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Ustwo · 10-27-2003, 10:19 PM

I’m both confused and amused by peoples, violent , reaction to labels here. I’m trying to figure out why they are so bad.

I view myself as a conservative, I know when you say ‘conservatives’ some of what you imply with that doesn’t apply to me, some of it does, and if you are a liberal some of it doesn’t apply to any conservative, but you have your own ideas on the subject.

In general you can state ‘conservative’ and at least have a reasonable idea on where they stand.

I am personally, an atheist, environmentalist (the non-wacky kind), small government, big defense, pro-capital punishment, pro-personal freedom type. I don’t care about abortion unless its late term, and if you want to get high, be my guest, the world needs ditch diggers too.

That being said I won’t get upset if someone were to say to me ‘you conservatives want to force prayer in schools’. Its not a totally wrong statement even if it doesn’t apply to my atheist self (I personally don’t care about prayer in schools one way or another). I might correct them in saying that I don’t care, but being called a conservative is not offensive.

That person didn’t lower the debate.

Now if he said ‘You conservative baby killer homophobes want to force your barbaric religion on my children’, you lowered the debate, but it wasn’t the ‘conservative’ label that did it.

Now I know that Reagan turned liberal into a dirty word. So much so that most liberals don’t want to be called liberal, and some have gone with the, progressive title, which now sounds SO much better, after all progress is good right? But that doesn’t change who you are, and why should you hide from it?

If you take liberal views, you are a liberal. Me calling you a liberal doesn’t diminish you, it just makes it easy to identify the crux of the argument.

So my question to you liberals, conservatives, undecideds, and others, why the hate of the label?

10-27-2003, 10:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	A rose by any other label.... I’m both confused and amused by peoples, violent , reaction to labels here. I’m trying to figure out why they are so bad. I view myself as a conservative, I know when you say ‘conservatives’ some of what you imply with that doesn’t apply to me, some of it does, and if you are a liberal some of it doesn’t apply to any conservative, but you have your own ideas on the subject. In general you can state ‘conservative’ and at least have a reasonable idea on where they stand. I am personally, an atheist, environmentalist (the non-wacky kind), small government, big defense, pro-capital punishment, pro-personal freedom type. I don’t care about abortion unless its late term, and if you want to get high, be my guest, the world needs ditch diggers too. That being said I won’t get upset if someone were to say to me ‘you conservatives want to force prayer in schools’. Its not a totally wrong statement even if it doesn’t apply to my atheist self (I personally don’t care about prayer in schools one way or another). I might correct them in saying that I don’t care, but being called a conservative is not offensive. That person didn’t lower the debate. Now if he said ‘You conservative baby killer homophobes want to force your barbaric religion on my children’, you lowered the debate, but it wasn’t the ‘conservative’ label that did it. Now I know that Reagan turned liberal into a dirty word. So much so that most liberals don’t want to be called liberal, and some have gone with the, progressive title, which now sounds SO much better, after all progress is good right? But that doesn’t change who you are, and why should you hide from it? If you take liberal views, you are a liberal. Me calling you a liberal doesn’t diminish you, it just makes it easy to identify the crux of the argument. So my question to you liberals, conservatives, undecideds, and others, why the hate of the label? __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.