A note I got from an old friend on Facebook:

[Are_grits_groceries]

I have known her since high school but have not talked to her in years. I know she follows me on FB. My hair almost caught fire.

We have known each other since high school. You just posted on my Facebook about Republicans and their desire to eliminate the ethics counsel. I am not sure you read what I wrote. The Republicans backed down and the ethics counsel will remain intact because of Trump. He said the Ethics Council is important and will stay. I have liberal friends. All I heard during this election is how Republicans are intolerant, but it is the Democrats who are intolerant of people who don't agree with all Liberal ideas and policies. People with different or opposing views will change the world. A great quote from a broadway play I had the go or of seeing is about a transgender who changed people's perspective. She said "open your mind and change the world. Please practice what you believe, tolerance for different opinions. Obama is not racist or he would not have offered them high cabinet positions. If u tell me they are "token" appointees, then that is racist because you're basically saying they aren't smart enough to see that and that's insulting. Some: where are those women whop accused Trump of groping them along with other attrocious acts. If I had been assaulted by Trump or anyone else and came forward, I would follow thru with prosecution. Many of Trumps executives are women. Hillary paid the women working for campaign less than the women got paid. I honestly do not remember Republicans rioting, or saying awful things about assassinating a Democrat president and I don't remember violence and looting following a Democratic Win. We were friends in high school and .I really hope we can agree to disagree. Give Trump a chance!! Believe me, those who voted for him are going to hold his feet to the fire. He made a lot of promises. But for people to hope Trump fails, they are hoping America fails. Is that what you want to see happen? This is long because I retired on Friday Dec 30th and have time on my hands and because I can't get fired now for writing about my political views. I hope u read all of this and hope udon' unfriendly me, but hey this is America so you are free to do that. Don't be a hater. There is enough of that from other people.

[blue cat]

1. My 2 cents...

Unfriend her immediately and never look back.

[eShirl]

2. I'm sure it made sense to her as she was writing it.

Maybe you should encourage her to keep writing down her thoughts, and elaborating.
A little introspection can go a long way.

[Warpy]

3. Well, bless her heart.

Keep in touch because this time next year, she'll be desperate to get rid of Trump and complaining about how much of her life has gone down the drain. At that point you get to say she's getting exactly what she voted for.

Somebody has to remind these dimwits that elections have consequences and if they vote for an attractive boob over a competent executive, they'd better not complain that government is broken after the boob gets in.

[handmade34]

4. hmmm

facts and objective perspective are not her strong points

[hells]

5. Wow

I still remember what their reaction was when Obama won. They didn't really like it, did they ? Not only have they tried everything they can to go against him and blame him for every little thing in the last eight years, but the funny thing is - they didn't do it because of his policies or the things he said, a lot of them did it because the guy's black. I remember the people with their signs saying how the White House is only for whites or all of the racial slurs that were thrown at him in right wing websites. They even tried to pull the same thing on Hillary by saying how you shouldn't vote for her just because she's a woman. Apparently if you vote for Obama it's because he's black and if you vote for Hilary it's because she's a woman. Really tolerant and progressive people. And if I have to list the times tRump has advocated for violence then I would have to write a small essay.

You can also see what the brilliant minds of these people are capable of in their little subreddits and facebook groups that consist of their "dank memes" that compare Obama to a monkey and say how stupid those "libtards" are and posts saying how the economy is completely crushed, how people have no jobs, how Obama is the one who did this and how he is part of a pedophile ring and Hilary is murdering people. If you dare question their intelligence, their arguments or criticize them in any way, not only will you get banned in about 50 seconds but before that they will make sure to call you a "cuck/libtard/faggot/queer" etc. And they keep on doing that even after their candidate won.

It's like these people live in some kind of an alternative universe. Back in the day I found this stupidity rather hilarious. Now I realize that not only is it sad but also pretty damn scary.

[betsuni]

6. I'd make a bet with her, just for fun.

Perhaps make a list of all the bad things Republicans are going to do (including getting rid of the Ethics Council) and all the Trump promises and possible terrorist attacks and scandals and wars that could happen -- this time next year, see how things are going. And weren't there plenty of Republicans on record hoping Obama failed?

This is why I never joined Facebook. I don't want anyone I'm related to or went to high school with to know where I am because things like this would happen and they'd call me intolerant as usual and I'd get another Irony Headache.

[jaxind]

7. Saying...

Saying she has never seen rioting and violence by republicans for a democratic win, does not excuse how republicans would have reacted this time around had Hillary won! Everyone was scared before this election as to how the republicans and trump were going to react had Hillary won. We all know that there would have been way more riots and way more violence from the republicans had Hillary won! Please tell your friend that!

[Raster]

8. First of all, the Republican Congress backed away...

...okay, RETREATED back from "eviscerating" the Office of Congressional Ethics NOT BECAUSE OF TRUMP, but because there was a vast, national outpouring of displeasure all across America. Yes, Trump did throw in his two-cent tweet here-or-there, but NO, the resounding reason the Republicans had so slink back to their cowardly corners is because of US, the voters, NOT TRUMP.

"Don't be a hater." God, that's rich.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. Bet I know what her idea of "other people" looks like!

[mercuryblues]

10. She actualy typed that malarky

with a straight face?

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tea%20party%20protest%20dachau%20picture&qs=n&form=QBIRMH&pq=tea%20party%20protest%20dachau%20picture&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=

What she is asking is that liberals be tolerant of their racism. Most likely she has been sexually assaulted in some degree in her life, show me the police report. Quoting a transgender person, while voting and agreeing with the party that wants bathroom laws, is freaking priceless.

Who could forget the Dachau sign at a healthcare protest?

Image at the link

http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/11/05/fox-news-owns-the-extremist-images-featured-at/156623

[malaise]

11. I can see why you haven't talked with her

in years

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. My response would have been

Paragraphs are your friend. That was hard to read and follow along.

[Vinca]

13. Since your former friend is now retired with time on her hands, might I suggest a new hobby?

Learning Russian.

[Ilsa]

17. Ha! Priceless! Great idea. Thanks. nt

[HughBeaumont]

14. Oh CHRIST, do they ALL Gish Gallop into the sunspots?

So much JUMBLE. Reduce and simplify the arguments so that the person can address them.

The Gish Gallop (also known as proof by verbosity and the Trump Tirade) is the fallacious debate tactic of drowning your opponent in a flood of individually-weak arguments in order to prevent rebuttal of the whole argument collection without great effort. The Gish Gallop is a belt-fed version of the on the spot fallacy, as it's unreasonable for anyone to have a well-composed answer immediately available to every argument present in the Gallop. The Gish Gallop is named after creationist Duane Gish, who often abused it.

Although it takes a trivial amount of effort on the Galloper's part to make each individual point before skipping on to the next (especially if they cite from a pre-concocted list of Gallop arguments), a refutation of the same Gallop may likely take much longer and require significantly more effort (per the basic principle that it's always easier to make a mess than to clean it back up again).

The tedium inherent in untangling a Gish Gallop typically allows for very little "creative license" or vivid rhetoric (in deliberate contrast to the exciting point-dashing central to the Galloping), which in turn risks boring the audience or readers, further loosening the refuter's grip on the crowd.

This is especially true in that the Galloper need only win a single one out of all his component arguments in order to be able to cast doubt on the entire refutation attempt. For this reason, the refuter must achieve a 100% success ratio (with all the yawn-inducing elaboration that goes with such precision). Thus, Gish Galloping is frequently employed (with particularly devastating results) in timed debates. The same is true for any time- or character-limited debate medium, including Twitter and newspaper editorials.

To answer her other questions - people really need to learn to stop mistaking "difference of opinion" with "bigotry".

"Difference of Opinion" = I don't like brown couches.
"Bigotry" = I don't like brown people.

"Difference of Opinion" = I don't favor the Gay 90s.
"Homophobia" = I don't favor gay people.

"Difference of Opinion" = This color paint isn't right for the room.
"Sexism" = This woman isn't right for the job.

Really. Not. That. Difficult.

The reason there was no "looting and rioting" after Obama won (I'm . . . pretty sure the instances of "looting and rioting" after Trump won were pretty overblown by the ConservaMedia) is because you didn't FEAR Obama or what he was setting out to accomplish. Not so with Orange Lincoln Rockwell and his Plutocracy Cabinet.

[leftynyc]

15. Her very first thought there was a LIE

They didn't back down because of pres elect pussy grabber, they backed down because of the thousands of calls they were getting. Also remind this twit that don the con didn't call the Ethics Council important and demand they stay - he said it wasn't the right time to dismantle it and they should focus on other priorities. As far as I'm concerned, you should tell her you you stopped reading her screed right there because she's obviously, woefully misinformed.

[Orsino]

16. The call to "open your mind" predictably comes...

...from someone who seems only to have half-listened to a couple of Fox talking points.

She doesn't care about these issues; she just doesn't like her world-view gunked up with a bunch of facts.

[Greybnk48]

18. Translation: please tolerate my racism, misogyny and bigotry.

It makes it so much easier.

Tell her to fuck off! You don't need her or anyone like her.