Fights, fights, fights... [View All]

Yeah, I'm a newbie, but I wanted to throw something out there.

I've been away for some time, being busy with schoolwork, and I logged on here hoping for some sanity. Instead, I saw lots of nasty infighting. I saw two themes that everyone really ought to be able to resolve in a more constructive fashion.

1. "F**k the South." I'm from the south. I'll open this by saying that I'm tired of hearing characterizations of southerners as unintelligent.

I'm going to be a third-generation Ph.D. in the next couple of years, and yes, my father and grandfather are/were southerners. I've never taken a standardized test - up to and including the GRE - in which I didn't score 90th percentile or better, and I wasn't even close to the smartest person in my high school class from a small town in TN; that would be Dr. Charles Whetsel, who heads up the Mars missions in JPL. Anyhow, enough self-aggrandizement.

I was going to argue that states in the southwest such as Utah and states in the middle of the country, like Nebraska, elected Bush with a far larger margin than most of the southeast, but then I realized something that made me want to type this post a lot worse. The realization was that in attempting to shift attention to another region, I was simply perpetuating regional polarization. That lands me squarely in the Republican Party's evil hands. Everyone on here knows that Republicans campaign on fear, but has anyone stopped to think that the common theme of that fear is fear of the outsider? Fear of someone who's different from you?

Whether it's Muslims, atheists, "librul elites," the northeast, the west coast, Hollywood, abortionist doctors, activist judges, the common themes linking Republican campaigns in the southeast center on the outsider who will take something precious from you, whether it's (in no particular order) your life, the lives of the unborn, your Bible, your guns, your liberties, your children's education, your money... it goes on and on. Campaigns of fear and polarization have made the southeast more xenophobic because there's been no resonant counter. Assault - in any fashion - a culture that has a tendency towards xenophobia, and you're not going to cure it. You'll intensify it.

When you say "F**k the South", all you do is play straight into the hands of the fearmongers and the polarizers. Conservative media plays the fear game by taking an extreme example and conflating it with a general premise. You provide an extreme example, and they'll use it. Republicans rule through fear and division. Don't help them.

2. I'm a little tired of the typecasting of Christianity, too. I'm Christian. I've written term papers on fundamentalist culture for an anthropology course, and written a paper for a philosophy of science class delineating how creationism isn't a science, and have spoken at an public activist meeting - GCISE - for the complete exclusion of creationism/intelligent design from the public school curriculum in Georgia. I don't push my religion on anyone, and in return, I hope for a little courtesy in not having it bashed. I extend that principle to government; I expect to be able to practice my religion, and I expect my government to keep its fingers out of everyone's choices regarding religion.

With that said, if you want to bash fundamentalism, have at it. However, please realize that not all Christians are fundamentalists, so the conflation of the terms can result in some real hurt feelings... and aren't the desires to not hurt others and to protect others from getting hurt two real core values of liberalism? I'll even give you a practical reason... "fundies" is easier to type on a QWERTY keyboard than "Christians." ;-)

Well, gotta go now. Time to write some term papers, now that I've gotten the fingers warmed up.