I notice a curios division here

[Summer Hathaway]

69. This exchange started

with your claim that it's the 'conservadems' who are anti-OWS. I pointed out two things: (a) choosing to not be an OWS supporter or participant is not restricted to 'conservadems', but includes many liberals/progressives who do not see OWS as a viable way to effect change, and (b) the fact that one does NOT see OWS as a viable way as aforementioned does not constitute being anti-OWS.

I don't like golf; I do not consider myself anti-golf. I am simply not interested in the sport.

"I just simply want to know why you are so determined against OWS." Again the characterization that I - or anyone else who has chosen not to participate - is "so determined against it".

You keep talking about people who have "justified police brutality", and/or have "condemned OWS" Again, I have seen no evidence to support that assertion.

What it all comes down to, inevitably, is the concept of "anyone who doesn't agree with what I agree with is a conservadem, right-of-center, a RWer, etc.

The perfect demonstration of this concept at play is the posters who rise up the minute someone posts that Obama's favorability among "liberal Democrats" is very high.

They immediately scream that those who self-identified in such a survey are lying about their political leanings, or are mistaken.

I think we can agree that no one here has access to the names of those who identified themselves as liberals in the survey, nor access to those individuals' political resume or voting history.

Ergo, the only conclusion to be drawn is: I am a self-identified liberal/progressive, and because these people don't agree with me, they cannot possibly be what they say they are.

As for the labels of "left and right being fairly well agreed upon", not on this board they're not. People are accused of being "righties" - or conservadems - or any other number of things simply on the basis that they disagree with someone else here who holds themselves out to be the final judge of such things.

And it almost invariably comes down to the same thing: If you don't agree with me, you're not to be accepted in the 'group' I identify myself with.

I do not owe you a litany of what I believe in, or what I support. I can tell you that I am a very far left staunch Obama supporter - and that, in and of itself, has often had me labelled as "not a real progressive liberal" by lock-steppers who cling to the notion that their determination is the only one to be considered valid.

For the record, I am not "anti-OWS", nor "determined against it", nor "hoping to see it fail" - nor any of the other cutsie little phrases that get bandied about here on a daily basis.

It is simply irrelevant in my life, and I don't see it as a viable vehicle for accomplishing its stated goals.

And if you, or anyone else, want to construe that as something other than indifference, go to it. It is of no consequence to me.