Something interesting has been happening here the last few days. No, not the SDA troll invasion, that was about as interesting as a case of diarrhea (and I can't say "case of diarrhea" without referencing that old joke -- Guy #1: "Come on over, we're partying!" Guy #2: "I can't, I've got a case of diarrhea." Guy #1: "Bring it, we'll drink anything!"). Anyway... whlle the swarm was happening, something else was going on.I recently had a commenter, an American conservative -- a genuine Bush-voting Republican, no less -- who came here all full of piss and vinegar and looking for a fight. But somehow, with a little humour and careful treading around hot issues, we ended up having a pretty good dialogue. He stuck around for a week or so (I appointed him my TCC, "Token Conservative Commenter"), and although we disagreed on things, we found a surprising amount of common ground -- even though I'm not in any way shape or form a conservative. So it was the highest irony that this was the time rabid right-wing Canadians would choose to attack -- while they were attacking in one thread, on others I was having a courteous, rational dialogue with an American conservative, who as a Republican is likely someone these same people would respect. Funny thing -- I respected him too. In spite of our having completely different, even opposing, views on some issues.
I think my TCC has probably left this little swamp for more interesting ground; I doubt he was impressed by what passes for conservatism in Canada. (I had to laugh at his comment referring to one of the SDAers as a "pissant gulag-worthy POS" -- Ha! Now that's a conservative insult!) But for what it was worth, our scattered dialogue gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, it's still possible to heal the massive wounds we've been inflicting on each other for the last few years. If only so many people didn't have a vested personal (and financial) interest in keeping the volume turned up so loud that nobody can speak.
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