by Chris Chaos
Since the dawn of time mankind has labeled, secluded, excluded, separated and divided himself among many stratifications such as race, religion, class, sex, income etc. He does this to feel better about himself, to distinguish himself and to put down others. The various governments of the world do the same to take the attention off of themselves and allow the common folk to battle and quarrel amongst themselves. One of the backbones in the United States that was implemented in the “divide and conquer" scheme was the concept of the two party system, Democrats and Republicans, furthermore, Liberals and Conservatives. Obviously there are dozens of variations to this, but for the purpose of this short exercise we will be speaking strictly of Liberals and Conservatives.
It may seem that many people that feel the need to define themselves as a self-proclaimed "fill in the blank" are usually the worst ones within their selected category. They see it as a calling and a need to go above and beyond to stand apart from the others in their lot and to gain the attention that they so desperately crave.
The seven below points, from each side of the political belief spectrum, were pulled from the most common responses when liberals and conservatives were polled.
In living and experiencing life situations, I have had the dual purpose pleasure and displeasure of dealing with the gauntlet of just about every personality that exists and today we will discuss two of them. They will be comprised of the “Self-Proclaimed Liberal” and the “Self-Proclaimed Conservative”. Obviously, this is not a complete and exhaustive list.
Please do remember, these are the individuals that make it a point to tell you who or what they are, they interject their opinion whether it is wanted or not.
"Self-Proclaimed Liberals"
1. Possess an unrealistic or shallow view of the world, with the belief that the people running the businesses and governments are basically good people but are misunderstood.
2. Illogical when it comes to dealing with people, the world and how it works. Typically of the younger crowd, naïve, fresh out of college and lacking real world experience.
3. Typically they follow the herd and believe what they are told without further research, this population is the one of weekday afternoon television full of Jerry Springer, Court TV, daytime soaps and get rich schemes with little to no work involved.
4. The ones appearing in this category feel the need that they have to change things, the world or help people, whether they want this help or change is beyond their grasp. They take great delight in attempting to change the status quo, to upset culture and tradition in the name of “progress”.
5. The self-proclaimed Liberal is constantly in other people's business, telling them what they should think, believe and how to behave. They will tell you to not be racist, homophobic or whatever the case may be and then turn around and belittle or hate you for not agreeing with whatever the topic may be. They want it their way or no way.
6. Many times Liberals cannot comprehend the concept of “Life is not fair”; setting rules/laws to give an unfair advantage to any special interest group is within their scope to fit their own needs. What is fair to one group may be unfair to another.
7. Although this talking point can go under both categories many Liberals call themselves “people of tolerance”, but they can be some of the most intolerant people on earth. A large number of the COEXIST people that claim to love everyone and everyone is equal are the ones that simply cannot accept people that differ in belief outside of their own. The Theory of Mind escapes them. So for the Liberal view of tolerance it usually falls under hypocrite.
"Self-Proclaimed Conservatives"
1. Many in the self-proclaimed Conservative category are of the older generation and are entrenched with out dated ideals in comparison to the younger generation,
2. A vast majority are also of conspiracy theory mindset. They may be thinking and trying to comprehend the how and the why of why people do the things that they do. Things just never happen for a reason, there always has to be some major joint effort of why something happened. This is in stark comparison to the mid 90’s assentation by the liberals that a “vast right wing conspiracy is taking over the USA”.
3. Many of the people that fall into the self-proclaimed Conservative category are resistant to change of the familiar and stick to what they know, hence why many Liberals consider themselves to be progressive. They usually try to get others to join them in their older ways that they consider tradition because “it is the way that it has always been done”.
4. The vast majority of self-proclaimed conservatives are usually overly religious, Christian Right that is. Many of the people that disagree with what they are saying is because many of their opinions are cloaked in religious belief and thus are considered to not be a part of reality. Many opposers automatically discount what a religious partakers opinions are just based on the differences in religious viewpoint. A fault on the side of the Conservative is that you can’t agree “God’s Will” to a person that doesn’t believe in God.
5. One thing that some liberals have stated as their observation of Conservatives has been dubbed the “Angry Conservative”, which is when they assert that they know things which are beyond the human capacity to know: the truth about God, and the correct deeply personal decisions for other people.
6. Many Self-Proclaimed Conservatives are certain their personal beliefs are correct. They can be so sure about them, there is no need to listen to other points of view. There is no chance they will modify their positions in the future based on greater wisdom.
7. One tactic that Self-Proclaimed Conservatives will use to try to make you side with them is that no matter what they are stating, if you disagree you are un-Christian or un-American. On the flip side if you disagree with what a Self-Proclaimed Liberal you are a racist, a homophobe or a Nazi.
(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, has a black cat named Jynx, two rats: Hopping Heather and Climbing Carol, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings.)
