Hi, I’m Sleazeappeal.
You may recognize my alias from the long-forgotten cartoon show
“Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea”, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m just introducing myself because I plan to be visiting these forums frequently, particularly this one, because… I’m a philosophical and politically minded sort of guy. I just am.
I would, however, like to take this opportunity to bring to light a few things that I shall
not be talking about. Specifically, two words that, once this post is completed, I have no intention of using again during my entire
tenure upon these boards.
Those words are “liberal” and “conservative”.
I shall abstain from using these words because, as far as I’m concerned, these words have been ABUSED to the point where they no longer have any recognizable meaning anymore. Oh, they used to mean something. “Liberal” used to mean “wanting to change the status quo” and “conservative” used to mean “wanting to maintain the status quo”. Yes, they were by definition opposed to each other, but such opposition was clinical and schematic.
Furthermore, having one viewpoint or another was a largely subjective matter that one could apply on an issue-to-issue basis. In other words, it wasn’t at all unheard of not too long ago to be “liberal” on one issue and “conservative” on another. Pretty incredible freakin’ concept, huh?
Then something happened.
All of the sudden it wasn’t enough to disagree with the opposition… You had to HATE them.
People stopped thinking that those who disagreed with them were incorrect because they didn’t know any better, but rather that they were deliberately disagreeing with them out of spite. They couldn’t just be “wrong” or “misinformed”, they had to be “stupid”, “insane” and “evil”.
It wasn’t long after that everyone started becoming subject to something I like to call “The Big Switcheroo”. “The Big Switcheroo” is where you no longer consider your opposition to be part of all that is stupid, evil and insane and start considering all that is stupid, insane and evil to be part of your opposition. When you surrender to such a mentality, it’s rather easy to trick yourself into thinking that, if all the opposition believes and holds dear is evil then whatever is the opposite must by definition be good and right. In short, the delusion that those who disagree with you do so out of spite eventually became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Why do you think terrorist-sympathy is considered part of “the liberal agenda”?
Why do you think pollution is considered part of “the conservative agenda”?
Furthermore, forget about having viewpoints of varying degrees on an issue-to-issue basis anymore. Nowadays you’ve got to choose your alliance and stick with it. You’re one or the other, black or white, no room for compromise. When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way, and if you vary in the least you are considered tainted and cast out.
How do I know this? I know because it’s happened to ME.
Never mind that I think the flat-tax is a great idea…
Never mind that I believe gun-control to be the first step down a VERY slippery slope…
Never mind that I consider the death penalty a perfectly viable option for meting out punishment to criminals (provided it’s used
prudently)…
Many is the time I’ve been labeled a “liberal”, no different from some pot-smoking, welfare-collecting, flag-burning, Marx-reading hippie from Haight-Ashbury.
Never mind that I think evolution should stay in science class and creationism should stay in theology class…
Never mind that I believe two consenting human adults should be allowed to marry whether they share the same sex or not…
Never mind that I consider the war in Iraq to be amongst the biggest political, financial and military blunders in our nation’s history…
Many is the time I’ve been labeled a “conservative”, no different from some possum-hunting, sheet-wearing, cross-burning, gun-toting redneck from the trailer park.
The words have lost all meaning and have been reduced to nothing more than empty, rhetorical, derisive epithets and I, for one, prefer not to use them nor have them used on me.
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So, whaddya wanna talk about?
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