Between Tolerance and Objectivism

I consider myself a reasonable woman. A woman of logic and understanding. Someone who is fair, honest, unbiased and open to many different forms of thinking. Although I like to think that I am a genius in my own right, if I am wrong I will admit it…Usually. Although my opinions and views about things are often confused, I am not afraid to engage or explain what I believe in. Between all the glam and the humor of my post online, I like to have open dialogue and intellectual discussion. 

It’s election season, which means people are going to be wearing their Political Affiliations badges on their sleeve. I won’t be doing this. I don’t like politics. Politics is not about honor, integrity, or your morals verse my values. It’s all about soundbites, gotcha moments, he said/she said and flip-flopping. It’s all about about getting your party to win, regardless of what is actually better for the country overall. When I do talk politics, I usually take my stances from an economic standpoint. That is what my background is in, but I will never back any political party or politician.

With that being said, I don’t like discussing politics with my friends or family. Not even my clients. It’s bad enough thinking your own loved ones is completely ignorant without thinking they’re just some wacky liberal or some deranged conservative. I usually like to discuss politics with people I don’t know. It’s a lot easier to tell them the true and I don’t have to worry about hurting their feelings as much. Although I am always claim and polite when I discuss political/economic matters. It’s also secret that Twitter is predominately liberal. It doesn’t really matter because my beliefs and values transcend ideology. I approach things from an Ayn Rand philosophy of Objectivism. 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But if you generally say something, why would or should you be unhappy with the negativity or backlash that you receive? I mean, we all disagree from time to time. People online tend to think that there is no one who could possibly disagree with them. Heaven forbid if there’s that one person who dares to disagree. I’ve encountered many like this. Mostly from people I’d actually like to get to know, but these are the two cases which particularly troubled me.

Kara “Kara Face” Leung. For the most part, I enjoy her content and the fact that we both like Video Games. It’s very interesting how I found her, but I’m not here to discuss that. I’ve been following her for a while with the hopes that she’d follow me back. She didn’t. No big deal. I follow people because I like their content, not because I want followers. anyways, one day she made a particular post on twitter.

Done with voting. Republican voting for Obama? You bet, best moderate Republican president we’ve had in a long while.

I thought it was an interesting post so I humored it with my own:

by that standard I guess that makes Bush 43rd a raving socialist…

Whether you agree or not that Bush is a socialist or Obama is a moderate Republican, it’s a fact that there is really no difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush policy wise. The entire conversation is there on twitter for as long as it’ll be up there for, but all you really need to know is that the conversation sorta ended like this:

@missjonelyn LOL I’m gonna abstain from talking politics to you, this is fruitless really.

— Karaface (カラフェイス) (@karaleung) October 20, 2012

I’m not really sure what she thought was fruitless: Trying to change my mind or talking with me about something trivial. I’ve been on a lot of debate teams and rarely do I actually get people to change their mind on issues. That just doesn’t happen, but at least she dismiss me. In her own way, she just decided to agree to disagree and I still respect her for that. Not like *sigh* this other one I am going to discuss.

If you’re a guy on the internet (and most guys on the internet are usually horny), you probably already know who this is. It’s not common for models, actors, musicians or even stars to display their political views from time to time. Especially around election season. Most entertainers usually display their alignment proudly, as they all lean the same. Wendy Fiore is no exception as she bravely posts her opinion and shows you where she stands on the issues. Although, I would use the term “bravely” pretty loosely in this case. For the most part, she really has no problem posting her opinions on her twitter page. Just don’t ask her to explain any positions, or challenge any opinions or ask any questions she may not have the answers to. Like — of course — I did.

In reference to my last case, Barack Obama and George W. Bush are no different on any particular policy (for except maybe a few). A few days ago, she posted this particular tweet on her page:

It’s like putting that idiot #Bush back in office. If he wins, we will certainly deserve the bigger mess he’ll make #Romney @theflywahine

— Wendy Fiore (@wendyfiore) October 23, 2012

A fair statement to make. But going back to the facts, there is no real difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration. All Obama is really doing are the same things Bush is doing, except bigger and faster. So wouldn’t going into the Romney administration be the same as going to the Obama administration? I mean, anyone who has actually seen the debates between Romney and Obama can see that there is very little disagreement between the two.

So, as usual, I humored that comment with one of my own (tweet is edited for longer message):

@wendyfiore @theflywahine I don’t really expect you to answer anything which challenges your world view but I asked this question all night:

Has there really been anything Obama has done differently than Bush, on anything?

— Julia Abenes 「朱莉婭小姐」 (@MissJonelyn) October 23, 2012

I didn’t get an answer. Mainly because Wendy didn’t want to answer. Even if she wanted to accept my challenge, it’s not like I was expecting a real answer. I never get a real answer to that question, EVER. So, being the unimportant person that I am, Wendy felt that such an irrelevant question is better left to one of her followers to answer. Or rather, not answer.

@missjonelyn @wendyfiore Anyone and anything should be better then Romney’s anti women campaign.

— Robin Sjöström (@TheFlyWahine) October 24, 2012

After that, the follower and I got into a pointless discussion. It’s really not worth talking about. But it turns out that Wendy did actually responded to me…Sort of:

You know what’s funny, when people try to insult you and than expect you to respond. I don’t have time for that nonsense - move along.

— Wendy Fiore (@wendyfiore) October 23, 2012

I fail to see how I tried to “insult” her. Did I try to ‘insult’ her intelligence by asking a question she couldn’t come up with an answer for? Or did I ‘insult’ her by saying, ‘I don’t expect you to answer anything which challenges your world view?’ In all honesty, I don’t. Ideologues, partisans, and bias people never review anything which refutes their perception of reality. Most people only watch one news network, read papers/blogs which lean their way, listen to people they only trust. That’s not the issue. The issue is that she said I tried to insult her. So I responded in kind (Tweet edited for longer message):

@wendyfiore If this is in any way geared towards me I don’t recall being insulting. I merely asked a question to try to engage in discussion.

But for future reference, I wont be doing that anymore. I wasn’t aware challenging you was being ‘insulting.’

— Julia Abenes 「朱莉婭小姐」 (@MissJonelyn) October 23, 2012

After I posted this, she responded to me moments later:

                         

If she wasnt referring to me, fine.But this was all a bit confusing an fishy as well considering the circumstances: 1. Her tweet followed seconds/minutes right after I challenged her statement. 2. If you look at the tweet history and all of the mentions she’s gotten via search, no one else said anything ‘insulting’ to her. So it begs the question, ‘Who else could she have possibly been referring to?’ 3. You’ll notice that I don’t have the direct link to this tweet. Why is this? It’s because she deleted this tweet just moments after I replied to her:

@wendyfiore Hm, the unanswered proposals, the timing between my last proposal and your tweet. Coincidental, but couldn’t help up link.

However if its not aimed at me, I apologize. I guess there must be someone else being insulting why trying to get your attention.

Also the photo is blurred so I can’t really see what that says… Pity.

— Julia Abenes 「朱莉婭小姐」 (@MissJonelyn) October 23, 2012

If she wasn’t referring to me, then she wasn’t referring to me. I wasn’t going to engage myself in her political discussions as much anymore and that was that. But I found this a bit strange. Shortly after this incident, she protected her tweets (I wish I took a screenshot of it, but had I knew I was going to write a blog about this I would have). After that, I think she just decided to take the subtle route and block me from engaging all together. If I wasn’t the one being insulting, why did she go such lengths to try to ignore me. Why did she feel that it was so girl to block my engagement?

I really didn’t expect her to engage with me or even talk with me, but to do this is kind of cowardly. I wasn’t rude, insulting or condescending. All I really wanted was to talk and have friendly dialogue, but I was merely blocked for just trying to offer a little challenge. That’s the simplest reason I can think of. The only other reasons I can think of is that my views don’t coincide with hers, or that she found me annoying. 

I’m not really the type of person who has to correct every ignorant thing someone post online. It’s not my job to be an educator. To be honest, people who go unchallenged truly do bother me. It’s like those talking head shows like Keith Olbermann’s ‘Countdown,’ Real Time with Bill Maher, ‘The Hannity Show’ with Hannity, and pretty much almost every news show on FOX News and MSNBC. People who go on the air and surround themselves with people who only agree with them. Never have any opposing points of view. I mean, if you want to do that it’s fine but I don’t understand how people an pretend to be so open-minded when they are clearly not. A twitter pal of mine @ZoeyTheGreat (or @ZoeyAlamode whenever she’s not talking to herself), find that we can disagree on a few things. Doesn’t stop her from being my friend and I have no urge to delete, unfollow or block his person.

This is a real pity, because in all honesty I really admired this person. She’s a beautiful woman and she’s into the issues (somewhat). I wasn’t going to stop admiring her because she subscribed to a different political affiliation. There are plenty of celebrities that I like to watch and/or listen to. I don’t boycott them simply because they believe the stupid things that they do. What I’m trying to say is that you never really truly know people and I still don’t truly know Kara, Wendy or anyone else I may have mentioned. I just know politics just happens to bring out the best and the worse in everyone. I guess this is a sign for me to try not to meet my heroes. I may just become more disappointed all over again.