Breaking the Narrative Episode 33: Wibbly Wobbly Wordy Lordy Stuffs! Why Do These Labels Make No Sense?”

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Due to the events that seem to keep popping up since the inauguration, hell, for the past 50+ years or so, I think that we need to talk about two very specific labels concerning politics: Liberal and Conservative.  You may be wondering, “What does this have to do with Men’s Rights or Vidya Alex?” For the latter it means very little, as video games are not something of a political issue in the strictest sense. For the former it means a lot, because it can help us realize who our true allies really are and help us get an understanding how of the mechanics of giving men the biggest shit stick in the room. Understand the mechanics and you can fix a system to work how you need it to. What is the core element, the main cogs in the law? Linguistics! So if you are like the good Doctor Randomercam get your lube out or peel them back because today we are getting some WORD PR0N! Lets Hammer This In!

To get some understanding we are going to use a few outside sources from people who started on this train of thought already and take the train to the end of the line.  For this I picked three pieces: On Liberal and Conservative by Jason Riddle of Freedom Unfilteredhistoryworld.net, and Moderate Political Ideologies: Liberalism and Conservatism by Dr. Jim L. Riley of Regis University located in Denver, Colorado.  These three pieces look at the terms at three different points of history overall, first on how these terms came to be used in politics, in 1990 during the initial rise of political correctness, then finally in 2012 in the midst of the PC revival that we’ve been dealing hands on with since then.

Why not look during the 80s at the real birth of political correctness? Namely due to the notability of the conditions not being visible so much during the Cold War.  On top of that I do want to look at the literal definitions of the two words so we can know what we are dealing with.

LiberalConservativeDefinition
As we can see here while they do touch upon the terminology we are approaching politically they have very distinct definitions which we can boil down as follows – to be liberal is to be open-minded while to be conservative is to be closed-minded. If we go by this alone, the political affiliations we refer to as these today are precise opposites. To be a ‘liberal’ or more accurately a leftist is to be closed to any thought process outside of ‘progressivism,’ while to be ‘conservative,’ or more accurate right-leaning is to be open to listening to new ideas and liberties. As such we could end this here, but I’m not going to hold back at all on this. We are going to look fully now at how these terms developed over the years.

These terms were first put into use politically at the beginning of the 19th century CE, namely right before the Napoleonic era specifically from the French Revolution. Obviously Charles Fourier was in no way involved. It was something born more from the Enlightenment. The Spanish party known as the Liberales ended up coming into being in 1810 during French occupation as a reform party that was in opposition to the Serviles who were dedicated to Spain’s monarchy. The term Conservative came after restoration of the monarchy was achieved in France. Born of a reactionary backlash towards revolutionary principles, this is where the reference of conservative reactionaries comes from, being overall a reaction to what Bonaparte did to overtake his country. According to the sourced words these political movements and parties seem to fall in line with those definitions during that time.

What about mid to late 20th century? As far as I can tell the initial usages began during the McCarthy era in this country and even then did come off as atypical, what with Democrats for decades funding the Ku Klux Klan or some Republicans being a little spendthrift. However, it wasn’t as rough as it is in contemporary politics, though it did grow over the years with increasing corruption coming in this insane contradiction flowing from both ends of the spectrum. In the nineties, the PC culture hit its first peak within the Left. It was starting up in the early 80’s as a response to Ronald Reagan in part, then grew in the Democrats because of the authoritarian side that started showing up. The other part of it was because of Jimmy Carter’s unprecedented win. This is what also led to the recently federally recognized illegal group of the “Commission for Presidential Debates” which had been used for over 35 years to keep atypical candidates and third parties OUT of the positions of power by corrupt authoritarians from both the major parties as a way to retain their influence.

When the year 2001 came around, the downward spiral of insanity froze during the terms of George W Bush primarily due to the wars in the middle east keeping the ideologues distracted. True, the Patriot Act was one of the most authoritarian laws put into place until that point, but it kept them lazy, thinking they had won and didn’t need to go further. They had a false sense of comfort. However, once Obama was inaugurated in 2009 and he worked towards getting rid of the distractions and showed them they could go further. Things started to decline again until we had reached peak SocJus authoritarianism in 2016. As such today the terms “Liberal” and “Conservative” no longer describe the left and the right. In fact, they could now currently describe aspects of the libertarian scale. Even though the authoritarian end still hold claim over these terms, most of us on the reasonable sides of the political spectrum realize this isn’t the case.

As such I make a proposition to those of us who question, who stare this insanity in the eye and say “NO!” The rational and sane right and left, those of us who can and do cooperate for many reasons, whether its for men’s rights, ethical journalism, or simply to call out dumbfucks, need to reclaim the terms ‘liberal and conservative.” Of course this is not enough. We must also figure out some way to peacefully deconstruct the extreme groups like what we can refer to as the CtrlLeft and AltRight. AltRight we don’t have to worry too much about. They’ve practically done that to themselves already by being such a joke and being generally cowardly. You can dislike that fact if you choose, but its whats happening. The CtrlLeft is who we have seen rioting in the street with Antifa and their Black Bloc tactics, tactics that not only reinforce the junk gender roles of feminism but are ironically fascist in nature. These people are not liberal in any way. Now, of course, we can’t stop these people with the violence they crave. The only way to stop them is to be better than them not simply from the right, but with a faction of the left as well. Coming together as a non-violent counter to call and dispel the violence as best we can in person before a serious police presence is needed. We need to show that cooperation is not only possible but paramount to fixing current issues in society.

Kyle Kulinski has made a suggestion of getting money out and rooting out the corruption via his Justice Democrats group with the help of our favorite water buffalo and ham sandwich recipient Cenk Uygur. How effective this could be with some of the key regressive poster children being involved is questionable, though the original concept could be considered noble. It will probably fail if we don’t have a group of true classic liberals willing to work with true conservative rights to obtain a sense of balance that doesn’t rely solely on authoritarian tactics to get any work or reforms done. Trump shows a little hope since one of his planned executive orders is to stop payment to the branch of the Department of Justice in charge of the Violence Against Women Act, cutting off grants towards further feminist research on the subject.  Its not a repeal of the discriminatory law but it is a stopgap to prevent things from getting worse. It also shows that Trump and his administration may be open to listening to advocacy on men’s rights issues. If that is the case and we could get prominent voices in the MRM to start lobbying government officials or at least get close enough to at least show our points and evidence on major issues such as false accusations, the need for 50/50 custody to be the standard, or work towards curbing back male genital mutilation we can get a foot hold and start bringing back some balance to the legal side of the dynamic.

This was an interesting riposte to make towards the insanity currently happening, ensuring it’s been said that these leftists are no longer ‘liberals.’ In fact, they haven’t been for years, nor have career Republicans been ‘conservative.’ Both sides having driven the United States into a collective $20 TRILLION in overall debt and growing. I don’t expect these fixes to be immediately recognized and realize it will take a long time for a full fix of the situation. However we have to start something now. I personally see Honey Badger Brigade as the start of it. Seeing some of us as obviously on the left and others obviously on the right but still working together fairly well and complimenting each other pleasantly.  That’s because we don’t seem to let our particular politics get in the way of what we know is needed and what it takes to build a stable home for anything. We need pillars of stability on both sides. Now, next week I didn’t plan on having to do this but, she just can’t help herself, I have to take on Sarkeesian once again. Until then please remember to Game Freely!

Alex Tinsley
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About the author

Alex Tinsley

A student of Fine Arts and Japanese culture of six years at Murray State University. Having never graduated due to difficulties with a specific teacher has gained a unique perspective upon the issues being faced by men and boys. A father of a young boy and loving husband.

By Alex Tinsley

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