I've noticed a disturbing trend lately on DKos. I come here to get my daily dose of progressive news with some well-written diaries from knowledgeable people. Many of these diaries have interesting comments that add greatly to the discourse.
However, I have been really bothered of late by a trend that I see happening more and more.
I see a great deal of negative stereotyping towards conservatives and Republicans. Just because they disagree with us politically doesn't mean it's ok to judge as a group. We would never think it's ok to judge an entire ethnic or racial group based on how they look, so why is it ok to judge an entire political party by the same?
I have a couple of experiments I want to conduct. This morning I went to Freerepublic and browsed a few threads. I then came here and browsed a few. I gathered quotes from each one, removing any names that might make this obvious. Can you spot which quotes came from regular dkos contributors and those which came from those at freerepublic?
Dear - Are you really as dumb as you look? (Regarding a political appointee of a previous President)
Why? Because they are not actually human
They are like sh*t, they are everywhere
Some people just radiate the crazy
You’re right and the spooky thing is that the sheep are lapping it up.
They look different so we can spot them and protect ourselves from them--an elegant trick, don't you think?
Yesterday Dana Sproule wrote a diary in which he concluded with this question:
What is it? Why do the people who think Rush Limbaugh holds all the answer to our politics are so out of whack with the rest of us that they even look different?
Another test:
Here's a group of 8 Mormons from Idaho. Spot the conservatives and spot the liberals.
Four of us vote Democrat regularly. One is a lesbian. One of them is a night-watchman at a Mormon temple. Another is a proud union member. Two of these people have college degrees. One attended a vocational school.
Can you tell who is who just by looking?