Immigration Orange | Blog

I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"

I'm honored to be one of two blogs to recieve an award from LL over at Chromed Curses. It's an award for the blogs that you frequently disagree with but continue to read.

LL gave me an amazing compliment in her post, which means a lot coming from her.

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. He is the most idealistic young man I’ve ever met online. But to be honest, as aggravating as he can be sometimes (like when he just drops liberal news stories on me and doesn’t send an email explaining WHY he thought I should read that crap), I appreciate his passion. And even with his occasional faux pas, he is very polite and puts up with a lot of my cranky poking at him. So he gets this award for all of that.

Being called an idealist is one the best things a young person can be called. The day idealism dies in young people is the day the world loses hope.

The three blogs that I will pass this on to are as follows.

1. My favorite adversary in my entire blogging career continues to be Conor Friedersdorf at Beyond Borders, who no longer blogs anymore. Even though we vehemently disagreed I felt like we were a team taking on the subject of immigration from our different perspectives, helping our readers to arrive at Truth.

2. I have enjoyed my most recent exchanges with RJ over at Sharia vs. Inalienable rights. Another person that I vehemently disagree with but who continues to be polite in our interactions and occasionally provide enlightening commentary here on Immigration Orange.

3. I have really enjoyed my interractions with LL at Chromed Curses, as well. The person who gave me this award. She's always fun to read just because she doesn't take it from anybody and will always tell you what she feels with the full force of her passion.

Those are the main three. I would by stretching it by picking out two more although there are many others that I interact with that I disagree with just because I think it's important. It's important to look beyond the political views of people and respect them for who they are as people. You'll also find that people that disagree with you on the issue that matters to you the most might agree with you on other issues. It is important to approach adversaries with love rather than with hate.

Finally the rules.

1. Copy and link to this post (meaning these rules and the Award icon).
2. Reflect on five bloggers who cause you to gnash your teeth when reading their posts, but who you nevertheless feel compelled to return to and read time and again. Write a short sincere (or not) paragraph about each one.
3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.
4. Go leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they’ve been given the award.
5. Put the award icon on your site.
6. Did I mention you should link this post?

Many thanks, LL.

Comments

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Re: I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"
Heh. My pleasure, sugar. I DO respect you, even if you sometimes get under my skin. haha I agree that there is a place for idealism in the world. When I was your age, my ex-husband used to call me a Pinko Commie because I was so far to the left.

But a mortgage, car payments, income taxes, and all the other grown-up stuff later in my life pushed me more towards the middle. I told the woman who awarded me this meme/award that I'd love to see you in 20 years with the same things to see where your politics lie then. I also told her that you put your money where your mouth is (with your own trip from Guatemala to the US) and that you have balls. That means a lot in my book. You don't just talk the talk, you walk the walk, and that gives you way more credibility in my eyes than those who claim to be for certain stances and yet violate their own principals for the sake of a "convenient life."

I'm glad you didn't take this in the wrong way. ;-)

~LL
reply to this
Posted: 9:19 AM 08.03.07 by Anonymous
- Re: I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"
  Hey LL,
  
  I completely hear you. My father used to be the same way, a "pinko commie" if you will, and now he's moved much further to the right. It will be interesting to see where my politics lie in 20 years, I can only follow the best path before me and hope for the best.
  
  I just find it sad when young people hang their idealism without even giving it a chance. When young people lose their idealism humanity has no hope for change. I try to be as rational as I can with my idealism, but that doesn't mean that irrationality and big dreams shouldn't have a place in this world. The world is a better place when young people can dream.
  
  K
  reply to this
  Posted: 7:10 AM 08.04.07 by Kyle de Beausset
  - Re: I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"
    Youthful idealism is the impetus for change. I know that. It's just that it has to be tempered by realism. Let me give you a perfect example. I went to University of Wisconsin. Also known as Little Berkeley.
    
    One day, I saw all these flyers EVERYWHERE. Posted on columns and many just fluttering around on the ground and in the gutters.
    
    They were urging students to contact President Bill Clinton about the demise of the rain forests.
    
    Two points.
    
    1--Bill Clinton was in his last couple of months of his second presidential term. He was lame duck and just worrying about pardoning his friends. So contacting him was kind of a moot point.
    
    2--They used enough PAPER to kill a couple of acres of rainforest or woods just with their little campaign. Email doesn't work??
    
    I found it ironic and to be honest, incredibly stupid. The idealism behind what they were trying to do was good. The method by which they went about it was just about the dumbest thing I've ever witnessed.
    
    A lot of times, young people like you let passions get away from them and they do things that are counterproductive and sometimes, even damaging to their cause. Those of us who are more center/right look at the youth who protest things like the IMF or the big G7 or World Bank meetings and we see them destroying other peoples' property and rioting and we wonder how idealism and wishing for "Right and Just and Equal" treatment translates into destroying some poor shop owner's car and busting out his windows helps to further the cause.
    
    It didn't used to be that way. The youth of yesteryear used their passion and activism to force change by sheer numbers and smart, impassioned movements. Now it's about violent reaction to "The System."
    
    I hope that someday, young, idealistic people like you can help to lead the movements that you believe in with peaceful change. Until that happens again, those of us who are older and more conservative will continue to dismiss most of your actions as spoiled, violent brats having fits cuz you can't get your own way all the time. It's unfortunate, but true.
    reply to this
    Posted: 11:00 AM 08.05.07 by Anonymous
    - Re: I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"
      Hey LL,
      Like I said I try to be realist and intelligent about the way I go about things. You won't find myself doing things that hurt the very people that I'm trying to help, which a lot of well-meaning activists are guilty of.
      That being said, I think the greater sin is to do nothing in the face of injustice. At the very least those inspired to action can adapt and learn the errors of their ways. The ambivalent, the neutral, are almost never stirred from their dormancy. It is the silent majority that allows injustice to occur, not the few that take action in the wrong way.
      I hear you on the well-meaning idealists though. For instance, when Guatemala was forced to implement a law to stay in the U.S.'s good favor to save the rainforest, they had to relocate a bunch of indigenous people living in Northern Guatemala. The scenes from the relocation were tragic. Another case of the worst of getting the worst of elite policies.
      reply to this
      Posted: 4:22 PM 08.06.07 by Kyle de Beausset

I've Recieved a "Pissant Provocateur Award"

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