Liberal and proud of it

[bunrab]

When I was doing that interests-images meme a couple of posts ago, one of the things that bugged the hell out of me was that for the interest "liberal," every single one of the images that the meme generator offered was not, in fact, for a liberal, but was an image of a cover of a book dissing liberals, or a t-shirt or poster ditto, or in some cases, not just dissing, but outright hate speech against liberals. Now, that bugs me. If I really thought about it, I'd probably go back and boycott the whole meme, until they fix that, to replace those pictures with something that genuinely reflects a person with an interest in liberal thought and politics. Since I'm too lazy to undo having done the meme, let me use this post to tell you all to add your complaints to mine, to the creators of the meme, please. And I've decided to make myself a few liberal icons, of which the first one is displayed with this post. This is a trial version of some downloaded icon-maker software, so it's not fancy, until I learn more about what it does. Shortly, expect a whole bunch o' liberal icons!

Comments

[nentikobe.livejournal.com]

That's one of the main reasons I didn't bother with posting the meme when it *did* work. I don't have liberal as one of my interests, but I didn't like when I saw it on other peoples. (I'm NOT certain what political label fits me best, but conservative isn't one of them, i'd hazard)

I make it clear on my friends page that I have my opinions and I like people to have theirs, but I don't approve of people who spread hate language.

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Many of the pictures were inappropriate - so I removed them.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

"Liberal" is a bad word. There are relatively few of us using it in a positive way.

It's like "negro."

Changes in speech

[evilsithlady.livejournal.com]

Interesting, these "changes" in meaning. I don't think "liberal" is a bad word, except among the conservatives who want to disparage by a fallacy (can't remember which logical fallacy it is, atm; but basically it's name calling, instead of presenting one's own positions!)

I tend towards the Libertarian positions in many ways: I think people should be left alone unless they are injuring others, or have stated an intent. I believe that, in many cases, less government interference in people's lives is better.

OTOH, some of my positions are classic liberal: I am in favor of public education being available to all, because without it, we'd have chaos with so many ignorant people. I also support a national health plan, something conservatives DREAD with great apprehension.

Incidentally, I observed a lesson conducted by a black educator with fifth grade students last year. She discussed the history of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which is known as the Black National Anthem. She stated that, in the past, it was known as the Negro national anthem, and that, the word negro, contrary to being a "bad" word, simply is an archaic form of the word "black." The children were more accepting of this than most adults are. Most adults consider it disparaging, which is interesting. At the time the song was written, it was considered the proper descriptor to call black people.

Re: Changes in speech

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Language does change like that. And I don't really see the difference sometimes. Like, I don't remember to call my handicapped placard a "disabled" placard now, because I really can't see the difference between one term and the other.