Worst Enemies Are Old Friends.

[ZenitYerkes]

100 years ago, you wouldn't hear anything like "Fascist!" or "Red scum!". Mostly because that didn't existed or didn't carry on them as many prejudices as now. However, these aren't the 1910's.

What happened since then? We were told to fear certain ideologies, that those would take out our freedom or our security. That they were the bad ones. And we labeled them, with the worst expressions we had in our dictionary.

What we actually had in our mind was powerful hatred, put in there by the anti-X and pro-Y propaganda we received.

So now what? Most of those "menaces" have disappeared, but the thoughts on them hadn't. And we still use those isms' labels to disqualify the others. For example, wouldn't you be pulled back if after bringing a total reform plan somebody called you "Nazi" for being in the right wing? Or perhaps you want to carry on a tax program and somebody called you "red of sh*t"?

Now we're suffering from the consequences of all those prejudices and preconceived ideas. We're (in fact, our politicians are) being pulled back from bringing up some ideas in order to prevent opening old wounds.

"Worst enemies are old friends."

[Devourment]

I still have powerful hatred for plenty of groups, however note I don't mean races, but ignorant people such as the Westboro Baptist Church etc.

In terms of people in general, the hate is still there, it's just for different groups.

[txen]

Actually it's been going on forever. An example is the 1800 US presidential election campaign between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It seems very much like what goes on today. Actually it seems even worse. Here is a paragraph from American President: Thomas Jefferson: Campaigns and Elections

Given the intense rivalry and conflict involved, it is not surprising that the 1800 election reached a level of personal animosity seldom equaled in American politics. The Federalists attacked the fifty-seven-year-old Jefferson as a godless Jacobin who would unleash the forces of bloody terror upon the land. With Jefferson as President, so warned one newspaper, "Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes." Others attacked Jefferson's deist beliefs as the views of an infidel who "writes aghast the truths of God's words; who makes not even a profession of Christianity; who is without Sabbaths; without the sanctuary, and without so much as a decent external respect for the faith and worship of Christians."

[rapunzel77]

I understand your point Zenit. It is sill that terms such as Nazi and commie are thrown around loosely when the proposals in question are not anywhere close to what those two groups had. It is very childish to throw names around. It demeans the person that you are debating and it doesn't get you any place at all.

Devourment: Hate is a strong, strong word. I dislike certain ideologies but I wouldn't hate the people in them. The Westboro Baptist Church makes anyone who professes Christianity look bad. I'm not a Baptist, I'm a Catholic but their silly and stupid antics paint all of us in a very bad light. No one is as upset with their antics than Christians like me and others who are nothing like them. What they do is evil. It spreads hatred and mistrust among everyone .