One of my favorite George Carlin lines was something like, "If con is the opposite of pro then does that mean congress is the opposite of progress?" He then stated, "It's all in the words, people..." Carlin was a genius wordsmith. Aside from the profanity that he was known for, he had a masterful command of the English language that few professional writers and speakers could match. Though he pushed the boundaries of what was categorized as obscene, I believe that he felt that words like "Fuck" were not nearly as obscene as the purposeful obfuscation of words by politicians to manipulate the ignorant masses. When I saw the signs held up by the tea party faithful saying, "Keep your Socialist government out of my Medicare", I immediately thought of George. It may have been funny when he said it but reality is a much scarier place...
Unfortunately, most people in this country have no concept of complex ideas such as capitalism vs. socialism, democracy vs. theocracy or even why the American colonies sought independence from Great Britain. How do we expect Americans to know that our forefathers didn't say that our new country would be capitalistic because the concept of capitalism (or socialism for that matter) would not be unveiled for another half century. Our forefathers were not economists, in fact the commonly accepted father of Economics, Adam Smith, coincidently released his world shattering "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776, the year of our declaration of independence. With 24 hour a day propaganda introducing nonsense terms like "Islamofascists" into the American vocabulary, it is not hard to understand why Americans are confused.
When I talk to people about politics, I purposely dumb down my vocabulary to the simplest terms possible to make sure they understand the core concepts of the topic. I am not saying that I am smarter than they are but some people have very strong, emotional opinions on things they frankly do not understand and for reasons of pride or whatever, they will never stop you and say, "I'm sorry but what does socialism mean again?". Most people simply feel that through the context of the current or previous conversations that they get the gist of it and that is good enough. They have heard that capitalism is good and socialism is bad and that is all they need to carry on an intelligent conversation. Conservatives (and advertisers and our media) exploit this ignorance at every opportunity.
Educating people, in a respectful, rather than condescending, way is an art form. While I am not as good as it as I would like to be, I at least recognize that as the objective. If people do not understand the topic at hand, there is no way that logic can be used to to pursuade them to change their opinion. It is like trying to discuss the nuances of advanced statistics with someone who does not understand basic probability. I try to find an opportunity to explain the "-isms" in way that they can easily grasp. I often start out by explaining that most of our closest allies in the world have governments that are basically socialistic. In fact, some of the best things in America are socialist too such as; out National Parks, our police and firefighters, our school teachers and even our military. They are all paid for by our government and therefore, socialistic. In fact, this country has always been, from day one, a balance between what we now consider Socialism and Capitalism. Sometimes it veers more to the right and sometimes more to the left but it has always been somewhere in the middle. This often brings out questions and statements of disbelief. I try to listen to their comments and address these questions as carefully and compassionately as possible before I continue.
People get embarrassed easily if they feel you are talking down to them and they will tune you out especially if there are others around. This is difficult for them because you are basically deconstructing a belief system that has been carefully constructed by the media, their church and their fellow ignorant peers for many years. The secret though is that they want to understand but they are embarrassed to ask. They are embarrassed that they have put their opinions out there and now, in order to find out what this stuff really means, they have to be humble enough to admit that they didn't know what they were talking about. It is very hard for them and would be much easier for them to just walk away and leave their flawed belief system intact and keep their pride; but they want to understand. Most of them have never had anyone patient enough to spend the time to explain it to them in a compassionate manner. You are not going to change someone from a tea-bagger extremist to a flaming liberal in one conversation and you do not have to. It's all in the words.
Teaching people what the words actually mean will help them to critically analyze what other people are really talking about. If they do not understand what a word means, their brains simply substitute the word for what they think it means. If they do not know what the term Liberal actually means, they may substitute the meaning they associate with "Commie" which they also associate with "Enemy of America" so when they hear a discussion about liberals, they hear Liberal=Commie= Enemy-of-America and why do they want to listen to what the enemies of America want to do in this country? This creates a visceral rejection of any idea they are discussing. Critical thinking is shut off and emotional patriotism takes over and the liberal does not understand why this otherwise intelligent, caring person becomes a raving lunatic after what, to them, was clearly a rational discussion about an undeniable truth. It's all in the words.
I have actually written here a few years ago about "How to talk to a conservative" and I was told basically that they could go "F_ _ _" themselves. This was right after the presidential election and very few people here wanted anything to do with talking to conservatives. They were angry at how they had been treated during the Bush years and being called unpatriotic because they questioned their government during a time of war (that doesn't seem to be a problem for right wingers any more). Many felt that the Republicans had destroyed any chance of ever being elected again and that enough of the American public had finally awakened that they didn't need these conservatives (or the "21%er's" as they were called) and it was their turn to suffer. That strategy, though it may have been satisfying at the time, turned out to be wrong. We need to be a Big Tent party again and it needs to start by showing empathy towards the people who have bought into the lies of Fox news, the lies of their elected officials and into the lies (or ignorance) of their social environment.
I have become very cautiously optimistic about the OWS movement. We are the 99% is such a powerful message when it comes to economic disparity. Maybe it is time we consider that their are intellectual disparities in this country as well. If you are on this website and reading this diary, you are obviously concerned about politics in America. You have taken the time to do some research on your opinions and if I had to venture an unsubstantiated guess, you probably have an above average IQ. When it comes to political discourse, I believe it would be a safe assumption that you would be in the top 1% in our nation. Should we show the same empathy for the other 99% as we expect the economic 1% to show the economic 99%? Should we blame the other 99% for not being where we are? Is it their fault that they have been lied to over and over again by people we are supposed to be able to trust? Is it their fault that they are frightened by what Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are saying is happening to this country? Are we to show the same oblivious arrogance to the other 99% as Herman Cain did when he said that if you are not rich it is your own fault? It is not about who they are and what they do; it is about who we are and what we do. We cannot change them without changing ourselves.
My niece lived with us for five years. She had a terrible home life most of her life and though she was intelligent when it came to tests, she was completely clueless when it came to social skills. She felt that if something was true, she should be able to say it. She would literally walk up to people and say they were fat. She would then rationalize that it was true and she said it wasn't like they didn't know they were fat so why did it matter. Many of the most right wing, conservative, tea party activist people I know consistently have one complaint about Liberals: arrogance. Just because something is true doesn't mean that it has to be rubbed into people's faces. Empathy is a trait we could all be better at. Before we ask for it from others, we need to make sure we are giving it as well. I am asking that each one of you try to talk to those conservatives with a little more empathy, show a little more patience and begin a more compassionate conversation. If we plant seeds of understanding and sincere respect for other human beings, maybe we will be able to watch a new beginning of political reality start to grow in this country. As George Carlin said, "It's all in the words, people..."