Really the most irritating thing about them, what’s really pushing your buttons, I think, is they remind you of how full of yourself and your intellect and your arrogance you were at that age.
Otherwise I can think of no reason for this to get under your skin so effectively.
And what’s wrong with idealism? That’s where any kind of change starts. Eventually you run up against the world’s realities and have to inject a little pragmatism into that idealism, but this kind of single-minded passion is the fuel for the fire of social change. I’d hate to live in a world where people didn’t have visions for the future. Society needs dreamers. Even if that means we have to put up with objectivists.
The thing that’s wrong with idealism is that it sometimes leads to extremism. Some people read Rand/Marx/whathaveyou and think…hmmm… some interesting ideas but I have some concerns. Others drink the entire jug of cool-aid in one breathless gulp and pass on their ice cream headache.
Well put.
I’m happy to listen to even the most extreme and radical ideas if the proponent seems to have a sense of how they fit into the real world. I get tired ears very quickly when the assumption is that a radical rebuild of society, culture, economics and politics can be installed in a down weekend.
When the ideal is considered so important that the consequences to people of implementing it are ignored, that’s very unethical and destructive. And when the idealist refuses to compromise their ideals with the real world, that’s also unethical and destructive. Ideological purity is a terrible way to run a society.
Yeah, at least it’s something everyone can get behind.
Well, that’s an altogether reasonable point.
I’d appreciate some examples from the OP. So we can point and laugh.
You must be a very selective reader here. The threads are tailing out now but should provide adequate entertainment, but look for the one on Ayn Rand and objectivism and the one on “profits are a tax on labor” to start with.
Someone who’s better versed at posting thread links is welcome to jump in with a few.
(Just saw this post, belatedly)
I am a professional. If you want to be more specific, go right ahead.
Well, of course, as we all know, perfected Jews worship Jesus.
Seriously though, the “non-aggression” principle. What a fucking joke!
Looks at post. Looks at username. Looks at post. Shakes head, goes home.
Mostly agreed. It might be idealistic arrogance, but it’s not met with humility. It’s met with another kind of arrogance, where the culprit insists that, with their extra decade or two of experience, they truly understand the world, and through their understanding they have discerned that it’s not worth doing anything about.
I thought that was sodomy month?
Okay, whoosh. I don’t think of my username as post content.
I’d be happy to go all professional barbarian on these wet-behind-the-ears, empty-between-the-ears and wax-plugged-ear jeenyusses.
Apparently at least one of the mods is ahead of you since our latest little screed seems to have been disappeared.
This song keeps running through my head
**MY BACK PAGES **by Bob Dylan
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Copyright © 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992 by Special Rider Music
Read more: My Back Pages | The Official Bob Dylan Site
A motion for Dylan is always in order. 
Mountain Jew then. Is that dumb?
It’s times like these that I wish we had a single-click ignore function that I could use right from a post. Having to click on the user name too is just too much when it’s so hot and there are so many idiots to ignore.