Why angry people are angry (and why it doesn’t help to square off with them in public)

(A regular contributor to my favorite political website wrote a post today that prompted this bleat. I tweaked his a bit, and am passing it along. I don’t know how “public” this fellow would care to be, outside of that website, so I won’t credit him here and now. But if you want to read the original post, email me and I’ll forward the website address and other info.)

Here is a realization that is dawning slowly on me. Most very angry people got that way from a variety of shaming experiences. Followers of right-wing hatemongers (the Becks and Limbaughs and Coulters of the world, who encourage them where to direct their anger and to externalize the blame) often were driven to their present station in life by internalizing the message that the world is a nasty and hateful place.

And they shouldn’t be blamed for election results, for “voting in” certain people. No matter what they may say, many times these folks don’t even bother to vote. They see it as useless, and not much changes in their lives anyway.

Most importantly, confronting these folks (especially in public) will never change their minds. It only meets hateful with hurtful. The end result is one more shaming experience in their already long list. In other words, you give them another public dose of the medicine that made them what they are. I just don’t see how adding to their experience of the world’s nastiness and hatefulness causes any long-term good.

Just my .02 –