Insult? To whom?

I am not insulted by the label, my intelligence is insulted by the like of Janene:wink:

That’s my problem.

How can the word “liberal” be insulting to a liberal?

Why is that so many liberals recoil from the word liberal?

That’s all I’m saying. What’s the big deal? I don’t recoil from the word conservative…

Actually, that’s not the same thing. When you add a modifier to the adjective (like “blinkered”), then you’re putting a spin on it. There’s no implication there at all: you made a value judgment right there and then. Nobody’s thought process would want to be considered blinkered, whether he was liberal, conservative, Green, or Labour.

While labels can be and often are limiting, they’re also unavoidable. I’ve noticed that many people who refuse to be labeled because they feel their beliefs are too varied and complex for such terms have little problem applying labels to others with whom they don’t agree.

Add to that the elasticity of language itself (“It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is,” or “I’m not a liberal, I’m a progressive”), and it’s sometimes surprising that we can understand each other at all.

I’ve always been curious about one thing where Independents are concerned. How many register to vote as an Independant for reasons such as those my parents have. They don’t want to be a statistic for any party and don’t want anyone, government sepcifically, to know their exact political affiliation. Those are their reasons for registering as Independants but they are staunch Conservatives.

I’m proud to be labeled conservative and neoconservative when it comes to my politics

Vinny, can you provide the statement to which Ms. Garofolo was responding? That would give us a better sense of whether or not “liberal” was contextualized as an insult.

In my house, there are obvious “bad words” that we try to avoid around the kids. But we’ve also learned that ANY word can be a “bad word,” depending on the tone in which it’s used.

Sometimes we call Jasmine “a silly pickle.” She laughs. Other times, when her older sister tells her that she’s being “such a pickle,” angry voice, maybe even taunting, she’ll come running to the missus and I because it hurts her feelings.

And as a “for example” about how the word “liberal” is treated as an insult, or a slur, very much unlike the word “nice,” what’s your knee-jerk reaction, positive or negative, to the following phrase: liberal media.

Nice media is something else entirely. When you hear people using the term “liberal media,” is it ever to offer praise?

Just your friendly neighborhood proud-to-be-a-liberal offering up his two cents to the discussion.

I still stand by my comment that it all depends on how the word is being used, and who is using it. Nigger is a perfect example of the kind of word that changes meaning depending on who is using it, sometimes a slur, sometimes not.

As pointed out in response #4 above, “liberal” can be used as a value-neutral noun, or as one of a string of descriptors that colour it in context. Since we don’t know what kind of statement Ms. Garofolo was reacting to, it’s a little difficult to judge her reaction.

Ummm…I don’t know who Hannity is, Chelle. I assume he’s some kind of talk radio person? I personally avoid that stuff like the plague…I’ve seen what it does to “political discussion”.

Yeah, I read that. This tells me that Sean Hannity is a person who has a “show”. I’m assuming that’s a radio show, but I’m not sure. And it sure doesn’t tell me how he used the word “liberal”.

Know what, Chelle, old pal? I don’t really give a shit. Here’s my assertion:

a) The term “liberal” can be contextualized in such a way as to make it insulting.

b) I haven’t got a clue how it was used on the Hannity show, and neither, apparently, do any of the people posting to this thread.

Ergo…

c) No-one knows whether or not it was insulting.

Here endeth useful discussion.

Strictly on the basis of the quote you provided, I think you’ve misunderstood her point. She doesn’t resent being called a “liberal”: she resents use of the term “liberal” as though it were an automatic insult.

Well, for example: if I said “Vinny is a conservative”, that would simply be a value free statement of political preference.

If I said: “That’s just another example of typical conservative blinkered thinking”, that would be an insult. It occurs when the user implies (as in the second example) that the word “conservative”, or “liberal”, or “homosexual”, or “Catholic”, automatically suggests values or beliefs that are intrinsically negative.

In the absence of context, I can’t really say what the speakers usage of the term implied.

Vinny, I’m a conservative independent and have never been confused with a liberal in my life. I vote for the best person I feel represents my point of view and beliefs, regardless of party affiliation. To vote a straight party line would in my opinion be thoughtless and lazy.
You will note that I’m not a Independent Conservative as some fine folks. They are the branch of the family that place more importance on being independent than Conservative. While they are valued and loved members of the family they are a little off…

While you may believe your definition of independent to be true, I can assure you it is not. You may however be associating with some confused people who have an identity problem and choose to identify themselves as independents.

I am a registered independent, but I would hardly consider myself independent in the political sense. Independents I’ve met / know all have one thing in common: a desire to not be classified along any political lines, and a desire to appear “above” all of it.

But I don’t think anyone solely calling me a conservative would prompt me to question their use of it as a slur, regardless of context.

Now throw in a modifier, as Bal says, and the situation changes. But that’s not what I’m talking about here, and it isn’t what happened with Davis, Garofalo, or Hoffa.

Unfortunately Sean doesn’t make available transcripts of the radio show…

“Liberal media” is not the same thing. You can describe the media as being liberal without it meaning the word liberal is a slur.

The idea that you can hurl a word around like “liberal” and have it called a slur by people is ludicrous. Chink, Nigger, Spick and Gook are slurs.

Liberal is a description of a person that reflects a perception of someone’s belief. The idea that liberals take that label being applied to them as a slur is a riot.

When is nigger not a slur? It may be more acceptable for one black person to call another black person a nigger, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a slur…

Hey B-man. You know what you could do? You could call Hannity yourself at the top of the hour when his show comes on and ask him what the context was. We already know the transcripts aren’t available so whom better than the he who spoke the words?

I guess then that you didn’t read the entire post. Tsk tsk when you yourself like to remind us to have good reading comprehension skills

Second paragraph. Vinny wrote:

Janeane ìI was sorta funny 10 years agoî Garofalo was on Sean Hannityís show last week and mentioned it. Also visiting Sean were James Hoffa (Son of famed daisy pusher Jimmy Hoffa), Lanny Davis, and a few others who would be considered left of center. Invariably, at some point, the three I mentioned (and no doubt others at the show) made a claim similar to the one below:

But the only way to find out exactly is find out from Sean himself.