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Are left wingers close-minded and intollerant?
August 31, 2006 09:22 AM
Yes they are, actually. We were struck by this letter to Slate's advice columnist:
Dear Prudie,
My partner and I are having our condominium remodeled. We have worked well with one company and asked them to bid a second phase of the job. The person who showed up to bid the job wore a cap with an angry bald eagle on the front with multiple American flags sewn onto the rest of the cap. When I was obviously startled at the hat, he acknowledged, "Guess I should have worn my company hat." I replied, "I would be more comfortable if you had because I can't support much of what the country is doing right now." This led to his reply, "Just so we all support America." My partner and I are gay and feel assaulted by the right wing. We are also horrified by the war in Iraq and so many other issues that our patriotism is very low. That hat was a sickening reminder of my childhood in rural America. I feel that perhaps my money should be spent in a more socially conscious fashion, but I don't relish starting my own campaign of reverse discrimination. Am I making too much of this incident? The company has done a good job for us so far.—Uneasy Remodeler
"Assaulted by the right wing." Assaulted? The right wing is doing your remodeling--and apparently a pretty decent job at it, apparently.
Who comes off as more close-minded and intollerant here? The homeowner, or the contractor?
Does anyone else find it ironic that the person with the economic power in this relationship is the one who is claiming oppression?
And check out this hysteria:
"That hat was a sickening reminder of my childhood in rural America."
It's a freaking hat!
The advice columnist's response is pretty good--she says it's wrong to make contractors pass a political litmus test, and that she'd have the same response for a contractor who didn't want to work for people he disagreed with. One does get the sense though, that she would have come down much harder on such a person, and lit into their intollerance.
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As a teenager I went to school in Zimbabwe. Recently I attended a school friends wedding in London. It was a great chance to catch with old friends and aquiantances.
Most of are fortunate enough to have been able to relocated abroad. Some of them are not so lucky. I was particularly impressed with one girl, a mouse at school, had become a constitutional lawyer. She is working with what is left of Zimbabwe’s legal system for the rights of oppressed Zimbabwean. She is quite literally a life saver and has paid a financial, professional and personal price for that.
Because of her work she has received numerous death threats, she has to check her car for bombs before she drives, her colleagues have been kidnapped and ZANUpf has threatened her family. Other horror stories told that night include: a good friend’s father being kidnapped by ZANU pf, his life saved by a substantial bribe through Chinese diplomat; my head master being arrested and a friend’s brother being tortured for handing out leaflets.
My point: the complainer’s problems are utterly trivial. As a liberal I am sickened by the slack, unpatriotic, woolly mind thoughtlessness I witness from my “political bedfellows”. We live a privileged existence in the west, one our fore fathers fought hard for. Occasionally some gratitude would be nice.