I can understand the physical sorting perfectly well. I live in Massachusetts, and even though this is the "reddest" part of the state, that just means it's a purple drop in a blue sea, so to speak.
I don't put up political signs or stickers on my car to support Republicans. Why not? Simply put, I'm afraid. I don't want some enthusiast "keying" my car or letting the air out of my tires. I don't want to get hate mail. I have kids.
Silly? Perhaps. But then I look at some of the t-shirt slogans walking around Amherst and Northampton and it doesn't seem so silly. Every conversation I have is a minefield -- what innocuous remark will provoke some outpouring of political obscenities? Obscenities which I am expected to agree with? "Nice weather we've been having" can lead to "Fucking Bush is destroying the planet!"
The temptation is quite strong to move someplace else -- someplace where I don't have to keep my opinions secret in public. Someplace where I can go buy a cup of coffee and not once have to hear someone expressing hatred and contempt for anyone who votes the way I do. This is part of America, but here I feel like a foreigner. Why not take myself and my vote someplace else? Here in Mass. I'm effectively disenfranchised anyway, even if the dominant party was rigorously honest in the way it conducts elections (snort).
It applies professionally, too. I don't advertise my politics when I'm talking with other SF writers (the game industry people are more tolerant). Every SF convention or writing workshop I've attended since 2004 has included a kind of "two-minute hate" with Bush or Cheney replacing Orwell's Emmanuel Goldstein. There's a strong temptation to chuck it and look for work in a field where I don't have to "pass" to fit in.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-10-15 03:54 am (UTC)I don't put up political signs or stickers on my car to support Republicans. Why not? Simply put, I'm afraid. I don't want some enthusiast "keying" my car or letting the air out of my tires. I don't want to get hate mail. I have kids.
Silly? Perhaps. But then I look at some of the t-shirt slogans walking around Amherst and Northampton and it doesn't seem so silly. Every conversation I have is a minefield -- what innocuous remark will provoke some outpouring of political obscenities? Obscenities which I am expected to agree with? "Nice weather we've been having" can lead to "Fucking Bush is destroying the planet!"
The temptation is quite strong to move someplace else -- someplace where I don't have to keep my opinions secret in public. Someplace where I can go buy a cup of coffee and not once have to hear someone expressing hatred and contempt for anyone who votes the way I do. This is part of America, but here I feel like a foreigner. Why not take myself and my vote someplace else? Here in Mass. I'm effectively disenfranchised anyway, even if the dominant party was rigorously honest in the way it conducts elections (snort).
It applies professionally, too. I don't advertise my politics when I'm talking with other SF writers (the game industry people are more tolerant). Every SF convention or writing workshop I've attended since 2004 has included a kind of "two-minute hate" with Bush or Cheney replacing Orwell's Emmanuel Goldstein. There's a strong temptation to chuck it and look for work in a field where I don't have to "pass" to fit in.
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