The Three Types of Liberals

In my day-to-day life living where I do, in a sea of liberalism, I have noted that there tend to be only three types of liberals.

Liberals are all around me, and like any group, they tend to come in many shapes and sizes, and while no two are exactly alike, they tend to fall into these three groups.

Type 1 liberals are probably the most common. They don't really think about politics much, but they know enough to know they are certainly not conservative. Why? Because conservatives are mean, and they wanna take away our rights, and they hate black people and gay people, and they're sexist, and stuff. "Like, whenever I watch the first few minutes of The Daily Show if I accidentally leave the TV on after watching South Park, I see all these stories about how mean and evil conservatives are. Most of my friends hate conservatives and just...ew, Sarah Palin is ick!" Type 1 liberals are only liberal because...that's all they know. They've never had their opinions challenged, and in fact may not even have an opinion on most issues. They don't usually like talking about politics and most of them will probably tell you they don't care about politics at all. But get them talking, and watch liberal talking points they overheard from their friends, or news soundbites they heard on the radio at work spew forth, and you will quickly discover that's all they know. They don't know the how or why of anything; all they know is what they've been told, and in today's environment, that means regurgitating liberalism on cue. There is "the news" and then there is "Fox News", which they've been told is stupid and evil, so when they hear the news at all, they get it from one of the "mainstream" news networks. What you'll discover is, if you get them thinking about the positions they think they should take, that when forced to think about it, they realize it doesn't make much sense. Not that it matters because they hate thinking about politics, and they'll likely just keep thinking the way their friends do.

Type 2 liberals are the second most common. They know liberal positions and they are liberal on purpose. They hate prominent conservatives and absolutely would never vote for one, or even listen to what the conservative side has to say. And the reason is not that they've done their homework and know conservatives have nothing of value to add to the national discourse. It's because they absolutely cannot abide having their viewpoints challenged. They made up their mind a long time ago, and they usually have specific reasons for doing so, and they are loathe to think too much about it lest they either have to change their viewpoint or continue living illogically. Many of them might have had someone in their family who had an abortion, or maybe they had one themselves, and because of this they could never side with a (mostly) pro-life party. Perhaps they have a gay relative and would never dream of listening to the viewpoint of a side that is (mostly) against gay marriage. Or maybe they just like to party, have indiscriminate sex, or live with their significant other outside of marriage, or whatever, and they think conservatives would all be against that. Maybe they're militant atheists and hate that most conservatives believe in God. And here's a shock; many are actually conservatives, but don't know it. Get them talking and you'll discover that many of them are against big government, higher taxes, limits on free speech, gun control, even abortion. "But that doesn't mean I'm conservative! Conservatives are racist, like Rush Limbaugh, or crazy/stupid like Ann Coulter!" In this, they are a lot like Type 1 liberals. They honestly believe, mostly because they only ever hear the liberal take on conservatism, that all conservatives are evil/racist, or stupid, or crazy, or all of the above. They believe that in order to consider themselves "good people", they simply must be liberal. And they really don't want to think differently.

Type 3 liberals are the kind I talk the most about on this blog. They are the Capital-L Liberals. They are liberal to the core, and proud of it. They are proudly pro-choice, anti-gun, pro-big government, anti-"rich", ready to pronounce anything to do with race "racist" if it doesn't line up sharply with their views, on the lookout for "sexism", while being as mysogenistic against female conservatives as they want, etc. This is the least common type, because you'll find so few of them among the "rank and file" (even though their attitude and activism CREATE the other two types). Most of them are activists, journalists, novelists, screenwriters, actors, directors, college professors, teachers, and, of course, politicians. To them, there is nothing that is wrong, nothing that is unforgivable, nothing that is impure, with the sole exception of being insufficiently liberal. You might--MIGHT--convince a Type 1 or Type 2 of the error of their ways. Not this type. They are wrapped in a blanket of cold certainty that liberalism is the only right, and non-liberals are therefore not only wrong but evil. They may be compared to religious fundamentalists in their devotion to their cause, their conviction that no one could possibly disagree with them and be good, moral people and their inability to see that the rest of the world does not fit into their worldview, and never will. To a Type 3 liberal (and this attitude filters down into the others to varying degrees) as long as you feel good about yourself, or if other liberals see what you're doing as "good", you're okay. Even if what you're doing is very, very harmful.

Now, you may notice one thing all these types have in common, and that is, everyone they know is a liberal. How did it get like this? Why have we allowed liberalism to dominate the news, entertainment and education systems in America? And why, when you're in a public place and you hear someone spouting off a liberal talking point or two (and you will), do you keep silent? It's the reason why, even though liberals make up not even a third of American society, they continue to have the loudest voice in public discourse. Type 1 and 2 liberals likely DO know conservatives, possibly several. But their conservative friends never speak out like their liberal friends do.

So let's cull the herd; the next time you hear a liberal spouting off in public, don't stay quiet. Let your voice be heard. You may find that in doing so, you make your Type 1 and Type 2 liberal friends think, and even maybe, just maybe, become conservative.

And as for Type 3's? Well, the more we can succeed in changing the minds of Type 1 and 2's, the sillier and less consequential this group will be, and the less utterly stupid policies and practices of liberals in power we'll have to deal with.