A Love Letter to Liberalism

PoliticsTOO can officially kiss my whole ass.

I disagree with the reason it was unfeatured.. I don't think memes should be disqualified solely on their political or ideological alignment. However, those ... *checks notes* ....

"PoliticsTOO announces itself as a forum for liberals and moderates. We have no obligation to platform the same kinds of right-wing memes that are ever-present on the top page of politics and similar political streams of a conservative bent. We have as much of a right to ban right-wing memes as the mods of a stream for dogs have the right to ban cat memes. This rule preserves the essential character of PoliticsTOO as the principal place on Imgflip where liberal and moderate memes can be reliably seen and heard. At the same time, we do not aim to be a total echo-chamber. We recognize the value of hearing and responding to different viewpoints. Ergo, conservative commentary that is logical, respectful, and informed is permitted in the comments sections."

... are the rules. I haven't been very active as I've been fulfilling my obligations on the domestic scene... If you're looking for non-extremism, I wouldn't recommend imgflip for any alignment. This is the place where online activism can be at its most heated.

I suspect, given the context of the letter, that you're basing your view entirely on your exposure here where anonymity is the name of the game and someone could be pretending to be what you suggest and sabotaging your experience. I would encourage you, in your endeavors, to seek other "liberals" or "progressives" (as I am unsure under what context you're using these labels, specifically) who might broaden your horizons.

It's unfortunate you feel this way, and I wish you the best of luck in defining your political alignment. I hope,, for your sake, you'll one day see the political spectrum as so much more than a LvR or DvR. Republicans have Liberal tendencies too, they just don't want to admit it for the namesake. (In my experience.)

PoliticsToo is the absolute cesspool of concentrated liberalism.
Everything has to absolutely conform, everything is moderated and micro-managed into a frozen state, everything is censored, everything must support the narrative of the day and everything else is retroactively censored if the narrative changed.

I left liberalism back when it was just starting to turn into this. I cant imagine how anyone can still be one at this point in time.

The point of moderated content is that it's moderated.

Being surprised that only liberal and progressive content is featured on a Liberal Stream is like calling in to a Top 40 Pop station and being shocked they didn't play your request for Pachelbel's Canon in D.

It’s a collective, totally void of individual thought.

I was a liberal in spirit until I started talking to other liberals. Funny how much more diverse and welcoming the red camp is to divergent points of view.

Oh. that wasn't Anonymous.

It was me. I'm the one who declined it. I'm the one who wrote that message.

And as the Politics Too is a stream for Liberal and Progressive memes, your "flounce" isn't appropriate content. Declaring yourself a "former liberal" because of the "extremists" in the stream is neither liberal nor progressive.

Why would a liberal stream feature content that's neither liberal nor progressive? The guidelines are clear. You don't get to be a special exception. You have to follow the rules of the stream, just like everyone else. You're not a special snowflake.

Liberalism and progressiveness isn't a monolithic culture.

Despite your desire to make it conform to what you want it to be.

Because that's what your flounce is. "I don't like this anymore. I'm going home!"

You didn't change but liberalism did? That's you disapproving how everyone else thinks. That's you demanding everyone else behave the way you want them to behave. Follow the rules you want them to follow. You know what that makes you?

A conservative.

So, go on, hold your nose up in the air and vote republican. Tell yourself you're not happy with the blatant racism, misogyny, and antisemitism but gosh you can't let the Democrats win and we need to lower taxes (I used to be a liberal, you know. I voted for Obama. Twice.)

You know what? I take something back- you are a special snowflake.

Make sure you get yourself a nice Red Hat that says Make America Great Again that way you can fit in with all the other snowflakes.

I'm puzzled by the repeated assumptions that because I'm not blue I'm red...that type of flawed logic is something it hurts me to see demonstrated by members of the left, because while I expect it from the nitwits on the other side of the fence, I expect better from you. Us. Whatever. I still hold liberal ideologies, but it's really hard to care whether or not I'm accepted by other liberals because I'm shown less and less cause to concern myself with what they think.

I do think they should be careful not to trip over themselves, lest they make themselves look foolish in the process of trying to shame me. You may not care about people outside of your flock, but I'm sure you care deeply about yourself, to the point that it's blinding you. Some day you may notice the vast expanse between extremes and recognize that it's not all the red sea. Until then, meh, my mistake for filling in the gaps of my understanding with what I wanted to see.

Thats what I love about you modern libs.
You're such a bunch of fkn pricks that you do our job for us. lol
we don't need to badmouth you to get people to switch sides, we just kinda sit here and wait for you to write stuff like that and let people realize who they're associating with.

Seriously, keep at it. We appreciate it.
The good part about freedom is that we have infinite space for new people
As opposed to the padded room of todays liberalism.

Go***amn it. I'm sorry I said anything. If I was 20 years younger I would have instigated a pie fight on purpose, and 10 years ago I would have leapt at the chance to take sides and stake a claim. Now...look, I'm fxcking sorry I decided to go public with my recent epiphany that no one is immune to being shitty, nor does anyone have a monopoly on it. (Why tf is this even news to me?) Seeing that it's just poured gas on an existing (much hated) dumpster fire, I feel like pouring some of that gas on myself and jumping in the dumpster for my troubles. Instead I'll offer the frustrated appraisal that the far left and far right fxcking deserve each other.

I don't know which ideology is better or worse and I'd rather tongue-fxck a light socket than waste time trying to figure it out. I'm done fighting for or against the bogus bullshit abstract straw-man constructs of "The Left" or "The Right". If sitting on the sidelines damns me so be it. I'd rather go to hell than keep subjecting myself to this mindless divisive permawar when I could be forging meaningful relationships with people because they're decent human beings and not because of the banner they stand beside.

my response to him wasn't a comment on you, it was just a general response for how the left assists my side because of their inherent behavior as of late.
Most conservatives on this site started on the left but started shifting over after coming into contact with people like whistlelock and realizing that they're probably not on the correct side if its filled with people like that.

I was just congratulating him on the assistance

I know, thanks for that. You're not wrong. It's really jamming me up how much flak I've caught for not being "left" enough. I suppose I'd get tarred and feathered for not being "right" enough in the other streams, but I have no intention of finding out.

I hope you're wrong about many of the conservatives here having started out as liberals. Active liberals are absolutely a minority, so it would make sense. I always thought people started out conservative and grew into a more liberal mindset, but it's looking increasingly like liberalism is the thing people grow out of. I'm not religious so this is the closest thing to a crisis of faith I've experienced. I need to go for a walk.

I'm suddenly reminded of a quote I read somewhere back in middleschool. "A liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet."

You want to stop extremism from both sides?

Ranked choice voting will accomplish that.

In the meantime you should learn which party actually has the better economies and way better stock markets.

Hint. It isn't the GOP

Damn straight on all counts. One would hope those points were self-evident, particularly the last.

I'd add tossing the electoral college in history's dustbin.

The reason the right will never do away with the E.C. is that it benefits them greatly.

No democrat has ever won the presidency without also winning the popular vote

True that.

I really wish the left and right would do a hostage exchange and agree to allow most abortion and most guns. Those issues need to get pushed out of the limelight. We've had bigger fish to fry for generations at this point.

I thought your phrasing here was odd. You assumed I didn't know something I take to be common knowledge, and I assumed you were speaking in general terms.

Turns out there isn't room enough in your tiny cantankerous worldview for anyone but people (who think) exactly like you and people who don't. How simple-minded. And here I am with more evidence of the flaws in my erstwhile belief that closed-mindedness and intellectual xenophobia were right-leaning traits.

I'm getting tired of saying that nobody is better at driving people away from the left than members of the left.