If you're a progressive (or liberal or whatever), chances are, someone in your life taught you how to be a decent person.
Over the millennia, many moral leaders have made pithy statements about how to be a decent person — Confucius, Rabbi Hillel, Jesus, the Prophet Mohammed, Mohandas Ghandi, Dr. Phil... the list is quite long. I often hear people say, "When you boil it down, the basis of most moral frameworks is 'don't be an asshole'." That's not really accurate.
The basis of most moral frameworks is better summed up with a famous quote from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: "Be excellent to each other."
Isn't that why we do what we do? It seems to me that Progressives fight for progress because they care about people other than themselves. I'm not gay, but I support gay rights. I'm white, but I will not tolerate racism towards non-whites. I'm have a stable, well-paying job and excellent health insurance, but I support my tax dollars going to help people who aren't as well off as I am. I don't do these things because it improves my life, or because pisses off the wingnuts or even makes me better than them; I do it because it's the right thing to do according to pretty much anyone with a credible opinion on right and wrong.
Bashing people is not
I see a lot of discussion on Daily Kos about who it is OK to bash and who isn't OK to bash. Gays? Not OK. Republicans? OK. Then there are groups that some people think are OK to bash and some people don't; these include Palestinians, Israelis, religious people, southerners, and law enforcement. How do we sort out the rules?
Here's a simple answer: it's not OK to bash anybody.
Bashing people is not simply "wrong," it's counterproductive. A diary from a southerner inviting everyone to bash the south included this promise:
I have and will continue to work my ass off to turn ... Dallas Texas Blue.
A couple of things:
- Dallas Texas is already blue. My representative was the incomparable Eddie Bernice Johnson. 57% of the presidential votes in Dallas County went to Barack Obama — that means that Dallas is not only Blue, but it's Bluer than the country as a whole. Working one's ass off to make Dallas Texas Blue is like working your ass off to make Dallas Texas hot.
- What the diarist should be working his or her ass off to do is to make nearby Collin County blue. That would be a feat, especially with the unbelievably inept and dysfunction Democratic Party of Collin County doing its best to insure Democratic failure. Here's a tip, though: going door-to-door in Plano telling people that they can go fuck themselves until they wise up and vote Democrat will not work. Call it a hunch.
I know this because a few months ago, I moved from Dallas to Springfield, Missouri — from the district that blessed us with Eddie Bernice Johnson to the district which gave us Roy Blunt. Since then, I have:
- Reformed a birther.
- Gotten people to stop using "Democrat" when they should use "Democratic."
- Robbed Glenn Beck of a fan.
- Convinced several people that they shouldn't vote against Robin Carnahan just because she's a Democrat named Carnahan.
These are small victories, to be sure, but victories nonetheless, and while it may surprise some people, I didn't once bash these people into changing their views; I showed them a better way.
Trying to find a line between criticism and bashing is a slippery slope, but the most obvious distinguishing characteristic of bashing is generalization.
Everyone is Gaza is not evil and the people of Gaza do not deserve to be indiscriminately bombed because there are some reprehensible elements in Gaza. The over-a-billion Christians on the planet do not share collective responsibility for the disgraceful shenanigans at the C-Street House.
Aggregate data also doesn't grant license to bash. Yes, 70% of white southern voters may be birthers, but that doesn't mean you can bash 100% of white southern voters. Lots of bigots have "data". Sadly, No! came across this horrifying Freeper comment the other day:
I think there would be a lot less so-called "Racism" if there was a lot less Black crime.
The numbers don’t lie my friends, no matter how hard you try.
Blacks create a tremendous amount of violent crime according to FBI statistics.
These are facts. These are facts.
What do you do with these facts?
Pretty amazing, but what I find more amazing is that this is nearly identical to logic I'm seen here on Kos explaining why it's OK to bash Christians. Some Christians oppose gay rights, abortion rights — all kinds of rights — and until they stop, then it's OK to trash the lot of 'em. People here on Kos express these things with no sense of irony or self-consciousness.
There's no mystery as to where these people get the idea that it's OK to take these positions: they get it from the community. These comments and diaries containing small-minded attacks are recommended by many and HR'ed by few. Then we have diaries such as the one I referenced above which openly invite bashing.
A diary from a southerner inviting anti-south bigotry made the rec. list. What's next, a diary from a Jew inviting antisemitism?
Let's not confuse some in-group criticism with invitations to bash, either. Some Jews criticize Israel, but they are not criticising Jews. Some African-Americans criticize self-destructive elements in the African American community, but they are not inviting racism. Many progressive Catholics fully agree with the harshest criticisms of the Pope, but they aren't inviting anyone to denigrate their faith.
So, what about Republicans and wingnuts? Well, we can call them asshole, jackoffs and scumbags because we can prove it. Not with general statistics, but with specific examples of what they, themselves have said. The other day, RedState published an article which basically blamed the support for universal healthcare on Jerry Lewis, whose telethons instilled the Baby Boomers with a sense of pity for sick people. This article actually thought that was a bad thing, so I called the author an asshole. I think that was perfectly justified considering what the author had written.
The important thing is that I didn't develop this opinion a priori simply because the article was posted on RedState. Sometimes — rarely — they post things that are either 1) well argued or 2) sensible, and they deserve credit when they do. Pointing that out might actually encourage them to improve.
Bashing them, while emotionally satisfying, will do nothing to promote what (I think) we're all here to do: make the world a better place.
In conclusion: let's be excellent to each other. Partying on (dude) is optional, but recommended.