Colours In Pleasantville

Just recently, you may have noticed I've been banging on about "leaving playground name-calling behind" in debates between the political right and left. Too many blogs (and especially comments threads)and too much political posturing consists entirely of streams of vitriol directed at the other end of the political spectrum. There are, to my mind, two reasons for this. Firstly, emotion is OK in debate - we should feel strongly about our beliefs and our ethics. That doesn't account for the depths of those nasty streams though. The second (real) reason is - it's pure herd behaviour, reinforcing the group mentality at it's most xenophobic so as to hold the group more tightly together. And that second motivation is one we should all have left behind when we left kindergarten; or possibly when we climbed down out of trees.

Anyway, I am therefore happy to see moves towards ditching the whole foul business are afoot. Newshog's friendly neighbourhood right-wing commenter, Harkonnendog, has posted a double-headed challenge to all and sundry. Let conservatives denounce the "all liberals are traitors" meme and let liberals denounce the "all conservatives are evil" meme.

So....yes, I denounce the "all conservatives are evil" meme. I believe there are some nasty people in this world, and I believe some of them are conservatives. Then again, I believe some of them are liberals too. There are those on both sides who are more interested in power for themselves and their own little clique than in good governance and they should be denounced, but I DO NOT believe there are more of them on the conservative side of the equation.

Having said that, I think most conservatives (say, every one of them with a net worth less than $10 million) are deluding themselves if they think the current thread of conservatism prevalent in the US is in their best interests. It doesn't stop me having a reasonable, rational conversation with them or even liking them as people beyond their politics.

It's a great idea, Harkonnendog. I hope this meme spreads like wildfire.