Moniker
July 26th, 2003, 02:27 PM
Okay, as the title says I'm a bit sedated. Well I haven't eaten in 4 days because I got my wisdom teeth out and the sight of food scares me but I need to work my brain a little, so here I go.
Labels in Politics
Am I the only one who's sick of seeing labels thrown around in political debates? I actually went into a "From the Right" chat room a while back, and while not everyone in the room was an idiot who apparently thought they were the smartest person in the world, basically most of what I heard was--
The libs are doing this...
The dems are doing that...
The left is doing this...
Now repeat imagine that times 25 people who are preaching to the choir, to say the least, in big colorful text trying to get their message heard and I wonder -- do people really think this way?
In fact I got into a conversation with one of these people saying that I would rather have John McCain as president, and they said Bush is better because McCain has "no class". What the hell? I did try to compliment Bush though -- gave him props on having a good cabinet but by then I was drowned out by a bunch of of people badmouthing liberals. "The liberals hate America" they said... "they're no better than the terrorists!". Of course when one tries to bring up the economy the subject quickly changes. I suppose that wasn't their bag though.
Do conservatives (ironically enough I'm going to use this term in this post) really believe that there is one blurred mass of liberals, Democrats, femininsts, and athests trying to bring down society into something resembling Escape from L.A.? It seems to me that if anyone opposes Bush they're a crazy leftist, or finds anything wrong with the War in Iraq, for whatever reason, has ever voted for a democrat. Apparently liberals are those whining yuppies from New York City who are trying to bring down life for the working man who lives an honest life and works hard for their money.
Apparently no liberal has a family, or family values. Obviously there aren't liberals aren't in the military because they hate America, (plus we have a system set up to keep liberals out of there, right?). I'm merely joking around, but sadly enough there's people who actually think like this.
I, personally, have nothing wrong with conservatives. If someone believes that it's what's best for our country then more power to them -- that's what freedom of opinion is all about. But it just saddens, no, sickens me to see people think of government and our elected officials as an 'us vs. them' thing. In other words, "us decent level-headed God-fearing sensible conservatives" versus "those crazy big city carpetbagger country hating greedy asshole liberals". Not all of liberalism is bad (not all of it good, but my point stands). Not all democrats want to take your hard earned money and give it to crackheads in the street (you know -- welfare explained by the ignorant). But it seems to me that for years to come the term "liberal" will remain an generalized insult to the American public -- and that by not agreeing with conservative elected officials, one's opinion somehow means less.
Here comes the disclaimer -- as always many liberals are guilty of the same thing, yes, yes... I know this, I've seen it. But it just seems more overt by comparison coming from middle-aged Americans with families as opposed to college aged students.
Finally, I encourage ALL of you, regardless of political socialization (is that the term I want?), to go into both liberal and conservative chat rooms and observe how they communicate. Personally, both experiences have made me as moderate as can be.
Labels in Politics
Am I the only one who's sick of seeing labels thrown around in political debates? I actually went into a "From the Right" chat room a while back, and while not everyone in the room was an idiot who apparently thought they were the smartest person in the world, basically most of what I heard was--
The libs are doing this...
The dems are doing that...
The left is doing this...
Now repeat imagine that times 25 people who are preaching to the choir, to say the least, in big colorful text trying to get their message heard and I wonder -- do people really think this way?
In fact I got into a conversation with one of these people saying that I would rather have John McCain as president, and they said Bush is better because McCain has "no class". What the hell? I did try to compliment Bush though -- gave him props on having a good cabinet but by then I was drowned out by a bunch of of people badmouthing liberals. "The liberals hate America" they said... "they're no better than the terrorists!". Of course when one tries to bring up the economy the subject quickly changes. I suppose that wasn't their bag though.
Do conservatives (ironically enough I'm going to use this term in this post) really believe that there is one blurred mass of liberals, Democrats, femininsts, and athests trying to bring down society into something resembling Escape from L.A.? It seems to me that if anyone opposes Bush they're a crazy leftist, or finds anything wrong with the War in Iraq, for whatever reason, has ever voted for a democrat. Apparently liberals are those whining yuppies from New York City who are trying to bring down life for the working man who lives an honest life and works hard for their money.
Apparently no liberal has a family, or family values. Obviously there aren't liberals aren't in the military because they hate America, (plus we have a system set up to keep liberals out of there, right?). I'm merely joking around, but sadly enough there's people who actually think like this.
I, personally, have nothing wrong with conservatives. If someone believes that it's what's best for our country then more power to them -- that's what freedom of opinion is all about. But it just saddens, no, sickens me to see people think of government and our elected officials as an 'us vs. them' thing. In other words, "us decent level-headed God-fearing sensible conservatives" versus "those crazy big city carpetbagger country hating greedy asshole liberals". Not all of liberalism is bad (not all of it good, but my point stands). Not all democrats want to take your hard earned money and give it to crackheads in the street (you know -- welfare explained by the ignorant). But it seems to me that for years to come the term "liberal" will remain an generalized insult to the American public -- and that by not agreeing with conservative elected officials, one's opinion somehow means less.
Here comes the disclaimer -- as always many liberals are guilty of the same thing, yes, yes... I know this, I've seen it. But it just seems more overt by comparison coming from middle-aged Americans with families as opposed to college aged students.
Finally, I encourage ALL of you, regardless of political socialization (is that the term I want?), to go into both liberal and conservative chat rooms and observe how they communicate. Personally, both experiences have made me as moderate as can be.