(no subject)
So I've got some venting to do, because I keep getting the same bull from various corners of the internet. In particular, a couple of my Facebook friends "like" something called Being Liberal, so its updates keep on being posted to my page... but there's stuff all over the place, and I haven't really been keeping track of where, I'd just like to vent.
So.
A woman voting Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders!
Or, as the comments expound, any person of color, anyone with an alternative sexuality or identity, anyone who's poor... basically, anyone who's not rich, white, and male. But let's focus on women for now.
What always gets me about this is the necessary assumption that women are simply too stupid to make their own decisions, that they need their best interests spelled out for them by somebody wiser (who will, incidentally, ALSO be rich, white and male), and saved from the oppressive patriarchal old-boys-club that will otherwise run them into the ground.
This becomes even more obvious when you see married conservative women characterized as some manner of breeding bitch for their husbands, trapped in the home, thanklessly drudging and homeschooling their herd of spawn while their husbands travel the world, succeed in business, and cheat on them with impunity because, after all, they don't respect their wives.
So is it really thus that they try to characterize it as a choice between one master and another? That the liberals will still tell you what you need to know and think, but they'll be so much KINDER and RESPECTFUL of you while making sure that you never forget what they consider your best interests? That the only means of disagreement is some sort of Stockholm Syndrome?
It can't be that they expect to convince people this way--so they have to think it's true. Which would, in turn, have to mean that they think women are incapable of pursuing their own interests.
What the hell?
And on a related note, I'm also bisexual. And I'm a conservative. Somehow, who I spend my intimate moments with doesn't affect my opinion on taxes, their affect on domestic production, trade deficits, intrusive government regulation, constitutional interpretations, or federalism. Or even the sort of environment I feel any future children I may have should grow up in. HOW ABOUT THAT.
Also, is it just me, or is there a huge, fundamental misunderstanding of federalism out there?
Okay, you all know this, but let's get down to basics nonetheless: Federalism. It's a fairly unique political structure wherein two separate levels of government are established, each with jurisdiction over different things. The thing is, this doesn't make the smaller units of government less powerful. This just means that the larger (federal) and smaller (state) governments each have their own spheres of influence and power.
So, when you're saying that the Founding Fathers were not about small government, and use the existence of laws on the books regarding public decency or the size of barrel required to transport food? You are talking out of your bottom. Because I can guarantee you the laws you're talking about are STATE laws--and the Republicans you're trying to make look stupid are not talking about the size of state government.
(Not to say that states don't have problems. I live in New York for heck's sake--there's a reason they call us Last in Freedom. But I'm not going to cite Jefferson as an example for why New York is messed up...!)
Think of it this way. Murder is, in general, prosecuted as a STATE law. You have to do some special things to get it prosecuted as a federal crime. (This tends to do with banks and federal officers.) So if something as basic and important as murder is a state-level issue... why is it that folks seem to think that nothing counts unless it's dictated federally?
Oy!
And of course, we all know that Republicans only have boring, unsatisfying sex, and even then they only do it to have children.
I don't know WHY this one irritates me so much. And I don't generally want to respond to it, because... well, sex is a private thing in my world. In most people's worlds. And it seems like the only way to respond is to, well, talk about private things as though they're public.
I've had enough of this, though, so I'm going to do my very, very best to skirt the bounds of propriety by speaking in hypotheticals.
Let's say that the liberal stereotype is absolutely correct. Let's say that conservatives may only engage in sexual intercourse within the bonds of marriage, without the usage of birth control, without extramarital partners or any accoutrements that may be considered kinky.
Gosh. Sex with someone who loves you beyond any pale of a doubt, with someone who is deeply invested in your satisfaction (and whose satisfaction you are deeply invested in, yourself!) Sex that could result in a child, which would have the utmost support of a mother and father who went into this with full knowledge and expectation that this might happen.
Oh, yeah. That sounds absolutely horrible. I don't know how those prudes live with it.
Of course, this must ignore the fact that, if sex is that private, then one of the only boundaries on sexual activities is what the partners are comfortable with. AND that if sex is something approached with patience, that does not occur until well after both parties are comfortable with themselves and each other... as I think is likely, if one waits until marriage... one is MUCH less likely to be pressured into anything one is uncomfortable with!
Which also ignores the fact that there are as many types of conservatives as there are stars in the sky, and even the much-maligned "social conservatives" have a great deal of breadth to their ranks. You cannot make assumptions about the kind of sex conservatives are having!
And what gets me is... I end up feeling my own sexual choices are far more acceptable amongst conservatives than liberals. BECAUSE the conservatives don't want to know what goes on behind closed doors! And the liberals DO! And they SAY that everything is okay, so long as no one gets hurt, but have a WHOLE lot of qualifications about "societal harm" and "unfortunate implications" and all of that ever-loving BULL that indicates that they know more than I do about what I should be doing with my life!
*deep breath*
Phew. I think I needed that. Thank you kindly, folks.
So.
A woman voting Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders!
Or, as the comments expound, any person of color, anyone with an alternative sexuality or identity, anyone who's poor... basically, anyone who's not rich, white, and male. But let's focus on women for now.
What always gets me about this is the necessary assumption that women are simply too stupid to make their own decisions, that they need their best interests spelled out for them by somebody wiser (who will, incidentally, ALSO be rich, white and male), and saved from the oppressive patriarchal old-boys-club that will otherwise run them into the ground.
This becomes even more obvious when you see married conservative women characterized as some manner of breeding bitch for their husbands, trapped in the home, thanklessly drudging and homeschooling their herd of spawn while their husbands travel the world, succeed in business, and cheat on them with impunity because, after all, they don't respect their wives.
So is it really thus that they try to characterize it as a choice between one master and another? That the liberals will still tell you what you need to know and think, but they'll be so much KINDER and RESPECTFUL of you while making sure that you never forget what they consider your best interests? That the only means of disagreement is some sort of Stockholm Syndrome?
It can't be that they expect to convince people this way--so they have to think it's true. Which would, in turn, have to mean that they think women are incapable of pursuing their own interests.
What the hell?
And on a related note, I'm also bisexual. And I'm a conservative. Somehow, who I spend my intimate moments with doesn't affect my opinion on taxes, their affect on domestic production, trade deficits, intrusive government regulation, constitutional interpretations, or federalism. Or even the sort of environment I feel any future children I may have should grow up in. HOW ABOUT THAT.
Also, is it just me, or is there a huge, fundamental misunderstanding of federalism out there?
Okay, you all know this, but let's get down to basics nonetheless: Federalism. It's a fairly unique political structure wherein two separate levels of government are established, each with jurisdiction over different things. The thing is, this doesn't make the smaller units of government less powerful. This just means that the larger (federal) and smaller (state) governments each have their own spheres of influence and power.
So, when you're saying that the Founding Fathers were not about small government, and use the existence of laws on the books regarding public decency or the size of barrel required to transport food? You are talking out of your bottom. Because I can guarantee you the laws you're talking about are STATE laws--and the Republicans you're trying to make look stupid are not talking about the size of state government.
(Not to say that states don't have problems. I live in New York for heck's sake--there's a reason they call us Last in Freedom. But I'm not going to cite Jefferson as an example for why New York is messed up...!)
Think of it this way. Murder is, in general, prosecuted as a STATE law. You have to do some special things to get it prosecuted as a federal crime. (This tends to do with banks and federal officers.) So if something as basic and important as murder is a state-level issue... why is it that folks seem to think that nothing counts unless it's dictated federally?
Oy!
And of course, we all know that Republicans only have boring, unsatisfying sex, and even then they only do it to have children.
I don't know WHY this one irritates me so much. And I don't generally want to respond to it, because... well, sex is a private thing in my world. In most people's worlds. And it seems like the only way to respond is to, well, talk about private things as though they're public.
I've had enough of this, though, so I'm going to do my very, very best to skirt the bounds of propriety by speaking in hypotheticals.
Let's say that the liberal stereotype is absolutely correct. Let's say that conservatives may only engage in sexual intercourse within the bonds of marriage, without the usage of birth control, without extramarital partners or any accoutrements that may be considered kinky.
Gosh. Sex with someone who loves you beyond any pale of a doubt, with someone who is deeply invested in your satisfaction (and whose satisfaction you are deeply invested in, yourself!) Sex that could result in a child, which would have the utmost support of a mother and father who went into this with full knowledge and expectation that this might happen.
Oh, yeah. That sounds absolutely horrible. I don't know how those prudes live with it.
Of course, this must ignore the fact that, if sex is that private, then one of the only boundaries on sexual activities is what the partners are comfortable with. AND that if sex is something approached with patience, that does not occur until well after both parties are comfortable with themselves and each other... as I think is likely, if one waits until marriage... one is MUCH less likely to be pressured into anything one is uncomfortable with!
Which also ignores the fact that there are as many types of conservatives as there are stars in the sky, and even the much-maligned "social conservatives" have a great deal of breadth to their ranks. You cannot make assumptions about the kind of sex conservatives are having!
And what gets me is... I end up feeling my own sexual choices are far more acceptable amongst conservatives than liberals. BECAUSE the conservatives don't want to know what goes on behind closed doors! And the liberals DO! And they SAY that everything is okay, so long as no one gets hurt, but have a WHOLE lot of qualifications about "societal harm" and "unfortunate implications" and all of that ever-loving BULL that indicates that they know more than I do about what I should be doing with my life!
*deep breath*
Phew. I think I needed that. Thank you kindly, folks.