The Compassionate Left (just don't disagree with them)
Just a quick note to all those far left people out there who like to pat themselves on the back and lay down the claim that the Left are just to kind and nice and are just now learning how to play the Rights games of hard ball; ever hear of Vietnam?
But I guess those far left zealots who were all to willing to spit on the poor serviceman, who may or may not have even volunteered to join the military, or label them all "baby killers" were just doing it out of love.
Or how about the people that get rounds of online applause when the tell their stories of insulting some poor old lady at the grocery store because she looked affluent so must have been a Republican, or of leaving some poor mother and her baby stranded because of a of a "W" bumper sticker on their broken down car.
If nothing else, blogs give us a much clearer picture of what goes on inside the various camps, both right and left, and I can tell you from what I've seen, while there are some mud slingers on both sides of the aisle, we on the right have a lot to learn about the art of personal attacks from the left.
But I guess those far left zealots who were all to willing to spit on the poor serviceman, who may or may not have even volunteered to join the military, or label them all "baby killers" were just doing it out of love.
Or how about the people that get rounds of online applause when the tell their stories of insulting some poor old lady at the grocery store because she looked affluent so must have been a Republican, or of leaving some poor mother and her baby stranded because of a of a "W" bumper sticker on their broken down car.
If nothing else, blogs give us a much clearer picture of what goes on inside the various camps, both right and left, and I can tell you from what I've seen, while there are some mud slingers on both sides of the aisle, we on the right have a lot to learn about the art of personal attacks from the left.
posted by Bic at 6:38 p.m.
5 Comments:
I don't think you should paint either side with th brush of the extremists. We both know that radical Left is equally as destructive as radical Right. I give Stalin as the example for the left and Hitler for the right. Personally both sides have some good ideas, maybe we should all work together towards the same goal? Namely a better place to live in for everyone?c
Heh that should be "Personally I think".
I'm not talking about the moderates of either side, they can usually work together to get things done, or at least be counted on to have a civilized debate such as this, but todays Left, especially in the States, is being taken over more and more by the radicals and the moderates are being pushed to the fringe. People who should be marginalized for their extreme view are instead being glorified and given positions of power.
Just look at Howard Dean for example. The man can barely open his mouth without issueing some over the top insult to the GOP, or Bush in particular, but because he was able to generate so much money in his failed Presidential campaign he was made head of the Democratic Party.
Or Michael Moore, a man who wouldn't know how to tell the truth (even about the name of his hometown) if his life depended on it but yet Democratic Senators actually went so far as to shut down the Senate for a night to go to a showing of his latest mockumentary. And he was made an honored guest at the Democratic National Convention to boot.
Or try reading sites like the Daily Kos, which is so filled with extremist views that it would be nice to think of them as not part of the new mainstream Left, but as several prominant elected Democrats have posted there it's hard to just write them off.
Now the right has some more visable extremists too, like Ann Coulter for example, who although I may agree with from time to time, has no ability to control the rhetoric she spews. But even there, if you look around, you'll find as many right-wing sites making fun of her as supporting her, a rarity on the left these days, The Daily Howler being one of the few left leaning exceptions I can think of.
Many of the moderates are too afraid to stand up because under todays radical left "The enemy of my enemy..." philosophy, as long as you are all agreed that Bush is evil, no matter what your reasoning, you will be accepted, but if you dare stray from the party line, you then become a pariah and as likely to be attacked as anyone from the right, and sometimes even more so because now you are seen as a traitor.
I'd would just like to point out that despite the often unchallenged theory that Hitler is a good example of a far right viewpoint, in fact he was a socialist (although not a perfect socialist I admit) who just had a very strict definition of who he believed should be part of his society (and even there he shares many of the same opinions as Karl Marx and his fellow Communists). He gained power primarily through his appeal to the lower and middle classes. So while he may have held some far right viewpoints, he also held many far left ones.
Bic I would argue that the radical right in the states has done the same thing as the left. This is definitely going to get worse before it gets better. I'm just glad I don't live there.
My point is that although there are examples of people on the radical right, they don't get the same respect and attention from their ideological peers as those on the radical left do. They are as likely to be ridiculed by other right wingers as they are to be praised (see Pat Robertson for example).
The real problem is that in their desperation to regain some semblance of power, the elected Democrats are starting to play to these radicals more and more (See Charlie Rangel, Ted Kennedy, etc..) and once the political leaders stop playing by the rules of civility then things really start getting dragged down into the mud.
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