If there’s anything that puzzles me about our infrequent, yet oft-heated debates over politics here at the blog, it’s that some of you confess that your awareness of the political leanings of other folks colors your perception of them as football fans.
Honestly, that’s weird to me. I have close friends who run the gamut of the political spectrum. We may differ; we may argue. But our friendships are never affected by that. And I look at all the commenters here the same way. Nobody is coming to GTP for our insightful political commentary. We’re here because we love college football. And that’s how I take everyone, no matter the political insults thrown my way.
That’s why I recommend you take a couple of minutes to read this essay that appears in the current issue of Garden and Gun about what it means to be a football fan in the South. And maybe take it to heart the next time you go back and forth with somebody of a different political persuasion in a comment thread here. ‘Cause that’s really why I’m here.
Get The Picture 
The comments here, as everywhere these days, all reflect the same lack of tolerance for dissenting opinions. I really hope we as a nation relearn that compromise is not a bad word, and is in fact the reason we exist as a country.
Oh, and Go Dawgs!
BTW one of my friends not from the south was shocked to learn there was a magazine called Garden and Gun.
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The saddest thing I’ve seen in a while is this recent poll’s finding that:
A lot of us need to take a deep breath.
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Frankly, I’m surprised the number is that low.
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Me too, but I’d venture to say its due to the “imminent threat” phrase, which is quite threatening and harsh. Most of my liberal/conservative friends don’t view the other party as any sort of imminent threat, which frankly sounds like some terrorist group like ISIS.
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Agreed – that’s a figure I find downright encouraging. Hell, I find myself becoming an angrier moderate every year.
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There are politicians and political consultants looking at those numbers and saying to themselves that they are not doing a good enough job of demonizing the other party. With 2016 elections coming up I expect those numbers to rise. Unfortunately for the rest of us….
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In at least one instance, the Democrats don’t have to lift a finger. The Republican candidates for President are early lining up and declaring they are completely behind Indiana’s new law of discrimination. You know; to get the religious vote. Now we have state against state just like the good ole days.
The very thing that attracts me to college ball (the great social equalizer) and to cheer the individuals involved is the “Who gives a shit about personal prejudices?” that resounds from team play.
May God bless the Georgia Bulldogs and their part of this great social experiment that can’t be carried out anywhere else in society nowadays. And because of this, Dawg fans lay down all differences to tailgate and socialize as part of that ongoing celebration of sport, the great equalizer.
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It’s because the Republicans AND the Democrats are, at minimum, an imminent threat.
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https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIFayRpVuS4Afs8snIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByNDY3bGRuBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNQ–?p=george+washington+speech+against+political+parties&vid=b64e92e4062be8675682b038599cfc7d&l=00%3A44&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.607998190866794058%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtWPGNIzk2fM&tit=Political+parties%2C+tyranny%2C+and+the+loss+of+Liberty.&c=2&sigr=11b28qrb8&sigt=11ks0qai2&sigi=11r01m36i&age=1223740800&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b
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Well said.
IF either party was fully in charge for any period of time, I think it would be much worse than it is now. Discourse is good for things.
This coming from a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. AKA Libertarian. Let the others rage on.
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Amen !! We need statesmen not politicians. We are all Americans we should not put party in front of country. I have friends who are staunch Republicans and friends who are staunch Democrats who feel like that poll. I am hopeful the numbers are that low I felt they were much higher. Thanks for posting the article.
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Point taken. Garden and Gun is actually named for a great nightspot in Charleston during the late 70’s. Many have described it as Charleston’s Studio 54. I never went to Studio 54 having grown up in Buckhead.. (Hedgens)… but there was no telling who you could run into in those stalls on King Street after midnight.
It is definitely the epitome of southern magazine fare… and has been described as Charleston’s Social Bible.
Now back to football… and politics… just kidding. Keep up the good work Senator.
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…one of my friends not from the south was shocked to learn there was a magazine called Garden and Gun.
Doesn’t surprise me.
In 2009, the two-year-old Southern lifestyle magazine lost financial support from its first publisher. Its employees, many of whom had relocated from New York City to work here, were left with dwindling buyout packages and the promise of freelance pay. Real estate developers could no longer afford to buy advertisements, and some new prospects said they would not give a cent to the magazine until the owners took “gun” out of its title.
However, in spite of dwindling finances they stuck to their game plan and did not change formats to compete with internet publications.
The magazine, based out of a 200-year-old former pharmacy on Charleston’s historic King Street, was founded as what Jessica Hundhausen Derrick, its vice president and brand development director, described as “a love song to the South.”
It included articles about backyard gin makers, woodworkers crafting chairs from whiskey barrels, and Southern produce like Georgia rattlesnake watermelon. Among the lighter pieces by authors like Roy Blount Jr., there were richly detailed articles like the one from a lifelong friend of Eudora Welty describing how the author feared that if her dead mother saw her cook, “she’d weep with shame.”
And to feed advertisers’ anxieties, nearly every issue featured unapologetic articles in praise of hunting. There were essays on quail hunts, hunting clubs and hunting dogs, often written with an emphasis on land preservation and basking in sumptuous photo spreads to rival Vogue or National Geographic.
Great success story.
Go Dawgs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/garden-gun-magazine-survives-in-an-ailing-industry.html?_r=0
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IT is a great magazine, I had not read that back story, thanks. My Barber Shop always has a copy around…I may need to subscribe myself.
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Guns are tools, like hammers or saws. If one uses them properly, with respect for the damage they can do, they’re perfectly safe tools. Unfortunately, some people have no respect for their proper use, and others have no respect for people who use them properly. I’m not giving up my utensils because bad people turn them into shivs, either. 😉
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“Unfortunately, some people have no respect for their proper use, and others have no respect for people who use them properly.”
Brother, ain’t that the truth!
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Not every opinion is equal. We need not give equal treatment to them.
When someone opines that gay people choose that lifestyle, and that choice is a fair basis for discrimination, that isnt an equal opinion to those that say they dont. Those arent 2 sides of the same coin. One is right and one is wrong. We dont need to pretend that they are equal and provide equal treatment to those with those opinions because of some sense of fairness or balance.
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If only America had some kind of politburo to tell us which opinions were more equal than others. Or at least a one sided coin.
I think you are missing the point. We all come here because we love Georgia football and are passionate about it. We can have differing political opinions and still enjoy a good bourbon and tell our favorite stories or discuss our concerns about the program.
I know its spring and there is not a ton of news which leads to more stories unrelated to our passion. But hey, Keith Marshall tweaked a hamstring and Sony Michel hurt his shoulder again and both are done with spring practice. Its March, shouldn’t we all be concerned?/
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There is only one thing that changes opinions. Shame. You look at where we were in 1780, 1864, 1895, 1924, 1963, 1982 and now and what happens is that things get better because people with terrible opinions start keeping them to themselves and stop passing them to their children. If you don’t like civil rights as the instructive guide, look at communism. Do you think that’s coming back as a viable political “opinion” anymore than segregation is? No. It was tried. It lost the debate. The debates aren’t lost over polite discussion. “To each his own” is not the attitude that brings justice to those who need it. Its loud obnoxious assholes, sometimes with guns sometimes with pens or keyboards or a microphone that change things and its almost always messy if not bloody.
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You’re partially right, but exposure to different cultures/races/orientations is also key. I’ve seen and known dozens if not hundreds of folks whose opinions on things like gay marriage have changed by being around more LGBT people. It wasn’t shame, it was just having my stupid little eyes opened to the basic idea that they’re people and they’re acting as they were made.
It’s not wildly different from when the news outlets started showing AA kids getting hit with firehoses and the rest of the country saw people, not a cause.
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No doubt but what proceeds interaction is revolutionary change. The opportunities to intermingle are the initial step. Bringing down the walls that separate people have to come down first. If we insisted upon not demonizing people for what they look like, what God they worship and who they go to bed with and quit worrying about demonizing people for “the content of their character”, I think we’d be better off. Tolerance of ignorance is not helpful. Had more people had the balls to stand up and say “shut up moron!” the scene on that SAE bus wouldn’t have happened. Those assholes needed to run into some impolite people who would check them for their stupidity. You can call it rude and coarse or whatever. I call it absolutely necessary. People want to cuddle in their ignorance like its a warm blanket. You’ve got to yank it off and force them to look at their stupidity for what is. Or condition them to shut the fuck up before they say something stupid. If it works, then the stupid dies with them, right?
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No wonder no one can discuss anything reasonably with you. You appear to lack any sense of shame, among other defecits. I’m certain it’s impossible for anyone to shame you into changing your mind about anything.
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Well, try…. Have you? I notice there are a lot of conclusory statements around here. Try an argument based in facts with a logical beginning and end. Throw in as many insults as you’d like, but make an argument. Stating a conclusion doesn’t persuade anybody about anything.
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I guess you just contradicted yourself. Didn’t you just say “shame” is the only thing that changes opinions? Now you suggest facts and logic are the way. Why don’t you try that yourself, instead of just hitting the “hateful bigot” button every time someone doesn’t cave to your enlightenment?
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A few days ago, he essentially labeled those who didn’t support gay marriage bigoted idiots, a**holes, and the like. I simply opined that not everyone is going to socially evolve at the same rate or same time. And just because someone else did on a particular issue doesn’t suddenly make everyone else imbeciles. Its akin to quitting smoking, then suddenly turning around the next day and lambasting others for smoking, all while looking down on their gross, unhealthy habit.
Heck, even the omnipotent liberal leader, President Obama, rejected gay marriage as recently as 2010, yet I doubt Derek and others of his mindset viewed Obama as a bigoted idiot until that magical day he changed his views.
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I think you are simplifying what I said. The issue was a businesses right to discriminate. That fight is quite old unlike gay marraige. The “it’s my restaurant and I’ll serve who I want” is very old. And settled. Arguing otherwise is just changing the argument. We don’t have to refight “back of the bus” and lunch counters and call it new and treat the contrary opinions with respect because then it was black people and now it’s something else. We KNOW the answer 3rd. We’ve known it for 50 years at least.
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I would be perfectly happy living in a locality that passed an anti-discrimination law including gays as a protected class.
Having said that, there is room for reasonable people to disagree on that issue. If you can’t see that, you’re the one with the problem.
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PS I’m sure you care about Georgia football just as much as the next person.
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So, some animals are more equal than others, hun? Super.
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Colors their perception of them as football fans? I can’t even imagine what this means. Somehow one’s UGA love or football love is affected by being of a particular political persuasion?
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Amen, brothers.
Go Dawgs!
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Ace Atkins celebrates after sacking Danny. Ouch.
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What is this? I’m confused and angry. Why am I looking at an Auburn and Florida uniform? There’s so much blue, orange, and lack of class. Why am I looking at a moment of Auburn success? Unacceptable.
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lol. The pic is of the author of the Garden and Gun piece Bluto referred to. I don’t know what came over me. Curious I think.
FIFY Jarvis and Jordan laying the wood.
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Attaboy! Equal time! … wait…
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Thanks for the photo of Ace. That’s nice to know. Seriously… no snark…really…honestly…someone help me with the words. 🙂
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Whose been talking politics again??
Just kidding. It did occur to me that I’d rather listen to the most obnoxious ignorant right wing nut job say just about anything than listen to a cynical so-called georgia fan whine about, well, everything. I can stand anything but that guy who always says we’re gonna lose and there is no hope, ever. That guy IS a clear and present danger to the nation and should be eliminated from the planet immediately. We can disagree about politics, but we should all agree that we ARE beating Alabama in October. Victory or death!!! Go DAWGS!!!
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What about whiny, and just as ignorant, liberals? They’re just as unbearable and intolerant too.
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Not if they are Dawg fans!
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Not saying that they aren’t at all. I just tend to agree with them more than the other side even if they are sometimes even more personally distasteful. The cynical dawg though is the worst. I got no use for that guy.
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I’m a libertarian so I don’t really care for either side.
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I’ve begun considering communism, or anarchy; whichever clears the land of these self-absorbed sports nuts.
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The only time I can recall having my political feelings invoked related to CFB is when someone suggests the government should start getting its nose in it. And while the NCAA is doing a nice job of creating a situation where politicians are going to have to get involved, it makes me mad that it’s gotten that bad, because no one will win if that happens. I guess my point is it’s not that it’s aboutwhich of my fellow fans are liberal or conservative.. But what the governments role in the solution to the various issues surrounding CFB should be. In this case, it doesn’t fall on party lines (See Orinn Hatch).
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Okay, as a counter to my rather negative comment to start this thread (“FIRST!”), I’ll offer up this positive spin on the article. I agree with the guy, even if he’s a cheatin’ Auburn WarTigerPlainsEagleMan. When I’m out and about and I see someone sporting some team colors, I’ll often start up a conversation on sports, usually football. I’ve even chatted up Tech geeks when it came to it. 90% of the time, they’re from the south, but on rare occasions, I’ll find an enlightened fan from somewhere outside the south and we’ll talk sports.
There’s a guy at work that saw my Georgia shirt (I’m in Texas, so not a lot of Dawg fans out here). We started talking about football and he told me his father was Harry Babcock (the last Dawg drafted overall #1 before Stafford). Heck, ever since I found out who his father was, he’s been a minor celebrity in my mind. 🙂 All because his father was really good at catching a football 60 years ago. And I’m pretty sure I’m normal.
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…but on rare occasions, I’ll find an enlightened fan from somewhere outside the south That made me chuckle.
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Well, all of us Georgia folks can’t live in the great state of Georgia. Some of us are needed to evangelize to the great unwashed who weren’t so blessed as to have their allegiance to our fine university.
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to those of you on the bleeding edge of civilization, we who are hunkered down amongst the red clay hills of home salute you!
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Whew! Until I saw the name, I thought you had talked to my son in Austin.
And I just sent one grandson home in San Antonio with a Jack Davis caricature. He’s probably in Show and Tell explaining it just as his grandfather told him and now listening to the little horny groans as he tells them about Richt, Chubb, Mitchell, Rome … I gave him all the easy names to memorize and use on game day in his home infested with A&M fans. Hope he doesn’t bring up the FU initials I taught him.
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Shit!! I’m your son??!!! Shoot me now. 😉
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P.S. It dawns on me sometimes that folks may think I’m Australian. Austin, TX folks…getting more and more like Atlanta circa 1985.
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Yeah, son, but no one here knows you graduated from Cal Poly and the only semblance to a Dawg comes from your birthplace (Athens) and the tattoo of a Bulldog face on your shoulder. Now, hunker down – then get the hell out of that state.
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A lot of successful fear mongering and victimizing by the media on both sides. It’s created a culture where someone that disagrees with you is literally your enemy.
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Yes and where insulting and dismissing someone are first nature. Neither side wants to hear the other person’s point of view with respect it is black or white(not race)- no gray, right or wrong, two sides of the coin. In most cases life is not that simple. We need to learn what it is like to have civilized conversation again. Polarization is not healthy for our country.
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I’m just awestruck that an Auburn football player can write complete sentences.
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1
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This times 1000.
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Proof that if you put an AU player in front of a keyboard and leave him alone, in 20 years or so, something moderately intelligible will come out.
(actually, Ace is one of the writers hired to keep cranking out Robert B. Parker novels. I loved the original, haven’t had the urge to try one of the replacements, yet.)
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Sadly, as long as you have various entities on both sides of the spectrum spewing emotional nonsense in effort to garner ratings, we’re going to continue to have to put up such narrow-mindedness. The people who listen to the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s day after day, or watch MSNBC or read their favorite liberal blog with regularity; are doing so to get affirmation, not information. The smartest, most well-balanced people that I know either don’t pay attention to any of that stuff, or they purposely seek out a balanced portfolio to broaden their overall perspective (e.g. a little O’Reilly here, a little NYT there, WSJ, etc.)
By the same token, those same people also don’t hold any bias or grudges towards fans of other schools. If they meet with a UF grad and fellow UGA grad for a business lunch, they’re going to treat both equally while gravitating towards the one they personally connect with better, regardless of school or race affiliation, where they’re originally from, religion, etc.
Imagine how much better society would be if we all practice what we preached, and treat others not by their political, school, or ethnic label or group, but instead simply as individuals; nothing more or less.
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Not sure that a “little O’Reilly” does anyone any good but no doubt that the echo chamber is a problem. However as long as it sells Tide, that’s what we’ll get. One way out of that would be what I’ve been in favor of for awhile and was recently endorsed by the current occupant: mandatory voting. That way they have to talk to everyone and those in the inattentive middle would have to participate. At least it would lessen the stranglehold that the fringe and money have on politics.
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I frankly don’t want everyone voting, as many Americans are completely unattached to politics and otherwise don’t care. After all, according to a Newsweek poll, 30% of Americans can’t name the VP, 54% can’t name one of their Senators, and 67% can’t name a Supreme Court Justice. Yet you want to force such people to vote anyway?
If you essentially force them to vote, they are basically negating the vote of a concerned, well-informed citizen (regardless of affiliation) who is trying to make a difference.
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Well stated, 3&G.
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The big plus for mandatory voting is the extent to which it cripples a key benefit to negative advertising, which is more about suppressing your opponents’ vote than building your own. Shift the audience, shift the conversation
But it raises other questions, as you note.
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they have mandatory voting in North Korea. It seems to be working really well for them, don’t you think?
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They also have beer in North Korea. I guess I’ll toss mine out now.
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in your case, it might help you reason a little better! 😉
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???
You’re the one who somehow got to North Korea in all this.
I am not advocating mandatory voting. I explained somebif the thinking behind it. U acknowledged the flaws brought up in the prior post. And you somehow got “North Korea” out of that?
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I acknowledged, not U
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Who were the candidates? Perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.
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Unfortunately caring isn’t a recipe for understanding. Too often its the opposite. If caring = informed, I’d be with you. However, I don’t think you’d find the apathetic any dumber than the engaged. The thinner the electorate the more polarized they are and cheaper they are to buy off. If you have to sign up for selective service, you should have to vote; even if its for “none of the above.” Its better than where we are. We could get it re-ingrained and then back off again in 50 years, but this 1 out of 5 voting in off years is not good for democracy. More cynicism and apathy will result so you’ve got to shock it back to life.
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Well stated, Derek. 🙂
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Garden and Gun taps into a recently named demographic: “Prepnecks”. Trust puppies with pickup trucks. MBA’s and lawyers who practice saying ‘that dog’ll hunt.’ The guys who carry $100 bourbon and custom made shotguns to their duck blinds on their private hunting land.
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Absolutely it does.
That said, I don’t think it takes away from enjoying the beauty of many of the artists, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs featured in the magazine. I can appreciate their work even if I know that most of the guys and girls who will buy it are rich, entitled douchebags.
This dynamic, or my attitude toward it, reminds me of my long ago punk rock days. The self-righteous teenage and early 20s version of me would get tied in knots about the (in my mind) poseur assholes coming to see a band that I loved. Eventually, I made some level of peace with the idea that you can’t control who the audience is or if they really appreciate the work (or for the “right” reasons). Just appreciate that the artist is getting paid.
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Don’t get too ruffled Navin. That’s where the spendable money is.
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That reminds me, I saw something while traveling through a rural section of southern Virginia last week that I’d never seen before during all my years of travel: a Volvo with a confederate flag sticker on the back. My jaw utterly dropped. I guess you’d venture to say that they are a Garden and Gun subscriber? (I’m not familiar with the magazine myself)
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Let me know when it’s a Prius.
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Well, around the Mid-Atlantic and northeast, Volvo drivers are perceived as well-to-do liberal types, whether they’re college professors or a local attorney who is involved with the democratic party in some fashion. They might not be as perceived as far left as Prius owners, but its not too far off.
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Best car we’ve owned was a Volvo Station wagon. A 240. I bought it when our first son was born. Safe car. We put over three hundred thousand miles on it. Heavy car. Went through the brakes. Still see it around Athens. Still has the No Nukes sticker on it. Currently own a Prius. And a Ford 150. Prius is a great car. So is the Ford. And they have nothing to do with my politics. lol. I never drank in a duck blind. I have several custom made shotguns. They were given to me. My dad was an amateur gunsmith. He also tinkered with sports cars. And had a passion for lapidary. Gardening. He trained bird dogs. Weimaraner and German Shorthaired pointers. We often shot skeet and trap. These were all his hobbies and I learned to do them all. I learned to do them well. But no trust fund. No MBA or law degree. Although my youngest is a 1L at UGA and is talking about staying an extra year for that MBA. These things are more often about appreciating something and learning about it. Not the status thing or snooty thing.
just sayin’
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It’s not as if we’ve been immersed in marketing our entire lives that tell us our cars are personal statements or anything…
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I get a better ‘preciation of you every time you post now. Most of it comes from you not biting on issues purposefully thrown your way that used to ruffle your fur. Then it hit me ; you’ve become a liberal! 🙂
My Dad trained English Pointers and many sought him for his knowledge of breeding lines. When I was talking to him in his last days in the hospital, I told him that my wife and I wanted to get a dog while in Athens. When asked which breed he preferred, he said, “Get a mutt. They more often prove to be bright and make wonderful pets because they aren’t interbred like some pure dog breeds.”. We got two, one selected from a pack of beagles (Beauregard) for his classic markings and another from my law school friend whose dog (female basset hound) tied up with a poodle and produced a litter of umpteen puppies. We picked a white male and promptly named him Dooley (he looked like a smaller shaggy dog, black button nose and hair over the eyes).
Beauregard went on to become the most sought after male for breeding at the vet’s kennels (the vet loved to entertain other customers by announcing Bo’s arrival whereupon he was unleased, ran across the office to jump into the attendant’s arms and carried wriggling in anticipation to his waiting paramour, all to the laughter of the customers). That dog dearly loved to visit the vet.
Dooley lived to the ripe ole age of 18 and I’ve had nothing but mutts ever since.
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with a gun rack
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I enjoy good BOURBON myself…
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As do I. I was just having a little fun with a caricature.
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Oh I get it, I just like typing BOURBON.
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I may have to draw the line at talking amicably to a Tech fan.
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What diving duck says is true; the two sides in our political spheres went from being rivals to enemies, and lost sight of doing what is best for the country instead of what is best for their respective parties.
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They’ve always been about what’s best for themselves. It’s just that for a few periods of time they were able to treat the other side as opponents, not enemies. I would say that those periods of comity are the exception since 1783, not the rule.
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If there’s anything that puzzles me about our infrequent, yet oft-heated debates over politics here at the blog, it’s that some of you confess that your awareness of the political leanings of other folks colors your perception of them as football fans.
Don’t intend this as a snark in any way, but the thing that puzzles me is that anyone thinks they’d be able to change someone else’s mind about politics in the comments section of a sports blog. 🙂
Seriously, you’ll notice I never comment on those threads. Now I do actually enjoy reading the comment sections just to see the point/counterpoint that goes on……..but at the end of the day, everybody still believes exactly what they believed when they woke up that morning.
Love the blog though Bluto, please don’t interpret this as a criticism of you. I know some people have complained but I don’t mind reading some variety. I just know some of the variety (for me) is better just for reading than engaging.
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Oh and I loved the linked article, agree 100%. Some of the most fun I’ve had at games is when I was sitting in enemy territory, just striking up conversation with all the rival fans. It’s crazy, you’re more likely to talk to everyone around you when you’re on the other team than when you’re sitting with fellow fans. So many things I love about college football, and the fact that it cuts across all lines is definitely one of the big ones.
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That doesn’t puzzle me. I just don’t get why some think being of a different political position makes one less of a football fan.
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Yep. And that goes for brownie and cookie bakers as well, although getting lost after going to the bathroom at a game is embarrassing; and momentarily forgetting your wife’s first name ain’t a whole lotta fun.
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That’s easy, Senator. Democrats/Liberals are a bunch of soft, snobby. pansies. What the hell would they know or care about football?
Saying you’re a Republican or a Democrat doesn’t just show your thoughts on political policy or theory, it tells the world what kind of person your are. It’s shorthand for what side of the ‘culture war’ you’re on. Those stereotypes aren’t for Democrats, they’re for white Democrats. You think those same folks who think political leanings make you less of a fan think the same thing about blacks?
And it’s not that there aren’t lots of Democrats/Liberals who aren’t just as dismissive of Conservatives/Republicans when it comes to academics and stuff like that. It’s just that the football stereotypes run against Dems.
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“That doesn’t puzzle me. I just don’t get why some think being of a different political position makes one less of a football fan.” Because all “real Americans” know that liberals are sissies who would never fight for anything (oh, unless they are union “thugs”). If you are a sissy how can you be a real football fan?
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Going back to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the first thing you have secure is your audience’s attention. And getting attention in such a crowded marketplace isn’t easy. The easy solutions are SOP for Outrage Merchants.
Sports and politics have a lot in common, including the ways that media too often sees balance and perspective as enemies to profit. Along those lines, I think the article below is worth a read as well. On Syracuse, Boeheim, and outrage:
View at Medium.com
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View at Medium.com
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Well, heck, no link. Google Syracuse, Boeheim, Cauldron, open letter. Great essay,
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You know, it’s not so much the politics that get me here (though I’ve been a part of it sometimes), but it’s the thinly-veiled racism, misogyny, and homophobia that riles me up. We can make fun of UF without calling the Gay-turds (what’s gay about eating boogers). We don’t have to question someone’s masculinity by suggesting they “grow a pair” or some such euphemism. And we all know there are comments about race and class that get tossed around here and there.
Some would say it’s best to ignore that, but if we don’t speak up about it or take it on and call it what it was (hate and bigotry), what good is that? We can talk UGA and our love of the Dawgs without degrading whole classes of people.
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Here, here! Thank goodness no one tells me to grow a pair. I’m still trying to pick them up before straddlin’ the bathroom scales.
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We won’t encourage anymore growth… Lol. 😉
COJONES:
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Honest truth: Took my kids to Monterrey, Mexico in the late 70s, early 80s. We did tourist spelunking for kicks, went to their observatory for a “Viva Mexico!” film presentation with helicopter speed shots and moving seats, and a few other goodies in their local culture, but happenstanced upon a museum wrought from a converted beer distillery. Unfortunately, the artist showing that day had a fixation on testicles , drawn and painted in hundreds of framed and well-hung. We were on the second floor when becoming aware (none were on the first floor), and with my barely teenaged son helping, sought the quickest way out for my son and daughter under the age of 10. It was a nightmare, even on the descending staircase, the pictures literally projecting off the wall at every turn of a corner. Many were of men certainly suffering from elephantiasis as in the caricature above, but grossly overemphasized past the possible.
I still query as to what could have made these paintings/drawing of any interest that was not prurient and that could have warranted a showing by the artist in a public museum.
I just went there to see the copper brewing vats.
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You know you’re getting old when the shot sack hangs lower than the gun barrel. 😉
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Gah…you sound like a Muslim. 😉
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When folks on either side consider everyone on the other to be either stupid or p&ssies then that’ll happen.
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I’m a left-wing Vietnam Vet who has lived in Athens for 30 years. I have many right-wing Nam Vet buddies and we are aware of each others politics but it doesn’t stop us from being brothers.
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Those who argue over politics are fools. Case in point – at this moment our nation has the lowest interest rates in history. But are politicians of any party talking about refinancing the deficit at these historic low rates? Nope! They only want the deficit as an issue to bash eachother over the head with, citizens of our nation be damned.
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As you may or may not have surmised from the name I use, I am part of the Dawg diaspora that exists on the left coast. Yesterday I was at the gym, wearing my black G shirt, and a stranger walks up to me to tell me that his grandson (a HS freshman) is a big Georgia fan. They went back to Athens this year for the Auburn game and it was fantastic. He said that they went USC/Notre Dame two weeks later In LA and it didn’t compare to what they saw in Athens. His grandson now has his heart set on going to UGA.
The point is, even here in a blue state, the best colors are Red and Black and the Dawg Nation has spread from coast to coast. I can’t wait for August! GO DAWGS!
BTW, GTP and all of you commenters are a lifeline for those of us out here on the fringes. Thanks to Bluto and all of you.
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And I have to be there for a wedding the day of the Bama game!
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Are your tickets spoken for yet?
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Yea, since I have F/S tics it’s tricky because I have to get them back to be able to go to the rest of the fabulous home schedule. I’m holdin out hope that something will happen to change the date but, if not, I’ll have to go with someone at work.
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Grow a pair…go to the game. 🙂
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Wait, so you’re saying that there’s something other than college football worth talking about? Who knew?
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One of my US history profs at UGA (Vipperman, I think) cancelled his pre-Cocktail Bowl Friday class. He explained why: sports has historically played a major social equalizing role in American society, in which sons and daughters of centuries old violent hatreds in Europe could come together to, say, root for the Brooklyn Dodgers or Boston Red Sox. I remembered that lesson years later while having a conversation with an Ethiopian immigrant working at the Atlanta Hilton–he introduced me to his Eritrean co-worker and best friend, explaining they would have been obligated to try to kill each other back in Africa but now went to Braves games together–one of many reasons he loved the US. My extended family splits up politically all kinds of ways, but bring up the Dawgs and my right wing NRA brother in law and left wing Move On.org sister are in deep agreement–nice way to defuse arguments at holiday gatherings!
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Well said.
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Maybe we should all start concentrating on the stuff that unites us, rather than the stuff that divides us. E pluribus unum. Maybe the Founding Fathers were on to something.
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No idea what this article wuz bout, lost me. I is an x and o man. all these big picture articles, i don’t understand then a tall.
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Late to the party, but drives me to drinkin is the constant need by some politicians to co-mingle politics and religion…to force, by law, their religious beliefs on me.
Maybe the Founding Fathers were on to something, but I am not sure we are getting what they were thinking about.
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Can someone xplain what coomon currencies are I ain’t never heard of nuttin like that. is this a pass formatn or something? Like a go route current on 3rd down, that is pretty common.
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Nice piece, Ace…sorta, kinda. I have never understood the need to explain the obvious to anybody. If I sit down next to a gay, black, Jewish truck driver in a Waffle House in Opp, Alabama, or Adel, Georgia, he sees my hat and says “Go Dawgs” or “How bout em” I know this truck drivin man knows shit and I may want to continue the conversation. I have had this (although I do not know the sexual or religious persuasion of the truck driver) happen in Lakin, Kansas, Columbia, Mo and Warwick, Rhode Island. Some people understand some people don’t. If they don’t, fuck em, if they do, talk to em.
But I ain’t home till I hear the Dixie Redcoat Band comin down the track. Then, I am home.
Next year in Jerusalem, bro.
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I was talking with friends the other day about the uselessness of arguing policy with such a wretchedly corrupt machine to process said policy. As a libertarian, I’d simply reduce the size of that machine so its influence would be small and unattractive to special interests. But regardless of whether you agree with that, a critical first step toward any kind of right society is that we fight pork barrel politics and demand the stiffest prosecution for the dirtbags within our own parties…I know, good luck with that one.
On the subject of discourse, the most ethical position is not always in the middle, and in my opinion compromise between our two parties is where all the trouble starts – when the GOP and Dems start agreeing on things, brother, watch out – you’ll get bailouts and Patriot Acts.
But agree that listening with the intent of changing your mind if your conversation partner can make you see something new is a difficult but beautiful thing. I heard a great quote the other day, “are you listening to understand or listening to respond?”
That hit a bit too close to home.
🙂
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None of which has anything to do with somebody’s political position coloring my view of their football acumen. Some of my favorite commenters here are not my political fellow travelers, but truly DGD’s I’d love to have a beer with.
(Who needs a dedicated open thread? We make our own!)
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Like the quote, Cos, what I always wonder is if anybody is actually listening, really listening at all.
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If you write a post and blast what I believe as “idiotic” or make snarky remarks it absolutely causes me to think of a poster differently. It gives an insight to how the person really thinks. We can still root for the Dawgs together, but that’s the only relationship we have when it’s based on message boards. If a blogger on UGA sports gives me a couple political posts or gets snarky in a political way, I just move on. This ain’t real life……
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