Okay--taking this to Facebook, for all of you to hash out. I have a friend who posted a meme. Liberals created the American Revolution, ended slavery, opposed segregation, etc, therefore liberal = good. Conservatives opposed these things, therefore conservative = bad. There are a couple of problems with this. One is that all the dictionaries I find equate liberal with change. With promoting ideas that buck the current system of power. Sometimes this is a very good thing. But this definition would also make Mao a liberal. And Stalin, et al. If liberal means on the side of change, Im not so sure liberal can always inherently be equated with good. The meme itself, for example, listed the American Revolution as a victory of liberalism, but that revolution empowered the rich, white aristocracy of the new nation to commit genocide against American Indians, pump up the American slave trade to previously unheard of levels, etc. The second, and larger, problem is something Im wrestling with in my own personal politics. I believe that using selection bias in this way to promote a version of history where liberals are always 100% good and conservatives are always 100% evil creates an unnecessary us vs. them dynamic, and further entrenches all sides. I dont like it when Republicans do it (were the party that opposed segregation and we had Lincoln--how could we possibly be racist), and I dont like it when my team does it either. And the kicker--when we set up these false binaries, we are further widening the divide and causing all sides to dig in even more deeply exactly where they are. Seems to me this works in the opposite direction of change, which is just about the least liberal thing we can do. Rules for this conversation. 1) be awesome 2) dont mention Hitler. no real dialogue will follow.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 16:57:43 +0000
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