Fuck Definitions

When did we start scrambling definitions so badly? I remember (just barely, we started scrambling early in my childhood) when "conservatives" were people who believed in being financially responsible. Back then "conservatives" were opposed to starting pre-emptive wars, even to becoming involved in the internal politics of other countries.

Somewhere along the way that all got turned around.

Nowadays espousing equal rights gets you tagged "a wild-eyed liberal". Advocating judicially imposed discrimination makes you "conservative". Unilateral attacks on non-combatant countries makes you a republican. Wanting government to manage money responsibly pretty much just gets you labelled crazy by either party.

One of my pet peeves has been the continuous bleating from the right about "multiculturalism". Supposedly, according to these folks, those evil liberals are ok with people coming to the US and committing "honor killings" and beating their wives because it's a part of their "culture" and we have to respect that. Wrong.

We aren't Belgium. Truly traditional Americans don't care if you want to cover your head, wash your feet in the restroom or wear what looks to us like a bedsheet. It's called personal liberty and we respect that. We care a lot if you think violating our laws is going to be just hunky-dory. I wouldn't move to Saudi Arabia and expect to run around in shorts or drive a car. Well, ok, I wouldn't move to Saudi Arabia at all. Ever. That's the point, if you can't deal with the laws of a country DON'T MOVE THERE. There are thousands of miles of difference between being tolerant of practices different from our own and and allowing people to dictate our laws to us. Most of us are down with the first one.

Right wingers you really ought to stop smoking crack. You'd be hard pressed to find 2% of the US population who would be ok with female circumcision, honor killings or any other nonsense like that. Ain't happening. America has been "multicultural" since before it was called America. If you aren't used to it by now maybe it's you who ought to contemplate moving somewhere more homogeneous. My last two bosses were Muslims, one married to a Mexican. Their boss was a white guy from Appalachia who married a Hasidic Jew. Grow up. Tribalism is a deadend and mix-n-match is as "traditionally American" as it gets.

So some groups choose to separate themselves and maintain a distinctly different culture you say? Yes, some do. Guess what happens to them? They get left behind. They never make it to the playing field much less the winner's circle.

There is nothing "liberal" about equality and caring about those less fortunate is not a "wild-eyed liberal" philosophy. Respecting individuals' right to live in peace in pretty much any way they see fit is not a "radical" concept. It's as traditionally American as apple pie and baseball.

Most if not all of the problems we are facing right now are because we quit following those principles. We decided to run out in the world and force "democracy" and "equality" on the rest of the world while not even practicing it all that well at home. It's one thing to want to help others, it's quite another to ram that help down their throats by force when they don't want it.

Any nation that deliberately and consistently chooses to live in ways that do not benefit all of its citizens, that cannot adapt to change and that stubbornly clings to a "me first & my way or the highway" philosophy deserves to implode and will. Including us. Maybe that sounds coldhearted but it's been kind of a universal law like....forever. We can make up all the labels and definitions we want to but the universe has its own laws and they trump ours.

Next person who calls me a wild-eyed liberal is a turdblossom.