The Ultra-Liberal

I had occasion to talk to an Ultra-Liberal the other day. He obviously was much smarter than me; because when I disagreed with him—even slightly, he became agitated and upset. For instance, neither of us like the idea of Donald Trump as President, yet I'm not a huge fan of Hillary Clinton either. The Ultra-Liberal told me that Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for President that there has ever been. Me not accepting that got him riled up. Later he began to tell me how African-Americans are targeted and shot by police "way more often" than others; and again, I disagreed. He was supposedly citing hard data even after telling me nobody has been keeping track of it. I told him to check killedbypolice.net; because you can often follow the links and discover the likely racial identity of the individuals who were shot. I told him that when, I did this, it did not appear that African-Americans were being killed by police more often than other races. He did not seem to be very interested in this source of data. I also told him about my experiences with racial unrest and legal allegations from my time working in county government. Again, he dismissed this because my "life is a dichotomy" and has no basis in the rest of the world. He told me I should "read the data." This came from a man who once lectured me on religion—including Islam; though he admitted to never having read the Quran; which though I am obviously less well-read than he is, I have read. I tried to remind him that data can be manipulated and I prefer to believe what I see and hear in person. He then threw up his hands as if to block my heathen beliefs from coming any nearer to him! I told him that since he was an ultra-liberal and I tend to see multiple sides to issues, we probably would not agree. At this point he sharply announced that my declaration (i.e. ultra-liberal) was "unfair;" and he retreated back to his own domain. I was slightly stunned; because I often enjoy conversations where others have different views from my own. However, in this case, I was obviously outmatched by his superior intellect—and so it was probably best we parted ways amiably. Because after all, I rarely (if ever) can agree wholeheartedly with anyone else's or any group or organization's entire doctrine—because I can always seem to find some part or parts of it that have swayed too far and then I can't believe in them.

—KJC