It’s Been Quite Interesting Being a Conservative in a Liberal Bubble (Part II of II)

(continued from Part I)

My college friend was always a liberal, but most people become one in college.

I was wired in politics from middle school, but most of my pre-college friends weren’t. Yet two months into college, when we got together for the first time since high school graduation, they’d all turned into communists. As I heard these formerly apolitical people go on and on about things they’d never shown interest in before in ways that was bewildering, my retort was one word: “brainwashing.” Some of them eventually came to their senses and moderated, but most never recovered the ability to think for themselves.

As for me, I know I never lost the ability to think for myself because I’m constantly in the state of disagreement.

One time, my boss’s boss’s boss was spouting off insanity like “Paul Krugman will make a great Treasury Secretary” while her minions were all nodding their head in agreement. A moral imperative and an independent mind compelled me to point out how wacko she sounded.

Of course, calling a crazy person crazy when you’re the only sane person in a crazy bubble is a crazy thing to do, especially when the crazy person controls your academic/professional fate. That’s why I’ve developed a survival skill centered around being self-deprecating when talking about my views.

And so it is that I can get away with calling for the invasion of Afghanistan in a sociology class when the Taliban was destroying ancient Buddhist temples and I can sum up David Mamet’s play “Oleanna” as “nutty feminist propaganda” in a room full of feminists. The audience mostly dismissed these as just Joe being Joe, but I got the last laugh because the U.S. did eventually invade Afghanistan and Mamet came out as a conservative.

Liberals should let conservatives into their bubble, if only to develop a sense of humor.

I once attended a wedding filled with overeducated academics. While I was lined up to get food, a person next in line discovered that I was a Republican, at which point she lost all sense of where she was. Her voice rose by several decibels and her speech sped up by a couple hundred words per second. She then railed about how anti-immigrant, racist Republicans are destroying the country.

As I contemplated the irony in her, a white person born in America, lecturing me, an Asian born in Japan, about immigration and racism, I thought about asking her, “so how many unborn babies did you kill today?” to see if I can get a laugh. I’m glad I didn’t, because the irony of the question probably would have been lost on her and we would have created quite a scene at an otherwise joyous event.

Most of you reading this post are liberals living in an extraordinarily comfortable bubble.

I urge you to go find a conservative bubble and live in it; they do exist, mostly in parts of America you didn’t know existed.

If you follow my advice, your life will become infinitely more interesting, just like mine. Provided, that is, you have a sense of humor.