October 26, 2003

Michele's Confused

Michele writes:

No one tries to understand the other. No one wants to discuss. No one wants a healthy debate. Everyone just wants to throw mud and start fights. That's the thing that annoys me the most - sites that obviously post material that is specifically designed to start an argument or a controversy. And when the controversy begins, anyone who takes the opposite side is made to feel like a traitor.

Lefties get made at their fellow-lefties for supporting the war. Righties get mad at fellow righties for questioning the president. Neither side wants anyone to have an opinion other than theirs. No one admits mistakes. No one listens. They just yell over eachother and you can hear the hoarseness in their voices even though it's just letters on a screen that you're reading. But you know. You know these people yell when they talk and hold their fingers in their ears when someone tries to argue.

The only way I can respond to her confusion about not "belong[ing] anywhere if my only choices are the left or the right" is to tell her that no one's purely on the either end (or corner). I'm on the Right but I oppose the death penalty. That doesn't make me a moderate or a (non-classical) liberal. Any seriously thinking person won't walk in step with any ideology. Don't be afraid of a label. That's just a way our brains organize knowledge. We still have to think in order to understand the world around us. In many ways, you define the label, not the other way around.

"Politcal Limbo"