Is it okay to want to be liberal?

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Is it okay to want to be a liberal? I want to be a liberal, but my parents are far-right. It feels like they think my opinion is somehow their business. I'm still weary of the morals and character of liberals in the US.

Well your parents cannot tell you how to think really, so I'd say you can have whatever opinions you want.

I will say though the term liberal is rather confusing at this point, in its basic definition it is a good thing...but its kinda been twisted into some sort of insult, like calling someone liberal is supposed to be an insult. Also people sometimes mistake the the democratic party as a good representation of 'liberals' which I don't think is true....seems the democrats/republicans are just two sides of the same coin, one just tries to appear more 'liberal' or that is how it seems.

Yeah, I see what you mean.

I don't really agree with the Democrats either or their representation.

I just don't agree with fundamentalists or biblical end-times.
Even economically speaking, I feel a bit liberal.

I want to also say while some liberal ideas are good, they are sometimes (at least) logistically impossible in America because of our written constitutional heritage.

I don't know what you mean by this. Our Constitution has been amended many times and even now, right wing extremists are trying to reinterpret, revise and edit the Constitution to suit their own agenda. You should be weary of the integrity and character of the political party (right wing) that schemes to undermine and sabotage a newly elected POTUS before he has even taken the oath of office, before he has done anything other than legally win a national election. Conservatives no longer even have the best interest of our nation as a priority. Their priority, every day they fake working, is to make this President look bad, no matter the negative repercussions to the country.

I have been trying to look at the news to get a closer view of my personal politics, but I resist because I'm too sensitive and afraid of bad events going on like the epidemics and doomsday etc. Is this a reasonable fear not to read the news?

Now I think I understand your "why is TV so dark these days?" thread a little better. You really don't want to expose yourself to terrible things in general- not just disapproving of them on TV.

If you don't want to read about horrible things happening then no- don't read the news. At any given time, some terrible upheaval will be happening somewhere in the world and it will be reported. There will probably be photos, too. If this affects you in a strong way ("harshes your mellow" as my generation used to say), then you should avoid it.

Exploring your personal politics without exposing yourself to brutal realities via the news is a pretty tricky proposition. I'm not entirely sure it's possible. But you may be able to do it with a combination of academic books on political theory and People magazine.

Yes- I said People magazine and I'm not being snarky. People magazine is composed almost entirely of feel-good stories about people triumphing against adversity. Sometimes the adversity they triumph against is political dictatorship or natural disasters. So it is possible to get some news from them but spun in such a way that you learn the news story filtered through people who survived it and triumphed over it. If horror and brutality get you down but you want to know what's going on in the world, the upbeat filter of People magazine might work for you. Instead of photos of dead bodies as in Newsweek, it's photos of the people who didn't die and how they managed to survive.

Last edited by Janissy on 06 Aug 2014, 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Would people think it acceptable if you sent a child to school and half the faculty had conspired the decision to fail your child in every class in the building before your child ever stepped through the doors? How about if you were hired for a new job that you had wanted all your life and are perfectly qualified to do, yet the most influential people at that company conspired, before human resources had ever issued you credentials, that they were not going to work with you or cooperate with you on any task or project assigned and were going to do anything in their power to get you fired, before you have ever even parked your chariot. Would that be acceptable or tolerated in any other position in the country, or world for that matter?

Yet Conservative voters reward this despicable obstructionism.

There's a conspiracy against liberals?

I guess I'm not scared of the news, just a bit weary.

And by my other thread, I wasn't meaning to say we should all have a bible-thumping mentality about TV and the media.

Due to political bias?

Against this Liberal President, yes, but not against Liberalism. It has been admitted to by Conservatives, this clandestine meeting to plan and organize a plan of obstruction against Obama, before he was even sworn into office. Not a meeting to see how to work together with him and other liberals to get America back on track. No, the number one mission of Conservatives, especially Tea Party Conservatives, is to establish and maintain a nonstop campaign to stop/block anything that the majority of Americans had elected Obama to do.

I realize your question is probably facetious.

There HAS been a glut of bad news lately:epidemics, two wars in the Middle East, one in Nigeria, and one in the Ukraine, and two Malaysian airliners crashing/disappearing, and so on. But the world is a big place. You cant think of it all as being the wolf being right at your door. Stuff happens. Just keep things in proportion in your mind.



In fact -if you have cable TV- its good to sample the news buffet from around the world (not just Fox vs MSNBC), Go outside the American box and watch some BBC, Al Jazeera America, RT, and get different viewpoints. So be fearless-and dive right in!

And if the pill of the news gets too bitter you can always take it with some yucks by watching Jon Stewart.

And ofcourse its alright to think differently than your parents and be [fill in the blank]- liberal, conservative, middle of the road, or whatever. And even within each of those labels there is alot variation and even conflict- for example Ron Paul Conservatives are quite different from Rick Santorum type conservatives- even though they are both called conservative. And on many issues conservatives like Pat Buchanan and left of center Ralf Nader ally with other against both the Bush ,and the Clinton dynasties. . So feel free to construct your own philosophy.

It is, because the right is convinced they are the victims of not one, but several conspiracies, including the homosexual agenda, rampant Darwinism, Obama the muslim/communist/socialist/whatnot, the UN taking over the world, Mexicans, to name but a few. Most of this nonsense is driven by media bias, on both sides, pulling people apart. It's a farce.

Yes, but I still find it hard not to want to spout my opinion to parents.

If you are still dependent on your parents, then you should probably be careful about coming out as more liberal than them. Conservatives can be very intolerant of differing views. And no, liberalism is not incompatible with the Constitution, that's another conservative lie.