This essay is about liberals and conservatives and is being written in response to two incidents that have happened to me. One was a recent online name calling by a liberal and the other was a not so recent workplace name calling by a conservative. I will start with the former and compare the similarities to the latter.
Last week on Facebook a “liberal” called me and my loved ones (my fiancée and her family and my family) a “new breed of stupid assholes” because they were all conservatives who cared about the environment as well as other people. The insult in question was sparked when I tried (and obviously failed) to point out that not all conservatives selfish and ignorant. This was on a “friend’s” Facebook page for all of his 500 or so “friends” to see, and I subsequently “un-friended” him and cancelled my like of his band’s page. When a “friend” fails to moderate his page correctly by deleting the insult in question or telling the “liberal” to stop the name calling and start an actual debate and/or dialogue, then he is no friend of mine and I will not support him or any of his band’s future endeavours. Personally, I find that much of what is posted online today are not actual debates about facts they just simply fall into the category of school yard bullying. But I will save that point for a possible future essay/rant.
After some thought I remembered when a conservative co-worker a number of years ago called me a “liberal fascist” simply because I expressed my displeasure with America’s then current Republican president. In my humble opinion a “liberal fascist” is basically an oxymoron and can not exist in the same way that conservatives in the U.S.A.(or Canada for that matter) are not fascists. And again in my opinion if you would like to see a prime definition of fascism look up in the history books for a couple of people named Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. Say what you will about conservative Republicans in the U.S.A.(or again conservatives in Canada) they are the furthest thing from being fascists. They just have a different view of life than do liberals in the U.S.A. and Canada. I would like to call people who have strong views on politics, life, etc “Militants” because one can be a militant without being a fascist.
Conservatives who don’t care about the welfare of the environment or the rest of the world’s population do NOT represent my conservative friends, family members, fiancée and her friends and family members. Likewise liberals who resort to name calling instead of an open dialogue do NOT represent me and my liberal friends and family members. As a side note: not only is my fiancée, her family and my parents conservatives, but they are all Christians too and, even though I believe that my spirituality is none of anyone’s business but me and my loved ones I would like to point out that not only am I a liberal, but I am an Atheist too.
In recent memory I have encountered more narrow-minded liberals than I have narrow-minded conservatives. That being said I believe that there are equal amounts of both in today’s climate and from my fishbowl view of today’s world that WE live in, a good portion of liberals and conservatives alike no longer live and let live.And call me naïve, but if a Militant, Liberal, Atheist can get along with a Militant, Conservative, Christian, and vice versa then why can’t the rest of the world?
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