Re: Being a liberal is hard

However, dude, there is no doubt in my eyes whatsoever that people often either pretend to express opinions they do not actually have, or simply stay silent on the matter and not stand up to those who espouse opinions or feelings they do not share or maybe even oppose, due to peer pressure, i.e., fear of being disliked if they go against popular opinion, and not having the will or fortitude to stand up to the opposition, whom they regard as tougher than them for whatever reason.

In that case my second paragraph applies. If they are not being better than a conservative or centrist, why should you prefer them over a conservative or centrist?

As such, this can be very logically expected to play out on a larger political scale, since liberals became notorious for avoiding conflicts, and pushing the concept of "pragmatism" to beyond a reasonable extent, in their case meaning that they were acquiescing to what they believed they had to do, or had to vote, in order to come off as "tough" and be taken "seriously" by the dominant conservative mindset, and be able to play in the political field in the first place ("I didn't agree with the war, but if I voted against it, the conservative smear campaigns would practically write themselves, and the current climate is not good to vote against a war right now, and if you want liberal politicians like me to stay in the game right now, and be in a position to make changes when the time is right, then blah blah blah...")

But you don't vote for that, and really, nor do 99% of liberals, and for that matter neither do conservatives. So why continuing to buy a defective product?

You didn't see mainstream liberals sticking to their principles on acceptance of gays during the 1950s, regardless of whether they truly believed in it or not.

How about "they did not believe in gay rights or gay equality" and so were perfectly happy to contribute to their oppression? Why assume they had a secret sympathy if they never showed it?