Political party
namecalling: why do we sling mud at each
other? 
Friday, September 27th,
2007
Ah, hatemail. Let's take a peek into
today's:
"Connie,
Quit whining about
Kid Nation. My son loves the show. You must be one
of those Kool-Aid drinking, no-brains Liberals. QUIT YOUR
WHINING!!!"
I knew the hate mail would flood in once I
posted a blog about how I think CBS' new reality show,
Kid Nation, is child endangerment for entertainment; any
time you make a serious accusation like that, people want to fight you
over it. I also am getting a bunch of e-mails from young kids that
saw my article and somehow thought I was involved in the
casting of the show, and were asking how they can sign up for
Season 2. Which pretty much reinforces my point, in my eyes:
if a child is not able to decipher a news blog protesting the
show from the show's own website, how are they expected to decide
whether or not their appearance on the show is helping or harming
them? Or a number of other decisions that they'll be subjected to
on the show with no adult intervention? Shoot, there I go whining
about Kid Nation again.
What I want to address here, though, is
political party namecalling. Whether or not you agree with
what I think about a reality TV show, why would you assume I drink
Kool-Aid and have no brains? Well, having "no brains" is
sort of a noninsult-insult, because there is no such thing as "no brain"
in a living human. But what is it about being concerned for
children's welfare makes me a Liberal? You can think that CBS is
doing nothing wrong to the children in Kid Nation. But even if you
disagree with the children's advocacy groups, wouldn't you rather err on
the side of caution? Are humanitarians evil Liberals?
Politics are so touchy, and when people
disagree with another's ideology, it's easy to resort to throwing those
labels around. If you're a "Liberal," you're a crazy, left wing,
tin foil hat wearing, treehugging, what-have-you. If you're a
Conservative, you're a tightass, right wing, a square, a prude,
etc.
Well, fine. You can call me whatever
you want. I say it a lot in this blog, and I'll say it
again: I am not a Liberal, nor a Conservative, nor a Democrat, nor
a Republican: I am an American citizen. And I see political
segregation to be just as sad as racial, religious, or gender
segregation. So can't we all just get along?
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