And if you're uncomfortable reading the word "nigger", imagine how uncomfortable I was hearing it...

Now is this person going to change their views, probably not. I want him to know that all the rhetoric he echos affects real people who are closer to home than he thinks.

For the record he read my message and never replied. I'm plan to ask him about it the next time we see each other

It's one thing when those "lazy others" are nameless/faceless. It's another thing when it's someone you know and have to interact with. It's another other thing when it's me because I'm messy and will gladly speak out against your BS

Because as a federal contractor, if cuts need to be made I'm the first to go. My exact words at the end of the message were "I like my job..."

In fact this realtor (and almost every other person I interact with in our small SC town) love to ask me questions about space whenever my place of employment comes up

Made a point to tell him that "trimming the fat" could be very bad for me

For those who don't know, I work remote for NASA. Ive loved spaceflight my entire life and I consider it an incredible blessing that I'm able to support those missions without having to uproot my family to do so.

I certainly don't think that I'm a waste of tax dollars...

The other day he posted a quote from some Republican saying "_% of the federal workforce are full time remote workers" (implying that they're a waste of money) and that he was excited to see the new administration "trim the fat"

I replied (paraphrasing)" you know I'm in that statistic right ?"

Story time: The realtor who sold my wife and I's house also sold houses to my wife's parents and brother. We live in a smallish town and see him out and about all the time. He's a very vocal Trump supporter who loves to post about politics on Facebook

My response was that the lack of empathy also comes from the fact that people live in their own homogeneous communities and rarely have to interact in meaningful ways with "others"