I'm a libertarian, laissez-fair, capitalist sort of guy. Naturally, I read a lot of libertarian, laissez-faire and capitalistic 'stuff.' I also read things that are directly contrary to everything I believe in, including a number of blogs right here on the internet. Doesn't everyone do that, I mean, have an open mind and keep up with the other side, just in case they might learn something?
Apparently not everyone. Some do. There are some bloggers who link to me, and I to them, who think a bit differently than I do and I am happy to read their posts and learn from them. That is as it should be. But then, there are the others. Yikes!
Some rabidly left-wing political blogs are often, shall we say, less than tolerant. Ironic, isn't it? Aren't the lefties supposed to be all about compassion, understanding, inclusion? Some bloggers appear to have been absent from school on the day that those values were covered in Socialism 101, wherever they went to school. Lefties try to pass legislation to make everyone pay for everyone else's 'needs,' whatever they might be, and however they might be defined by each new batch of legislators.
Some right-wing political blogs are also lacking in tolerance. But then they make no pretense to be otherwise, do they? Right-wingers tell you up front what they don't like: pornography, prostitution, drugs, gay marriage, just for starters. Then they try to pass legislation to make sure that you won't be able to do what they don't want you to.
Libertarians tend not to care what you do, read, watch, or ingest, or who you marry, as long as you don't make them pay for it. Seems sensible to me.
The worst vitriol comes from the female man-haters. I followed a bunch of links the other day and ended up in some weird place in the blog universe where every successive blog link I followed was worse than the one before. I learned that men are evil. Not some men, all men. They lust after women, they whistle, they ogle, they touch, and worst of all, they breathe. Ouch.
I've met some men that truly deserve disdain. They often end up alone because no woman in her right mind would wish to be with them. I've also met a lot of men who are nothing like that. No man I have ever met has been a woman-hater. Some of these men have been cheated financially, lied about, deprived of shared custody of their children, and abused in every conceivable way, but each one of them always believed that it was only his experience that was the exception, and that there had to be better women out there somewhere. They just had to look harder to find them.
I really don't want to get into some of the vile and disgusting things I read by some of these man-haters, but I do wonder why some women seem to have this all-encompassing anger and hatred. I can understand why a woman who has been abused by a man would have a strong desire not to repeat the experience, but why would any woman who has had little direct experience with men, good or bad, become so filled with hate and vitriol?
I don't know. I will keep reading, though, maybe one day I'll understand it.
hey, there, atavist...i might just sit back w/ some popcorn and watch the discourse begin over here...you brave man, you.
ReplyDeleteseriously, i agree. i think that we lefties can wield an axe as good as anyone, and we should remember what we choose to stand for. injustice is an outrageous. human beings are not. when the two collide, it takes a steady hand and a wise ear. and a remembrance that we westerners all live in a glass house.
It's not just more dialogue (the favoured leftist solution to everything, it seems) that we need, Jen, it's more listening. I have learned a lot from you and other bloggers like you, because I 'listen' to what you have to say.
ReplyDeleteThere is altogether too much hysteria out there, at both ends of the political spectrum. It doesn't help anyone.
I'm glad to be able to have a real dialogue with you!
i did say steady hand and wise EAR....(see, I can listen too)
ReplyDeleteAnd I listen to you.
did you check out Pen's place today? Made me giggle...
You mean where Penny suggests that "The Atavist drives a black Chev Sierra CrewCab with very dark tinted windows and chrome mags," and you counter with your guess that I drive a Prius...?
ReplyDeleteHa ha. It is great that we can all 'listen' to each other and do it all with some humour and good spirits.
Thought provoking post their Sieg!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don’t believe in ideology at all. Left, right, libertarian, socialist, all have their advantages and disadvantages. But the whole idea of blindly following an ideology, as seems to be happening in the USA with their ultra-polarised political system, smacks of intellectual laziness. I think such ideologies are for those who are too lazy to think for themselves. They just blindly follow an ideology even if it goes against their own values and common sense. I personally believe in doing what’s right in any given situation. Sometimes that means being further left (like taking care of the poor or sick), sometimes that means being further right (like enabling a good climate for corporations to prosper and stimulate the economy).
As for men-hater, I think that if you dig a little bit you will find that the vast majority of them had a brutal and/or traumatizing experience at the hands of a man. Whether it was child abuse, spousal abuse, psychological abuse, discrimination, rape, or the rape of a loved one, that hatred is almost always triggered by an unbelievably bad experience. Again though, I think that it is somewhat of an intellectual or emotional laziness. It becomes easier to hate all men rather then just the one(s) who caused you harm.
Good points, Sylvain. The problem is always with generalizations, extrapolating one situation into a universal truth. Example: In grade 10 in 1960, in a new high school, a girl in grade 11 or 12 looked at me with an intense hatred each time she saw me in the hallways. After several months of this, I finally found out that her Jewish family had suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. I had a German name, was tall and blond, so I fit the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteSo it is with man-haters. They may have very good reason to hate a specific man or even several specific men, but they have no reason to hate me or other men of which they know nothing.
More people need to open up and discuss these things, as we do here in the blogosphere, and keep open minds.
Why the hatred?
ReplyDeleteAs to the left and right, when you're dealing with domineering individuals to begin with, then mix in an over-abundance of empty-headed emotionalism and self-righteousness (if you are in short supply, see religion...More than enough to spare) what emerges from the blender is going to have fangs, venom and wrath-a-plenty!
Sometimes it will come with a cute, cuddly, lovable layer of camouflage til the wedding's over...We call that "worst case scenario." One of these I met, and by God's grace didn't marry, claimed she was "only looking for a sensitive, compassionate man who was kind and caring", obviously unaware of the fact those guys already have boyfriends of their own.
Galt, I got a chuckle from your: "obviously unaware of the fact those guys already have boyfriends of their own."
ReplyDeleteWomen are interesting creatures: soft, warm, cuddly, and often inconsistent. I had a woman tell me once that one of the reasons she loved me was that she couldn't push me around. But she kept trying, anyway. Did she think that I would suddenly change such a fundamental thing about myself? Guess what happened?
We all need to compromise, every day, in inumerable ways. What we do not need to do is to control our lovers or spouses. Push me too hard and you will push me away. Most men with real cojones are like that.
As to the left and right, your comment confirms my belief, gleaned in part from listening to my father's experiences in Russia, Poland and Germany between the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the end of World War II in 1945, that the only practical difference between the far left and the far right is the rhetoric. In neither case are you free to live your life as you alone see fit, and to keep the fruits of your labour. In both cases, any pretext by the leading elite can see you rot in jail.