Friday, April 16, 2010

My experiences in 4 Tea Parties

My friend asked me to sum up my experiences in the 4 Tea Parties I've attended.

Here's my answer.


Hey brother,

I've now been to 2 tea parties on the OKC capitol steps and 2 at the Norman train depot, all I think within the last year.  I've always gone with an eye out for trouble; if physical violence, to witness it from a safe distance with as much detail as I could remember, and if debate, to get right in the middle of it and make sure that the truth comes out and the arguments of the foolish are overturned, but always with calm and controlled body language.

The first 3 TPs I attended didn't even really have any protesters/picketers.  I heard there were some on the other side of the capitol bldg at the OKC TPs but they never came around to our side that I saw.  Same at the first Norman TP.  Last night in Norman there were a few MadHatters, who are the guys referred to in that Hannity quote I posted on your wall - liberals are asking fellow local libs to infiltrate and subvert the TPs and make them look foolish.  Last night there were 6-8 protesters with 3 signs (one of which misspelled the word "What", rendering it "Wat", as in "Learn wat Teabaggers means".  Yeah, that's very mature and not in the least bit offensive) across the street and then two guys in the midst of the TP-ers, each holding a sign.
One said "Liburty Eqality Fraternity", and the other "Drop Socal".  I asked the Socal one if he meant to express that SoCal (ie, Southern California) should drop into the ocean, sparing the rest of the country, or should secede and become its own country (neither of which I'd mind all that much, BTW, though the latter is certainly preferable), but he said the word was "social".  Another misspelling.  Obviously these guys were MadHatters, who'd decided to infiltrate the TPers and make them look silly by repeating a French slogan with two misspellings and then another one with a misspelled "Social".  I mocked them briefly: "Oh, *NOW* I get it!  You guys are pretending to be Tea Partiers, and then you're making fun of us b/c you misspelled two words on *THIS* one and one on *THAT* one. So...so, CLEVER.  I'm ready to join the Left now!"
Like a minute later, the guy who was speaking on the mic for the TP acknowledged the two as MadHatters, and they made no reaction, but did leave about 3 minutes later.  The only hostility they received was my brief lighthearted mockery (with zero threat or implication of physical violence, needless to say; I had my baby son in my arms, for crying out loud), and the protesters across the street did get a "You guys know how silly you look?" from a frustrated TP-er a little later, which outburst was met with a rebuke ("no, no, no, come on now...") from the guy with the mic.  That's it.  I later made my way across the street to interact with the protesters in a very relaxed way, and after 4-5 questions and some strawmen from them (ie, "I don't agree with refusing to pay any taxes", as if the TP movement actively teaches that we should pay ZERO taxes) and my attempted corrections of those strawmen, they'd decided that I "only wanted to argue" and "didn't want to learn about their views", and they wouldn't listen as I replied, "I don't see why I can't do both".  But they were done talking to me and just mostly ignored me after that.  Like I said, pathetic.

Anyway, my overall impression of the TP is frustrated citizens getting together to make sometimes (but not always) slightly hyperbolic statements to get the deaf and blind gov't's attention in a peaceful manner.  The media likes to paint us (yes, I'd call myself a TP-er) as if we're always right on the verge of pillaging and looting the surrounding bldgs, but I've never seen ANY violence there.  None.  Armed resistance to a tyrannical gov't has sometimes been implied, but not as a live option NOW.  It's more like sthg that you should prepare for now in case the gov't continues on the path it's on now.  You know, there's only so much trampling of Constitutional rights that people can take.
Always peaceful, always rhetorically-minded, openly scornful of all the fat cats in Washington and openly resentful that so many of their hard-earned dollars, which are taken by the gov't by force, go to support evil and stupid programs.
But no firing guns into the air.  Never seen a gun there, in fact, let alone an AK-47.  No chants of "a-b-c-d, shoot 0bama in the knee" or anything like that.  (As the Secret Service red flag softwares go crazy.)  Plenty of "let's kick those morons out of office".  Plenty of signs along the lines of "Spread my work ethic, not my wealth", etc.

10 comments:

bossmanham said...

I wanted to go to some yesterday, but I had a class I had to be at. I went last year, though, for the kick off of the tea party movement. Loving seeing this.

marhaban said...

openly resentful that so many of their hard-earned dollars, which are taken by the gov't by force, go to support evil and stupid programs.

Do you really pay that much in taxes? It seems like you would really have to be making a lot of money to owe anything.

Are people at the Tea Parties afraid that they will have to pay more taxes someday, or does this really affect peoples' lives now?

Rhology said...

I resent the fact that I pay taxes to a gov't that wastes 80% of the money.
I've paid some taxes in my life, yes. When 80% is wasted, that's 80% too much.

As for the more taxes someday, it's both - now and in the future. Especially when 0kenyacare starts really taking effect.

Sam Weisse said...

Thanks for this Rho, I was having a similar converstion about this issue with one of the tutors at my college just yesterday.

It's funny how the ones who hate the TP and who say that it is nothing more that a bunch of violent and stupid people are the ones who do all of the stupid things instead. Oh if only they would open their eyes! But, then I guess they would not be the leftists we know and pray for. :)

MethodSkeptic said...

"Okenyacare?" Really? All the other nonsense that you indulge in and you go for the Birther tripe?

So much for any shred of intellectual respect I had for you.

Rhology said...

Oh, you have a cogent answer for why 0kenya won't produce his birth cert? An answer to all this evidence?

Anonymous said...

factcheck.org: pic, sig, seal.

Snopes is ur friend. Pic here. Newspaper scan. Wikipedia.

Harvard law record.

MethodSkeptic said...

Oh, you have a cogent answer for why Obama won't produce his birth cert?

Because it's against State law in HI, and the state-provided certified copy is all any citizen of that state ever gets or needs? He doesn't have it, Hawaii does. As to why he doesn't "pull rank," why the hell should he put himself out for a bunch of credulous whiners who wouldn't stop slagging him over anything they could concoct even if he did? I wouldn't.

An answer to all this evidence?

Oh, that's right, I forgot, "eyewitness evidence" is so ultimately reliable it can prove the laws of physics were violated. I'll see your Kenyan MP, and raise you an actual American in a position to know:

"I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen."

Fukino says that no state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently from any other.

She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest in it.


Satisfying conspiracy theorists is not a tangible interest. Funny thing about conspiracy theorists: disconfirming evidence never indicates that they're wrong, it's always taken as evidence of how high the conspiracy goes.

NAL said...

Rho is a Birther. Your intellectual dishonesty knows no bounds.

Rhology said...

Because it's against State law in HI

He's the President, and violating other laws or changing laws never bothered him before.
Besides, if you're not Constitutionally qualified to be President, you're violating the Constitution, not just a law. Priorities, man.



He doesn't have it, Hawaii does.

Prove it.



I'll see your Kenyan MP, and raise you an actual American in a position to know:

Wait a sec. There's more than just a Kenyan MP. Also Michelle 0bama. Also his grandma. Also the contradictory multiple stories of where he was born. Also quite a bit more info.



She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest in it.

That's a load of carp - a military man who sues the gov't over rightful official capacity as Cmdr in Chief has a tangible interest. The courts are getting in the way.



disconfirming evidence never indicates that they're wrong

What evidence are you referring to? Hopefully it's better than what you've given so far.