“You can’t be a conservative!”
“Ummm . . . excuse me?”
“You just can’t. You don’t act like one, you don’t look like one . . . ”
“Just what exactly is a conservative supposed to look like?”
” . . . ”
This is an actual conversation that once took place between a professor and myself a few years back. It was not the first time such accusations were leveled at me and it certainly has not been the last. In each such moment I have been given some crazy excuse for why there is no possible way I could be conservative: the way I dress, that I am an artist, or even simply because I play video games.
That’s right, in the mind of a liberal there is no way a conservative would attempt enjoy Left for Dead, Skyrim or Diablo III.
In the liberal’s narrative, conservatives are one thing and one thing only: lame. Any poor souls who happen to fall across that right-of-center political line give up any semblance of “cool” for a bigoted, stubborn, uncreative, and unpopular life as the kid who always gets chosen last for kickball.
Well, out of all of that, they did manage to get one right. We ARE stubborn.
Okay, two things, but I don’t like talking about my issues with kickball.
Yes, we are stubborn, and I for one refuse to accept their ridiculous notions of what I should and shouldn’t be. I should not have to conform to the political notions of an unthinking mass simply because I happen to draw, pick up a guitar, write, or engage in any aspect of pop culture. Ultimately, that’s where their power lies, in convincing young kids that to be cool in life, to be different, to be artsy, edgy, creative, or innovative, one must shackle themselves to the demands of a liberal ideology.
Simply take one look at the marketing for the Obama campaign or environmental protection, pro-choice, and economic agendas. They are ALL based off of the premise that “this is what the cool kids do.”
It’s been a highly effective strategy.
That they wish to label themselves as the “cool” kids is simply more evidence that the very heart of their existence lies in popularity and not substance. The essence of being a creative entity, or truly engaging (not simply mindlessly absorbing) popular culture, lies directly in being a critically thinking individual. To be alternative, one refuses to be pigeonholed by the opposing side. I refuse to be stereotyped, to be forced to fit their agenda simply for the activities I like to engage in, the job I do, or the skills I have developed.
To be conservative as well as culturally engaging, is to automatically be a misfit of our generation.
I’m a Misfit. How about you?
What’s Your Misfit?: http://www.cafepress.com/misfitpolitics/9040074