For a few years, I've followed this person who goes by "
Dartell" on Twitter and had some interesting conversations with her. She had insight, seemed intelligent and was very friendly. She's a black woman in her early 30's I'm guessing with extensive political views. But lately, her political views have taken a turn into the dark side. At first, I thought she was just retweeting a few borderline racist posts. Ok, she hates Obama - which is fine, but accusing him of being Muslim and sending billions of dollars to terrorists seems a bit much. She is highly against Islam. In one post, she added a photo of a man holding a knife to his neck and states, "Muslim threatens to slice his neck. Hell WTH is he waiting for...ISLAM IS A CULT. )0v0(." Another tweet includes this: "Islam's War on Women. Egyptian Islamist Imam Says Tahrir Female Protesters are “Crusaders” Who 'Want to be Raped'." Other tweets involve incidents that include Islam involvement, and then after the tweet, she puts, "ISLAM IS A CULT." Now you get my drift. After a ton of unconfirmed photos of people doing horrible things, possibly in different countries (because half the photos people post are from another incident), she uses this to trigger emotions of those reading her. I will also note that she can be very influential with her thoughts and opinions since she is very intelligent, but one response to her followers had me rethinking that notion. Someone said, "ur a racist M8", to which she responded with, "Islam is worst than racism. Disonnect. And don't tweet me," with a photo of a man holding a bunch of knives with blood all over him along with a quote at the bottom that reads, "Come for the infidel-killing, whore-stoning religious purity, stay for the terrific falafels." She also told one of her readers to "F- off" and battled some more with a few people who highly disagreed with her.
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| Christians can be hateful too. |
I honestly thought that she had lost it. This wasn't like her, so I thought. I knew she was a diehard republican, but not to this extreme. I then tweeted her. I asked her if she thought that all Christians behaved the way the Westboro Church behaves. She replied, "No." Then she sent me a private message telling me "not to go there with her because she lost many friends over this conversation." I replied, "I can see why." I also informed her that "some" people may have not wanted Obama in office because they seem to think that "all blacks are uneducated". (Which is far from the truth.) But if I wanted to go there, I could pull some pretty hefty ammunition on those small-minded..."facts". Here's her tweet back to me: "@dpasquella Westboro is a cult as well, they are not of Christians. Wannabe in the lime light to get more kooks like them. DM me." Well if she thinks that the Westboro Church aren't
real Christians or Christians at all, wouldn't she also think that the people of Islam who commit such horrid crimes, aren't truly of that faith at all? Isn't she categorizing extremists and those who practice a loving and peaceful religion into one? There are Christians that kill. There are Christians that picket at soldiers' funeral thanking God for their deaths. But, then again, she doesn't feel that they are "real" Christians. I have a very close friend who is Muslim. He practices his faith 5 times a day and is the most generous, kind-hearted person you'd ever want to meet. No rap sheet whatsoever.
In a country where we're trying to all live in unity, begging for equality for all, wouldn't you think this is a bit far from trying to encourage peace? For instance, about five years ago, I had a black woman tell me that being a lesbian wasn't natural and that she was voting against gay marriage. I reminded her that 50 years ago, blacks and interracial couples weren't allowed to marry either. We all want "our" rights, but when it comes to other people's rights, --religions we don't follow or lifestyles we don't agree with, when does it come to the point of officially calling our country an unfair and unjust nation?
****Edit****
Dartell just tweeted this:
I told her many Americans beat their dogs too, which is why sadly there are animal shelters and reminded her that my dog Lola is a rescue pup. How shallow and ignorant can people be?
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8 comments:
As usual, you are right on with what you say. Extreme views leave no room for growth and make even the most intelligent person look ignorant.
As an aside, did you see where two of Shirley Phelps-Roper's daughters defected last week?!?
https://medium.com/turning-points/83d2ef8ba4f5
I hope it sticks and they find a safe place to clear their head of the brainwashing.
Jess, I really don't understand that mindset at all. I get it - I really do - there are bad people out there, but you can't just lump them all together into one.
I am so shocked over Grace and Megan! I remember talking to Grace about an interview I was going to do with her family a few years back. It just goes to show you what happens when you are raised with such hateful views - it either sticks with you or you flea from it. But unfortunately, she is right -- anybody can look her up and see what her past was like.
What Jess said "Extreme views leave no room for growth" I am so glad that my kids grew up with a different mentality. Maybe the new generation will be smarter and more peaceful than ours is.
My neighbor constantly posts things on FB about the right the bear arms plus reposting some stupid link that is usually an hoax. Just the other day he posted something supposedly coming from Bill Cosby "I'm 83 and I am tired" totally against Muslims and which Bill never said.
Two wrongs don't make it a right. We can't hate and expect to get peace
Deb, You were wrong to post this.. You did not even open a discussion on why I would post such statements and pictures. my losing friends were not about losing friends on twitter. This is a private loss. I have a free right to call it like it is.
DM me so we can have a conversation.
Ok, so when you said "you lost friends" - did you lose them in an unfortunate circumstance where it was terrorism or people who are of the Islam faith? If so, I lost friends too on 9/11, but I'm not going around saying how the entire religion is a cult or insinuating that the Islam faith is evil. I will say this though... I do admit I was upset when they were proposing to open a mosque near ground zero. For me, it wasn't about the faith itself --- it was about the timing and respect of it all. I was hurt. Everyone was hurt over that tragedy. The thing is, you are posting such hatred on your account, and it might end up being read by an innocent person who is of the Islam faith. Do you know what I mean?
No, Wesboro Baptist Church are not Christians in my eyes. They claim they are. So do Muslim extremists. They claim they are killing in the name of their God, when there are many Muslims who practice a peaceful and loving religion. You really have to decipher between the two. If not, then I hate to say that I've mistaken you for someone who is intelligent.
You certainly don't shy away from dialogue with people who hold views that you find abhorrent. Since this woman has already lost friends over her beliefs, I should think that you would represent a positive influence in her life. After all, hatred can be seen as a cry for help.
Deb, I really have a hard time getting the letters and numerals right (in the boxes that verify my non-robotism). If you would moderate responses instead of requiring letters, it would make it far easier for me and, I'm sure, others.
I'm sorry, Snowbrush, I cannot take the captcha away only because I get a TON of spam. When I get spam, or a comment on my blog, it goes straight to my cell phone. When I don't have captcha on, my phone interrupts me a million times a day. If you wish, you can continue to read my blog if you'd like and not comment. Many people do that since they are somewhat uncomfortable or unable to comment because they either don't have a blog or they just want to remain silent.
As far as your comment regarding this post, I think I did demonstrate a positive influence by stating publicly how insensitive and racist these tweets were. I followed her for a very long time and for some reason, her tweets became very hateful and in my opinion, too obnoxious to continue following her. It's a shame that people need to hate others of different religions --- even if their religion has more extremists than the norm. Not all are extremists or terrorists. It's ignorant to think that.
*shrug* She sounds like a terrorist to me. She certainly is guilty of hate speech. But will we (or any other nation ever come to a place of true equality?)
To paraphrase: Judge on the content of character not color of skin, political view or sexual orientation.
To bad most everyone needs someone to hate or be superior to.
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