posted on Sep, 25 2011 @ 12:43 PM
This ATS crowd has been invaluable to me and my personal growth. I came here as a person who understood the left/right illusion and was one of the
10% of the people who didn't play along with it. I thought.
I had no idea how ingrained it all is with some people. People who are unwilling to, even for a second, consider the other side. People who throw
around hegemony like it's going out of style (don't worry guys, it never will). People like me who thought they understood but still played
along and didn't even realize it.
Now I understand. I mean really understand. I caught myself a couple of days ago popping into a thread about pyramids or something and
responded to a dude who was talking about a religious author and I bashed the author on his political stance. Totally unrelated. The OP called me on
it and I tried to justify it but, in the end, I realized that I'm still one of those guys I get mad at!
So now... now I get it. I will practice what I preach. For those of you who don't believe you are fooled, tell me why these words have
changed meaning and now somehow mean something negative:
- Liberal (what's wrong with liking liberty?)
- Conservative (since when is being frugal a bad thing?)
- Progressive (somehow "progress" is a bad thing now)
- Intellectual (I still giggle when somebody calls me this as an insult)
- Fundie (believing in fundamental concepts can be a good thing sometimes)
- Socialist (collective taxation to help the poor is a good thing)
- Capitalist (freedom to make, sell, and trade goods is a good thing)
- Race Card (somehow this can now mean calling somebody out for racism...)
- Obamabot (robots are AWESOME)
- Any word that is a horrible attempt at a pun (ie Rethuglicans. Hahah, very clever, now go back to your Madlibs)
NONE of those things should be insults! Don't get me started with "bushism" or "Obama-____".
If you think any of those things are insulting or absolutely "wrong", then you are brainwashed. Join me and tell the world you do not buy into it
anymore. Be a born-again American and screw FOX, MSNBC, and any talking head that uses any of those terms as an insult. Now repeat after me:
"I, _____, promise to look at every view point objectively and realize there may be merit to it, even if there is a catchy dismissive nickname for it
that my favorite news person uses. I, _____, promise to protect and defend viewpoints that run counter to my own as I am an American and I believe
that ideas from Americans are American unless they are destructive to God-given rights. I will also protect my fellow Americans from unAmerican views
that promote bigotry, racism, sexism, or corporatism. So help me God(s)/(ess)"