Red baiting

Red-Baiting is a political dirty trick used by unethical Conservatives to gain political advantage. Red Baiting is a wedge technique, but also a way to discredit Liberals.

How it works

 * 1) Unethical Conservatives look for political or social groups which Liberals tolerate and whose rights Liberals protect, and Conservatives disapprove (in the case of red baiting, communists, marxists, socialists)
 * 2) Unethical Conservatives do everything they can to demonize these groups.  They call them names, point out their problems, try to get people to fear them.
 * 3) Unethical Conservatives try to identify Liberals with these groups by always speaking of the Liberal they're targeting while exaggerating the Liberal's toleration into approval: Communist toleration by the Liberal gets him called a Commy Loving Lib.
 * 4) Unethical Conservatives try to get their friends, especially the ones who don't know any better, to join them in calling the Liberal names.
 * 5) When enough people who don't know any better have joined the unethical Conservative in calling the Liberal names, unethical Conservatives move from exaggerating to actually calling the Liberal a Communist.  The unethical Conservative will now only refer to the Liberal as Commy-Lib.
 * 6) When enough unethical Conservatives start calling the Liberal a Commy-Lib, people who don't know any better begin to give in to the peer pressure and begin to suspect the Liberal and withdraw their support of that Liberal.

How it Feels
It hurts, it hurts a lot to be bullied by unethical Conservatives in a guilt-by-association attack. It's no fun to be called a commie-lover, or a fag-lover, or a nigger-lover, or any number of guilt-by-association names. Just know, that if you've been called those kind of names, we liberals are proud of you. It means you're trying to become an ethical human being.

What can you do?

 * 1) Maybe the best thing you can do is talk about it.  Talk about it to your friends, your parents, your teachers and councilors.  If some of your friends have joined them, talk to them too.  Bullies seem to thrive in the dark, so throw a little light on the subject.  Conservative bullies only thrive until enough good people realize what they're doing and stop playing their guilt-by-association games.
 * 2) You can give in and join them.  This is the cowardly way out, and you're not going to be happy with yourself if you do it, but plenty of folks have taken this option.

What it means
What it means is that you're growing. Growing can be painful. It also means that you're likely becoming liberal, and that's a very good thing.