Letters to the Editor
DCLaw1
Published Letters: 933 Editor's Choice: 2
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Paul --
[Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Interesting stuff. More and more, especially with the resurgent research being conducted in this field, I am coming to regard authoritarianism as a distinctly pathological, almost innate quality.
Even just arguing with today's "conservatives," or reading/hearing their thoughts, I am struck by how intensely not only our views differ, but even how different is their structural, cognitive way of arriving at those thoughts.
Then, with a regularity as frustrating as it is predictable, the argument (if there is an interaction) quite simply hits a brick wall. I reach a point where I cannot get the authoritarian (for lack of a better word) even to accept a very basic premise, or to stop misdirecting my points to some sort of mantra or nonsequetur. We would then go 'round and 'round, again and again, with absolutely no resolution. This always seemed to happen, incidentally, just as I was starting to "corner" them logically or expose the contradictions in their argument.
I don't know, it's very strange. There's seriously something in the way some people are wired, or brought up, or something. It's fascinating, and more than a little creepy.
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re: usmlrf, my final thoughts
[Read the article: Charles Krauthammer takes rank hypocrisy to new lows]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I must confess to being inadequately versed in blog lingo -- even after all this time -- to completely understand the term "concern troll," and thought that it could include not just opponents posing as concerned allies and sowing doubt, but also genuinely concerned allies who have been convinced in some degree of the truth of a destructive meme such as "liberals aren't interested in understanding anything, they just hate anything Bush, Republican, etc."
At first I wasn't sure, usmlrf, whether you were the intentionally deceptive kind, or the other kind, though the effect can often be the same -- I think I expressed that in my first post. Now, I'm willing to accept that you are genuine, but from the start what I did not appreciate was the condescending tone you took. Perhaps you weren't aware of how you came off, but it did sound like you were scolding everyone here for not viewing Krauthammer as objectively or analytically as you, for just piling onto to the big-bad neoconservative with mindless zeal. If that's not the way you intended your comments, so be it, I can accept that.
I definitely appreciate anyone's coming to the discussion with novel or intelligently contrary ideas. I'm certainly all about challenging assumptions, if done logically and fairly. I would never seek to shut down debate with anyone that is reasonably and intelligently trying to make a point or establish better understanding. Also, by no means am I some kind of Unclaimed Territory "Old Guard," or even a very frequent poster, for that matter. I often don't have the occasion to comment here for days or weeks at a time. If my responses in any way made you, usmlrf, feel like you were being chased out by some Glenn-approved guard dog, I did not intend that.
Just please keep in mind that, lacking the benefit of hearing your voice, your choice of words when making an initial comment to one of these threads can very much determine how people perceive you. That's all from me, no hard feelings, I hope.
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Re: Update II
[Read the article: Right-wing blogs discover massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah yes, and remember Mr. Bolton is the same guy who said on the Daily Show some weeks ago that the President has an obligation only to "the people that voted for him."
Bolton is no dummy. And he's never been a small fish. These people are, quite literally, deluded by their pseudo-philosophies.
I say "pseudo-philosophies" because the more intelligent members of their movement often invoke a legitimate political concept in defense of their beliefs (in the above case, the political election of the president, who determines executive policy), yet always manage to bastardize that concept beyond recognition, into an inevitable strain of Machiavellianism.
And so, the American subspecies of authoritarian takes the rudimentary (and legitimate) principles of national defense, Chief Executive, political determination of policy, exigency, and self-preservation to distorted extremes. This allows them to assuage their consciences by reminding themselves, from time to time, that their concepts take distant root in otherwise valid concepts.
They cite beef and pork in defense of bologna, content to be full of exactly that.
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"mocking the celebrities they invited and spent all night eagerly fondling"
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You wear your sardonic sense of humor well, Glenn.
Our government and media emulate high-school much more than vice-versa.
The less-attractive student government kids surrounding themselves with the jocks and Barbies that they then stab in the back the moment they leave the room.
The petty fixation on cosmetic, trivial non-events. The never-ending gossip and desperate need to be at the center of the rumor mill. The placing of personal integrity and virtue far below the gnawing hunger to feel accepted by the kewl kids.
If anything, "reporting" the John Edwards hair "story" is a pretty tremendous act of projection on the part of these people.
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Re: Update
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I first saw Colbert's performance last year, I couldn't believe my eyes/ears. It was easily the most amazing, true, and exquisitely brutal thing I'd witnessed in a long, long time.
A modern-day Mark Twain. Just giving it straight to people raw and without a shred of equivocation or fear.
As some said at the time, the room's awkward silence was abundant evidence of the magnanimous success of his performance.
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nabalzfjiefijl;s
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Being a vacuous airhead doesn't necessarily preclude one from being a cunning sleazeball who exploits our insane torte system to his advantage via blackmail and extortion. It falls far short of the intellect and character we expect from our Commander in Chief.
Comedy gold!
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Frontline
[Read the article: David Halberstam on today's American press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fight back by watching and supporting real news organizations like PBS. Tonight at 9pm there's a Frontline about the Administration's war against global warming science.
Wednesday at 9pm is Bill Moyers' documentary about the media's total abdication of integrity in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The current, sorry state of reporting throws such superb shows into stark relief. PBS is like our Radio Free America in times of journalistic darkness.