Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2016

Labels can be useful, and labels can be divisive, depending on how they are used.

For example, a census categorizes people according to, among other things, race, ethnicity, gender, age, income, working status. Polls do the same. In both cases they are categorized in order to achieve greater understanding. Political parties use their label to group thoughts or philosophical approaches together to distinguish themselves. People do too (e.g., "I'm a white, working-class, male"; or "I'm a person of color AND means".) "Black lives matter".

But, labels can also be used to divide, demean, and discriminate. "White's only"; "libtard"; and every kind of racial, national or ethnic slur.

Attitudinal labels "Liberal", "Conservative", "Progressive" can be used or misused the same way. If they are used to bring understanding, they are useful (in organizing thoughts, for example). If they are used pejoratively, they are not. My wife and I used to teasingly call each other "empty-headed liberal" and "dyed-in-the-wool conservative" because it was funny, since we agree on 95% of everything, but it pointed out the ridiculousness of trying to categorize our positions as black or white.

Let's keep our discussion on the philosophical and useful side, and not on the pejorative.