The Moral Bullies

The left paint themselves as some sort of tolerant and open-minded group. Is this actually true? I beg to differ. Here's why.

• LGBT Rights Activism

If you tell a leftist that you don't think same-sex marriage is necessary, they will quickly say that you're a homophobic bigot and leave. Well, instead of cutting off meaningful dialogue, why not try to convince someone who has an opposing view with facts? If you're truly tolerant, you should tolerate different opinions too so don't shout and leave. No, don't talk about human rights, that's just a belief. If you do that, it is equivalent to a religious person citing the Bible to refute you. The point is, not everybody shares the same belief with you. Personally, I'm indifferent to same-sex marriage. It's something that has been going on for thousands of years; However, I strongly believe that religious institutions have the right to choose whether or not to let them have their weddings in places of worship. I'm not religious but I believe that the right to hold beliefs goes both ways, not just the left's.

• Moral High Ground

When you argue with leftists about things such as healthcare. They tend to try and stand on the moral high ground. The narrative is basically, "If you disagree with me, you want people to die of illnesses." No, I disagree with single-payer healthcare and we can have a discussion about it. What I don't think we have to do is demonize people on the other side of the political spectrum as being heartless or evil. I disagree with letting bureaucrats in the government to run my healthcare. Other than that, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, taxes including personal income tax, corporate tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and many other taxes will be raised. This is simple, increased government spending leads to increased taxation.

Many Republicans and I believe that the forces of the free market will make healthcare more accessible through deregulation. By deregulating the industry, we can increase the number of hospitals and doctors. For example, in Malaysia, medical students need about 10 years to be a fully qualified doctor, I think this is way too long. I believe that shortening it to 7 years will be faster and does not compromise the quality of doctors. They have a mandatory 2-year training in public hospitals (I believe this is just a way to supplement the public hospitals with cheap doctors), and this can be cut down to just 1 year. Other than that, I believe we could reduce the unnecessary subjects from their syllabus to further cut down the duration of studying. In Malaysia, a medical degree is about 5 years long. The aim of the deregulation is to increase the supply of doctors, thus, through the supply and demand model, the prices will drop dramatically.

The point is, we want to make healthcare more accessible as well; However, we disagree with the means of achieving that. The left believes in government support and the right believes in the forces of the free market through deregulation of the medical industry.

Once, I was watching a documentary titled "Trump's Road to the White House." I saw a scene in which a reporter named Katy Tur talked about Trump's remarks regarding grabbing women by the genitalia. She said, and I quote, "Everyone thought that was the end, it was the end, how do you survive this as a Republican?" Hold on, as a Republican? Does this imply that if a Democrat made that statement, it would have been fine? Then, I did some research and here are the facts.

• Donations

In the 2016 election, journalists donated almost exclusively to Hillary Clinton. According to Public Integrity, a grand total of $ 381,814 was donated to Hillary, meanwhile, Trump only received $14,373 from journalists. This shows that journalists are bias to the left. This wasn't just about Trump's polarization, the same thing happened in 2012. According to the New York Times, Obama received significantly more money than Romney from media companies. Even companies that are perceived as right-leaning donated more to Obama. With that money, Hillary was able to vastly outspend Trump to promote her campaign and get her platform out to the people. It's just too bad that her attacks were tasteless and her message can easily be twisted to seem anti-men.

• Perception

According to Gallup, an overwhelming 48% of Americans think the media is too liberal, meanwhile, only 15% say that the media is too conservative. This is interesting to note because most Americans consider themselves to be independent in their political views.

• Coverage and Support

According to BBC, more than 200 newspapers supported Clinton, while Trump received the backing of fewer than 20. Other than the donations, this shows that the media was trying to elevate Clinton and demonize Trump. This can also be seen when the public actually believes that the photos of young illegal immigrants in cages were taken under the Trump administration, in fact, it was taken during the Obama administration, according to Business Insider.

• My thoughts

I'm not telling you to lean to the right, however, I believe people should be exposed to both sides of the political aisle and make their own informed decision about which side to pick.

I find it deeply disturbing that right-wing ideas are heavily discriminated. In an article on The Guardian, Laurie Penny, stated that it is alright to discriminate against conservatives. This can also be coupled with my personal experiences. Even centrists who disagree with left-wing ideas are sometimes called far-right or white supremacists. Once, I was told I should join the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) for suggesting that the United States is not a racist country, which is comedic because I am a Malaysian Chinese. I was also called far-right for disagreeing with the $0.77 to a $1 gender wage gap because that statistic does not take into account things such as education, hours worked, and job experience, according to Forbes. In fact, other things such as work ethic, job risk, time flexibility, relocation requirements, and many others are not included.

There is also this notion that Republicans are racist, which I disagree with. The Republican Party freed the slaves, more specifically, Abraham Lincoln did. Now, some will argue that the parties switched so Republicans are the racists now. Is that true? In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, significantly more republicans voted for the bill in terms of the percentage, according to Daily Signal's fact check. In the house, 78% of Republicans voted yes, meanwhile, only 60% of Democrats voted yes. This sweeping law ended segregation between races and was a big step for the United States. The only Democrat who left to join the Republican Party was Strom Thurmond. Yes, just one. One more thing, just because white supremacists support Republicans, that doesn't mean the Republican Party is racist as a whole. Are there racist Republicans? Sure, I'll concede that. Does that mean the entire Republican Party is racist? No. All I ask is for leftists to be philosophically consistent, if they are not going to engage in stereotypes based on race, gender, and sexual orientation, then, don't stereotype people based on their political parties as well.