Special shout-out to Flea, who will never see this because I'm sure he'll never come here, but thank you, Flea, for speaking my mind once again.
Okay, I'm not actually reviewing the book, written by conservative Bernard Goldberg, but his book got the wheels in my head turning.
I always wondered what was so evil about being a "liberal."
"Conservatives" had thrown this word around for as long as I can remember as some sort of insult. I never quite understood what could possibly be so evil about these mythical "liberals." Why, they just seem to want equality and justice for everyone, my naive ass thought.
And while in my old age, that might not be entirely true, I can at least say that i see how and why "conservatives" view "liberals" the way they do. Now, while I don't entirely agree with the views of the author (due to the fact that he doesn't just wear his bias; it's tattooed on his face), I can see where these "liberals" are pissing people off, assuming the stories in the book were told properly.
The whole thing is a revelation to me. Liberals are clearly just feeling-Nazis out to make us all loving, hugging, caring, robots who take care not to offend anyone ever and accept the abuse of feminists. Conservatives are clearly here to save us all. Oh, and their wallets. But mostly us.
Now, first thing is, I don't view myself as liberal OR conservative. I reject all these political labels because when you identify yourself as something, when others think that label defines your whole life or something. That's the part where I'm likely to get upset and start saying things like, "don't presume to know me, you jackbooted, Bush-loving...etc, etc."
The second this is, the problem with all of this is that people are acting as if ALL of their views are right and there is NO room for any views but their own. Knowing that this sort of thing goes on, I've tried very hard not to be this way, because all you're going to wind up doing is pissing folks off. I know this because I've been that pissed off person. I've had friends who do this. You'll know these people because they bait you into asking the right questions that allow them to espouse their views that they've been pondering about for the last 20 minutes.
So both liberals and conservatives...liberals are trying to have everyone be considerate of everyone else, which won't work and conservatives don't want to be considerate at all. Except for money. There has to be a middle ground. And that's me. I'm the middle ground.
A word to these..."liberals." Stop bothering everyone with all of your causes. EVERYTHING is not a call to activism, or "jihad." Just because five people are bothered by something doesn't mean that we all should stop doing it. I'm not going to stop calling "little people" midgets and I don't need you to come to my defense everytime someone said something that MIGHT be construed as racial (the Fisher DeBerry incident). Also, just because a white person says something negative to a black person, be it name calling or otherwise, it doesn't make it a racial issue. I can honestly say, sometimes black folks need to be called a name. Everything funny isn't offending someone. Sometimes stereotypes are true. Stop making everything a call to arms and stop calling conservatives "Nazis." Just stop, dammit. Just stop. Use some common sense before you start complaining about something.
"Conservatives." I am not a Christian. I never will be a Christian. When I have kids, I will not tell them that evolution is a farce and that the stories told in the Bible are historically accurate. I will never support prayer in schools. I believe in the separation of church and state. I know that everyone in this country isn't a Christian or Catholic and to presume anything otherwise is just being selfish. Just because I don't support the President does NOT make me anti-American. Just because I can be honest with myself and my country about injustices inflicted against others does NOT make me anti-American. Just because I don't trust the government to not intrude upon my civil liberties does NOT make me anti-American. Whipping the uneducated masses into a frenzy about gay marriage and scaring people about terrorism every two years (read: ELECTION TIME) does NOT equal "smart politics." And stop calling liberals "Nazis."
This kind of stuff is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these two groups. There's so much mudslinging and selfish politics going back and forth that there's no time for actual civilized discourse. And all these people are doing is lining their own pockets at the expense of the nation and calling it "a good thing," and convincing people that the system doesn't work. And the way you people are acting, it clearly doesn't. Shut the fuck up sometimes...and listen to what someone else is saying. It's not bad for someone to disagree. Completely blowing off the ideas of others because you don't like them is.
And a final word to Bernard Goldberg...Jon Stewart was right.
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