I just finished listening to an exchange between San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and Adam Carrola. I also followed the thread of comments at various sites. What I’ve observed is a clear effort by those who do not want to address the truth of Mr. Carrola’s comments to intentionally Miss the Point. So I would like to offer a number of ways that you too can Miss the Point on Purpose, this way when you are confronted by… how shall I say it… an uncomfortable truth, you can focus on everything other than the distasteful reality. (It’s an interesting conversation regarding minorities and socio-economic strata. But That’s the Point! And We need to Miss it! Moving on…)
How to Miss the Point:
1. Be Offended. Always.
A. Focus on the coarseness of the language. Oh, Bad Words burn my ears… I just wish we could be nicer… etc.
B. Take individual words or segments of a statement from the speaker you disagree with, put it in quotes, and claim it to be racist.
C. Simply claim it to be racist without taking any of the speech into consideration knowing most people will not read it.
2. Accuse the Speaker of being filled with Hate.
A. Accuse the speaker of saying things in the past which were hateful… as defined by you. It doesn’t matter if it’s true since you are the one who gets to decide if it’s “mean”.
B. Illustrate their “Hate” by pointing out they are; male, republican, conservative, don’t like the President etc. It will play to those who don’t really want to read the exchange but just want to “know” they are right in all things. You can also call them names like “Fascist” or “NAZI” because your friends will not know what those words actually represent… Works all the time.
C. Take a statement the speaker you disagree with actually said then re-phrase it and accuse them Hate for “not” addressing it. I find this a spectacular tactic which should be used just in case the reader of your comment does decide to review the exchange you are trying to get them not to read. It will leave them confused. Perfect.
3. Make Sh*t Up or MSU.
A. You can make up anything and accuse the speaker you dislike of saying it in “the past”. Certainly those who also dislike the speaker will not go try to find the incendiary quotes you made up… they’ll just believe you. And if your lucky they’ll work for organizations like Hand Gun Inc. and repeat them as fact then cite your statement in the footnotes of their articles. This isn’t limited to HGI but they’re famous for writing their own MSU articles then waiting a few months (seasoning) so they can quote them as fact in newer MSU articles.
B. You can also be the repeater of such MSU statements. This is really easy and replaces all of that bothersome time thinking for yourself. Just go to your favorite website which supports all the things you believe you think and pick out the “best” slams on the person you disagree with then repost them as your own. Copy and Paste works well here.
C. Finally you can do all of the above with greater frequency if you make up a number fo different “identities” and employ slight changes in your writing style. You can literally be 15+ people with the exact same views regarding the truth you dislike.
So get out there and Miss the Point!
Substantive discussions of material fact and demonstrable truth is way over-rated. Apparently most of the people out there don’t really want to make an effort anyway. You’ll be a hit. And you can protect yourself and your friends from the Ugly Truth and the feeling of dissonance associate with it.
You’ll be even better at it after a few glasses of Mangria.
makeaneffort 
March 14th, 2013 at 10:53 am
Did you listen to the whole podcast? On the Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Podcast he did a little “post-game” analysis, too.
His big issue was Gavin playing dumb so as not to offend the base. Gavin made some comment about some disadvantage of Blacks…being vulnerable to check-cashing places I think, and also having lower test scores. Adam asked why, and all he’d get in reply is “lot’s of reasons” without one of those reasons being mentioned. He approached it from many angles such as “Do Asians or Jews have issues with low test scores or payday loans?” and of course, he’d get a mention of the exception “…well, some of them do”. Missing the forest for the trees. It’s like a zoo keeper complaining that too many giraffes are being electrocuted by the power lines over their enclosure and Gavin saying “well, I saw a giraffe walk under the power line just the other day.
The answer I think Adam was hoping for is that they have all of these problems from the broken families. Gavin implied he was from a broken family. Yeah…his parents divorced, but his dad was the chief lawyer for Getty Oil. Must’ve been tough.
Anyway, he’d talk a lot of bullet points without saying much of anything. He claimed to be ignorant of the root causes of the disadvantages of certain groups. If he doesn’t know the cause, then what’s he there for?
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