So usually I just pop these up and let you drink it in-I take a certain pride in my taste in crazy...and this qualifies as crazy. However...it does beg the question...who are these people? I don't know anyone like this. Don't think I ever talk to people like this on the street, don't frequent the same spots...how parallel are these two (or more?) Americas, and what can I do about it? Please...discuss.
3 comments:
oooh look over your shoulder everyone! the gays are coming! the gays are coming! next thing you know we're going to have to start treating everyone like *gasp* people. next thing you know women will be getting equal pay...what is the world coming to?
how the hell did those righteous citizens find my playbook?
I'm surprised you never run into these people, Aaron. I know that Eugene is certainly very liberal, but in 1992 Springfield became the first city in America to include anti-gay language in its charter.
Also, during the primaries, Nate Silver wrote an interesting post with a cool graph about how Oregon's liberals are more liberal than those of any other state, and Oregon's conservatives are more conservative.
So, despite what Slate says, I think these two Americas are very parallel and these people are still very much your neighbors and mine. Luckily, this makes it much easier to do something about it.
Engage them. Talk to them. Use all of your rhetorical authority and ability to confront them. Challenge their ideas without judgment because you can and I can't. All I can do is tell them they're wrong and hateful and ugly because this shit makes me so angry I start stuttering if I try to say anything more substantive. But that's irrelevant and you already knew what you could do.
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