Name Calling

Okay this is neither about politics nor religion, but since this problem most often comes up when these topics are discussed, I reckon it applies. If you disagree with someone on one of these topics or any other topic then that’s fine. I have no problem with honest disagreement. I do however have a problem with name calling.

There a “documentary” that came out recently which I won’t be linking to here that essentially says that anyone who voted for Obama is stupid. The basis of this “thesis” was that since the people they interviewed didn’t know some basic information about things like who controls the congress, but did know about the money that the RNC spent on Palin’s wardrobe, that all the people who voted for Obama were stupid. All of them.

Now this is not a left versus right thing. The left are certainly more than guilty of name calling. The right loves to point out that we, who are supposedly the party of tolerance, are not very tolerant of opposing viewpoints. Whether their argument is sound or not is not the point. Whether or not we should tolerate things that we disagree with is not what I am talking about here. What I am talking about is how we should treat other human beings.

If my daughter calls someone “stupid” or “boogerface” or “fill in the blank playground insult”, she will get disciplined. When she is an adult, hopefully long before then, she will learn from me that responsible, loving adults do not call one another names. It is not in the spirit of Christ to tear others down. For those of you that aren’t Christians I would hope that your own moral compass would lead you to the same realization.

Calling someone a hurtful name does not help your side. It will not bring them to your point of view. I honestly don’t care how right you think you are, if you call someone a racist slur, a sexist slur, or any other hate filled invective I am automatically going to be on that other person’s side whether I agree with them or not. It is all so much playground bullshit and that’s where it needs to stay. If you’re an adult then join the conversation, build bridges, talk about why you disagree. We may not come to terms, but at least we aren’t hurting one another in the process.

If you can’t manage that then I recommend you stay home and play in your own sandbox.

  • http://sidfaiwu.com/blog sidfaiwu

    Hello Scott,

    In general I agree with you. But there are times when name calling is appropriate – when it’s true. It is wholly appropriate to call a Klan member a bigot, for instance. It may not be effective, but it may be appropriate.

    I don’t think the mistake of the unnamed ‘documentary’ was name calling, but generalization. It’s quite likely that the people they interviewed were, indeed, idiots. Given enough supporters of any person or cause, some subset are going to be supporters for stupid reasons. The ‘documentarians’ then generalize this to conclude that all Obama supporters are likewise stupid. That would be like a professor grading one or two tests from a class of 100, finding that the ones he checked failed and deciding to give the entire class an ‘F’. It’s not only faulty reasoning and irresponsible, but also wrong when it casts undue defamation.

    To refute them, if lack of education level is any indication of stupidity, it seems the opposite may be true.

  • http://rock@rock.com Rock

    You never gave us the answer on who controls Congress. My guess is congressmen control it.

  • http://mysteriouscloakedfigure.blogspot.com/ MCF

    It’s hard to comment without seeing the actual video, but if there was any name calling I’d have to agree with you. It seems any valid point the filmmakers might have had would definitely be destroyed if they used words like “stupid”.
    That being said, I think there are a large portion of Americans who do vote for a candidate based on personality, race, gender, religion, or other things they like or dislike about a person, and don’t actually watch debates or research issues. I’m sure McCain choosing Palin did get him SOME female votes just as Biden got Obama some Catholic votes. I’m not sure how a Catholic would be a running mate to a guy that supports abortion, but that’s a whole separate topic. I’m not sure what the solution is, and I wouldn’t say ALL voters make uninformed decisions, but to me the last few elections in my lifetime have seemed like popularity contests, with whomever the media paints in a better light coming out ahead. More and more the news plays more like Entertainment Tonight or TMZ than actual journalism.
    In any case, I’m kind of tired of all the political stuff now. I don’t want to hear people complaining about Obama winning anymore than I want to hear about Bush “stealing” votes, which people actually STILL complain about. The election is over, so now we’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and see if he does any better than Bush. Between the economy and the war, anybody would have his hands full in the oval office. It’s time to come together as a nation and get past our differences, focusing on what we have in common.

  • Anonymous

    The problem with name calling is that we usually don’t have a clue about where someone is coming from.. not everyone self-identifies as a klan member :)

  • http://www.thejenanddaveshow.com DAVe

    Take one for the team

  • Anonymous

    Sid, I suppose I should differentiate between using accurate labels (bigot for example) and the sort of immature name calling that comes from ebing unable or unwilling to form a cogent argument (calling just about any group you disagree with stupid).

    MCF – I too am ready to move on. One of the things I hope Obama accomplishes is something that President Bush said he would do, that being uniting the country.

    Anon. – True enough. But I suppose you’ll know someone by their fruit.

    Dave – Huh?

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