R
rdean
Guest
The reason I don't talk politics at work, first and formost, is because I'm getting paid to work. But it's not the only reason.
I was discussing a customer's needs with two salesmen and one made a joke about Bush. The other one became outraged insisting that Bush "saved" this country from al Qaeda and Saddam and history will see George W. Bush as one of the greatest presidents of all time and Iraq will be our close ally in the Middle East. Now, if this had been said 5 or 6 years ago, then OK, someone is still "hoping". But this was said 5 or 6 weeks ago. The first salesman said that's a joke right, and very quickly, it became apparent, it wasn't a joke. Believe it or not, I said we were there discussing a customer's needs, Let's get back to that.
Then there is a very nice lady electrical engineer who said she likes Republicans because of their family values. Or at least she did. It was some months ago she believed Republicans had strong family values. But in the last couple of months, with their outright hatred of the gays, working to cut food stamps when nearly 50% of recipients are children, cutting daycare (she's glad her husband is a stay at home dad) and their other attacks, especially on woman's reproductive rights (she is pro life and pro choice and believes it can be managed through education) and the attacks on education, she is now firmly in the Democratic camp. But because of the previous views, we never talked politics since we have to work together.
And now we have a new PhD from China. He is a citizen and moved here years ago because he's a Catholic and wanted to practice his religion. He asked if I were a Democrat or a Republican. I told him I could never belong to a party that was 90% white and the majority believed the earth is only a few thousand years old. He said that I was taken in by the political rhetoric. No one believes the earth is only thousands of years old. That's stupid. Where does something so ridiculous even come from. That political parties are always trying to smear each other with such nonsense no one could possible believe. Clearly this guy considers himself "Republican". So I told him, "Come here, let me show you PEW research and Gallup".
I showed him some of other their other research and poll results. Clearly, if these two organizations are partisan, it's effect is very small.
At that point, he said, "No more politics. Not something to be discussed at work". I had to agree. One thing we did agree on that it's ridiculous that a large majority of a political party could believe the earth is thousands of years old.
What other loony things do they believe? Now it's understood why I think Republicans are "zany". They can be made to believe the wackiest stuff.
I was discussing a customer's needs with two salesmen and one made a joke about Bush. The other one became outraged insisting that Bush "saved" this country from al Qaeda and Saddam and history will see George W. Bush as one of the greatest presidents of all time and Iraq will be our close ally in the Middle East. Now, if this had been said 5 or 6 years ago, then OK, someone is still "hoping". But this was said 5 or 6 weeks ago. The first salesman said that's a joke right, and very quickly, it became apparent, it wasn't a joke. Believe it or not, I said we were there discussing a customer's needs, Let's get back to that.
Then there is a very nice lady electrical engineer who said she likes Republicans because of their family values. Or at least she did. It was some months ago she believed Republicans had strong family values. But in the last couple of months, with their outright hatred of the gays, working to cut food stamps when nearly 50% of recipients are children, cutting daycare (she's glad her husband is a stay at home dad) and their other attacks, especially on woman's reproductive rights (she is pro life and pro choice and believes it can be managed through education) and the attacks on education, she is now firmly in the Democratic camp. But because of the previous views, we never talked politics since we have to work together.
And now we have a new PhD from China. He is a citizen and moved here years ago because he's a Catholic and wanted to practice his religion. He asked if I were a Democrat or a Republican. I told him I could never belong to a party that was 90% white and the majority believed the earth is only a few thousand years old. He said that I was taken in by the political rhetoric. No one believes the earth is only thousands of years old. That's stupid. Where does something so ridiculous even come from. That political parties are always trying to smear each other with such nonsense no one could possible believe. Clearly this guy considers himself "Republican". So I told him, "Come here, let me show you PEW research and Gallup".
I showed him some of other their other research and poll results. Clearly, if these two organizations are partisan, it's effect is very small.
At that point, he said, "No more politics. Not something to be discussed at work". I had to agree. One thing we did agree on that it's ridiculous that a large majority of a political party could believe the earth is thousands of years old.
What other loony things do they believe? Now it's understood why I think Republicans are "zany". They can be made to believe the wackiest stuff.
