A Message From Tommy Steverson Who Thinks I “Love” Being Right

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I received this message in the mail today from Tommy Steverson, a 70+-year-old man who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Evidently, Steverson thinks I “love” being right. Well, shit, who doesn’t like to be right? I don’t know about you, but I prefer to be right about things as much as possible. Who wants to go through life being “wrong” all the time. That said, I don’t “love” being right. My “love” list is quite small: Polly, our six children, and our thirteen grandchildren. Love, to me anyway, is that which I am willing to die for. I will stand in the way of a bullet for my family — that’s love. But, everything else in my life falls on a scale between like and indifference.

It’s too bad Steverson wasn’t clearer on what prompted him to buy a stamp and sent me a file card in an envelope. All I can do now is say huh? and point out his grammar error: it’s you’re not your.

Of course, it’s possible that Steverson dipped the file card in some sort of toxic nerve agent and I will soon be dead, as will Polly. Ya never know, right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Damn, I love typing the word r-i-g-h-t. 🙂

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Comments

14 responses to “A Message From Tommy Steverson Who Thinks I “Love” Being Right”

January 15, 2022

BJW

Ha! You should have ended the post with the words trailing off, so Tommy could’ve hoped you died from the toxic nerve agent while posting. Then he could’ve had a moment of rejoicing…until he realized this post wouldn’t even be up without you living again…curses, foiled again! Mwahahahaha.

Okay, that would be mean, right? Oh, and also, I’ve learned from the original CSI and also from reading fiction, that getting hold of ricin isn’t TOO hard. 😉

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January 15, 2022

Karuna Gal

Tommy, Tommy! Were you raised in a barn? Why didn’t you use some nice stationery, or at the very least a cute Hallmark card, to write to Bruce on? How déclassé. Bruce deserves the best, you know, because he’s right. Gad.

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January 15, 2022

Brian Vanderlip

Dear Mr. Stevie, You be glad to know that it’s okay to be wrong as well, to think you are so right you write it as right and not the wrong that it may well be, wrongly right and rightly wrong no doubt… We are perfectly right to be wrong sometimes and sometimes perfectly wrong to be right: That’s what you are saying (far more succinctly than me), right? Or is it that you want to say it’s wrong to feel right?
As you feel right, for instance? And what if you are right about a flat earth for years and years and then suddenly learn you are wrong because your drinking buddy explains how you can actually measure the curvature of the globe? Well, you simply FEEL bad now and accuse him of being wrong because he has feelings! He dares to feel someting about his discovery and his ability to share it! Nevermnd him! Then the earth stays nice and flat just the way you like it…. Look down the street outside the pub: Obviously flat as flat!

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January 15, 2022

ObstacleChick

Dude, Tommy, you sure went to a lot of effort to contact Bruce. Couldn’t figure out how to email or leave a comment? Or afraid you would be banned?

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January 15, 2022

clubschadenfreude

I do love how christians like Tommy always shoot themselves in the metaphorical face with their nonsense.

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January 15, 2022

Trenton

Armchair psychologist for Jesus. Tommy, a little advice that has served me and probably several other readers well

Mind your own business
Do unto others as you have them do unto you.

Both are very easy and are considered common courtesy.

Edited bc the original post was meant for a different post

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January 15, 2022

Emersonian

He. Mailed. You. An. Index. Card.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL

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January 15, 2022

MJ Lisbeth

Bad grammar and bad taste. And he slams you for wanting to be right?

Amirite, or what? 😉

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January 15, 2022

Ben Berwick

If he’d left a return address, I’d reply with one word: ‘you’re’.

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1. January 15, 2022
  
  Bruce Gerencser
  
  He did, and I might do this. 😂😂
  
  Reply
January 15, 2022

Astreja

Tommy, you’re an asshole.

A poorly-educated asshole, at that.

Before you criticize others, perhaps you should sign up for a remedial English class so that people don’t laugh at your unsupported assertions for the wrong reasons. 😀

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January 16, 2022

BJW

You know, I’m more into live and let live. Apparently, being a fundie means being nosy and trying to force others outside of the flock to do what they want. (They aren’t trying to enforce those INSIDE the flock to follow all the rules, at least, not the leaders. The peons are the ones who get exposed for dancing? drinking? fornication?) So we have to oppose them and since they are now the dominant voting group in the GOP, we can expect their Christian fascism to continue to be successful.

I do not have a good feeling about where our country is going. Aside from blaming the wealthy, the once upon a time wrongly called Moral Majority is winning. And I fear that we as Americans are going to end up getting the government we deserve, having abdicated using our brains and going on emotions. Fundamentalist religion has made a fertile ground for all of this.

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January 16, 2022

GeoffT

Regardless of the undoubted fact that the writer of the note is a fool, he does (inadvertently, I’m sure) hit on a fairly fundamental question regarding both philosophy and human psychology: being right. What does it mean to be right, who determines it, and how do we measure it. At school we learn how to reason, so that when presented with a question in maths it’s insufficient to simply give the answer, you must explain your methodology. Indeed, the ‘right’ answer alone might merit no marks at all, whilst the meticulously laid out method of calculating it might score very high marks, even though the actual answer was accidentally wrong.

This applies throughout all areas of life. I’d argue that whilst being right is something we all aim for, it’s actually how we approach matters that count. I’ve been told numerous times in abortion debates that I’m wrong about life beginning at birth, that it begins…well, whenever. These people who tell me this are neither right nor wrong. We all know the biology! We know about fertilised eggs, etc, etc, but that isn’t the same as assigning a time at which rights are granted. This is a philosophical point, not one of science, and is determined by society. So it’s not a matter of being ‘right’, it’s how one bases one’s arguments. The same with climate change, vaccinations, gun rights, LGBT, and so on. You may think you’re absolutely right in every stance you take, but if you’ve adopted improper reasoning then you are wrong, regardless of your conclusion.

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January 17, 2022

Troy

In the age of e-mail, snail mail is one way to get noticed. Yes there is a grammar mistake, but he got Gerencser correct, and even after being in the cult of Bruce for 8 years or so I still have to check that one every time.
I remember my grandmother gave me $50 and put it in an index card and stuffed it in my shirt pocket. Some are criticizing the lack of Hallmark, but I thought it was pure genius. Some people may treasure a greeting card forever and ever, but more commonly it is like the Seinfeld episode where they debate how long you keep a card before you toss it in the trash.

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