I'm liberal, NOT stupid

The BBQ Pit
1

I considered putting this in GD but I’m kinda pissed so I’m going to post it here.

Just because I’m a liberal does NOT make me naive! Here and here (and those are just off the top of my head) it is stated that liberals are naive, or just plain stupid.

I’m sick and fucking tired of being told that just because I’m a liberal means that I haven’t live in the “real” world, with the implication that I will someday grow up and realize the error of my ways (place pat-on-the-head here).

Fuck you guys! You know what? I HAVE lived life. Perhaps (and I know this may have never occurred to you) the reason I’m a liberal is BECAUSE I’ve lived; you condescending assholes!

My beliefs are based in MY reality. I have seen good people go hungry. I’ve seen friends pulled over solely based on their race. I’ve seen good women and their children abandoned by their husbands have them only to work minimum wage jobs and require Government assistance while they get back on their feet. I’ve seen smart kids leave college for no other reason than lack of funds, and kids who stayed in college, but couldn’t afford food or books. I’ve seen people mired in hopelessness on a downward spiral.

On the other hand, I’ve seen rich kids essentially buy their way through college, and seen these same types get jobs at their father’s business only to fuck around all day. I’ve seen protesters harass young women going to get legal abortions, and CEOs making millions of dollars while their employees get screwed.

Who cost this country more: the welfare mother, or corporate welfare? Who is more corrupt: the welfare queen, or the CEO of WorldCom? Who is a bigger crook, the drug user or Ken Lay? Who is more destructive to this country: The Christian Right, or NOW? And who is holding a longer grudge: the “Clinton is the root of all evil” crowd or the “Bush; we didn’t elect him crowd”?

You may disagree with me, and that’s just fine. I, oddly enough, believe that Conservatives feel that way because of THEIR reality, but I don’t think them stupid.

So Conservatives, back the fuck off! You stop telling me I’m naive, and I’ll stop telling you you’re mean.

2

I don’t recall telling you that you’re stupid. I know many people who consider themselves liberal who have sincere differences of opinion with me about the best ways for society to manage its problems.

So why have you been calling us conservatives mean? I don’t appreciate that at all.

3

I agree with bio-brat 100%. I’m annoyed when people deride me for being “one of those liberals.” I may disagree with you, but I will never attack you for your beliefs. I will not deride you, although if I am well-informed enough on the issue, I may engage in some friendly debate. I would appreciate it if people would return the courtesy.

I know from vast experience that there are liberals who are naive and inexperienced. Although I don’t know as many conservatives, I have the sneaking suspicion that plenty of right-wingers are equally naive and inexperienced. No political viewpoint has an absolute monopoly on youthful enthusiasm.

4

Ringo it was hyperbole. This article cited in one of the aforementioned threads, the basic premise is that Conservatives think Liberals are Stupid and Liberals think Conservatives are evil. I don’t know a single Liberal who would use the word “evil”" do describe a Conservative, so I substituted mean.

5

I’m tired of being accused of being a godless commie, a socialist dupe, an idiot, someone who wants something for nothing.

I just wish life were fair. Is that so wrong? Is it bad to be a do-gooder, or a bleeding heart?

6

Tangent time…

Personally, I’m sick to death of this whole liberals vs. conservatives mess. For one thing, the meaning of those terms has been twisted from their origin into some political ideology pigeonhole. Also, I think that these ideological divisions are counterproductive and the cause of much of our lack of effective governance in the past few years. And furthermore, somewhere under my tinfoil hat lies the sinking suspicion that that’s precisely the way THEY want it.

What’s the word for the political ideology of someone who just wants things to get done fairly and efficiently for the benefit of ALL of the people (or at least most of them)? (yeah, I know, Dreamer, Crackhead, BWAHAHA and all that)

arky

7

You do realize, it’s not just liberals who get that kind of treatment. Not by a long stretch…

8

>Personally, I’m sick to death of this whole liberals vs. >conservatives mess.

I can’t agree more. I’m tired of all these stupid, naive, mostly female liberals clucking about their extensive life experiences, the dopes.

And the evil conservative illuminati, mostly male WASP republicans are just as bad with their priggish attitudes.

Did I miss anyone?

9

No. Possibly it could be called unrealistically idealistic. Didn’t even Churchill say if you weren’t a liberal when you were 20 you had no heart?

Still , there’s are differences between calling someone idealistic, or naive, or stupid. Just as there is a difference between calling a conservative cynical, or mean, or evil.

The most liberal guy I ever met was a priest in his 40s who ran a soup kitchen. Was I gonna call him sheltered and say he hadn’t seen the seamier side?

10

I think the whole Churchil quote is “At 19 if you are not a liberal you have no heart, at 30 if you are not a conservative you have no brain”. It is as true today as it was when he said it.

11

And the Churchill quote was bullshit when he said it.
I’ve known many old liberals who were very smart, I’ve yet to meet a conservative who wasn’t mean-spirited but I would assume there are some and that their age has nothing to do with it.

12

I agree 100%.
Funny anecdote, I went to elementary school with a boy who was elitist, two-faced, smug, and a bully.
Now he’s head of the Conservative Youth party in my province. When I heard, I laughed and laughed. It’s what he was put on this earth to do. IMHO, of course.

13

I can find you at least four or five right here on the Straight Dope, if you’d like.

14

I think it was 20 and 40, but basically that was it.
Guin,
I don’t mean to seem condescending toward you, and on review it could be construed that way. I don’t mean any disrespect. I disagreed with almost everything that priest said. I also respected him, his honesty, and his altruism a lot. You have decent human beings all along the spectrum.

15

There’s nothing wrong with being a liberal bleeding heart. Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower, two political columnists I respect immensely are bleeding heart liberals. Wanting a more compassionate, sensible, tolerant world is the goal of all good people. Conservatives and liberals just have differing ideas on how to accomplish those goals. Libs like big government; consrvatives don’t.

But then you get people like Michael Moore and the OP, bloviated, self-important types who adopt the liberal cause just to feel superior–“I’m better than you because I CARE!” They’re the folks who will shout down conservative speakers on college campuses or steal runs of the colelge paper because it runs articles they disapprove of. They are the apparatchiks of intolerance masquerading as concern. They are the enemies of freedom, and they can go to hell.

16

Is it really that hard to see the other side? I’m pretty liberal, especially when it comes to civil rights, so I hear it from the conservatives. I also think that if my ideas of what is the best for the greater good is to happen, we have to find a way to pay for it, so I hear it from the liberals. (One can be responsible both socially and fiscally, despite idiocy on both sides.)

But holy fucking knee-jerk blinders, just because you’ve come to a different conclusion doesn’t mean you are stupid or mean (you are totally wrong if you don’t agree with me, not necessarily stupid or mean.)

I think the people who come to these conclusions about the other side are the stupid and mean ones.

17

Michael Moore types suck. They just want attention.

Give me Tip O’Neill, Gregory Peck or Molly Ivins any day.

18

Oh, gobear, put away the dictionary and give it a rest.

19

Hey I like how we have Count Trari de Reeson calling Liberals stupid in a thread which specifically asking not to, directly followed by grendel72’s assertion that Conservatives are mean.

We’ve come a long way baby!

pldennison I don’t believe you. “Evil” is such a Bush-ism that most Liberals won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. That said, I don’t really even think it’s terribly accurate. I believe “mean” is far closer to reality.

Damn gobear I wish you hadn’t posted that, because you happen to be the one who shot the first “liberals are stupid” bullet over the bow, with this quote (from the thread in OP)

20

Actually I stand by my statement, and I especially endorse this passage from Krauthammer’s essay:

On of the weaknesses of the liberal viewpoint is its inability to recognize the existence of true evil. There is no act so depraved, no criminal so vile, that some liberals will not defend it and/or blame it on someone else. Witness Susan Sontag, as well as some posters here, whose first impulse after 9/11 was to blame America for inciting bin Laden’s attack.