I have been listening to the chatter over juan williams getting fired from npr for admitting that he felt apprehensive when boarding a plane with muslim people.
Coming from a point of view that is right of center, I'm not surprised that he was fired. He gave fox news too much face time for the powers that be at npr to be comfortable with him.
The funny thing about all of this is that the folks over there that gave him the boot are guilty of the same thing that most of the more enlightened of our society that lean to the left are guilty of... They do exactly what it is that they bark about right wing nuts doing, but then deny it.
I've listened to talk radio for years, watched fox news for about the same amount of time... I've read democratic underground, huffington post, newsmax, etc etc and an amazing thing has taken place... I haven't been brainwashed yet.
What I have noticed is that most people on the right are willing to listen to what others have to say while our brethren on the left don't give a shit about an opposing view point. They hear the name of a person, group, or network and begin the usual diatribe of bullshit without simply lending an ear to the actual words that are spoken.
In all matters of opinion, common sense is usually the first victim. Take the tea party for example. The message is pretty simple, less government intrusion, less money taken from us by government and more freedom from government. Yet they are attacked almost hourly on websites and twenty four cable news as being xenophobic, racist, homophobic, illiterate people. When the truth of the matter is exactly the opposite. It's easy to watch a television program that depicts these people as such and believe it. If you were to subscribe to the talking head and blogosphere point of view of "tea baggers" you would think the entire group consisted of sarah palin, christine o'donnell, joe miller, and rand paul.
I've spoken with tea baggers, worked with tea baggers, been to political meetings with tea baggers... but wait!
I've also spent time around the enlightened ones on the left....
Democratic meetings, green party meetings, socialist party meetings.... Down through the years I've spent time with them all. I can say with absolute certainty that people that lean to the right hold far less vitriol than those that lean to the left. Besides, the parties of the right leaning people are far better....
I've said this before, reality versus popular opinion is never what people think... Skewing someones vision is easy business, give me a production company and budget similar to what michael moore spent on his last film and I could turn out a hit piece that would have you afraid to set foot in amish country, a nasty place full of serial killers, pedophiles, and cannibalism...
I went to a dinner with tea party members and all they discussed was political theory and proposed policies, while a similar dinner with democrats was nothing but a bitch fest about rush limbaugh and sean hannity...
I live in georgia, just south of atlanta.. This is hick central right? Home of abortion provider killing, knuckle dragging, racist, sister fucking, inbred mouth breathers right? You want to know something strange? I have not yet once heard race brought into any discussion about president obama.. not once... Policies about taxes, imports/exports, jobs, etc yes.. but not one mention of race.. strange that...
I'm not concerned with party affiliation or labels at all. I do however listen to what people say, and then I look at what these same people have done. Would I vote for christine o'donnell? Hell no... Why? because she's a fucking idiot. Sarah palin for president? You have got to be kidding....
But the thing about it is this... I'm not afraid of these people either. What jon stewart or bill maher says about them doesn't matter to me. When a discussion ensues about any of these people and the first thing that happens is an insult you know its going to be useless... a complete waste of time...
I recently enhanced my parlor game.... I have always enjoyed being in a group of people that are rabidly to the left and are depicting the right wing as nazis and destroyers of the earth, then introducing policy discussions to the conversation. It never fails.. if you talk policy without mentioning party or politicians names.. they always agree with what you say. Always. The new twist is to then discuss policies that the candidates they actually back endorse.... They actually get mad about it, aggressively so. "You believe what?"
The eye opener comes when people drop the hate, drop the junior high attitude, drop the fad and fashion and get serious. When people have an actual discussion about what the real time outcome would be if a president were to drop favored nation status in trade, charge fair taxes on imports, replace the internal revenue service with the fair tax, make all elected officials adhere to a restriction of two terms in office, get rid of most of the federal government's spending on everything except military (which could be cut in half), you would find an actual civil discourse taking place...
It's far too easy to toss up pictures of tea baggers in ridiculous poses and title them with drivel about witch hunts or nazis.... It's easy to call people hypocrites when they talk endlessly about family values while nailing their illegal housekeeper who gets drugs for them. It's much more difficult to come out of the closet of the twelve year old mindset who is looking for nothing more than ratings and validation and discover what people are really like. Spend time with people that you know you disagree with politically. You will find that corporate media has brainwashed most of us to keep us confused, because we all agree on more than you would believe.
Trigger issues are easy to toss out there, things that are comprised solely of opinion. Abortion, gay marriage, religious theology... You will never change my opinions... just as I will never change yours. Enlightenment begins when we all realize this and discover that its ok to spend time with people that think differently than you do.
The noise of the global media is loud, violent, turbulent, and frightening, but just under its surface is common sense. Common sense is calm and smooth. When you move away from people who live with a personal agenda (which is always about them getting money, attention, and laid) and get serious about changing the landscape of politics in this country you will discover as I have... It's a sad state of affairs when we all agree on things that actually effect us, yet want to kill each other.
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