Name Blame Game at the Snark Park

Damn liberal. Stupid fascist. Neocon. Satanist. Hippy. Redneck, Volvo drivin' Latte sippin', Npr listenin' tree hugin, elitists.
We know who that is. Except that I know a hard-shell Republican cattleman in Idaho that drives a Volvo, enjoys lattes, listens to Morning Edition and has personally planted thousands of trees that he paid for himself.
I once regularly took part in a discussion group. This group was diverse by design, deliberately inviting persons of opposing viewpoints, in order to make for a lively session. Unfortunately, all too often opposing sides would end up squared off, red faced, hurling epithets at each other, dissolving the discussion. In order to deal with this problem we had to identify it.
Humans are pattern seekers. Humans are lablers . This is an important tool for us, helping us to quickly identify new stimulus by the similarity to known ones. Having never seen a puma, one that has seen a leopard will most likely avoid a puma. Yet this characteristic can lead us astray. Having encountered a racist lynch mob, might a black person be wary of white ones? Is he correct to assume they are all the same? When the leopard experienced sees the puma, and recognizes it as a threat, he can act, flee, climb a tree, hurl rocks or fire. He has labeled it danger. He no longer needs to think. When primitive man met another man, a stranger, it often devolved into a hostile encounter. Even today when a person is significantly different, the immediate unthinking response is "danger". Animals in nature will actually do whatever they can in order to gain advantage or defense without actually engaging in a physical conflict, bluffing with puffed hair like a cat or barking as does a dog. Other primates ( no we are not descended of apes, we are apes, future post if you please) will use a variety of displays, Physical postures, loud noises, thrashing branches and leaves. It is notable that many will hurl excrement. This is a particular favorite when one troop is in conflict with another of the same or similar species .
So we have that moment, in my discussion group, at a family dinner, in some street encounter or radio call in show, when one persons intellectual capacity is no longer present. Then, with hot emotion, one calls another a "dirty fill-in-the-blank".
When the self-described lefty describes some one as a fascist, it has nothing to do with the union of the interests of state and of business that is the original definition of fascism. It is just a label that denotes a hated enemy. Oddly, we may fear the leopard or the grizzly bear, but we usually save hatred for those that are of our own species.
Name calling is the sign that intellect has been overwhelmed by our emotions, that an open mind has been shut and that emotion, not reason, is ruling the hour. It is a signal of failure. It is the hurling of excrement.
Our discussion group added a 5th rule. No Monkeys! If one cannot remain intellectually engaged, then one has devolved into a lower primate, and is unwelcome until the return of reason.

We must turn away from knee jerk labeling, as much as it feels good. So too the "snarky response" so beloved in some of our internet communications is little better. The Snark is the sign of arrested development, the snotty middle-schooler that cannot actually defend a position, but in stead will be arogantly dismissive, making no case but that of ridicule. We enjoy the emotional thrill of hearing a person or viewpoint we disagree with being made into an object of fun. However there is little to be had from such diversion. All too often our most important public dialogs devolve into Snark and name calling. Surely when times are so delicate we can put aside childish expressions of emotional satisfaction in favor of rational and reasonable debate. we need to banish the chattering monkey of our lesser natures

When the monkeys throw poo, let reason be your rain coat.
We all need to stay clean.