- racism
- a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
- hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
- politics
- the opinion you hold with respect to political questions
- the activities and affairs involved in managing a state or a government
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
I’ve said for years that politics is the new racism. It just seems that it makes so many people so angry and intolerant. Everyone these days seems to have an opinion and not just any opinion, a strong, passionate opinion and, God forbid, if you don’t have an opinion, if you don’t follow the news and keep up with what’s going on in local, national and world politics! That may just be the worst sin of all.
For the last fifteen years (which is about how long I’ve been paying attention), liberals and conservatives and Republicans and Democrats have been getting more and more polarized and angrier and angrier and ever more intolerant. They seem to be angry at everything and everyone. They’re angry at their own parties, they’re angry at the people in the other parties, and they’re angry at the people who float in the middle. There seems to be a lot of finger pointing and name calling (I really hate the name calling) and hypocrisy from the politicians right down to the supporters arguing in coffee shops and on blogs and the most inexplicable places like weight loss message boards. Everyone seems to think their opinions are not only the only right opinions but the most obvious and most logical opinions and anyone who doesn’t agree is just plain stupid or evil.
At least that’s how it appears to little ol’ me.
Last year, I had to stop reading so many political blogs. I was reading a ton of them, most of them so-called “A-Listers”. I was even reading some from “the other side”, but I was starting to realize that the blogs were just writing the same stuff year after year — mostly because politically, nothing was actually changing — but for the most part it was all just angry, intolerant, hateful writing on both sides. I felt as if I was bathing my mind in this horribleness everyday. I want to be involved and know what’s going on in the world and I want to do what I can to affect positive change and I was beginning to feel as though that was impossible. You see, positive change cannot come from hate and intolerance; all that comes from that is more hate and intolerance — look at what happens during war.
I think as long as we feed our anger and continue to blame “the other side” for what ails this country, nothing will change in this country. The only way to move on is to stop whining about the past and look to the future.
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