No, you're not reading it wrong, and I didn't mistype.
I'm not normally one to try gimmicks, but this time I felt it was worth the effort to try something new.
While I am a political conservative more often than not, both my wife and I are registered as independents because we don't want anything to do with either the Republican or Democratic parties. Unfortunately, claiming myself as an independent lately has lead to its own share of misunderstandings, with several people believing that I am formally affiliated with either the Independent party, or just a supporter of this or that third-party candidate. Now, there has been no real harm done with the misunderstandings, but I'm no more eager to be called a (big "I") Independent, than I am a Democrat. And to be fare, I am sure there are a number of more liberally minded independents out there who are just as annoyed with this type of misunderstanding.
Traditionally, the distinction was made with the aforementioned "big I" distinction. Jessi Ventura was an Independent Politician, while I am an independent voter. The problem is that with the rise of e-mail, blogging and instant messaging, details like weather or not the "I" is capitalized are frankly lost on a culture that has learned to read whole paragraphs that completely lack punctuation.
So, here is what I propose, capitalize the other end of the word. Write it "independenT" and make people blink and ask what you mean. It will either catch on and eventually fade into the background like the "big I"/"little i" system, or it will die here in this post. But the point here is't to come up with some new gimmick, its to come up with a way for us to remind people that we have our own opinions, and we are not so easily boxed into one political philosophy or another.
Political individuality isn't a gimmick, its a cause, and its one worth investing a little effort into, if you ask me.
I'm not normally one to try gimmicks, but this time I felt it was worth the effort to try something new.
While I am a political conservative more often than not, both my wife and I are registered as independents because we don't want anything to do with either the Republican or Democratic parties. Unfortunately, claiming myself as an independent lately has lead to its own share of misunderstandings, with several people believing that I am formally affiliated with either the Independent party, or just a supporter of this or that third-party candidate. Now, there has been no real harm done with the misunderstandings, but I'm no more eager to be called a (big "I") Independent, than I am a Democrat. And to be fare, I am sure there are a number of more liberally minded independents out there who are just as annoyed with this type of misunderstanding.
Traditionally, the distinction was made with the aforementioned "big I" distinction. Jessi Ventura was an Independent Politician, while I am an independent voter. The problem is that with the rise of e-mail, blogging and instant messaging, details like weather or not the "I" is capitalized are frankly lost on a culture that has learned to read whole paragraphs that completely lack punctuation.
So, here is what I propose, capitalize the other end of the word. Write it "independenT" and make people blink and ask what you mean. It will either catch on and eventually fade into the background like the "big I"/"little i" system, or it will die here in this post. But the point here is't to come up with some new gimmick, its to come up with a way for us to remind people that we have our own opinions, and we are not so easily boxed into one political philosophy or another.
Political individuality isn't a gimmick, its a cause, and its one worth investing a little effort into, if you ask me.
I have the same problem. Independent, on my voter's card, simply means 'not affiliated', not that I'm with the Independent party. And I'm still kind of irked with the 'Independent' party for that. :P
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