Reading Scary-Mommy's blog post about a well-meaning wife extolling the virtues of "submitting to one's husband" as a wife's religious duty, I realized that a mental knee-jerk reaction happened. I  immediately labeled her "right-wing-nut-job" in my head. I even went so far and posted as much (though, in a more cynical vein). It was not entirely fair for me to dismiss her and, even more, put her in a nice (ugly) box. I had mentally polarized myself against her.

Why? As we all like to say, it's a free country. So what?

I'm conditioned to spot her as a member of another "tribe" (thank you, Seth Godin)- a tribe that has shown derision for my "tribe." Having slotted her as such, she is the enemy. She represents everything my tribe has fought to overcome: equality, tolerance and understanding of others- You know, exactly what I was not feeling.

Why? How do we get this way? Tribal conditioning?

I'm liberal, I guess. At least, I fit more within that "definition" than the conservative definition. My views are really irrelevant as you'll soon see.

The political machine is really amazing and has kept up with current trends in technology and culture to keep themselves (the politicians) relevant. What's key is each side must have something to fight against. For the left, there is the right, and vice-versa. Polarizing their views in simplistic, cartoonish values. If someone is telling you "That guy over there wants to take away your way of life!" or "That group over there is sending your child to an unjust war!" you're going to damn-well get off your ass and vote!

Both sides slot the other in nice, neat little boxes of stereotypes to sell you an idea. See? It comes down to "Marketing," and as we all know, marketing is ____ (you fill in the blank- hint: it used to be followed by "Knievel" )

As I mentioned, I'm a moderate liberal, but I have friends, both extreme left and extreme right. If I've learned anything, it's this: we can all still get along wonderfully, even with drastically different views! I will say this, it's awesomely fun to poke fun at each others eccentricities. Unless someone is dying, everything is made better with a bit of humor. Once you can't laugh at yourself, you know you've "swallowed the blue pill" and are still in the Matrix of ideological marketing!

Concerned progressives that believe in personal freedom, but with a caring government that takes care of the downtrodden and minority.

Tree-hugging, pot-smoking, flip-flopping, baby-killing hippies that want to turn our great nation into a red state.

Protectors of freedom and all things good, including life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Right-Wing, gun-tote'n, everything-for-me, black-and-white (mostly white) nut jobs.

We have so many choices these days compared to our parents' time. Take TV: with cable, we are no longer bound to the 12+ channels we had with an antenna. We now have hundreds of channels, broken down into categories of interest. We have the science channels, the history channels, the comedy, food and  music channels. We also have more "news" than we know what to do with. With these channel choices, we can set our favorites on the remote. There! We don't have to watch anything we don't want to!

We also don't get exposed to anything beyond what we THINK our interests are. We don't get exposed to ideas that we feel uncomfortable with. We don't grow any further than where we are now.

Be uncomfortable! Grow! Watch and do things that you aren't familiar with! Watch the religious channel, watch the science channel, watch Fox News and CNN in 2 consecutive half-hours. Will your head explode? I think not- but you might start to see the similarities between different points of view. It might also show you that all sides are trying to sell you something and you should see every person as just that- a person, like you and me.

If something on the internet makes you feel uncomfortable- good! Growing is painful. Thank you "Scary mommy" for the controversial posting! I feel like allot of us grew just a little bit.