The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Sunday, June 12, 2005

Insults on Left and Right

One of my readers commented that the charge that "Lefties are traitors", often said by right-wing pundits, is roughly equivilent to the "Bush voters were idiots" comment from the Left.  Hmmm.  You know, I think the odious stereotype is "Traitors on the Left, Bigots on the Right." There is, I think, a whiff of truth in it--in the sense that if you hear someone complaining about America being the worst country ever, it derves to be destroyed, 9-11 was justified, etc, etc, your money would probably be safe betting that the speaker has Leftist politics. Conversely, if you overheard someone complaining about Race Mixing, saying Segregation was "a good idea", that blacks were natural slaves of substandard intelligence, etc....your money would probably be safe betting this person's politics were on the Right.  Why this might be is another conversation--I'm just talking observable reality, and public perceptions.  But to tar an entire group with the sins of a few (on either side) is just as closed minded and bigoted.  We're all Americans.  Some of us just look at the flag from different directions.

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