Conservatives! Let’s face it — they’re all the same. They think of no one but themselves.
Liberals? They’re useless. So busy being compassionate with other people’s money, they’ve made a whole generation feckless and irresponsible.
Neo-cons are the worst. So blinded by their supply-side ideology they can’t see that economics is about people at least as much as it’s about money.
Democrats are unpatriotic. Republicans are a braying, unthinking mob.
Socialists aren’t worth talking about. (Or to)

That’s the insults out of the way. If I’ve left anyone out email me and I’ll fit you in!

There was a fascinating conversation here last week about labels and how we use them in our political and religious discussions. Contributions were sought and received from across the spectrum of bloggers. Definitions were swapped and mulled over. But what, I wonder, was the outcome?

At best, this could only be an interim, or maybe even preliminary, conversation. The wide gaps between even english-speaking Christian bloggers are self-evident. If we sometimes struggle to hear and understand one another it should remind us to listen all the more attentively to those whose voices come in another language entirely.

Jordon Cooper and susan b noted that labels have a use, but are often used merely to dismiss an opponent.

When Dick Cheney calls John Kerry a “liberal”, he does not do it to engage in a dialogue about how control the state should have over the people or whether or not he believes in civil liberties, he does it to smear him and get a cheer from conservatives … The labels are so unfortunate because they dismiss a person and say that nothing he or she says from that worldview has any value.

My own view is that when labels are used as insults rather than descriptions of beliefs or policy they quickly become devalued and lose their meaning.

Maybe we should try a week without labels, discussing each issue on its own terms without resorting to the sweeping falsehoods of the “Bush is a nazi, Kerry is a marxist” variety. While we’re at it, we could ditch fundamentalist, liberal, conservative, socialist, fascist and any others you can think of. Perhaps if we give the words a bit of room to breathe they’ll regain their meanings and become useful in a rational conversation again.