Sunday, October 19, 2008
How amusing
PS - and this.
9 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sun Oct 19, 03:23:00 PM:
I have wondered at the same question. I suspect it is related to the seemingly increasing homogeneity of political opinion on campuses, in the media, in the arts, in Hollywood, and so forth. Yes, all these areas were always a bit more lefty than the mainstream, but once upon a time there was a pretty significant proportion of Republicans in all these institutions. Can anybody imagine Dwight Eisenhower becoming president of Columbia University today? David Petraeus would be more than qualified, but even the thought is laughable. You see the point.
Anyway, I think that at some point in the last 25 years or so we reached a tipping point. Conservatives fell so deeply into the minority in these institutions that the conflict-avoiders among them simply disguise or at least avoid discussing their political beliefs. That allows the majority to be contemptuous of conservatives, because they think that everybody around them thinks the same way. And the more contemptuous the majority is, the more the few conservatives go underground.
There is a regular reader of this blog, a local, who is literally terrified that his/her social circle will learn that he/she is a conservative. Every time he/she sends me an email, he/she reminds me that I must never divulge that he/she reads this blog. Really unbelievable stuff, and wholly consistent with the jocular "warning" that I got in Mike's barbershop yesterday.
By 
, at
Sun Oct 19, 03:58:00 PM:
I may have mentioned this before, but a few years ago I was in a meeting with some other Architects and the campus administration. As the Project Manger ran down the long list of numbers related to construction cost, he used the words "conservative estimate" a few times. One of the campus administrators told us that we would have to find different words to describe our data.
Not all "change" is good.
By , at
Sun Oct 19, 04:03:00 PM:
Question aboutt the story: If this took place before the 2000 election, I did not realize we were "actively bombing Iraq?" I remember that we were keeping the air space free but as for active bombing?
By , at
Sun Oct 19, 04:16:00 PM:
There was active bombing in 1998 ordered by then President Bill Clinton.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Oct 19, 04:37:00 PM:
You seem to be coming to this with the assumption that 'coastal liberals' are special in some way. They aren't. They're the same brand of idiot you can find anywhere else in the world, giggling at their own brand of fart jokes. They've just convinced themselves (and others) that they're different.
Which is why they're insufferable.
By , at
Sun Oct 19, 04:47:00 PM:
"What is it about Republicans that turns coastal liberals into first graders?"
Unthinking reflexive thought destroying hatred of dissenting opinion. Or is that not nuanced enough for you?
By , at
Mon Oct 20, 01:49:00 AM:
Yeah, Dawn, that would be right. However, not all liberals have an unthinking reflexive thought destroying hatred of dissenting opinion. There was an art exhibit in one of our campus buildings by some Mexican artist who painted one canvas that depicted President Bush as Adolph Hitler. One of the campus directors asked me what I thought of the exhibit and I told him that any artist who did not understand the differences between Bush and Hitler had no valuable insight to share with the world. He was obviously shocked by my response, but he thought about what I said, and no objectionable art displays have been posted on the walls since. Logical, thoughtful debate is so much more useful than the petty hatred we see from so many on the left.
By , at
Mon Oct 20, 12:49:00 PM:
Probably a lot of you would consider me one of those "coastal liberal elites". However, I read conservative leaning blogs to get information and a different point of view. Sometimes it is frustrating but more often it is enlightening and helps me challenge my own beliefs and refine/adapt/change my own ideas. I don’t believe that most subjects are black/white with one side right and the other obviously wrong - just because I disagree with someone does not mean that I don’t respect their views. Heck, I could even be wrong in my opinions, fancy that! Frankly I can get just as frustrated reading left leaning blogs when some of the commentators just parrot partisan bile and outrageous lies about Republicans.
Personally, for the post above I think the letter is a different category than the photo and video. A good friend who voted for Bush both times sent the letter to me and another “coastal liberal elite” friend and asked what we thought. Both of us replied that it looked like an ugly hoax and did not match up with anything else we had read from reliable sources other than McCain being somewhat arrogant. This appears to be an essential failing in all presidential candidates (both Democrats and Republicans), probably because no one with any humility could survive a 24hr news cycle with their mental health intact.
The photo and video I would label as humor and leave it to the viewer to decide whether it is successful or not. I remember reading a lot of laughter on republican sites about Gore’s debate sighing and lockbox comments – I laughed too even though I supported him. Can you image what those debates would have looked like in today’s You Tube world? How many of you would not laugh at the photo with McCain but if it was Obama instead would have? Have you never laughed at a stupid photo of a loved one just because you happen to love them?
Politics (and life) can get very ugly and I think it helps to laugh. Politicians are funny – laugh at them before they make you cry. My humor might be “first grader” level - I love the Monty Python dead parrot sketch for instance - but I like to think it is not partisan humor!
By Andrew Hofer, at
Mon Oct 20, 05:56:00 PM:
You have a point, Linda. The context in which it is posted tells you a lot about whether it is just poking fun or whether it is constant personalized attacks.
In this case, the tongue stuff was posted in rapid fire as evidence of how stupid McCain is..
Looking at the other side, I'm no fan of the recent demonizing of Colin Powell.
