Here's something from one of my fellow bloggers: http://savingaeneas.blogspot.com/
His "A Brief Look at the Right-Wing Media" post is, well, slightly less than provacative.
So Loyal Achates is a bit more liberal than I am. His qualms with the "right-wing media" are valid. On both sides of the aisle, there are going to be partisan hacks. But does that mean that conservatives are "mentally ill", "crypto-nazis", "whores", etc.?
Such claims are mindless and absurd. It does no good to resort to name-calling. If the right-wingers are as he claims, he shouldn't even dignify them with verbal abuse.
Much like the hand-ringing over Michael Moore by talk radio pundits, the hosts expose their fear of Moore's power by even talking about him. If Moore's rhetoric is made up of lies, than it will be ineffective. Calling Moore fat and stupid is a waste of time and a classless act.
All of this finger-pointing gets in the way of what both sides should want, but secretly don't: an open and free dialogue on the issues. Unfortunatley, most of us would rather cling to our own biases and paint those who diagree as ignorant boobs than explain why they are wrong.
If you diagree with me, you're stupid.
2 comments:
I didn't say that everyone who disagrees with me is stupid. There are plenty of right-wingers who are very intelligent, but somehow they're not the ones appearing on the talk shows and having their books purchased in bulk.
You can take issue with some of the language I used, and that's fine. But trust me, those people I talked about are the worst of the worst. They don't represent conservatives as a whole, thank goodness.
Though I do find it rather galling that a movement which prides itself on clear-thinking, pragmatism, and being realistic would embrace such a sorry cast of characters.
I do happen to agree that those who are the faces of conservatives are not the best to represent my viewpoint. Ann Coulter uses shallow rhetoric and Rush is a partisan hack, for starters.
Each side has people we'd like to abandon. I am actually quite disappointed in my fellow conservatives who, I think, dropped the ball on Iraq and have failed to keep Bush accountable on the budget.
So I guess we agree. It's a nice change I'd say.
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