. Marine Corps, because it says so right in the Intro section of his Facebook profile page. After I posted that comment on Blaska’s blog page I went to Gillette’s Facebook page and posted the following comment directly under Blaska’s link to the blog.

My comment lead to the following exchange.

You can read a screen shot of the entire Facebook thread here or wade through his Facebook profile (linked above) to find what was posted.

Gillette’s little smiling winkies must be put there to try and whitewash over the pure ad hominem grade school insults he digitally projectile vomited into the conversation, it didn’t work, Gillette is an immature asshole. Gillette also seems to be a brazen hypocritical bigot that’s unethically rationalizing his own immature trolling and threats as he openly chastises others for trolling. In my opinion, Gillette is a blowhard asshole and a troll that uses ad hominems as a method to try and shut down debate because he can’t intellectually keep up which is exactly what extreme progressives have been doing for years.

You wanna know something, sometimes I’m an asshole too and I’d sit down and have a beer with Gillette just like I would Blaska or anyone else, including a progressive that’s outside the bounds of reality. Debate and communication is a core foundation of the United States. Furthermore; I’d crawl right down in a foxhole with anyone regardless of their political alignment to defend this nation to the very end if necessary.

People like Gillette are welcome to their opinions and they have the same freedom of speech rights that we all share in the United States, but what they seem to have completely forgotten is that…

It’s attitudes like Gillette’s fueled by a character that sees uncivil rhetoric and/or physical violence as the answer when that’s actually the biggest reason that division is deepening in our society right now. Gillette is a damn fool that only knows how to use a rhetorical hammer, slam the door shut on debate and insult until someone is swinging. Gillette is wrong for engaging in the irrational practice of eating their own.

The political extremes on both sides head to their respected corners, profess that you’ll be assimilated or you’ll be destroyed, resistance is futile and fully expect 100% capitulation and subservience – they want borg like drones.

Gillette unethically and immorally pigeon holes Blaska as a Democrat worthy of hate when he’s actually a fellow long time Conservative Republican. People like Gillette, and many others out there on both political extremes, need to get their collective heads unburied from their ass and realize that…

Remember, Republican In Trump Only (RITO) is a real thing, it’s very tunnel visioned, vindictive, irrational and completely disregards all the other places where Conservatives are in strong agreement. The United States of America is built on a solid foundation of human commonalities, like some of the core Constitutional and moral commonalities that Conservatives have with one another. Let’s not destroy the whole of the USA by making enemies of fellow Republican patriots because of petty disagreements when there’s so much that you actually agree on.

Be part of the solution, argue in good faith, use your rhetorical hammer only when necessary and try to let the far-reaching ripples of your rhetorical pebbles be ones that unite not a tsunami that destroys.

[EDIT: 8/10/2023] Corrected a couple of typos, removed a duplicate sentence and enlarged the size of the screen shots so they were easier to read.