My Aunt asked me about Sarah Palin on facebook today. I figured it would be worthy to safe my response to look back upon from the future.

That’s my uncontrollable sarcasm as work. You’re probably used to being protected from it, but now that you’re on the internet you’re exposed.

This isn’t an easy or simple conversation to have seriously.

I believe Sarah Palin is not a critical thinker. I tend to find her opinions narrow minded and offensive. Most of all, I’m frightened by her popularity. If I think that her beliefs lack a diversity, adequate introspection and self doubt, a human depth, what does that say of those that choose to follow her?

I’ve long been afraid that prejudice is only considered wrong insofar as specific acts become social taboo. Racism is generally considered wrong, sexism is getting there, but prejudice based on religion, sexual orientation, and class are alive and well. Not to mention day to day prejudices around transportation and lifestyle.

Usually the fact that I’ve chosen to read books about issues rather than partake of sensationalist news networks, whose job, lets not forget, is to get you to watch their commercials, protects me. My lifestyle tends to keep open-minded thinkers closer than those who are more than happy to tell me how they think I should be living.

I haven’t lived long enough to know if dangerous times are ahead, but I do think they aren’t going to be easy. I’m scared of the desire to make the United States a Christian country, walled off to outsiders, under the belief that everything would be easy if it wasn’t for all the people different than us.

I wouldn’t want Sarah Palin to be President of this nation any more than I would Julian Assange. Perhaps she is representative of a frightful majority and will be. Honestly, the most virtuous Americans I have seen lately have been former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the end, as the chasm between the middle class and the rich continues to grow, and as more and more Americans falsely believe if they just work hard enough they too will be rich, it doesn’t matter. Those with the most to lose, who own all of our television networks, our media conglomerates, who run our newspapers and our magazines will continue to dictate what we talk about in our checkout lines at the grocery stores. We continue to be manipulated by those with the most power, because they yearn to remain these.

I’m home sick today. I just finished watching Dune. Its too bad life isn’t like the movies, there isn’t a prophecy to believe in where someone will lead us to peace, to a brotherhood without suffering.

Update:

Then she called me a closed minded true democrat. This is perhaps the most I’ve ever written at once about my views.

Splitting peoples beliefs into a dichotomy is pretty scary too. I’ve never identified as a Democrat, although I may be registered as one for the sake of the primaries here, as I’ve been somewhat active in bicycle and mass transit advocacy i…n the city.

In general, this is my point. My beliefs are mine and I don’t identify with anyone else’s. Some of these beliefs are strong, and some aren’t. If anyone wants to question them, they’re welcome to anytime. However, I do require people have had thought deeply about their questions. Thought terminating cliches and media talking points aren’t fair or interesting.

I just spent a half hour reading about political parties on wikipedia. It seems like a waste of time trying to find a label that fits my views as of today, when I could spend that time thinking about my views. When I think back, there was a time I would have called myself a libertarian. As I read about that, it sounds like those ideologies fit into both parties (wikipedia lists it under both) which makes the whole party system seem more destructive than helpful to me.

I am a “cold dead hands” type when it comes to gun ownership. I think that is relatively rare for the democratic party and excludes me pretty solidly.

Yet, I am against the general intolerance and prejudice of the republican party toward other sexual orientations, and religions. I would take a gay muslim who has long been introspective about who they are as a friend over a straight christian who hasn’t. Can you have gay muslims? I don’t know. Sure. That’s the point, I don’t believe there is a righteousness around who you should be or are. It sounds like my beliefs about marriage exclude me from the republican party pretty quickly.

Both of these examples sound libertarian, best I can tell. But then I’m a supporter of universal health care. I believe good health should become a basic human right and I worry about how every expanding class roles affect peoples access to health and their upward mobility. People tend to call that big government, or even socialism. Which, sidebar, is absurd and a sensationalist red flag. That’s a long conversation.

And then, I’m an upwardly mobile white male. The only thing missing from a stereotypical mold is a strong religion. I think and worry long about white privilege and the benefits of growing up with a pair of loving middle class parents (despite our tribulations over the years).

I’m solidly upper-middle class by income, but I drive an old rusted out truck thats falling apart and refuse to replace it. But then I ride a bicycle more days that I drive a car.

I grew up in the woods and yet I support sustainable logging. I can’t even begin to summarize my difficulties finding peers in the city when it comes to my heritage from Maine.

So what does that make me? This democrat versus republican class system is an example of exactly what I’m afraid of. I agree with Jon Stewarts views that America is being decisively divided at the hand of media because it is good for them, not because it is good for us. Watching news networks makes me physically ill it is so upsetting. If you want to know what I believe you have to ask me and we have to discuss it.

I really don’t know what to make of your implication that I am closed minded and I’m pretty bothered by it. This thread has entirely been me thinking about my views and trying to state them. Nobody has offered another view and tried to argue for it.

Wiktionary (interestingly merriam-webster doesn’t list the word) defines closed-minded as “unreceptive to new ideas or information.” That’s exactly what I think is missing, the discussion of ideas and information. I think beliefs come hard, and should come a lot harder than it is generally implied that they do.

If you want to accuse me of being closed-minded, you need to provide some new ideas or information and let me reject them first.