As my friend Gary had pointed out, I seem to be getting matched with more liberal countries and states. And that gets me thinking: am I a better match for liberal girls or conservative girls?
What images are conjured up when you hear someone describe themselves as liberal? For me it often entails the notion that someone is essentially, for lack of a better term, a hippie; a treehugger, someone who believes in free love and all that jazz. I imagine it’s someone who might have done drugs or still does, someone who probably dresses in an outrageous way. To me, a liberal is a rebellious bleeding heart with no sense of tradition or respect for authority, someone who believes in civil disobedience.
So in my eyes, I am ‘conservative’. I respect authority, I dress in a very respectable and conventional manner, I believe in monogamy and the family as a cornerstone of life. I love steak and burgers. I am for gun rights (as opposed to gun control) and I support the military and am very pro-law enforcement.
But after a closer look, I believe it would be more accurate to describe myself as socially conservative and politically liberal. Why? Politically, I am for gay marriage (they can call it a civil union if they want to define marriage as between a man and a woman); I am pro-choice, supporting the right for women to choose whether or not they want to have an abortion. I’m sure there are other facets of politics in which I have more liberal leanings, but those are the two biggest examples that come to mind.
I suppose I’ve never examined myself in that scope because I’m not that interested in putting myself in a box. I never really gave much thought to whether or not I’d prefer to be with a liberal or a conservative woman. But I saw that my top matches on OKCUpid seemed to consist of women with liberal leanings, with a seemingly disproportionate number of bisexual women between the ages of 24 and 29 (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Will I end up with a Democrat or a Republican? Only time will tell.
Now, off to message that bisexual woman from Brooklyn; afterall, 98% is a pretty high match.
Previous post: Maybe I should move to Iceland
Next post: Why do I like bisexual girls?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m glad my earlier comment catalyzed this discussion and this time, it’s one where I’m compelled to chime in on. This is the real me, by the way, as you should be able to tell by my IP should there be any other impersonations.
It seems that you might be trying to appeal to some ideal for which I don’t think there is discrete term for in the English language. The words “liberal” and “conservative” or more appropriately, the ditchotomy of liberalism and conservatism are most commonly used in the context of politics. These ideas do mean different things in different countries, but since we live in America, I think the American paradigm is most appropriate.
To use these ideas outside the political context can be quite misleading. You’ve already stated what your personal views are on the matter, but they do not reflect the popular and conventional- political usage of those terms.
Lets take your connotations of being “liberal.” Yes, in politics, one whom might be classified and classify him/herself as a “liberal” might be the type who would be concerned about environmental politics, drug policy, etc. Free love? I’m not so sure about that. Lets take any mainstream Democrat, whom I’m sure who no doubt identify themselves as liberal, and I’m not so sure even the majority would subscribe to what you describe as hippie-esque “free love” ideas.
Are hippies liberal? There is no doubt that they are, but they clearly don’t compose of the majority of liberals, and are probably best described as radicals. They are no more representative of liberals in politics than your deranged gun toting nut with a bunker in his basement, that thinks the government is out to get him, would be considered “conservative.”
As for conservatism, you did get a few things right there. Conservatives, for the most part, are pro-gun rights. They are not neccessarily more pro-military or pro-law enforcement than the liberal though, since once again, anyone with such sentiments are best described as radicals, liberal or conservative, since once again, your stereotypical gun toting nut, may also have a few issues with the establishment.
Conservatives are indeed pro-family, but how aren’t liberals pro-family? Again, you have alluded to radical liberals in your definition of liberal. That is certainly not the case and it’d certainly be funny if Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or Barack Obama (all considered liberals in the political arena) dressed in an outrageous way.
What I’ve noticed is that you have some slant towards identifying as a conservative that is no more conservative, in actuality, than your average person. I suspect that you might have some romanticized image of conservatism that doesn’t neccessarily reflect reality here, along with some sort of resentment towards being classified as liberal for whatever reason, maybe because it seemingly goes against the whole family values thing you’ve set up for yourself because you have somehow defined liberalism as being hippie-ism.
So far, these definitions have revolved around social policy. There is no doubt in my mind that you are largely a liberal, socially, as I am. Don’t get me wrong here, I also strongly believe in the whole husband and wife nuclear family thing. And I, honestly, don’t give a crap about gay people or gay marriage (meaning I wouldn’t go out of my way to support them, but I wouldn’t pursue an anti-homosexuality policy either.) Free love? No way, does that even exist? Does anyone, even the radical, take that seriously? I doubt it for even most of your tree huggers. I’d never say this publically, but just between me and you, and the internet, I don’t care about poor people either.
What’s of more pressing concern when it comes to the political usage of liberal and conservative are in regards to economic policy, not petty issues like whether you support abortion or not, or whether citizens have a right to wield guns. These are miniscule little arguments compared to economic policy. And the messed up thing about politics, is that political ideas come in a package, with social conservatives being boxed in, as you say, with the Austrian school of thought, and social liberals being boxed in with the Keynesian school.
I realize that you’re probably apolitical and I might be taking this too seriously, as I sometimes do (what can I say? I like to set things straight.) But you know what? I’m apolitical too. Money is far more important to me than the active promotion of ideals and ideas. Politics are frankly, boring (and much of it, bread and circus.) Hence, with my own ecletic beliefs, social liberally and slanted slightly to the right when it comes to economics (I’m more of a “free market” capitalist than a socialist,) one could call me both a conservative and a liberal. Some might say I’m a “libertarian,” but I don’t like libertarians either (way too idealistic.) I guess I’m a moderate, and I’m guessing its safe to say, that you are also a moderate, without knowing your standpoint on government regulation of business.
And now, I’ve realized that I’ve probably went off on a crazy tangent here. I apologize for this, for I am buzzed on coffee right now.
Back on topic, I’d hate to be hooked up with a conservative AND/OR liberal woman in the political context. Ideally, I’d go for a woman who is every bit as flexible in ideology as I am and has a philosophical foundation on whatever few beliefs there are- rather than silly adherance of random things on the basis of tradition (emotional appeal to conservatism) or because it’s supposedly “open minded” (emotional appeal to liberalism.) No disrepect here towards your choice to adhere to tradition, but I haven’t chosen monogamy because it’s “traditional” but I’ve arrived at it through quite a bit of philosophizing. I’ll leave those politically passionate women to people who can deal with them. I have a friend who is one, and I really hate debating her. She’s probably the reason why I don’t like libertarians.
To sum things up: conservatism and liberalism have very specific meanings in politics. You could be sending off very different vibes than that which you intend when you self-classify as a conservative. Also with respect, you have a terrible conception of liberalism that needs to be worked on.
Good day!
There’s no doubt that I’m out of touch with reality. I’m not one to deny that heh. I’m stuck in my own little world of anachronism. I’m quite certain of that, and in fact, I need that realization to keep me from going entirely mad.
I’ve never really given much thought to truly defining what is considered ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’, so thank you for doing that for me lol.
I believe my ideas of what ‘liberal’ means are influenced by those who I meet and am exposed to. When I meet people who define themselves as liberal, they are usually the hippie type. So to me, simply through exposure and conditioning, I automatically go to that stereotype whenever I hear the word liberal because, well, it’s not my fault that most liberals I meet are hippies lol.
I hate labels because, as you can see, they mean different things to different people. So let’s just say that I’m family-oriented, believe in “traditional values” (for lack of a better term, since I’m too lazy to spell out what exactly that means), and believe in people essentially having the choice to do what they want. Economics-wise, I’m not a money-minded person and don’t have much of a grasp of such things, but I do know that I feel that people shouldn’t have to pay out the ass for healthcare. Aside from that, I don’t know if I believe very much in welfare and all that, at least not the to the point of the abuse of the system.
I suppose my aversion of being labeled “liberal” has very much to do with the fact that I associate that with being a “hippie”. I’m sure it had a little to do with my exposure to your lifestyle too: back in high school you had the wild hair and clothes, did drugs, and went to political rallies in protest of the war (well, maybe just that one time that I went with you lol). To me that was my idea of what “liberals” did. The impassioned shouting in that protest, the chants, all of it seemed whiny and too hippie-esque to me.
I mean, I see all these protests on YouTube, and videos of supposed police brutality, and I see all the baseless hate that’s generated from some sort of rebellious sentiment, and I just peg them all as “liberal”.
So in any event, I suppose this is simply a matter of labels and differing meanings and interpretations. One of the things that inspired this post was the fact that someone I was somewhat interested in on OKCupid labeled herself as liberal. She was pretty much the stereotypical “radical liberal”: tattoos, political activism, the whole nine yards of hippie. She reinforced that stereotypical idea of what it meant to be a “liberal”.
Actually, I think I might have been a little too critical earlier. It’s a good reason to not give into compulsions to be so opinionated so quickly. I apologize if I was overly critical or ranted too much in my earlier comment, I was wired on caffeine and thoughts were racing. My new thoughts on this: whatever, it doesn’t matter. They are all labels, like you said. I was being way too assertive about my own world view and there certainly isn’t any “right” objective way as to what values are good and what isn’t.
It is funny though, that your understanding of these things come from personal experiences in High School. High School was stupid, man. It’s somewhat embarrassing that you would bring up my teenage antics in High School, but I assure you, I have a much more refined personality now. I even sport a nice short haircut now and can’t be bothered going to protests. In my mind, those things do not concern me nor interest me that much. I guess you can say I “grew up” and realized a few important things about how the world works, after plenty of philosophizing. I think it’s nice that I’ve still retained my cynicism and skepticism towards things and slightly individualistic behavior, but yeah, I’ve conformed. I respect authority too- at least when I know its appropriate.
Other than that, the rest was just the latest cool fashionable thing to do. And people that still look like that or be in that mindset, well, I’m afraid they haven’t really grown up. Yet, it’s nice to have people looking out for the whales and trees or whatever. Those are things we’d like to have around, but I’d much rather be the rich guy who makes donations and crap rather than do the dirty work, “lol.”
As for the police brutality claims and like. You do have to realize that those are really a small percentage of liberals. And then even a smaller percentage of them think that starting trouble might garner attention to their cause or whatever- and the cops respond in like. It’s inevitable shit that will always happen, and neither side, is right or wrong. I speak from a holistic, sociological point of view on this too. You’ll always have disgruntled citizens that clash with law enforcement, whose purpose is to maintain order.
Radical liberal girl huh? Frankly, I find the activism and crap rather distasteful, but thats just me. Don’t dig the tattoos either. She’s not a “hipster” is she? Goodluck with that, but who knows, maybe she has a nice personality and a nice high sex drive.