We are doomed to being a country bitterly and evenly divided

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

on a one way path to third worldism because of some members of the media. I have Imus on in the background this morning and so far I have heard Hillary Clinton referred to as being "left of Satan" by guest Jay Severn(?)(Previously I have heard her referred to a "a tuna-licking t!@T" by Bernard McGuirk.) Imus said the only person more "evil" than Hillary is Al Gore! All this , after just having KERRY on as a guest! I know that the first response to this post is - "Stop listening! Turn it off!" and I understand that. But there are people who will hear this drivel and internalize it. Imus may think he's being amusing,funny and sardonic, but he is doing much to make permanent the schisms that already exist and to poison an upcoming election where the candidates have not been even been chosen yet. The same thing with Hannity and Limbaugh and the other right-wing talk show hosts.

The genius of someone like Jon Stewart is that he lampoons the ACTIONS of the people he is skewering. Or he shows clips of them DOING something. This is why so many turn to him as almost an alternate news source. You also know that anyone of any party can be subject to his treatment.

I dislike George Bush and Dick Cheney almost to the point of swooning when I think of them, but it is because of their ACTIONS. I dislike the Republican Party because of their ACTIONS. I don't think of all of them as inherently "evil". Some of them may well be, as "through their acts you shall know them", but I will focus on the ACTS.

And this is why I will lose. While I try to focus on reasoned discourse in a civilized fashion - my debate opponent is unplugging my mike and beating me unconscious with a giant wooden stick labeled "Values" .

[bluethruandthru]

1. Through their stupidity you shall know them!

A business associate and I recently attempted to have a political discussion. He didn't know until that day that I was a liberal. He started off calling liberals names..then proceeded to foam at the mouth and call Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton the most vile names I've ever heard! I stopped him calmly and said "Wait...let's discuss issues...not call names". That pretty much stopped him. He had nothing substantive to say.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. That is exactly what I am talking about!

He was "trained", probably through radio exposure, to villify even though he is incapable of discussing issues. How do we win against that?

[bluethruandthru]

3. Patience...

Pretty soon even the most idiotic repugs feel stupid when you hold their feet to the fire and force them to discuss issues. I actually got this guy to admit that gay marriage would have no effect on him whatsoever.
He was trying to say that the "definition of marriage should be when you put two beings...of any kind..into a room together and one of them comes out pregnant...they should be allowed to marry"!!!
I'm not kidding! (sounds like r.w. talk radio crap)
When I asked him why it mattered to him...he admitted that it really didn't. I considered that a victory!

[Ufomammut]

4. Establishment power is inherently right wing

And its vitrolic propaganda is psychologically "projective;" for many non-critically thinking people, those devoid of conscience and compassion, such propaganda resonates strongly with free floating anxieties and hostilities in the culture.

It offers uninformed, disenfranchised people an easy target - a "projection" - for their hatred, for their sense of a lack of fulfillment, for their sense that the "enemy" (dissidents, anti-war activists, anyone who doesn't believe the state propaganda, etc) somehow either is, or wishes to, circumvent a "reality" of "business as usual" in which their false happy consciousness, and brute, superficial, anti-intellectual ethic goes unchallanged. That's how the sickness of power operates.

This is the underlying message which resonates so successfully in the "anti-war = unpatriotic" rhetoric; it's very powerful because the entire system here is crafted to promote by the numbers existence, even if the framework will encompass various "fringe" types and ideas. ...er, at least, for now.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Wow! nt.

[tlsmith1963]

6. Even Though I Fight With Conservatives...

...I don't enjoy it. I wish we could get along. I don't have a problem with someone having a different political view than mine. But the horrible insults & lies have to stop. I can't tolerate that kind of behavior. If they decide to act like adults instead of angry, bitter children, we can live in peace. But if you're someone like Ann Coulter who wants judges to be poisoned, leading to people like Ginsburg & O'Connor receiving death-threats, I'm sorry. That is crossing the line with me.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. It crosses the line with me too

But, it doesn't cross the line with the FCC or the American public I guess. Somehow, we have crossed a great divide in taste and common sense and just general humanity.

[DFW]

8. The sad thing is,

This whole culture of spouting hate as the answer to everything they can't
rationally argue against is becoming institutionalized. Lunatic fringe
characters like O'Reilly, Limbaugh and the like, have huge followings in
America, and mostly of angry, lazy people who find it easier to let these
thugs of the airwaves do their thinking for them than to actually formulate
thoughts of their own.

I spend a lot of time in Germany, where calling someone a Nazi these days
is a grave insult, persuable by law, even, and guys like O'Reilly remind me
of nothing so much as Göbbels speeches from the 1930s and 1940s. It's scary
that the Germans learned from what we taught them, and we have then forgotten
the very lessons that we taught others.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi DFW!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: