Glossary

I'm convinced that progressives/liberals and conservatives are using the same words to talk about different things. I'm ever frustrated and annoyed not only by the names conservatives call us, but also by they describe progressivism/liberalism. For example, progressives are often accused of statism. Note that statism is defined as:

–noun

1. the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty.

2. support of or belief in the sovereignty of a state, usually a republic.

That in no way defines my views and how I understand the views of others with whom I agree. And as of this initial posting, I'm too frustrated to go through this in any scholarly way. But I will be editing this page from here on. At the very least, you should have a better idea of what I'm talking about and what I mean by the words I use.

I don't know anyone who would argue against individual liberty, and no one's liberty should come at the expense of another's. Think of it as living in a dorm room with a roommate. You both have equal rights to the room. You don't need permission to have guests. Neither does your roommate, right? But say you have an exam to prepare for. If your roommate insisted time after time on having friends over while you were trying to study, and you went to the RA to resolve the issue - would it be wrong for the RA to send your roommate and her/his friends out of the room? Would that be considered as the university infringing upon the freedom of your roommate.

That's how liberals and progressives look at civil liberties. Some supercede others, and it's not tryannous to have the state insure that, for example, the freedom of association doesn't come at the expense of the right to equal treatment, opportunity, and protection. I think that's more than fair; it's just.

Here's what I mean by racism:

Racism is, at a minimum, prejudice plus power, and that power comes not from being a prejudiced individual, but from being part of a group that controls the nation’s systems. So while anyone can be prejudiced, only whites can perpetrate racism in the United States, for they hold and have always held most of the power in American institutions. Even in a nation that currently has a president defined as black, nearly all senators, representatives, governors, and CEOs, to name a few, are white. (The Persistent Problem by Michael O. Emerson (pdf))