Polarity
Wow. A firestorm kind of went off in the comments section on that last post.
Okay, not really. But it is fair to say that it wandered into territory that I didn't intend it to. All that conservative vs liberal stuff.
And I was then asked to do a post about "liberal" vs "conservative." And to a certain degree I am somewhat inspired to do so, and to a certain degree I would rather write about almost anything else.
Why is that?
Because it's all opinion. There is no FACT associated with liberalness or conservativeness. So I could write till the cows come home about what I consider being "liberal" or being "conservative" to mean, and you could then tell me that I'm full of crap. And refute every one of my statements. And neither of us would be inherently "wrong."
So, I have decided that I hate the terms "liberal" and "conservative." And that I need to come up with better terms for things, because L and C are just too slippery and can be made to mean anything that you want them to.
Case in point -- a friend on Facebook had this as her status recently: "Silly liberal, paychecks are for jobs." What's she insinuating here? Clearly what she's saying is that liberals are people who believe that people should be allowed to stay on welfare programs indefinitely.
Well, that means I am not a liberal, I guess. Because I don't think that.
So, the follow up comments to her status from her fellow non-liberals: "but how else will they buy crack?" and "I dunno. By breaking into my car, stealing my stereo and selling it to a pawn shop?"
And suddenly, I'm not on the trolley anymore. I guess I'm just naive because I don't think that someone who is on welfare is necessarily also a crack addict and a car stereo thief.
So I guess that means that I'm not a conservative either.
In either of these cases, I think that the L and C labels are being misapplied. Yet, others plainly disagree with me.
I have to admit, I am stumped. Other than to say that I think that from this point forward, I am going to have to avoid political labeling - conservative, liberal, progressive, communistic, socialist, fascist - it's all a load of rhetorical crap.
I have lost my way in this post. I don't really know what the heck I am trying to say, other than to say that polarizing words like "conservative" and "liberal" seem to be engineered to divide people into groups, and as far as I can tell, I don't want to do that. I want to deal with individuals, and be dealt with as an individual. Which is really hard to do.
Really hard.
7 splash(es):
Sorry, I'm the one who put you up to this! Only I'm not sorry because I find your viewpoints interesting and refreshing. So many people try to find a banner under which to stand. I am liberal. I am conservative. That I see them trying to mold their viewpoints to match those of the other folks standing under the banner. I think what you're saying is that you want to stand under a banner of your own making, or no banner at all. I feel the same as you about the welfare thing. There are some days, though, when I rage, RAGE, about the fact that I have a friend who keeps getting pregnant even though she can't support the kids she's having and their fathers (yes fathers. But who am I to judge) won't have anything to do with them (i.e. won't pay child support). Now this friend of mine eagerly accepts her welfare check from the government but is too lazy to file with the courts regarding collected child support from the men who actually fathered the children. She has no intention of ever going off of welfare and will probably have more kids and suck a living out of hardworking taxpayers. I'm torn about this. Obviously, the kids shouldn't be penalized for their mother's irresponsibility. I can't help but feel that women shouldn't be rewarded for continuing to have children they cannot afford to support. Now I have zero problems with a woman who is on public assistance because, say, her husband died unexpectedly. But I would hope that our public assistance would include giving people an education so that they can get better jobs and eventually support themselves. And then I think, wait, that's not fair. I can't even afford to go to college to better myself. Why should someone else get a free ride because of a tragedy? I've had plenty of fucking tragedies in my life and nobody has ever handed me anything for free, nothing to make my life a little easier. Do you see how I go around and around? The truth is that conservative and liberal ideology both annoy the shit out of me. I want to stand under the banner of common sense. It's so complicated.
Thanks for writing the blog. I know you're probably thinking that I should just write a damn blog instead of writing a novel sized comment on yours. Sorry. If I wrote a blog I would actually be committing to these ideas. People might write nasty things and hurt my feelings and then I'd want to jump off a bridge even more than I already do. So, yeah, no blog :) Happy 4th!
Good post Pos! Good response Gwen!
Pos, I think you are so right. Pigeonholing someone's idelas is IMPOSSIBLE! And, unfortunately, Gwen, apparently "common sense" ain't so common - whichever definition of common you use.
This whole discussion just makes me think what a bunch of dumb asses we, the American public, are. We have allowed ourselves to be drug into this liberal vs. conservative, republican vs. democrat, us vs. them war of words. We are so distracted by this nonsense that we lose sight of what the real issues are and what a canidates position is on those issues. And, sometimes I really think that this is exactly how the politicians want us -- too distracted to notice the real shenanigans.
Sigh....It kind of depresses me.
It's probably a good thing that you're stumpped, eh? I mean, anything you come up with would just get a smackdown from someone anyway.
This reminds me of Hellbilly and I living in the 'Bible Belt' and people wanting to know our religion. He finally started telling people he is a 'Pluralist'. Believes in all of it. That just freaks people out, but it also shuts 'em up.
I am a conservative because I believe in privacy -- get the govt out of my business. So I am against the govt interfering with a womb. If people are stupid enough to do drugs its none of the govt business. And why is the govt even involved in the issue of marriage -- any kind of marriage. I am also against warrantless wiretapping, nation building and the supreme court deciding elections when the constitution clearly says elections are state rights.
Do you think I'd ever call myself a conservative?
Dr. Suess had it right ... it's the star-bellied Sneeches vs. the non-star bellied Sneeches and the manipulating bastard who made all that money on putting on/taking off those damn stars to appease those ignorant and fickle critters.
Quite a freaky (albeit accurate!) depiction of our current social/political climate.
What makes it even more problematic is when liberal really means fiscally conservative.
You get two more days to post, or I'm calling a meeting! Or you have an excuse. One or the other.
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