Letters to the Editor
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It's happening all over, even at work.
In the past year we have carefully identified each other: co-workers who do not eagerly absorb the noise machine's Bush Uber Alles message.
We have also noticed a couple co-workers who can be instigated into spouting Faux News' talking points as though someone threw a switch somewhere.
Wil Wheaton's article was a sad pleasure to read; I’m looking for more!
Earlier in this letters section, a reader calling himself "Fed Up" suggested, "Why don't you do a story about the UCLA 'Study' about left-leaning media bias?" Luckily, we don't have to.
On Wed, Dec 21, 2005, Media Matters did a fine job of exposing the authors as Right-wing think-tankers who cite Right-wing sources to support their misleading theory. It's easily found on Media Matters' site.
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deep long term implications
The really sad thing to me is that our nation is becomming more polarized and I fear it will only hurt us all.
I think conservatives think they can tear liberals down, and they probably can since they're more willing to play dirty, but they fail to realize they're tearing down our entire red and blue nation while they do it. We are becoming more divided with less sense of a unifying "thing" that makes us Americans, together, despite different views. That sense of the overriding power of a unified America is what has carried us through many crises and as we lose it, we're becoming more and more at risk. The tearing down of liberals, freedom of thought, is tearing down America as a whole.
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Talk About A Nerve...
That really hit home for me, Wil; and thank you. I, too, was raised to think for myself only to find that my parents have joined the talk-show believers. We've had more than one family event ruined -- at least for me! -- by just the thing you described: the accusatory freak-out where my mother points how the world is going to hell because of "you bleeding heart liberals". She has even used the word "femi-nazi". Until we agreed to not speak about politics, we were close to not speaking at all. She doesn't know that her brothers and sisters speak of her gullibility when she's not around or that one of her brothers-in-law refers to her as "Rush". The worst thing is that she is no longer open-minded. There can be no discussion -- she's heard all about it, of course, and has no opinion outside of the talking points provided by the radio.
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Hate is seductive
Media blowhards like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, the loathsome Michael Savage, et al, appeal to peoples' basest instincts. They use hate and fear to manipulate their listeners' emotions. It is the lowest form of communication. It is also extremely effective: witness Mr. Wheaton's educated, professional parents' transformation from rational beings into hatemongers.
Regarding Nazi Germany, one of the big questions was how a country so steeped in education and the arts, so utterly civilized, could descend into such madness. The answer is the power of hate, and the willingness of powerful people to wield it as a weapon and tool. It happened there, and have no doubt, it can happen here, too.
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we are head towards a dark place
>>>Regarding Nazi Germany, one of the big questions was how a country so steeped in education and the arts, so utterly civilized, could descend into such madness. The answer is the power of hate, and the willingness of powerful people to wield it as a weapon and tool. It happened there, and have no doubt, it can happen here, too.>>>
-- Suess
Yes, this is my fear.
This growing polarity and hate is only going to take the entire country to a dark dark place.
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A desperate last stand
The Christmas season has always been a time for otherwise closet bigots to show their true nature. In the past it has centered on having nativity displays on public property.
This year the stakes are higher. The shills of the conservative wing of the Republican party have become thoroughly discredited by Iraq, torture chambers Katrina,and Terrie Schizo. They must appeal to the lowest natures of their political base who accept the belief that a war on Christianity exists.
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Ahem.
Yesterday I received a birth announcement from a Republican friend. We usually get along by just not talking about politics. (I live in a red state and am the only liberal friend several of my friends have.)
However, at the bottom left corner of the birth announcement was the NRA Seal and the words "Newest member of the Republican party."
On a birth announcement! Since when do GUNS belong on a birth announcement? And am I supposed to hang this on my refridgerator next to the rest of my friends' babies' birth announcements?
Why do these right-wingers have to bring politics into everything?
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What a long strange trip it has been.
I too was raised by 2 dyed in the wool liberals. My first political activism: McGovern's presidential campaign (I was 7.) I have an uncle still in Canada from fleeing the Vietnam draft. Before my dad died this summer, I was actually at the table to hear him spout some of the most racists, sexists, anti-semitic(with my Jewish financee
AT the table) I have EVER heard. The confusion comes from being taught, by they same man, the values of compassion and tolerance. It is stunning. And sad. Beleive me, I know people change, but the shock is the stunning, sudden, turn around. This is the reason we reach for reasons, like talk radio. Luckily, my dad never became an RNC talking point (but then again, my family has a vague relation to Andy Card, so there was always someone else my dad could upset by objecting to the Rebublicans.)
The real point that Wil is trying to make, I think, is that political disagreements have always been part and parcle of family life (let's face it, as young adults many of us took the OPPOSITE postion from our parents to rebel.) The problem has is the way the discussions have become screaming matches.
I have VERY strong beliefs (pro-choice, pro-gay marriage rights,etc) and have no problem standing up for my beliefs, but when you are shouted down by the closed minded, you give up. These are your family memebers, after all. And as Wil said, when the people you love shout you down, it hurts on a personal level. When a loved one calls you a "femi-nazi", it hurts. I remember a time in this country when there could be serious politcal discussiosns (my grandparents were in favor of the Vietnam war, and they had a draft dodge in their midst) did not devolved to "you are ruining this country just by the way you think." Having a drink with a Republican friend was a regular occurance in the 80's, but we haven't spoken for years about politics, since she became a rabid RNC talker.
So much for all that "uniter, not divider" BS from Bush's campaign.