I’m going to take a clip from a right-wing screed regarding so-called “America Haters” and use that as a means for understanding the mindset of those who bandy about the term “BooTrib haters.”
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America and its liberty, which is the sole reason for its wealth and tolerance and compassion and safety, have been treated by the Left as another entitlement. They live in America; they enjoy the wheat, the oil, the cotton of the Heartland (aka “the colonies”) and they constantly carp about how horrible it is here.
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These Leftist America-haters could get on an airplane, land and sleep in a luxury hotel, and spend their lives venting their spleen at America from someplace else. Why don’t they?
Why do they not renounce their citizenship, become citizens of France or Germany or Spain or Sweden, and live in nations that they believe are better than America? What do they insist on staying here, causing fights, cursing their countrymen, and creating misery and despair?
Now, let’s modify the above just a bit:
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Booman Tribune and its frogpond community, which is the sole reason for its wealth of ideas, and tolerance and compassion, have been treated by the the BooTrib haters as another entitlement. They post and diary on BooTrib ; they enjoy the Froggybottom Cafe, the jazz jams, the thought-provoking stories and diaries and they constantly carp about how horrible it is here.
[…]
These BooTrib Haters could get on another blog, or start their own, and spend their lives venting their spleen at BooTrib and Kos from someplace else. Why don’t they?
Why do they not renounce their membership, become members of some other community that they believe are better than BooTrib? What do they insist on staying here, causing fights, cursing other BooTribbers, and creating misery and despair?
Both the America Hater screed, and my modification thereof strike me as having one thing in common: an intention to shut off dialog. Folks like me get labeled “America haters” for daring to call attention to questionable government policies. The folks that get labeled “BooTrib haters” seem to have as their main offense questioning some questionable policies of the people who run BooTrib. The message in both cases is “shut up” or “go away.”
My question would be simply the same one I’d ask to a wingnut (with of course a couple modifications): did it ever occur to you that those you dismiss as BooTrib haters actually like BooTrib and want the community to be better, that they actually care about their community?
