Sometimes I Just Don't 'Get' People

So I have a lot of 'liberal leaning' friends. Actually a lot that are very liberal and are loudly voicing it all the time. But after knowing them for many years, sometimes I wonder if they know what they are even talking about.

Take a friend of mine who is a gun-totin' chick. She has loads of photos of herself hunting, shooting at gun ranges and galleries, at gun shows, etc. But she is, by her own words, far further left than the Democrats. She is always posting articles defaming republicans, praising Obama, slamming 'the rich', etc. Yet she herself works in a private industry that contracts out with big businesses. Ummm okay. Sometimes she makes huge commissions that make one month of my own salary look pathetic. And yet she will post endless things in support of the more recent Occupy protests. Does she not understand that those people are against the very companies that are putting food in her mouth and a roof over her head? It baffles me. And then she will quietly rant to close friends about hating how the gun laws are becoming more harsh in her state, but she won't post about it 'in public' and doesn't seem to think anyone will notice. Well, I do. I don't know if she is liberal or conservative or libertarian or what-the-heck based on what I've known about her personally all these years but if I was forced to guess, I would say she is a heck of a lot more right than she is left. If I told her that, she would probably never speak to me again lol. Seriously.... that's sad.

Then there is another liberal friend of mine in Canada who rants and raves alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the time about the conservative govt and how we are going to go down in flames with Harper at the realm, etc etc blah blah. But she just started working at a vet clinic. A fully private one. Where people who choose to have pets come in and pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the services she helps provide. She sees these pets get CT scans and MRIs within 48 hours using cash or credit or deferred payments - but does not support a private option in Canada for humans. What? How can you slam that option for human beings but support it for animal owners to the point of physically working there every day? That one will floor me for a very long time. People choose to have pets. They do not often choose that their pet becomes sick (unless they take on an animal from a shelter, etc to help it back to recovery instead of letting it be euthanized) - but it's still a choice and then they can choose to pay outrageous bills and my friend will help take their money. But she doesn't want ME to be able to get an MRI for my trigeminal neuralgia in due time at a clinic of my choice. She wants me to sit on the waiting list forever, or for the govt to somehow fork over more money to move things along faster. At any rate, it's nice to know that my friend supports private vet clinics for animals, but not for humans. Lovely!

And then I come to a person who I hold in high regard. His family has done amazing things with their lives and helped a lot of children. However, he seems to think he is a very far leftie and roots for the NDP, though even they are probably not as far left as he wishes... but I have to watch him build his life while spending huge gobs of money that most people could not even fathom having. Renovating entire homes, buying new things allllllll the time, top electronic equipment, all the new gadgets, collects old cars (like NICE old cars), and is always buying something new and crazy every week or maybe every other week if he is being a slow poke --- way more than most people have. Why not donate more? Why not look around and see all the stuff he has accumulated - his WEALTH - and realize that he actually has more than 90% of his conservative friends. He bashes others for their lifestyle but doesnt even seem to notice that his is more lush than everyone else combined! Honestly - I really cannot believe it sometimes. How can you tout the ideas of Karl Marx and Fidel Castro, and then go home with a boatload of new 'stuff' that you don't even need? He could go out and buy 500 toasters for low income families, or a whack of winter coats and boots and just drop them off at the homeless or women's shelters... he could probably pay for 5 families' monthly groceries with the amount of money he spends each month on 'stuff'. I swear! So - what's up with the crap about being such a leftie and hating 'the rich'. Guess what buster - you ARE the rich, to millions of people who are far worse-off than you could even imagine, right here in Canada.

So, I just don't 'get' it sometimes. I feel like I have to hide being a conservative-leaning gal because people might think I dont care about the poorer folk, children, health care, seniors, etc etc when in fact, I find that a hell of a lot of my liberalesque friends are the ones who are thumbing their noses at everyone, or at the very least not even noticing what a double standard they present to the world.