Moment of clarity

I just had a moment of clarity, and it creeped me out. I won’t relate who’s blog I was reading, but suffice it to say I was exploring my region when it dawned on me what bothers me so much about Ann Arbor and zealots in general. They define themselves via hate.

I’m talking about a lot of groups here, but the one that struck me was someone defining themselves via their feelings on the current administration. While that can of worms threatens to explode all over the place, I’ll leave it alone since I have problems with Bush an Co. myself (asta la vista Ashcroft; don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out), but seriously, when you define yourself, who you are, with something you hate, that’s a serious issue.

These same people would come out of the woodwork if I went around defining myself as someone who’s not to keen on the current state of minority rights. It feeds back into the attitude around blogs that as long as you conform to some pre-defined way of being (hate Bush, crusade for gay rights, call America “Jesustan”, anti-DRM, pro-iPod, etc), you’re ok. Hate all you want. Define yourself that way; no one is going to call you on being a bigot in your own right. As long as you’re “right”, according to the bulk of the Technorati Top 100, it’s ok.

I saw a great quote (and I can’t find it now), but it really speaks volumns. “Republicans think Democrats are wrong; Democrats think Republicans are evil.” There’s a lot to that, more than the chuckle you just had reading it.