For starters, some very basic definitions, brought to you by dictionary.com.
liberal: favourable to progress or reform
conservative: disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change

Now to me, a democratic socialist and owner of shirts such as this one, it’s not very hard to pick out which one of these two concepts is “right” and which one is “wrong”. I mean… seriously? Limiting change? Restoring tradition? Who in their right (pun very much intended) mind would ever want to be attributed the label “conservative”? To me the term carries so many negative connotations it’s almost like the equivalent of being called a caveman.

I’ve been called a conservative once in my life and I remember the moment vividly to this day. When I was in first year university, I worked at La Vie en Rose, a lingerie boutique in the Rideau Centre. One weekday afternoon I was working alone with my manager and she asked me to dress up one of our mannequin busts with some new merchandise we had just received. As it was my first time doing this (I didn’t work there for very long), I was really careful in selecting the garments and making sure the size was just right. When I was done my manager came over to check on my work. As we were standing there admiring the lacy bra on the fake plastic bust I immediately blurted out “Oh no, we can see nipples! I’ll get a chiffon robe to cover it up!” (don’t ask – the plastic busts had nipple shapes), to which she replied “God, you’re so conservative, just let it be!”. Now I’m a person who’s pretty hard to insult or offend, but I was immediately so insulted when she called me a conservative. I wished I could have taken back my words so much. To this day I still beat myself up over the fact that my retail job manager five years ago thought I was a prude. Geez.

So the other day Chris and I were in the car and I told him how I couldn’t fathom anyone not being insulted if they were called a conservative. He then pointed out the fact that the opposite is true for people who are actually conservative. I had never really thought of that, because to me, being left-leaning is not a conscious decision, it’s a matter of knowing with every fibre of my being that what I believe in is simply right (well, left). But thinking about it, I guess I can easily imagine Lowell Green turning into The Hulk at even the simple idea of being called a liberal.

Ah well, to each his own.