NationStates Jolt Archive

The post here yesterday asking when Christian and Religious became synonymous made me think.

Every time someone is having any political discussion, here and often in other places, it seems like they use terms like conservative, liberal, Republican, etc. as something to use for more easy mudslinging.

And it's getting kind of annoying, the blanket definitions of these words. Republicans often are conservatives because they believe in the way conservatives handle money more than the way liberals do. Liberals the same way as far as fiscal policies go.

I realize that I sometimes do this too, but am trying to stop with the blanket generalizations of all Christians as being bigots who will automatically hate me because I'm a bisexual tofu-eating pagan hippie, because generally they won't. The same thing applies with Republicans in general. I've done this before to many groups, including but not limited to: the preppie people at my school, Republicans, Bush supporters, homosexuals, Christians, and Mormons. It's a hard habit to break, but I'm working on it.

This entire thing goes the same way with liberals. We are often all put under the blanket stereotype that we are all gun-hating, ACLU-loving, homosexual, etc. And yes, plenty of us are. But not all of us.

Just because you dislike the loudest members of a group doesn't mean you need to hate every member of the group- or that you should start using the title of that group as something to use for mudslinging. I am getting really sick of going online and seeing someone post something and having a reply be "That's so stupid, I bet you're a Republican." It's on the same level of calling people you don't like fags- making an insult out of a cultural identity.

What you're referring to are stereotypes. I see no reason to limit my vocabulary because of that. And I do not use blanket statements like that except in a mocking way. When I mean a religious person who doesn't believe in evolution or thinks the earth is several thousand years old, I say creationist. Though it is more convienent to just use general terms.

What you're referring to are stereotypes. I see no reason to limit my vocabulary because of that. And I do not use blanket statements like that except in a mocking way. When I mean a religious person who doesn't believe in evolution or thinks the earth is several thousand years old, I say creationist. Though it is more convienent to just use general terms.

Many people would use "religious person" in place of "creationist" here, it seems. People repeatedly have brought up "religion" and then started discussing Christianity exclusively.

What I'm sick of seeing is things like "Why do conservatives hate gays?", because not all conservatives hate gays- people seem to actually be confused as to what conservatives are as opposed to just stereotyping all conservatives.

What is a liberal anyway?

What is a liberal anyway?

A social progressive?

What is a liberal anyway?

liberal:

Adjective
1. a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry. b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded. c. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism. d. Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. 2. a. Tending to give freely; generous: a liberal benefactor. b. Generous in amount; ample: a liberal serving of potatoes. 3. Not strict or literal; loose or approximate: a liberal translation. 4. Of, relating to, or based on the traditional arts and sciences of a college or university curriculum: a liberal education. 5. a. Archaic Permissible or appropriate for a person of free birth; befitting a lady or gentleman. b. Obsolete Morally unrestrained; licentious.
Noun
1. A person with liberal ideas or opinions. 2. Liberal A member of a Liberal political party.
Etymology
Middle English, generous, from Old French, from Latin l*ber*lis, from l*ber, free; see leudh- in Indo-European roots.

What is a liberal anyway?
Socailly libertarian and economically authoritarian.

See all the differences between the definitions posted?

That's a part of the problem I'm having with how generalized the posts here are. "Why do liberals want to get rid of our guns?" Uhm, which liberals?

What is a liberal anyway?

In American politics, these labels are quite skewed.

Moderates and left-wingers tend to be collectively called liberals nowadays, although the term refers to centrists that ideologically sit between conservatism and socialism.

Conservatives oppose government programmes and high taxes. They want small government and tend to be isolationists. Neoconservatism is the mixture of conservative ideals and liberal policies like big government programmes and heavy spending.

A person can believe in more conservative values than liberal values but still be inaccurately labelled a liberal. This is why labels are rubbish. People obviously have different ideas beyond ideological lines.

Overall, Michael Peroutka is an exaggerated example of a conservative. Bush is a neoconservative activist. Kerry is economically liberal but socially conservative.

I've asked this before. There are always a million different ideas. Same with conservatives (although to a lesser extent).

Probably, we should work up some new names.

It's funny to me when people use liberal as an insulting label... personally I dislike liberal ideology, but the ruling party in my country right now is "The Liberal Party of Canada" so... ha

Anyways, as people have already pointed out, this is stereotyping. Occurs everywhere... unavoidable... I don't condone it, but in general it's pretty clear whether someone is speaking stereotypically or if they literally mean the group of people they are referring to.