No offense but those are simple bromides. They have no distinctively leftist, liberal, or Democratic theme to them.
I agree with all of this, but my main objection is when people throw the “bigotry” card around, we are not arguing over which of the competing visions are better or offer society the most. We are arguing over who is more or less bigoted or defending against charges of bigotry instead of attempting to find the most positive outcome. It is simply a juvenile attempt to “win” a debate.
Take the first bomb thrown in the OP about loving the military but being against transexuals in the military. We don’t have a debate about it. We just assume that opponents are bigots and move on. It is not conducive to anything and doesn’t change minds. People won’t be more accepting of transsexuality if you insult them, their cultural background, or their religious beliefs. It makes them entrench and fight harder.
Just what do *you *think voting is, then? Or democracy in general?
Why don’t the voters of his district count as “they”?
That’s strange, since they are all covered in the Democratic Party Platform
It’s almost as if that is the definition of bigotry.
Yep. We have a center-right party and a neo-Confederate party.
As for claims to belief in “personal responsibility” not being bigotry, please note how often it is used to avoid responsibility for addressing the effects, and continuing causes, of discriminatory practices and far worse against minorities. “Why, it’s them colored folks’ *own *damn fault they haven’t gotten over it and pulled up their bootstraps. Got nothin’ to do with us.”
What? So if you stand your ground and fight for what you believe in, that is the definition of bigotry?
Oh wait. Only if it is for bigoted stuff, right? :rolleyes:
If “what you believe in” is that you don’t want to associate with transsexuals, or allow them equal rights and social status, then yes, it’s bigotry - just as if you changed the word to “Negroes”.
Is affirmative action ‘treating people the same?’ Is the concept that only white people can be racist, which seems to be a common belief on the left these days, treating people the same? Is segregating people by race on college campuses ‘treating people the same’? Is discriminating against Asians ‘treating people the same’? Is the idea that some people today should pay other people reparations because of what their ancestors did ‘treating people the same’?
I don’t see much of ‘treating people the same’ on the left. Rather, it seems like the left’s big project these days is to separate people into racial and gender groups, then pit them against each other for political gain.
If you believe in less rights being afforded to someone based on their sex or gender, then yeah. Is it really that hard to believe?
For this specific example, are you in the military? Have you ever been in the military? I spent over 22 years in the military, and I can’t remember a single time that gender or sex of a subordinate affected me in any way. Why would it? It’s surprising how many things don’t matter when you treat everyone equally. Why go out of your way to treat people differently?
Are you asking me my personal opinion on these topics? Are your thoughts on what “the Left” wants based on college kids or government officials? Are your thoughts on what “the Left” wants based on a few tweets that you saw?
Yes, it is. It’s the result of recognizing that different degrees of problems require different degrees of correction. Yet, those who wish not to be bothered will often focus on just that last part so they can claim “YOU’RE the real bigots!”
Where the hell do you get this stuff?
I’m basing it on everything from college faculties and administrators to politicians to the Democratic party in general. I believe things like affirmative action and identity politics are beliefs widely held on the left.
Of course, not everyone agrees with all of it. But all of those policies and ideas are associated with people on the left, not on the right.
If I’m understanding you correctly, this sounds absolutely absurd. Are you really trying to say those who DIDN’T vote for are just as responsible for Trump as those who did? 
It seems that a lot of people will decide that 100 people on Twitter somehow represents the entirety of liberal thought.
I agree that affirmative action is a belief widely held on the left. Luckily, as a white gender-typical heterosexual male, the only affect AA has on me is seeing that those traditionally left behind are getting a chance to move ahead. I’m cool with that. Why aren’t you?
About how many college faculties and administrators are following what you say is “segregating people by race on college campuses”? What percentage is that of the total amount of college faculties and administrators in America?
The problem is that you are applying those things RACIALLY. There are certainly people in the black community that have significant structural disadvantages - often due to government policies that have trapped them in failing inner cities with shitty schools and broken down ‘projects’. But there are also people in the black community with significant amounts of privilege, who grew up in wealthy communities and attend elite colleges.
Or do you think a poor white person in rural Kentucky should pay ‘reparations’ to Malia Obama, Clarence Thomas, or Kanye West? If so, by what criteria are you determining that, other than by skin color? Because we both know that the latter three people have far more privilege and opportunity than some poor kid from back in the holler.
When you categorize groups of people by skin color, you lose those nuances. And that, by the way, is a main reason why racism is bad.
Seriously? Are you going to claim that identity politics are not part of the modern left?
Are you saying that all black people have been left behind? And all white people have advantages and privileges over all black people? That sounds… racist. And if it’s not ALL black people, how can you support policies that treat them all the same?
People can be oppressed and disadvantaged for many reasons, of which skin color is only one. A white kid born to a mother who drank during pregnancy and subsequently developed cognitive deficits, or a white kid in an abusive family or in a terrible neighborhood have more disadvantages than a black kid who grew up in a loving middle class family.
Everyone is different. Everyone has challenges. Some people have advantages over others. Sometimes people are disadvantaged by racism. Sometimes they are disadvantaged by something else. Attempting to sort the advantaged and disadvantaged along racial lines is racism, and a fool’s game. Individual rights are all that matter. Group rights are a dangerous idea - especially to minorities who must then rely on a ‘friendly’ government rather than a constitution that enshrines individual rights for their protection. In an unlimited democracy, the minorities are always at the mercy of the majority.
Does it have to be a majority? Or can it be a minority that gets away with it because people on ‘their’ side refuse to criticize them for it? For example, if Republicans refuse to condemn certain vocal racists within their party, is it okay if those racists make up only a small part of the party?
When I see people on the left standing up to the racial nonsense, and people like Al Sharpton, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Louis Farrakhan become pariahs in Democratic politics, maybe you’ll have a point.
The historic greatest problem down here has *been *racial. What the hell do they teach in Canadian schools about American history? Something that doesn’t include slavery, lynchings, and segregation?
When you recognize what skin color means, then you can *address *the problem rather than find excuses not to.
“No, YOU’RE the people who want a wall on the Mexican border, a Muslim immigration ban, and Nazi marches in our streets!” Come off it, man. Quit *cheering *for those assholes.
Of course all white people have advantages and privileges over all black people. It’s not a crime to admit that. How does it hurt you to admit that? Simply by virtue of being white I’m afforded many privileges that other non-white people don’t have.
Sure. Privileges are not absolute. But that white kid born to that mother has built in privileges by being white in certain situations. Seems strange to me to deny that.
It’s only dangerous if you can point out the danger associated with it. Black people having a chance to catch up to white people is “dangerous”? I don’t see it.
If those Republicans are part of our government, it doesn’t matter what percentage they are. But people seem to hold up a few nobodies on Twitter as being equivalent to actual members of our government. I find that abhorent.
I’m not a fan of Louis Farrakhan, but perhaps you can point out some “racial nonsense” coming from Al Sharpton, Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib?