What does the “knee-jerk” part of the phrase “knee-jerk liberal refer to? Or, in other words, what is a liberal like myself supposedly jerking her knees about?
It makes me imagine a form of folk dance with lots of bouncing involved. And little bands of bells around the ankles to jingle while those knees are doing their thing.
But this is a derogatory term. So what’s the story?
Some may generalize that Liberals react to problems without considering the full consequences of the solution. The Liberals see a hungry child, so they institute a welfare program, and it feeds the child in the short term, but in the long run, is it really good for society? I’m sure there are better examples.
My argument would be that liberals and conservatives both have knee-jerk reactions, just about different things. For example, “shoot first, ask questions later.”
It seems to me that conservatives more often then non-conservatives want to put labels on people, like “liberal,” and then lump us all together, and say “Liberalls are this” and “Liberals are that.” And I say to them, there is no such thing as black and white, there is only gray, and if you boast “I only see things in black and white” than what you are really saying is “I am an idiot.”