Comments on: Liberal vs. Progressive

By: Major Woody

Major Woody — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:57:08 +0000

While reclaiming the term “liberal” is ok, it’s not enough as far as I’m concerned. We need to cut right through the hazy fog of obfuscation, and call ourselves what we are, dirty fuckin’ hippies.

By: eyelessgame

eyelessgame — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:56:14 +0000

…ponyarchy…

I prefer the stunningly misspelled “hippocracy”, of which I was once accused on usenet, bastion of rational thought, which of course is a grown-up version of ponyarchy.

(“hypocracy” as synonym for “minarchy”, too.)

By: ignobility

ignobility — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 04:06:53 +0000

If you tell people you’re a progressive, what does that mean to them? I’m speaking of people who might not be particularly political. Progressive really has no instant connotation. However, if you say, “I’m a bleeding heart liberal,” the others have a pretty good idea where you stand on issues. And if you tell them, “I’m a fuckin’ bleeding heart liberal!”, they’ll have no doubts.

By: steverino

steverino — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:57:21 +0000

BRIAN: Look. You’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals!

FOLLOWERS: Yes, we’re all individuals!

BRIAN: You’re all different!

FOLLOWERS: Yes, we are all different!

DENNIS: I’m not.

ARTHUR: Shhhh.

By: Doc Nebula

Doc Nebula — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:50:06 +0000

I prefer to call myself liberal out of spiteful defiance, these days. Turn it into an insult, will they? Hmph. I’m happy to be a pinko egghead comsymp hippie motherfucker, too, as far as that goes.

As to becoming angelic Star Children, perhaps, or having the state whither away to some sort of glorious ponyarchy, it seems to me that you’re looking to spell that one word ‘wither’. ‘Whither away’ is kinda a Shakespearian dealio. Or something.

By: Matt McIrvin

Matt McIrvin — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:46:54 +0000

No, not from Berkeley–actually I went to a pretty conservative school. Those kids were there, there just weren’t that many of them.

By: lemuel pitkin

lemuel pitkin — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:40:20 +0000

Everyone should immediately click on the dquared link above, if only to encounter in its setting the line, “if there is a piece of shit in your stew, you need less shit, not more stew.”

By: r@d@r

r@d@r — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:49:22 +0000

To me “progressive” is not some sort of euphemism for “liberal” so much as a word I associate with left campus activists in the mid- to late 1980s. Good-hearted, kind of naive kids shading into single-issue fanaticism, who wanted to make sure everyone pronounced “Nicaragua” correctly–the same ones who the wonky liberals gently tweaked as “politically correct” before it got picked up by the right as a term of abuse for anyone who wasn’t a racist asshole.

*ahem* you wouldn’t perchance be a fellow native berkeleyan, would you matt?

it’s why i loved the scene in “spanglish” where adam sandler’s character can’t pronounce “Flor”.

By: scarshapedstar

scarshapedstar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:46:05 +0000

Evolution isn’t progressive.

By: Big Nose

Big Nose — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:01:22 +0000

How about “Liberal Front of America”?

But the only people we hate more than Republicans are the American Liberal Front. Fucking splitters.