Recently I talked with a new client. The fantasy was going along fine when he asked what I thought about Obama. I’m used to clients interrupting with non sequiturs, though admittedly it took some time to get used to them. (I blogged about PSO work and politics here.)

I gave my opinion. Here’s the gist-I voted for Obama. I like that we have an intelligent, well spoken president now. But I don’t like the bailouts, the continuation of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the continuation of many Bush policies. That sounds reasonable right?

Muslim-obsessed Client ignored my comment and asked “You know he’s a Muslim right?” I was speechless. If you don’t like Obama there’s legitimate critiques you could make. Why go with the already debunked campaign smear?

I replied that no Obama isn’t Muslim. Sure he went to a Muslim school for a couple years. But I was peer pressured to go to Christian camp one summer when I was a girl. That doesn’t mean I’m a Christian now. Again, sounds reasonable right? Personally, I’d prefer an atheist president but I kept that opinion to myself.

MC again ignored my comment. He told me this weird story about voting last November. According to MC he wanted to vote for McCain. But there was a Muslim man by the voting booth. The man made eye contact with MC and escorted him into the voting booth. Then in a dramatic voice he says “And he made me vote for Obama.”

I was speechless. What am I supposed to say to that? There’s so many things that didn’t make sense in that story. Then MC asked if I had studied the Koran. I haven’t and said so. MC told me I should start because Obama was going to turn the United States into a Muslim nation.

What the hell? What do you say to that? It was like listening to an Obama’s A Muslim album played on repeat.

I figured I’d turn his question around. “Have you studied the Koran?” I asked. MC said no. Then I asked why not if he was convinced Obama was going to force us all to convert.

MC told me that he was a Christian and he had sworn to God to fight the Muslims in the coming “holy war”.

At this point I was thinking-Wow, I’ve read about people like this but have never really debated with one before.

Then MC went back to his fantasy. Not surprisingly he wanted to talk about big, dark skinned Muslim men raping his girlfriend. She became their sex slave, converted to their religion and wore a burka.

It was a weird call. MC was so confusing. Simple logic and facts defeated so many of his beliefs. And yet they didn’t seem to affect MC. When presented with both logic and facts he ignored them and just stated the same opinion in a slightly different way. I can’t imagine thinking like that.

Posted by Vixen in PSO Confessions