I’ve seen the contorted faces of the Republican haters and birthers and the Tea baggers on TeeVee, but until yesterday I had not had that hate directed specifically to me, in person. Now, I worked for more than two decades with law breakers, rapists, killers, serial killers, child molesters, etc. But yesterday, the vitriolic words and the hatred was as intense as any I have experienced over the years from my criminal “clients,” and it came at me from a “nice” Republican lady whom I met in the stacks at the Lihue Borders. At the Photoshop section, we started chatting about the difference between Photoshop Cj4 and Photoshop Elements.
Slow Saturday morning at Borders. It started quite innocently, she a pleasant appearing older caucasian lady, smiled and asked me, an older caucasian man, if I too was a Photoshop enthusiast. After a little conversation I could see she was quite proud of the artwork she showed me in a slideshow on her Ipod. When I complained about the price of the Photoshop Cj4 software, she waved a huge multi-carat diamond engagement ring (worn on her right hand) at me and told me boldly that there was a way to get it free and she knew how. I chuckled and asked what she meant by that.
Adobe, please be aware of this and fix it please. It pisses me off to pay for software that other folks steal. Basically, the short edited version is that she said there is a hole in the propriety schema of Photoshop Cj4 such that one can get the trial version, then get a patch available by directions posted at Utube, and then for Mac users to drop the trial version in the patch, and presto whammo you have a “legal” version. This, she said works with Mac but cautioned not to install any updates from Adobe since that would shut down the program.
I haven’t used pirate programs for many years for many reasons not the least that it is illegal and I wasn’t about to rush out and steal Adobe’s intellectual property. It is theft, pure and simple. But, as I continued to talk to this lady I mentioned that I had a web site, Aloha Politics that was online. I joked that it was lefty leaning. That was it.
This supposedly nice old lady’s face contorted into a corrosive expression of hatred and she spat out at me ” so you’re a socialist then! You must support Obama, he’s a socialist and he is ruining the country!” Her assault was so quick and so intense, that all I could think to say was, “you are a Republican are you?” She replied that she was a Republican with Libertarian underpinnings and since I denied being a socialist, then I must be a communist! She crouched in the fight and flight stance and moving closer she repeated in more vehement terms an assertion that Obama was a socialist and intent upon ruining the country. About this time I began to pivot on my heel and make it outa there for the exit. If a man had spoken to me with the same threatening and disrespectful manner I might have been inclined to hit him. I don’t hit women. I told her that we better not talk anymore and started to leave. As I turned my back to her, she said, “Yea you’d better leave, besides I gave you a free 700 dollar program!” Totally off the F’n wall!
To me this random encounter in Borders on a Saturday is illustrative of how Republican and conservative folks are able to sublimate and compartmentalize their motivations and thinking. A woman that declares herself a conservative Libertarian Republican; a breed of folk that place property and property rights above all else is willing to steal intellectual property from Adobe and to even offer to distribute these stolen goods to strangers. Not only is she fool and also a knave. Does she even know what a “socialist” is other than what the talk show haters tell her? She sure doen’t live by her Republican conservative values. If she did she would pay for property rather than steal it.
Hypocrisy, thy name is the Republican party.
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