# Stupid Ideas Generally Held by Liberals **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210 "2014-06-06T16:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/141 "2014-06-11T19:23:26Z")
> [@LibrarySpy](#): > > I was thinking of the 2 Live Crew controversy, but it seems like that was started by a [Republican governor](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,317656,00.html). Still, Rap music is bad!11111!!! is often a liberal viewpoint, due to the sexism and violence inherent. There is no way that you are going to get liberals predominantly censoring if you are using rap as a primary example. While liberals do have a problem with sexism and violence, I will bet you 10:1 that the primary censorship of rap comes from conservative groups. While liberals have a problem with sexism and violence, IME they are a lot less likely to censor over it. > [@](#): > > [Here](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/books/07huck.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). Banning Huckleberry Finn for using the N-word and having racist themes is a liberal cause, not a conservative cause. I do not accept this. While it is likely true that conservatives are more racist, I am not willing to label anti-racism as purely liberal without some evidence. > [@](#): > > [Banned Books List](http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10) > > I would say “racism” or “offensive language” are liberal viewpoints, while banning “sexually explicity” and “unsuited for age group” and “occult” are conservative viewpoints. Even if being anti-racist is more of a liberal position, that does not follow that the censoring of books with these themes is coming from liberals. We would need to look at the groups doing the censoring. There are plenty of conservative church groups that are none too fond of racism. > [@](#): > > Conservatives and liberals have different, perhaps equal, reasons for censoring things. But if I’m a proponent of free speech, I see no reason to diss the stupid conservative reasons but support the stupid liberal reasons. I agree, I just do not see that it is liberals doing the censoring even if some of the reasons may be considered “liberal” in general. I am open to being proven wrong though. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/142 "2014-06-11T19:26:50Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > This is what irks me about the current debates regarding raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage to $15/hr sounds like a good idea, until you realize that you’ll end up paying $10 for a cheeseburger at McDonalds. Alternatively, McDonalds might lay off half their workforce and install automated kiosks where customers order & pay. Either way, someone is going to pay. People have actually studied it and [found](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mcdonalds-salaries_n_3672006.html) that the cost increase per item would be minor. This quote is about a doubling of the minimum wage: > [@](#): > > A typical fast-food restaurant spends 30 to 35 percent of its income on labor, according to a recent release from the Employment Policies Institute, a research organization whose work is often cited by those who argue against increasing the minimum wage. The institute estimates that small-business owners who run McDonald’s franchises spend about a third of their income on wages, which would mean the price of a Big Mac would go up by $1.28 to $5.27. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/143 "2014-06-11T19:44:44Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > This is what irks me about the current debates regarding raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage to $15/hr sounds like a good idea, until you realize that you’ll end up paying $10 for a cheeseburger at McDonalds. Alternatively, McDonalds might lay off half their workforce and install automated kiosks where customers order & pay. Either way, someone is going to pay. This annoys me too, from both sides. In these debates the conservatives knee jerk to no increase and the liberals knee jerk to an increase. If we accept the idea that there should be a minimum wage, then unless we look at the data we do not know if the current one is too high or too low. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/144 "2014-06-11T20:06:49Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I > Try to buy a Little Black Sambo book sometime. They are very rare because they were pulled from the shelves decades ago and destroyed because people claimed that they were disparaging to African Americans for some ill-informed reason. Sambo wasn’t a black African, he was Indian. Tigers don’t live in Africa and anyone with any general knowledge should know that. Furthermore, there is nothing in the stories that are disparaging to any particular group. It is just a cute children’s fairy tale that was written by an English woman (Helen Bannerman) that lived in India. Sambo was never portrayed as anything less than clever yet the books had to go because an ignorant group of early group of politically correct people assumed that the books were making fun of American blacks even though there is no association at all. > > Also, try to find a copy of Disney’s Song of the South. I saw that movie as a child but good luck finding it today. It is forbidden officially. I can almost see the point that it wasn’t an accurate portrayal of antebellum slave life but it is still a good movie and a valuable historical piece (two on top of another; early Disney and 1940’s Southern Revisionist history) but you have to go through a lot of work to view it today. . Little Black Sambo isn;t racist. But for some reason the English called Natives of the Indian subcontinent "Black’ or even “Niggers”. The “Black” part is somewhat derogatory. AND, the Original and most other versions I saw has Sambo as racist stereotypically “Black” not Indian at all, and so did the Castle Films cartoon. So, yeah, nearly all the illustrations are racist as hell. As far as _Song of the South_ goes, the book by my friend Jim Korkis explains a lot. The Film is not “officially forbidden”. It is NOT set in the antebellum South, but rather during reconstruction. No one in the film is a slave (altho of course some were slaves before the War). It’s not “Southern Revisionist history”. > **[Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories:...](https://www.amazon.com/Afraid-South-Forbidden-Disney-Stories/dp/0984341552)** > > Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories \[Korkis, Jim, Norman, Floyd, McLain, Bob\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories Now yes, the film _is_ a product of it’s time. It’s _not_ “politically correct”. It’s very easy to interpret the Black reconstruction era sharecroppers as “happy antebellum slaves”. It should not go back into general circulation, but a historic version of in in the Metal Box series (Walt Disney Treasures) with a foreword and such is needed. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/145 "2014-06-11T22:33:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > . . . As far as _Song of the South_ goes, the book by my friend Jim Korkis explains a lot. The Film is not “officially forbidden”. It is NOT set in the antebellum South, but rather during reconstruction. No one in the film is a slave (altho of course some were slaves before the War). It’s not “Southern Revisionist history”. > [Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories: Korkis, Jim, Norman, Floyd, McLain, Bob: 9780984341559: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Afraid-South-Forbidden-Disney-Stories/dp/0984341552/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402516483&sr=1-2&keywords=song+of+the+south) . . . Thank’ee for the recommendation; I just downloaded the Kindle version. (If I don’t like it, I shall hold you personally responsible!) (Grin!) ---
**Author:** ![OurLordPeace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@OurLordPeace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OurLordPeace)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/146 "2014-06-11T22:44:35Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > True, we did have a workers’ revolution in the 1920s. And a violent upheaval of the wealthy in the 1790s. Oh wait. > > Even during the Depression there was no class-based revolt going on, because capitalism, in its market-based simplicity, destroyed the lives of most wealthy people as well. > > It’s important to note the struggles for labor rights and the rightful victories won, but it’s intellectually lazy to say “it wasn’t capitalism that made the West so rich it was organized labor!” FDR was pushed to do what he did largely in the face of incipient class-based conflict, emanating from a large and often militant Left. The struggles of workers (and the rest of the social movement) are what made so much of the West’s wealth accrue to such a large portion of society, rather than those at the top. Also, it’s important to note that a lot of Western wealth was extracted from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/147 "2014-06-11T22:50:39Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Wow, in Australia the liberals toe the line and the conservatives are individualistic and fractious? It is like the evil parallel universe version of the United States. Does everyone wear a black goatee there? It’s because they are at the antipodes. Maybe walking upside down all day does something to their heads. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/148 "2014-06-12T00:01:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > As far as _Song of the South_ goes, the book by my friend Jim Korkis explains a lot. The Film is not “officially forbidden”. It is NOT set in the antebellum South, but rather during reconstruction. No one in the film is a slave (altho of course some were slaves before the War). It’s not “Southern Revisionist history”. > [Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories: Korkis, Jim, Norman, Floyd, McLain, Bob: 9780984341559: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Afraid-South-Forbidden-Disney-Stories/dp/0984341552/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402516483&sr=1-2&keywords=song+of+the+south) > > Now yes, the film _is_ a product of it’s time. It’s _not_ “politically correct”. It’s very easy to interpret the Black reconstruction era sharecroppers as “happy antebellum slaves”. > > It should not go back into general circulation, but a historic version of in in the Metal Box series (Walt Disney Treasures) with a foreword and such is needed. Very informative to know. I only saw Song of the South once as a child before it got pulled from general circulation. I didn’t know enough to be able to critique it or the historical period in question at the time but it IS a good movie. The details you clarify make it even more benign. I know that Disney is the one officially doing the prohibition for its re-release in the U.S. but it is for a reason. They understand backlash as well as any mega-corp does these days. I just don’t think it is warranted in the case of Song of the South. It has some of the catchiest tunes of any of their movies. I don’t even think a foreword is needed unless you think that the same thing needs to be done for old Warner Brothers and Tom and Jerry cartoons that were a staple of every child’s TV viewing when I was growing up in the 80’s, even the old and really odd ones. What’s next, censuring The Honeymooners because of domestic violence innuendo (that never happens and couldn’t based on the characters involved)? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/149 "2014-06-12T03:51:19Z")
I think both sides get shafted by the political parties they trust yet we vote for them because they have us brainwashed into thinking the worse if they dont. As a registered republican I am not always happy with what they do and many democrats I know feel the same about their party. And their is the anti-president thing. The liberals went nuts in their hatred of Bush and the right does the same with Obama. However I think Obama supporters are way to quick to throw out the race card in order to stifle opposition. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/150 "2014-06-22T08:24:51Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > … Song of the South … IS a good movie … na. It’s a movie with good bits in it. The main story is weak, histronic, melodramatic, and dated. The animation is interesting. The ‘Uncle Remus’ storyline is good, and the Academy Award winning score is great. Apart from the score, what I found particularly memorable was how African the Uncle Remus character was. And it alerted me to the African-ness of characters in other early talkies. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/151 "2014-06-22T16:16:18Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > It is. It’s good for the simple reason that if we have nothing to compare our own views, cultural beliefs, and religious values to, we have a significantly harder time examining our own and fall into the habit that because we believe it or because our world is _this_ way, it is therefore inherently right. It is good because it gives us more answers and more ideas to draw upon when we face challenges. You are assuming that benefit of diversity is not counterbalanced by some undesirable effects of diversity, such as hate crimes, stereotyping, discrimination, neo-nazism, skinheads, secret cabals, anti-miscegenationism, concentration camps, gas chambers, slavery… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/152 "2014-06-22T21:10:37Z")
Those aren’t “undesirable effects of diversity”. They’re effects of stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/153 "2014-06-23T02:05:03Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Wow, in Australia the liberals toe the line and the conservatives are individualistic and fractious? It is like the evil parallel universe version of the United States. Does everyone wear a black goatee there? In Russia, the line toes liberals… [QUOTE=Stalin] Some people think that it is sufficient to draw up a correct Party line, proclaim it from the housetops, state it in the form of general theses and resolutions, and take a vote and carry unanimously for victory to come of itself, spontaneously, as it were. This, of course, is wrong. It is a gross delusion. Only incorrigible bureaucrats and red-tapists can think so. As a matter of fact, these successes and victories did not come spontaneously, but as the result of a fierce struggle for the application of the Party line. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/154 "2014-06-25T16:21:58Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Thank’ee for the recommendation; I just downloaded the Kindle version. (If I don’t like it, I shall hold you personally responsible!) (Grin!) So, what did you think? ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/155 "2014-06-25T17:12:06Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > (I’m a liberal, I also know enough about corporate finance to know a lot of companies are not endless money machines - in fact, many go bankrupt). The major reason corporations can report low profits is because interest and rent, most of which is actually interest in another form, can be deducted from gross profits. Classical economists consider rent to be a parasitical function in an economy. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/156 "2014-06-25T17:26:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [list][li]Free trade hurts the poor.[/li] When people like you and I talk about free trade, we mean that it makes sense that I, a house builder, should make a deal with you , an auto mechanic, to build your house and you should fix my car, rather than you trying to build a house and I trying to repair my car. This is the way the corporate shills try to sell what they consider “fair trade”. What they really mean is that instead of hiring you for $20 an hour to make a product which contains 4 hours of labor and then selling it for $100, making $20 profit, they will hire the US government to install a dictatorship in some foreign country and pay people there $5 and hour, make them work harder so the product only has 3 hours of labor time and sell the same product in the US for $80, making a profit of $65 and telling the people what a good deal they are getting because they are getting a 20% discount in the price. Of course, the public represents those who no longer make the $20/hr and are now making he minimum wage at Mickey Ds. This example is for illustrative purposed only. It ignores other legitimate costs an employer may have. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/157 "2014-06-26T04:07:23Z")
On the list of stupid ideas held by both liberals and conservatives, this idea that free trade and immigration are two different things, and one side likes one and the other side likes the other. They are one and the same. All immigration is is free trade in human capital. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/158 "2014-06-26T04:28:36Z")
That social issues are more important than economic issues. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210/159 "2014-06-26T05:40:27Z")
Depends on the social issue. I can’t imagine what could be more important than equality and freedom. I’m actually quite shocked in another thread that so many liberals are willing to throw gays under the bus for universal health care. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ideas-generally-held-by-liberals/690210.md?page=7)