I know it’s complicated, but fostering contempt for a group of people based on a party label just propagates the “angry liberal” stereotype. It’s hard, but I try to avoid judging someone based on their political label. Some people may surprise you…like my conservative Christian parents, who support legalization of same sex marriage, of all things

Does anyone really believe that a certain political viewpoint renders one unable to laugh?

I think there’s a difference between “unable to laugh” and “unable to be funny.” Most people are able to laugh, even my uptight and uber-religious relatives. The difference is that what they laugh about (middle-brow Jewish humour, oy!) is not actually funny to people like me. And when I try to be funny, it doesn’t read as such to them, because what I find funny is what they would find tasteless, depressing, or just plain absurd.

There are even more pronounced differences along political lines. Politics, especially in North America, is in many ways defined by cultural taboo. What you find to be taboo influences your politics, and vice versa. And so much humour is based on what is taboo that one’s politics often weigh very heavily on what you find funny. How many conservatives, for example, are going to find Dan Savage’s humour funny, given that conservativism in America is defined as much by one’s view of queer people as it is by economics? How many liberals are going to find Michael Weiner Michael Savage funny, given that his humour mostly consists of bashing marginalized people (and liberals)?

So when we say that conservatives have no sense of humour, what we tend to mean is that they fly into a tizzy when we joke around about sex (or drugs, or cultures that they don’t understand, or we cuss, or whatever else offends them). And when they say that liberals don’t have a sense of humour, what they mean is that they don’t understand why it’s not funny that Ann Coulter hates women and wants to bomb the New York Times building. Know what I mean?

The vast majority of conservatives aren’t like that.

This may well be, but they vote for the fuckers who are like that. And the decisions they make do have real-life ramifications that kill people. I never understand when people are able to fully abstract politics from personality. You know, “He’s a nice guy, but he’s pro-war, pro-torture, supports putting gays in concentration camps, wants to boot people on welfare onto the streets, thinks it’s okay that my friend is in debt for the rest of his life because he had no health insurance and got sick—you know, but other than that, he’s a nice guy.”

I don’t get this “_______s have no sense of humor!” argument, though I see it all the time (from BOTH sides).

Does anyone really believe that a certain political viewpoint renders one unable to laugh? I feel ashamed when my fellow liberals feel comfortable putting everyone to the right of them in the same box. Talk about generalization.

My political viewpoints put me at odds with conservatives on a frequent basis. However, they are also a big part of my life: my whole family, my bosses, and our clients are all very conservative. Some of them aren’t funny, some are hilarious. Every person is different–there are as many types of personalities as there are political opinions. When I do meet some conservative dick who makes degrading jokes, acts superior or racist, or otherwise makes me feel queasy, I tell him where to shove it. But I don’t rake that anger out on every other conservative!

The vast majority of conservatives aren’t like that. I have problems with their political opinions, but I respect them as people. When my boss says something that could sound racist, I gently tell him how it sounded and he really does take it to heart. He’s slowly getting over his fear of different people and cultures and we engage in friendly (albeit sometimes heated) debate frequently.

Real discussion and understanding will never ever breach the party gap until we can set aside generalization and personal attacks. Don’t throw personal attacks until someone proves they deserve them, and then don’t take it out on the other side.

Fellow liberals, most of you are pretty good at walking the “don’t stereotype” talk–until it comes to conservatives. Maybe if we showed a little more respect of individuals, they would be more open to our hearing our voices.

They may have mostly crawled back into the woodwork by now…looks pretty quiet, anyway…I do owe a few more responses, though, so I’ll crank those out and then move on (no Internet access yesterday, tragically):

flying monkey: A draft dictionary entry is definitely progress in the, er, right direction.

Scott: I haven’t really read much in the way of conservative blogs; I formed my opinion of conservative “humor” from listening to Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. Here they are trying to be funny:

Ann-”I think we had enough laws about the turn-of-the-century. We don’t need any more.” Asked how far back would she go to repeal laws, she replied, “Well, before the New Deal … [The Emancipation Proclamation] would be a good start.”

“I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting — and your Communists will back me up on this — is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it’s always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care.”

Rush-”She comes to me when she wants to be fed. And after I feed her — guess what — she’s off to wherever she wants to be in the house, until the next time she gets hungry. She’s smart enough to know she can’t feed herself. She’s actually a very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn’t have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat’s taught me more about women, than anything my whole life.”

“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”

They’re probably two of the biggest “funny” conservative speakers and writers out there.

*giggle* *snrk* *YOMANK*

You don’t even know how ironic that is, do you?

While I agree with your assessment that “he cares” Deedra, Im pretty sure its not for why youd like to think. He cares because annoying fringe left idealists into abusing him is his idea of a bit of fun, and this kind of abuse is a trophy. T

Rhe link would also have been partially motivated by a chance to belittle the owner with the fact that with a mere one line link on a fairly irreverant blog otherwise run by an “insignificant moron, cross-ref wingnut, cross-ref misogynist subclassification smarmy” the traffic recieved by a deadly serious, abusive and hateful yet completely insignificant blog run by lunatic fringe leftards is blown out of its normal proportions for a few days. Call it an e-flex of blog muscle.

Now that the last of “Timmeh”‘s readers have stopped coming here you can all go back to agreeing with each other on why drugs are good and humans aught not to have the right to own land. Is it time for a group hug yet? Where is my herbal tea? Damn the capitalists!

Yeah, you sure told me.

Come back when you have something stronger. Otherwise, shut up and go back to Berowra.

You “gave me timmy” but it amounts to nothing. You have not proven anything.

I guess “apart” should been a part and that’s no “bulltish.”

Btw, did you click the link? Us cons never click through so i assume that you did, right?

lol!! is this your stand up routine?

“I believe I said name “one,” not ten”

and i give you timmy. enough said.

“You seem to be apart of the Maureen Dowd cult ”

separated from moz? or part of? there is a difference.

“I also noticed you didn’t address the anti-Semitism query.”

not sure how jews are relevant. please explain. (lol, another stray-lism)

You seem to be apart of the Maureen Dowd cult where you throw things out and don’t actually provide proof. At least you avoided ellipses. Good for you.

Again, show me one major or middling Conservative blog that has posted anything misogynistic, racist or other type smear. I also noticed you didn’t address the anti-Semitism query. For that I give you numerous examples from the biggest of the “progressive” blogs:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-search.php?searchString=protocols

Keep jamming your fingers in your ears and saying “he’s lying” real loud and maybe the bad people who have proven you wrong will go away.