Liberal hypocrites.

Two criticisms conservatives frequently levy against liberals and progressives are that we 1) make them feel stupid, and 2) we are hypocrites. I'm not going to comment on the first point, save only to recall Isaac Asimov's musing on the subject:

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"

Conservative stupidity, however, isn't the purpose of my writing. Rather, the focus of my remarks will be on the second point: that we are hypocrites. I concur in this judgement. We are, in fact, total hypocrites. Let's just imagine, for a moment, what it must be like to listen to us drone endlessly on about malevolent corporations hijacking the government, oil wars and failure to launch any meaningful effort to mitigate climate change? We call them stupid for not listening to us, and they rightly call us out for the beneficiaries of these same injustices we decry. How many "liberals" in Washington, DC one way or another get their salary from the Defense Department budget? We're hypocrites because we know the wars are about oil, and we still go to work everyday doing our little part in the "War on Terrorism". We criticize corporations like Verizon and Google trying to destroy Net Neutrality, but we own Google and Verizon. That is to say, we own their shares. Which oil companies are you invested in via your mutual funds? And won't you throw a hissy fit when their CEO comes out and must inform you that their companies failed to turn a profit this quarter.

The median income in the US as of 2008 is roughly 31K. How many of you make more than that (or at least expect to make more than that when you graduate. If you're reading this blog, you are/will most likely (be) making two or three times at your fancy professional jobs--actuaries at insurance companies, stock managers at CitiGroup, researchers and sales-reps at GlaxoSmithKline, ratings analysts at Viacom, or engineers at Northrup Grumman. It's no wonder that we're not out protesting in the streets when we're the beneficiaries of an unjust system.

Here's a tip that might help you identify whether you are part of the problem you decry: Would you be fired if you were found out to have attended a protest at a G8 summit? If your boss saw you standing on the side of the street raising a sign that said, "no more blood for oil" would you be getting a talkin' to? No, we're not out in the streets, we're 35 floors up in an air-conditioned offices, and have no mind to rock the foundations of our fortune. What is perhaps more hypocritical still, is the expectation that as we look down on them through one-way glass panes, they should be able to tell the difference between us and the billionaires who we say are responsible for their houses getting foreclosed on, their job getting sent-away overseas, and their lack of adequate healthcare. This is a tall request for someone we have the nerve to call stupid.