I did it again. On Thanksgiving I jokingly said to a very liberal member of my extended family, “I thought you’d be at Occupy Wall Street tonight.” I thought it would elicit a laugh thinking even most liberals realize how stupid OWS is.
To my surprise she told me she really wanted to get down there but hadn’t yet had the chance. She was obviously dead serious.
Stunned, I started to question her about what their objective was and why they weren’t occupying the U.S Capitol or the White House? I could have questioned her like a prosecutor grilling a hostile witness. I was prepared and knew I would win this argument. She would be convicted of reckless liberalism and sentenced to 30 days of volunteer work for Newt Gringrich.
She cut me off. The conversation was over. She didn’t want to be questioned about her views. She would not only be the defendant, but also the judge and jury in this trial. The charges were dropped and the case dismissed.
I get that a lot with liberals. As soon as I ask them to defend their positions, or justify them with actual facts, all I hear is crickets.
I used to wonder why it’s always like that with liberals. I’m always eager to defend my conservative positions with the facts, and couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to do the same.
I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I finally figured it out. It has to do with what I call the liberal state of mind. Being liberal never was about facts or even reality. It’s about feelings and the utopian idea of how the world should be. Conservatism, on the other hand is about how the world really is. It’s about facts. Conservatives are comfortable with facts. It’s not that we don’t have feelings, it’s just that we know problems have to be solved in the world as it is, not in the world as we’d like it to be.
Liberals are comfortable with feelings, but only care about facts when they support their view of the world. They have difficulty defending their positions based on the facts. Their attitude is, if you don’t agree with them, you must be heartless, racist, greedy or homophobic (Pick one).
It reminds me of a quote by Stuart Chase. “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.”
I should have learned my lesson by now. No matter how many facts I provide, there will never be enough proof to change the mind of a liberal. I can only hope to influence those who haven’t yet gone to the dark side.
It doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying. Like I said, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a perfect Brain Color Study. The Conservatives are “Green Brainers”. Yes, they are “comfortable with facts” and look at the world with a problem solving problem perspective. The Liberals are “Blue Brainers”. They are “comfortable with feelings” and look at the world with an emotional perspective. I think you are one of the sharpest tools in the shed, it just that you and your relative do not speak the same
“Brain Color” Language. It is difficult to communicate with others when they do not recognize and apprecite another person’s point of view, even if it is different from theirs. We do not have to agree with one another. However, I think we should be respectful of other’s ideas and be grateful that we live in a country that provides us with opportunities to share our differences! Sorry, your cousin was so disrespectful to you and herself. Discovery is a splendid experience, too bad she missed the opportunity.
Sorry, folks. Replace “Liberal” for “Conservative” and you’ll soon see how broad a brush you paint with. Committed idealogues of all stripes tend not to engage to constructive conversation. Check out OpinionSpace.com.
For argument’s sake, let’s look at the definitions:
Liberal means open to ideas and experience.
Conservative is all about the status quo.
That said, not everyone’s a label.
BTW: I thought that this was a non-partisan website?
And as for the Brain Color Study – hogwash. I worked in Cognitive Science and you have no basis in fact.
First off, I’d like to welcome Tongue Untied to Promise of America.
Secondly, let’s get our definitions straight. The dictionary definitions of the words are quite different from the current day political definitions. The following is a quick summary of each courtesy of A Rational Advocate:
Conservatism
Simplified Definition: An ideal “conservative” believes in the importance of the individual person and the family structure; that it is the responsibility for the individuals within each family to do as much as they can for themselves before asking for assistance. When assistance is needed the route taken is community, city, county, state and federal, in that order, with the federal government the avenue of last resort. A conservative believes in the least government possible.
Liberalism
Simplified definition: An ideal liberal takes the completely opposite position to an ideal conservative vying for a socialistic form of government working from the top down wherein the freedom of the individual is compromised for the supposed good of the collective group.
Regarding your question of this website being non-partisan, the answer is we are definitely partisan in favor of America as a constitutional republic. We want to restore and “conserve” America to those ideals, rather than “fundamentally transform” America to a quasi-socialist European nightmare.
Lastly, regarding another reader’s comment about brain color studies, Sheila Glazov is the well-respected author of the book, “What Color Is Your Brain.” You might want to read it before you make the judgement of it being “hogwash.”