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Doesn’t matter whom you denounce – as long as it’s not Israel Mr Greenspun won’t be pissed off.

In his twisted mind, ever single non jewish people in the world is mobilized to beat the shit out Israel! If you denounce Israelie’s governmetn action you are spewing out anti semitic remarks.

One would think that a Phd in computer science would make a person more logical – apparently it didn’t work for Philipy.

” studying here at U.S. government expense”

This is not true for many countries that I know of. The “US Government” requires proof (lots of it and verifiable) that ALL expenses of the student will be covered by funds from the home country or an immidiate family member already here.

PatrickG,
It is a learned response. Whether it is based on actual experience or propaganda there are many ways to deal with it.

I recently was in the middle of a conversation with a friend that has deep religious beliefs. At the mention of Kerry she began deriding and demonizing him with no real understanding or discussion of political underpinnings.

I explained to her that this was outside the bounds of normal political conversation (without insulting her) and ended the discussion. We both had a chance to cool down and continued the conversation later.

Maybe you need to try and understand what your family members are trying to discuss, seperate it from their overt behavior then set a stage where you can continue the discussion.

Gary, I understand and appreciate your call to civility.

What term would you suggest be used instead, when at the mention of a hot-button issue, a chilling mask of hatred descends over someone’s face as they excoriate a single person (whom they have never met, e.g W or Cheney) and ascribe all sorts of evil thoughts and activities to?

I have seen this again and again, from people who otherwise are very nice, sometimes are even family members. If pathological isn’t the word, please tell me what the word is.

PatrickG,
While pathological is defined as “altered or caused by disease”, “pathological hatred” really cannot be accurately ascribed to a large group of people, even a cult, unless they all suffer from the same disease, mental or physical.

As such, the term has been widely used by the ‘right wing media’ and really means nothing in and of itself. I am sure that it would be comforting to you to believe that no rational or sane person would disagree with you, but that really is not the case. There is a strong possibility that other people may have a different set of beliefs, or possibly, a greater understanding of events than you do.

I have some friends that have strong political beliefs that are different than mine, we have even spoken at length on these topics without swaying each others opinion. At no point did we label each other as mentally ill.

Maybe you should gain a greater understanding of civility before you judge other people.

No, I have seen it up close. It is pathological hatred, sort of a cultlike behavior almost.

“There is a difference between dissent and pathological hatred of everything about the US and the West. A lot of the campus Left is precariously close to the latter.”

Sorry to be pedantic here but “pathalogical hatred” is the language of the right-wing spin machine. I suspect what you’re seeing on campus is “radical” criticism (ie. criticism that sees a *lot* of things *very* wrong) by very pissed off people. There’s still a difference.

Well, you’ve graced us with your analysis. Will you grace us with your vote?

It’s a national tragedy because both parties’ foreign policy revolves around expanding America’s power by invading and interefering in other countries’s affairs which serves the following goals

1) exploiting their natural resources
2) establishing a pro american government that follows US policy like a sick puppy.

In case of W, he would like to Christianize the heck out of the world too, Evengelical sytle.

It’s not just tragic it’s catasrophic. The dominance of these two parties should be destroyed.

I will vote for Mr Ralph Nader.