[Politics] It isn't easy being Blue.

[davywavy]

Whilst out on the town a few weeks ago, I got talking to a girl in a bar. After a while, for reasons I can't recall, the conversation came round to politics. Suddenly she stopped short and looked at me quizzically.
"You're right-wing, aren't you?"
"Yup", I replied.
"Well, I don't think we should let homeless people starve to death on the street", she said, smugly ensuring her moral superiority over me and my homeless-starving ways whilst necking the booze I'd just bought her like there was no tomorrow.

A friend of mine who shares my political opinions once told me they didn't really like going to social events with many of my friends, because they knew that they would be belittled and insulted for holding their political beliefs. They found it upsetting that they would be insulted by people they barely knew not even for their beliefs, but for what those people considered their beliefs to be without even taking the time to find out the reality of the situation. In other circumstances this sort of behaviour would be considered 'prejudice'. When you're dealing with a lot of people I run into, it's called 'informed debate'. Sometimes it's nice to open LJ and read the wise words of the mind-numbingly gorgeous vulgarcriminal, who is political voice of reason.
The irony of the intellectual intolerance of many people amuses me in a bleak sort of way; most of the people on my friends list consider themselves to be tolerant, understanding and non-judgemental; however this just highlights the basic dichotomy of many people's political views - they're tolerant of any kink, perversion, social attitudes and outre behaviour which they happen to agree with. Their tolerance doesn't extend so far as being polite to people who think that, oh, say, civil liberties have been undermined quite a lot by the current government or that spending thirty-seven billion quid which we don't have every year in a slowing economy might lead to trouble later.
raggedhalo recently made a post in which he compared prejudice against vegetarians to homophobia, and presented himself as being a persecuted minority. Personally I think it's a bit difficult to be a persecuted minority when you're a socialist vegetarian in a student union, but that's just me.
Re-reading his post, it's interesting to me just how much of his argument I can apply to my own point. After all, if he can compare prejudice against sexualities with his own political views, so can I - to object to that would be prejudiced, wouldn't it? Back in the 1980's, being gay would get you socially ostracised and sometimes insulted in public, whilst being Conservative would get you social acceptance and congratulations on your snappy dress sense. And now...?
There's a comparison to be made here, I think...

Of course, I think Joe's comparison is as nonsensical as mine. But it's funny nevertheless.

Comments

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

My Dad considers himself to be a Conservative. I don't think he's a Conservative, maybe they are the closest party to his beliefs but he is bigoted, judgemental and snobbish to the point of being offensive.

There is a definate difference, I'm not right wing but I am well aware that being a Conservative does not make you a nasty bastard. There seems to be a horrible tendancy for people to blur the ideas of the likes of the BNP with the Conservative party. I imagine that the majority of the Conservative party dislike the BNP as much as most other people and subconsciously being grouped with them by people must be quite distressing.

A brief summary of my political views:

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

1) I think people should be allowed to live their lives with as little interference from the state as possible
2) I don't think we should spend money we don't have and leave it to the next generation of people to worry about who is going to pay the bills.

This alone is sufficient to get me abuse in public places from Labour voters whose cognitive dissonance leads them to think they're doing something good by electing a party who have introduced the most draconian civil-liberty eroding legislation this country has seen in peacetime and overspent by £37,000,000,000 above their own predictions - thus creating the largest budget defecit this country has ever seen.

[chrisvenus]

There's a comparison to be made here, I think

Gay is the new conservative?

Conservative is the new gay?

I wonder if this means you can be conservative-curious...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, just by claiming to be a persecuted minority any group can get special treatment and immunity from 'abuse'. I want me some of that action.

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

claim they are oppressing you and start crying

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

That's my plan. I wonder if the government will give me an outreach worker? To make the community more aware of my needs as a Libertarian?

Re: A brief summary of my political views:

[borusa.livejournal.com]

2) I don't think we should spend money we don't have and leave it to the next generation of people to worry about who is going to pay the bills.

Question : Is the national debt, as a percentage of GDP
(a) higher since 1997 or
(b) lower?

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Well, i recall raggedhalo's post and basically thought it was a bunch of twaddle, and said so at the time.

Conservatives, like any group, suffer from their extremists. It's easy to hear "right-wing" and think "neo-nazi". Mrs Thatcher did a lot of damage to the image as well.

Socialists, like any group, suffer from their extremists. It's easy to hear "left-wing" and think "commie". Mr Stalin did a lot of damage to the image as well.

Roleplayers, like any group, suffer from their extremists. It's easy to hear "gamer" and think "Steekin' Dungeons and Dragons geek". Mr Gygax did a lot of damage to the image as well.

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can give you funding for a car...so you can avoid abuse on public transport

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It's intereseting that you should use as your examples Margaret Thatcher, who deregulated the financial markets and laid the ground for much of the economic growth and improvements of the standard of living we've seen in the last twenty years, and Stalin, who murdered 30 million of his own people.

Are your prejudices showing?
(Reply to this)(Parent)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

And nits, which everyone who uses busses has.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Nah, I was making an extreme point... Maggie's just a recent example of conservatives with an image problem. I can't use Tony Blair as a counter example because he's not even slightly left wing. Despite any good qualities M Thatcher might have had, you cannot deny that she had an image problem. And Stalin, well, he just had problems.

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

I use buses, are you oppressing me?

[davedevil.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's nice to open LJ and read the wise words of the mind-numbingly gorgeous [info]vulgarcriminal, who is political voice of reason.

There is a statment I can finally agree with you on ;)

I think political identity in any respect is generally frowned upon in this country. Your lot just get it double bad!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

No, I'm oppressing nits.

Re: A brief summary of my political views:

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Oh, RBS! Asking leading questions to make a political point on my LJ? That's my job!
You wouldn't ask the question if the answer wasn't B, so I won't even go and look it up.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

I suggest you stop hanging about with roleplayer scum, and find some nice merchant bankers to be your friends. I imagine they'll be just as tolerant of left-wingers as most gamers are of right-wingers, but of course they won't be oppressing *you*.

Wouldn't it be appaling if life really were as simple as most people seem to think it is?

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

Yeah but I use buses and you said that everyone who uses buses has nits.

I don't have nits

I feel oppressed

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

But then again I doubt the merchant bankers would be so blase about claiming to be tolerant in the first place, which is the basis of much of my objection.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll get you some nits then. Just wait there.

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

I don't want your conservative nits, if I go on the bus with conservative nits they'll start abusing me as well

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's where you're wrong - to get some nits for you I shall have to take them off other people and 'redistrubute' them to you.
And, as we all know, taking people's property off them and giving it to others just because they want it and won't want to have to work for it is Socialism.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Is it worse to try to be tolerant and be a hypocrite, or not to try at all? (Honest question. I don't know the answer.)

Re: A brief summary of my political views:

[jonnyargles.livejournal.com]

Peacetime?

If you mean we're not having the hun (dot net) dropping doodlebugs in our back gardens, forcing us into the Anderson shelter to huddle around a small tub of bovril, then you're right.

If you mean we have a committed military presence and financial obligations in another country, then you might be a weeny bit on the wrong side.

I do twitter like a schoolgirl whenever I hear about Conservative Reform.

Bobby Peel would have spun in his grave.

As regards my viewpoints, I don't claim to have adhered to one political party, or even be consistent according to the weather or my bowel movements. But then, I'm not deciding the fate of the nation, so I don't have to be. If I had to choose one line, it'd be:

"From each according to what they get out of it, taking into consideration things like personal financial risk, and a percentage of their ability to pay," but you can't put that on a banner.

The trouble with Laissez-faire is the Watchdog factor. People are stupid. They need protecting from more intelligent people. Straw man incoming - what about the police? They serve a role to protect the public from those who seek to further their personal goals without regard for others, be that street mugging, or usury.

There's also a gripe about people whose houses have quadruples in value over the last ten years by virtue of nothing more than sitting on their arses then complaining because they're being asked to pay for the very factors that give them such equity, but that's more of a piecemeal matter.

I really would like to see Cameron bring an end to Punch and Judy politics, to treat being the leader of the Opposition as an end-goal, worthy in itself, to provide a rational counterbutt, but all the evidence is merely showing that he's trying to divorce Blair from his party, which is a damn shame.

However, I tend to think of these thrust and parry rants and counterrants as completely separate from my dealings with you as an individual. At my last job, the girl sat next to me was an active member of the Countryside Alliance, and we got on famously.

[tooth-fairy.livejournal.com]

see now you've pushed me into a corner. I either have to agree with you, thereby condemning socialism or I have to argue the corner for socialism.

As it is I can't do the first and am too braindead to do the second...you win