Fighting the Dumb Fight

Over on Facebook, I was in what might possibly be the dumbest argument ever with a dude who started off by writing:

The SCOTUS is little more than the Judicial Branch of the Ruling Elite, while the POTUS and Congress (the Executive & Legislative branches of the Oligarchs) take their marching orders from K-street... I would say that 'Democracy's for sale...', but we do NOT have a democracy in the US; that's a bad joke.

And it went downhill from there.  I'll just tell you the punchline: After lots of insults  and repeated demands for me to explain why I hate America, he ended up deleting many of his posts, so it'd look like i was just arguing with myself; which he bragged about doing in his final comment.  Simply hilarious.

And the saddest part might possibly have been his one actual attempt at making an argument, which I'll repeat verbatim:

In both fascist Italy and Nazi Germany:
wages were cut drastically
domestic programs were rolled back
huge subsidies were given to heavy industry
labor unions were broken
taxes on the very rich were greatly reduced or eliminated altogether
workplace safety regulations were ignored or abolished...
I KNOW none of this sounds the least bit familiar, but as a matter of FACT, that's how Fascism gained power...that's IS what's happening here...just a fact.

And of course, NONE of that stuff has happened.  Are Republicans attempting to do many of these things?  Yes.  But if this guy's theory is correct and the so-called Oligarchs control all three branches of government and our political fighting is just theater, then...why haven't these things actually happened yet?  What are they waiting for and why are the billionaires spending so much money trying to make it happen, if they already control everything?  After all, you don't have to bribe a politician you already control.

And I kept making that point while refuting every point he made, asking him to explain why none of these things have happened if the Oligarchs already control everything.  And I never got anything even resembling a response.  Just lots of insults about how stupid I am and how I need to read more, because I'm obviously a victim of the corporate media.  The only example he gave proving that these things were happening was the bizarre claim that QE 1&2 somehow cut government spending; and refused to explain even that.

And this kind of thing is just too sad, as this dude clearly thought he was the savvy one, yet he couldn't even attempt to explain any of this.  And his example of how we're falling victim to the fascists was obviously borrowed from someone else he trusted, yet...why?  None of this stuff has happened, yet he was attacking me for not seeing that it has.  And hey, i'll admit that I might not know everything, yet he couldn't even attempt to explain any of this, and instead kept asking me repeatedly "Why do you hate America."  All I wanted was a good debate, and this guy couldn't even do that.

And what sucks about all this is that, if he's worried about these things, there IS a solution: Support Obama and the Democrats.  It's that simple.  Republicans want to do these things, Obama's obviously fighting it off, so why not join the cause?  And that's because he's convinced that it's already too late, and so nothing will work.

And this is the sort of thing we need to combat.  We'll never convince conservatives to vote Democratic, yet there are lots of people who don't like Republican policies, yet have become convinced by others on the left that there's nobody left to fight for them, and reject Democrats just as much.  We need to put a stop to