Take this for what it's worth. It's just a rumination.

[catandfiddle]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the various liberals that I know lately- which, let's be honest, is almost everyone I know, church people aside. I'm very lucky to have in my acquaintance several people with whom, despite differing viewpoints on some "hot-button" issues (I'm conservative on most and liberal on one or two, which always

Comments

[squeektoy42]

I feel the need to point out that one of the things I have always liked about you is that as one of my few(but fantastic) conservative minded friends you have always been very respectful of the differing opinions we do hold. I have always felt very comfortable talking to you despite the difference of opinion on some issues because I feel that you will listen and I try to extend the same courtesy to you. I actively enjoy discussion with you, and I don't with some of my friends who hold the same opinions as me because they express themselves in such a terrible way

[catandfiddle]

I feel the same way about you. :D For the most part, I may disagree with a particular point of view without being ZOMG OFFENDED by it- what offends me is this belligerent behavior that both Andrew and I have had directed at us several times in the recent past. It really just makes me roll my eyes and, like I said in the original entry, quietly distance myself from the people in question. It's just not worth it to me to try and "work it out"; if someone's going to behave that way towards me, it makes me automatically (and almost completely) disinterested in knowing them.

[supremdiva]

I agree that this is a universal issue. No need to say that it is a trait that "liberals" share. I agree wholeheartedly that it is a shame that people like that exist, and don't just exist, but get in the way of progress.

[catandfiddle]

I didn't say that it's a trait shared by all- or even most- liberals. In my personal experience, it is the liberals that I know that have a problem with belligerence. However, I know that my liberal friends could probably tell horror stories about belligerent conservatives. The arrow points both ways. It is probably a combination of my specific acquaintances' personalities and our respective life situations. :)

[ernie3]

The fascism you mention ("people are not allowed to express opposing viewpoints / opinions / beliefs, and people are to be discouraged from having their own thoughts") is a social and political dysfunction that I associate with conservatism, not with liberalism. However, I recognize that the particular brand of conservatism I point out is the neocon kind, which has really overshadowed (and this has been truly unfortunate for us all in the last eight years) the "traditional", respectable conservatism (that is actually conservative) and can be reasonably lived with, from an intellectual liberal point of view. I also recognize that intolerance of dissent (and the fear, insecurity and self-loathing it exposes) is by no means limited to conservatives.

[catandfiddle]

Yes, the Neocons scare the hell out of me. They've definitely hijacked the term "conservative". :D