A THUMBS UP FOR QUORA

I GIVE IT A "LIKE"
Johann Wagener 11-10-13


Thanks to Quora and those who have dared  to exchange ideas with others I have found a place that I can actually do some "fact" checking without fear of being barraged with a bucket load of epithets  and threats to my well-being.

That's refreshing considering the sludge I waded through on the blogasphere to get here.

Imagine how surprised I was to actually engage in a coherent discussion about issues that were related to the well-being of both country and citizens alike.

I was pleased to discover that I walked away from these discussions better informed than when I started.  A rare event indeed in the land of FOX, MSNBC, and CNN that ironically label themselves as "shows' rather than "news"organizations. Appropriately so.

Every so often I'm confronted by someone responding to a question I posted by throwing a bucket load of talking points they picked on FOX or some other show and make a hearty effort to discredit or disgrace me.

As an example: I posed a question regarding employers forcing employees to work on holidays;

National Holidays and Common Celebrations: "Is employers mandating that their employees work on national holidays a form of oppression?"

and received a response from one Quoraite that went like this;

(redacted) 's answer to:

You have the right not to be employed. Any retailer, restaurant, hotel, hospital, police force, has the right to operate any hours they choose and they can, and do, mandate their employees work whatever days they see fit. It should not be surprising to any adult that has shopped on a holiday that many retailers are open every day of the year. In case you should go brain dead when accepting a job with such a company, you can bet that you will be told in your interview that your failure to accept work on an assigned holiday will be treated as a resignation.

I replied with:

It sounds like you have no idea of what "holiday" means, so let me help you;

1hol·i·day noun \ˈhä-lə-ˌdā, British usually ˈhä-lə-dē\

: a special day of celebration : a day when most people do not have to work

Full Definition of HOLIDAY

1

:  holy day

2

:  a day on which one is exempt from work; specifically :  a day marked by a general suspension of work in commemoration of an event

Examples of HOLIDAY
July 4 is a national holiday in the U.S.
The stock market is closed tomorrow because it's a holiday

Please explain how this translates into a "fire able" offense.

Receiving a response that makes no sense to me at all tends to confirm my suspicion that there are many Americans who just prefer to throw Ayn Rand doctrine around and are not aware that they are being played by whatever forces (usually Republicans and Big Business) feed them on FOX news or the Rush Limbaugh show.

What I suggest to them is, that before responding to a perfectly reasonable and coherent question, that they at the least crack open a dictionary.

I'm still waiting for a response.

More disturbing to me was a response I received from some Quoraites to my question; " Is vitriolic speech against the President of the United States protected by the 1st Amendment?

A form of speech that did not exist when the Founding Fathers penned the Constitution

I posted an example of the kind of speech I was referencing by Googling "Obama and racism"

Obama owes George W. Bush a session of oral sex due the fact that if people learned how congress worked, and stopped blaming Bush for everything, the country would never have elected an unknown Indonesian-Muslim nigger whose greatest contributions was picking cotton and secretly keeping his gay sex "on the down low"

This was just one of thousands more like it ; some so disturbing I could not in good conscience give it any air time. I badly wanted to pretend this kind of speech does not exist. Much like many Americans do.

I understand why most of the responses I received were benign with a tinge of indifference or simply brushed off as just harmless "criticism."

I tried another approach by asking; "if you were in the President's shoes would you see it the same way if  this form of speech was directed at you or your family?"

I'm still waiting for a response.

I find it disturbing that Americans; especially those that come to sites like Quora, and profess to be patriotic with a love for their country and it's institutions (which includes the Office of the President and the person sitting in the Oval Office) be so indifferent when reacting to quotes like those I posted. What I consider to be Vitriol that common sense would dictate is a form of racist hate speech, and much worse than yelling "fire" in a theater. Yet this is viewed as simply a politically correct criticism of an elected official and should be vigorously protected under the cloak of the 1st Amendment.

I'm almost certain that"Quoraites" who I believe are intelligent and responsible Americans that would  sacrifice their lives to protect values meaningful to them personally, are completely tone deaf when it comes to doing the same for their country.

None the less, unless I get thrown off the site for who knows what, I intend to keep coming back and engaging my fellow Quoraites in some healthy dialogue addressing issues of our times, and I remain hopeful that I will find what I looking for.

Can't wait to see where it goes from here.