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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
He started out as a local bread and butter left of center liberal, and had all the issues ticked. He was a strong supporter of abortion rights, had no problem with being associated with black activism and even nationalism, and was even a very active Palestinian advocate. As he became aware that he might make it to the white house, his vision narrowed in scope, ideology went out the window and he became a politician.
I often wonder what goes on in the minds of people like him. Whether or not the change is mostly for show, the process surely must have changed not only him, but his wife and family and social life. Bill Bradley wrote an excellent account of the change from 'activist representative' to 'politician' when he voluntarily retired from politics in the nineties...
I'm not sure how your letter fits in with your problem with Teh Gay. Oh right, you are just one of those gay bashing, Dog bless the USA people. Right?
You really nailed it for me regarding the influence of the entertainment media and the distinctions on fault (blame).
It comes down to who and what people view as scary based on their life experiences and cultural education. Bill Cosby’s TV show was extremely influential in making blacks less scary because it destroyed the stereotypes for thinking people with at least partially open minds. Ellen Degeneres and numerous dramas and reality shows have revealed the obvious- LGBT people are like anyone else, except in who they want to have as a loving, live-in partner.
Violence has been made to seem unreal and unscary through all medium in different ways for millenniums. Religions to separate themselves from others have used shame and denigration or worse. Unfortunately, there have been far too few cultures like Native Americans who taught the concept of walking in others’ shoes.
The perception on fault has to do with defining individual responsibility. If the culture teaches that people are viewed as either good or bad and that mistakes are bad, then people are unwilling to accept their part in the problem or conflict. Thus if you are not part of the problem you will not want to be part of the solution for the larger community outside of yours. You will find something or someone, or some group to blame.
It is this kind of thinking and a capitalistic view of life that only begets winners and losers that created our economic crisis. A lot more communication and successful brainstorming for effective solutions for the individual and community would happen if people just adopted the concept expressed by Rabbi Herschfield that you don’t have to be wrong for me to be right and if the problem solving group's goal was to find a win-win outcome.
Human rights violations and unnecessary wars will continue to happen until almost everyone in the world lives a life free of constant struggle and people see the success of the community as important as the success of the individual. That’s provided the community is defined as everyone on earth.
I was reading an article about Hillary Clinton becoming SecState and the article said that if she assumes that position, she will likely bring along her own group of advisors....which includes our old buddy Michael O'Hanlon.
Comment?
link at sig
I'm assuming that since you never attempted to address the way the Bush Administration has been treating journalists, and instead chose to write an utterly vacuous USA! USA! chant, is your way of saying you can't handle the notion being discussed here. That is your weakness, nobody else's.
Mr. Greenwald, the notion that the persecution of journalists in the US (which at its most severe means forcing them to drink coffee from a diner rather than Starbucks) is comparable to persecution in Zimbabwe, etc., is not only ridiculous, it is offensive and, ultimately, a threat to Democracy.
We imprisoned a journalist for no other reason but we didn't like what he was reporting, we held him for 6 years in Gitmo and tortured him, while occasionally bombing the media outlet he sometimes represents. But since you can't handle this fact, you instead need to believe we deprived him of his lattes. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, to those who occupy reality, it's hard not to see the direct comparison between the case of Sami Al-Haj and the cases in Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Cuba. To try and erase this comparison by using an entirely separate set of facts (just replace "torture" with "no lattes") isn't going to convince anyone who is sane.
Why is it that liberals, who love nuanced John Kerrys and despise simplistic Sarah Palins, absolutely fail to take a nuanced approach when comparing the evil of the US government to the evil in other nations?
So...what is that nuanced approach that compels us to imprison and torture journalists because they're saying things in the media that we don't like? I'm all ears.
Finally, one of the most mystifying -- and creepiest -- things is how so many alleged adults, when they talk about politics, now talk about how badly they want "to be kept safe." It always sounds to me like a five-year-old who wakes up with a bad nightmare and crawls into their parents' bed and pleads: "Please keep my safe."
This is a dissertation in the making. It's peculiar, it's creepy and it's mystifying why people think this way. As PDA said a few nights ago, (paraphrasing), "By Zeus' beard! Who told you you'd ever be safe in this world?!"
Jim White said:
This passage raises some very interesting questions. Given the parallels in the warnings from PBS and CNN, it appears that somehow, these producers are basically censoring the news. On what authority are they doing this? Is corporate management of both organizations requiring it, or is the government forcing these organizations to censor?
I really think it's important to continue exposing the seedy underbelly of how news and information is "presented" to the masses. It will never rise to the national consciousness if we don't expose it, repeat it, and spread it like wildfire throughout the alternative media so that it is forced to gain traction. Unfortunately, it did not work with the Military Analyst Propaganda story, but perhaps that is because it involved virtually the entirely of the MSM. This story is more confined, and would make for an interesting and darkly revealing investigation.
Thanks again for all that you do, Glenn. If I can somehow serve as a research aid for you with things of this nature, please use and abuse me. heh
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
