The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: DixieBelle on March 29, 2008, 03:38:24 PM
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Liberal arrogance alert: In promoting his new book (and Brent Bozell's attack on it, too), leftist Eric Alterman asks his fans at the Altercation blog to travel over to Daily Kos: "If Brent is not your cup of ideological tea, I came across this smart commentary on Daily Kos, which illustrates at least one of the reasons I wanted to write the book in the first place, and so I'm pleased to see it."
In it, the Daily Kos diarist "Killer of Sacred Cows" theorizes on the differences between liberals and conservatives in a post titled Liberalism: Reclaiming the Right to Think. First and foremost, conservatives are rigid and inflexible in their ideological rules, while liberals are more fluid in their means to achieve liberal ends. Why? Because liberals are the deep thinkers, while conservatives are naive, afraid, and allergic to thinking deeply. The Kosmonaut advises: Introduce some complexity to their mental diet, because their brains are starving:
Many progressives and liberals have real trouble understanding why the Republican base continues to support the Republican elite. One of the answers may be that they've been so trained into the simple, one-step thinking that they are having trouble figuring out why Mark Foley's and Larry Craig's homosexuality was tolerated by a group that claims to be against all gays. The answer is that of course they're shocked by the revelation that Foley was pursuing sixteen-year-old male pages, but they revert to the easy answer. They know that the party still stands against any rights for gays - after all, they're saying it all the time, from right-wing radio to national television - so the party must still be right, and Foley and Craig (and many others) get dismissed as aberrations, just blips on the conservative radar that will be quickly forgotten because thinking about them causes such cognitive dissonance and distress.
Am I saying that the base is stupid? No. But I am saying that they're naive, and afraid, and trained to think not simply, but easily. They're not looking for the simple answer, because that answer might still have several steps. They're looking for the easy answer, the one with no complications or annoying anomalies or dissonances. And conservative rhetoric happily provides it for them. Gays are bad. Immigrants are bad. Black people are bad. Women are bad, especially if they have an abortion or love another woman. And so on. That's one-step thinking, that's comfortable, that's easy, and that's safe.
Education is key to breaking out of this cycle. It's no accident that the rise of fundamentalism has come in tandem with the decline in educational standards, the disappearance of the civics and ethics classes that were commonplace in the 1950s, the dumbing-down of American politics, media, and news. Without the ability to think through a logical chain of thought, and without being continually challenged to use that ability, people have become inured to the tripe that Fox News spouts every time they turn on the tube. Resistance, for these folks, may indeed be futile... or impossible.
The answer? Simple, but not easy.
Talk to your Republican neighbors, family, and friends. Ease them into a simple, but not easy, discussion of the issues. Help them get comfortable with complex answers rather than easy ones. See if you can find some common ground. Barack's call for common ground isn't just for common ground among liberals and progressives, although that's certainly part of it. We also need to find common ground with the people who have never understood how to deal with complexity and make it familiar.
Add some complexity to your conversations. See where it leads. That may be our real saving grace as liberals and progressives: reclaiming the right of all persons to think.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/03/29/daily-kos-conservatives-are-naive-afraid-allergic-deep-thinking
:rotf: :whatever: I wonder if this has landed on Skin's Island yet?
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One thing the demented left is good at is summing up all their own prejudices and hates and then attempting to cast the guilt off their hearts by accusing everyone around them of the same.
It alleviates their conscience and at the same time rationalizes their shortcomings.
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My favorite pet peeve -- repeating the term "critical thinking" as code for "choose MY hive."
Self-important assholes.
"Ease them into simple discussions of the issues" my ass. If anyone has a clear view of "the issues" they know that socialism doesn't fix them and that neither of the 2 socilaist candidates has any experience at anything and thus can't address any issues.
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First and foremost, conservatives are rigid and inflexible in their ideological rules,
*ahem*
(http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_1_22_2004_15_50_38/projector_3ds_01.jpg467d760d-7aa6-4aee-8079-c36f0964f10eLarge.jpg)
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::) Gosh, I've never had to deal with the "Conservatives are doody-heads" argument before. You'd think a guy who specializes in 5th grade tactics would have hear the expression "sticks and stones..."
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I'm betting those retards over at the DK used to get their lunch money taken from them in grade school and all through out their miserable lives afterward
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::) Gosh, I've never had to deal with the "Conservatives are doody-heads" argument before. You'd think a guy who specializes in 5th grade tactics would have hear the expression "sticks and stones..."
The Head Kos posted a blog about the American contractors who were murdered and had their bodies burned and hung from bridges.
"Screw Them" (http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004904)
That sure sounds like some deep thinking to me. :bird:
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Ive had to read the Daily Kossack regularly for some time. Their hate and intolerance is absolutely astonishing. That they project so much on conservatives and dont even see that is baffling. Well, it would be if they were actually as intelligent as they claimed. The arrogance would be laughable if they werent so close to actually controlling our government.
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Ive had to read the Daily Kossack regularly for some time. Their hate and intolerance is absolutely astonishing. That they project so much on conservatives and dont even see that is baffling. Well, it would be if they were actually as intelligent as they claimed. The arrogance would be laughable if they werent so close to actually controlling our government.
how is your blog doing? I haven't been over to read your stuff in a while.
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One thing the demented left is good at is summing up all their own prejudices and hates and then attempting to cast the guilt off their hearts by accusing everyone around them of the same.
It alleviates their conscience and at the same time rationalizes their shortcomings.
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
You've got it right on the money, Sir :bow:
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My favorite pet peeve -- repeating the term "critical thinking" as code for "choose MY hive."
Self-important assholes.
"Ease them into simple discussions of the issues" my ass. If anyone has a clear view of "the issues" they know that socialism doesn't fix them and that neither of the 2 socilaist candidates has any experience at anything and thus can't address any issues.
You too are right on.
I know of one elitist, self-righteous, narcissistic, arrogant, hate-filled, projection master MOONBAT that runs around the internets that "works" for the Kos...this one goes around non-political message boards, making sure to pollute them with her garbage...and if you don't lap up what she puts out, she is the most condescending piece of work you've ever come across.
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Hmmmm...let's look at some of the academic credentials of the punditry of the right versus left, shall we?
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Why is a complex solution better than a simple one?
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Why is a complex solution better than a simple one?
Because it takes many thousands of "enlightened" liberals to mull it over. Have a simple solution and we don't need government to administer it!
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Ive had to read the Daily Kossack regularly for some time. Their hate and intolerance is absolutely astonishing. That they project so much on conservatives and dont even see that is baffling. Well, it would be if they were actually as intelligent as they claimed. The arrogance would be laughable if they werent so close to actually controlling our government.
how is your blog doing? I haven't been over to read your stuff in a while.
I shut it down a couple of weeks ago. It has served its purpose and it was time to move on. I was getting 600+ readers a day there at the end. Not too shabby. :cheersmate:
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Liberal arrogance alert: In promoting his new book (and Brent Bozell's attack on it, too), leftist Eric Alterman asks his fans at the Altercation blog to travel over to Daily Kos: "If Brent is not your cup of ideological tea, I came across this smart commentary on Daily Kos, which illustrates at least one of the reasons I wanted to write the book in the first place, and so I'm pleased to see it."
In it, the Daily Kos diarist "Killer of Sacred Cows" theorizes on the differences between liberals and conservatives in a post titled Liberalism: Reclaiming the Right to Think. First and foremost, conservatives are rigid and inflexible in their ideological rules, while liberals are more fluid in their means to achieve liberal ends. Why? Because liberals are the deep thinkers, while conservatives are naive, afraid, and allergic to thinking deeply. The Kosmonaut advises: Introduce some complexity to their mental diet, because their brains are starving:
Many progressives and liberals have real trouble understanding why the Republican base continues to support the Republican elite. One of the answers may be that they've been so trained into the simple, one-step thinking that they are having trouble figuring out why Mark Foley's and Larry Craig's homosexuality was tolerated by a group that claims to be against all gays. The answer is that of course they're shocked by the revelation that Foley was pursuing sixteen-year-old male pages, but they revert to the easy answer. They know that the party still stands against any rights for gays - after all, they're saying it all the time, from right-wing radio to national television - so the party must still be right, and Foley and Craig (and many others) get dismissed as aberrations, just blips on the conservative radar that will be quickly forgotten because thinking about them causes such cognitive dissonance and distress.
Am I saying that the base is stupid? No. But I am saying that they're naive, and afraid, and trained to think not simply, but easily. They're not looking for the simple answer, because that answer might still have several steps. They're looking for the easy answer, the one with no complications or annoying anomalies or dissonances. And conservative rhetoric happily provides it for them. Gays are bad. Immigrants are bad. Black people are bad. Women are bad, especially if they have an abortion or love another woman. And so on. That's one-step thinking, that's comfortable, that's easy, and that's safe.
Education is key to breaking out of this cycle. It's no accident that the rise of fundamentalism has come in tandem with the decline in educational standards, the disappearance of the civics and ethics classes that were commonplace in the 1950s, the dumbing-down of American politics, media, and news. Without the ability to think through a logical chain of thought, and without being continually challenged to use that ability, people have become inured to the tripe that Fox News spouts every time they turn on the tube. Resistance, for these folks, may indeed be futile... or impossible.
The answer? Simple, but not easy.
Talk to your Republican neighbors, family, and friends. Ease them into a simple, but not easy, discussion of the issues. Help them get comfortable with complex answers rather than easy ones. See if you can find some common ground. Barack's call for common ground isn't just for common ground among liberals and progressives, although that's certainly part of it. We also need to find common ground with the people who have never understood how to deal with complexity and make it familiar.
Add some complexity to your conversations. See where it leads. That may be our real saving grace as liberals and progressives: reclaiming the right of all persons to think.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/03/29/daily-kos-conservatives-are-naive-afraid-allergic-deep-thinking
:rotf: :whatever: I wonder if this has landed on Skin's Island yet?
They wouldn't be so irritating if they were ever correct. ::) Aside from having not one single true fact in this little rant, Eric has managed to betray his completely simplistic prejudice against anyone who disagrees with his "complex" thinking. :mental: There is nothing like a liberal elitist who truly, truly believes he's better and smarter than anyone else. :loser:
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I'll bet I'd be really offended if I could understand what they said!
:whatever:
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Liberals are self-engorged, immoral fags.
Nuff said...
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[youtube=425,350]L1_PWIkHn9M[/youtube]
Yeah, we're all closed-minded. Not them, us. :whatever:
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First and foremost, conservatives are rigid and inflexible in their ideological rules, while liberals are more fluid in their means to achieve liberal ends. Why? Because liberals are the deep thinkers, while conservatives are naive, afraid, and allergic to thinking deeply. The Kosmonaut advises: Introduce some complexity to their mental diet, because their brains are starving:
:mental: :mental:
Hmmm, let's see. The "Goracle" is so inflexible in his thinking that he even refuses to acknowledge a possibility that he is wrong about global warming.
Flexible, yeah right.
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First and foremost, conservatives are rigid and inflexible in their ideological rules, while liberals are more fluid in their means to achieve liberal ends. Why? Because liberals are the deep thinkers, while conservatives are naive, afraid, and allergic to thinking deeply. The Kosmonaut advises: Introduce some complexity to their mental diet, because their brains are starving:
:mental: :mental:
Hmmm, let's see. The "Goracle" is so inflexible in his thinking that he even refuses to acknowledge a possibility that he is wrong about global warming.
Flexible, yeah right.
I waiting for him to say that he caused the changes that will cool the earth this coming year.