Ideological Purity and Thinking For Yourself

In these deeply partisan times, there is a tendency to demonize those on the other side of the political spectrum. But there is nothing wrong about being on the Left or the Right as long as you protect your right to have an independent point of view.

George Orwell, for instance, was a passionate leftist who became a strong critic of Joseph Stalin and totalitarian communism in the Soviet Union.

Barry Goldwater was an ardent conservative American politician who was an outspoken critic of his fellow conservatives Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority because of the threat that they posed to the separation of church and state.

All of us are right some of the time and all of us are wrong some of the time. No one person or group has a monopoly on truth.

It's dangerous when political extremists on the Right and the Left try to silence anyone who disagrees with them.

"We Are All Living in George Orwell’s World Now. He is easy to quote, but what would the iconoclastic British socialist really have thought about politics today?" by Matthew Purdy for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/magazine/trump-george-orwell-1984.ht…

"Now might be a good time to re-read George Orwell" by James Folta for Lit Hub
https://lithub.com/now-might-be-a-good-time-to-re-read-george-orwell/

"Goldwater Vows To Fight Tactics of 'New Right'" by Judith Miller for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/16/us/goldwater-vows-to-fight-tactics-o…

"Conservative patriarch Barry Goldwater declared war... on 'political preachers' who 'claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me.'" by Ira Allen for UPI
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/09/15/Conservative-patriarch-Barry-Go…

"Republicans terrified of crossing Trump due to physical threats, Democrat says" by Robert Tait for The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-trump-threa…

"How death threats get Republicans to fall in line behind Trump. The insidious way violence is changing American politics — and shaping the 2024 election." by Zack Beauchamp for Vox
https://www.vox.com/23899688/2024-election-republican-primary-death-thr…