TIMEOUT!!! Y'all Need to CHILL!!!
Want Better Politics? Start with Stopping with the Name Calling
Stop it. I mean it. STOP IT. STOP THE F**KING NAME CALLING.
To win in politics, you need to bring in more people to your side than the other side(s). That used to mean being polite, friendly, deliberate and above all, open to others. Representing a “good example” was the most attractive thing someone could do to win them over. Choosing candidates with overall approval was more important than having bomb throwers. Two candidates could debate on issues but rarely did you see them personally attack each other directly.
Then came cable. Then came the internet. Then came the need for pageclicks for donor money.
Nowadays, candidates are more likely to be partisan bombthrowers. offering sarcastic remarks about the other candidates, and representing an issue to the extreme so they get eyeballs on Twitter and cable news interviews. Part of that is a product of gerrymandering (on both sides); creating districts in which everyone is “safe” means there are no consequences for saying the most outragous shit. Candidates take advantage of that. But mostly, it starts with the online culture, which is rude, pointed, ignorant, uncompromising, offensive and sometimes outright verbal warzones.
We’ve all seen and heard the words:
Republicans are Fox-obsessed Fascists, racist, sexist, misogynist bros, RepubliKKKlans, anti-semites, pedophile, Konservative, Russian indoctrinated Nazis with an agenda.
Democrats are MSNBC indoctrinated uber-liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Leninist, Che Worshipping, Communist, Woke, CRT loving, pedophile, America hating Nazis with an agenda.
Everyone else is [insert favorite slur here].
You’re all wrong. For starters, only Nazis are as depraved as “The Nazis.” Don’t call people that, especially if you have no idea what it means.1 I agree with the online rule that the first person who brings out the Nazi references loses the argument.
That caveat aside, I know a lot of people in both camps. Most the people throwing these labels around so often are so siloed and so into their own worlds that they find it exceptionally easy to slander the other side. Most people are not like that. Most people have liberal friends AND conservative friends. They go to work with both, go to church with both, go to school with both and have family that are both. NONE of the labels listed above accurately describes most of the people I know personally on both sides of the aisle.2
The online culture is so quick to call someone the most extreme element. We like to talk online and state our opinions and when we are met with any kind of resistance, pull out the names, as if that wins the debate. I’ve seen good, interesting online discussions devolve to nothing more than “Yo mama” disses.
The fact of the matter is, we get the elected representatives we deserve. When we elect clown show activists with no respect for decorum in the office, we get a circus. When we vote for ignorant bomb throwers, we get a stagnant legislature where there is no incentive to compromise to the other side, and no middle ground moderates to sway.
Take Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin represents West Virginia pretty well. Democrats are lucky to have him in their bare majority. The drop off between Joe Manchin, Democrat and whatever GOP Candidate that would get elected there is pretty steep. But whenever he shows pause and doesn’t rubber stamp something from the Dem agenda, the vitriol aimed at this guy from the left is ugly. You’d think he committed treason or something. In fact, he’s just doing his best representing West Virginia. Compromise is GOOD in politics. It makes for better overall bills/laws. It encourages scrutiny and oversight. Which is why I find it utterly befuddling how some liberals would rather kick him out of the party (and possibly put themselves in a minority) than compromise. It’s just dumb. When I saw someone call him a "secret GOP" and Klansman because he suggested McCarthy’s debt ceiling bill showed forward movement and now the Dems had to offer a solution, I kind of gagged.3
People are just way to quick to label someone [insert slur here]. It’s offensive to me and detrimental to our body politic. I’m tired of it. To turn the corner, we need to stop with the animosity, the prejudice, the name-calling, and start working together constructively.
Y’ALL NEED TO STOP. AND THAT’S THE T-RUTH, RUTH.4
Outstanding Tweet
This kind of stuff really pisses me off. So to show you examples of what I mean, here are some prime examples of B.S. from both sides online. This kind of shit has to stop.
Seriously, cut this shit out.
Footnotes and Parting Thoughts
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In this, I’m referring specifically to right wing partisans who think Nazis were “socialists” because they were “National Socialists.” They were Socialists this way only in the sense the state was all encompassing, but in actuality, they were Fascists and Authoritarians.
There is only one exception I know about, and that is a friend of mine who openly admits and supports Socialism. It doesn’t make me like him less, I just disagree with the extent he would take things politically, but otherwise, he’s a great guy.
This is not to be confused with Former West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd who was in fact a Klansman at one point. He recanted his Klan activities and regretted it for most of his later career.
The reference is to Do The Right Thing, where Samuel L. Jackson as Senior Love Daddy tries to calm down everyone’s growing racial resentments on the hottest day of the year.
Amen. This bugs the hell out of me, and it is this childishness that tars the entire polity.
I first ran into this in the early aughts on DU and Free Republic where the threads were pretty much grade school level name calling.
Of course, Trump is the apex predator here, who seems unable to say or type MSNBC, instead calling it the MSDNC. That is neither clever nor additive to the discourse, but it sure makes his base cackle.