I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief when I saw this:
It boggles the mind that in 2008 such views still exist. I lived in Ohio for eight years, and I had no idea. Of course, I did live in Cleveland...
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Once again we see de facto representatives of the American people broadcasting (on al Jazeera!) their belief that 'Muslim'= ruinous, scary and white-hatin'. It is sickening and frightening that a fair number of people in middle america actually do seem to believe this. And it's maddening that, in sending their message abroad, their warped perceptions can be construed as a generalized American opinion.
Yeah, the fact that it's on Al Jazeera makes it even worse, because it's perfect anti-American propaganda.
Jim Lippard has another from Johnstown, Pennsylvania:
http://lippard.blogspot.com/2008/10/bigoted-and-ignorant-mccainpalin.ht…
... and a commentor had yet another from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us
Really scary stuff ... if you ever had any hope for a rational world.
A scary look at what Palin calls the "Good America"
You must be kidding. This narrow sample - on Al Jazeera - no more represents America than Rep. John Murtha's comments about his district being racist are accurate. I can "Borat" anyone. And by the way, why would an Obama supporter set up on the route to the Palin rally? Unless he wanted to provike the response.
Sorry, but there is enough hatred and vitriol in the extremes on both sides to fill up any news agencies file clips.
I've lived in Ohio for all of my 22 years, both Toledo and Cleveland areas (Maumee, Wellington, and Medina specifically) and this in no way surprises me.
I guess I've pretty much had my faith in humanity destroyed by living further away from the major cities. Out here it seems stupidity is a virtue.
Citizen Deux, I've heard that argument before, that the left is as bad. I have never heard anyone on the left using racial epithets, questioning patriotism, or inciting such aggressive levels of hatred. The far left may want to take taxes, but the far right want to take people's humanity.
Seriously, this is why I moved to Massachusetts. I got tired of this particular brand of stupid, in every facet of life there: public health, voting, education, economics, right down to how much your car will be vandalized by lunatics if you put a Darwin fish sticker on the bumper. And Sean is right, they do reckon it a virtue to be both stupid and incompetent.
On the plus side, the whole big fish/little pond thing works in the favor of anyone even mildly intelligent, if they don't tar & feather you first.
The folks in that video would fit perfectly, here in East Central Indiana. I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that you can't believe people like this exist, having grown accustomed to public expressions of racism, provincialism, and xenophobia, myself. It's good to know that such thinking does not permeate every part of this country.
Right. If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it must be a racist scumbag.
Of course, by posting a video from al jazeera, you are now a Known Terrorist. See you in Gitmo in a couple of weeks, depending on how the election goes.
Cit Deax: This video is not meant to be a sampling of America, but rather, it is intentionally showing the dark underbelly of our society, and explicitly so.
BTW, I have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks speaking with voters in a traditionally Republican area, and this does not surprise me.
Sounds like a great way to get rid of a beater: put the fish on it, then park it where you can record what happens with a hidden video camera.
Probably more socially beneficial than one that my boys' University has: you can donate the car (for tax write-off) to their counterterrorist training program, and they'll send you the video when it gets blown to iron filings.
Citizen Deux, you think that you can "Borat" anyone? The only reason I can think you might image that is that you think being privately a racist, bigoted, sexist, islamophobic hater is just pretty normal. Just like "everyone" uses the n-word in private, ya know?
-kevin
What these people said is sickening; but to make the claim that the statements of the folk in this video are representative of middle America is pernicious cherry picking at it's worst. When people with asses gather in groups you can be sure there are a percentage of dumb ones, no matter what the town or state. A lack of education and critical thinking skills will result in some amazing political beliefs and sheep like behaviors on either side of the political spectrum. And the statements of the folk in this video are no more idiotic than those made by Pastor what's his name at Obama's old church in Illinois.
'I have never heard anyone on the left using racial epithets, questioning patriotism, or inciting such aggressive levels of hatred.'
You should spend some time at littlegreenfootballs, not reading the posts but following the links.
Are you guys talking about my family again?
:)
A lack of education and critical thinking skills will result in some amazing political beliefs and sheep like behaviors on either side of the political spectrum.
James: You have to consider three things. First, among working and middle class Americans, there is a relationship between liberal vs. conservative viewpoints and education level. So this is not a balanced situation. Second, there are no liberal views that are as dumb-ass as the views you see in this video. Again, it is not a balanced situation. And third, there is a big chunk of the populous that is white, uneducated, racist in this country. If you find this video surprising, then you are lucky to not live in the midsts of this shit. But it is there.
Something like 44 percent of the voting population in this country plan to vote for McCain Palin despite the racist, classiest, anti-everything bullshit they are spouting. So, at the fireman's picnic or the VFW clambake in Ohio or practically anywhere... including rural/suburban Massachusetts .... you will find this attitude. People are not usually as open... this film crew got people talking some how. But this is how the American white undermenchen look, act, sound, and feel.
I beg to differ. Ward Churchill comes to mind.
Then there's PETA and animal rights terrorists, who almost always come from the left end of the political spectrum.
Some of us remember the 60s. (And, yes, that means we weren't there.)
And some of the radical environmental and animal rights advocates ...
Orac: Well, your examples are good ones. I stand corrected. But on balance, how much of the left is this dumb-ass bullshit vs. how much of the right is racism, genderism, and free-market wielding selfishism? This is not a balanced situation.
Sessions: Yes, I was there, saving your future ass from the tyranny of Nixon and the others! We scared them into backing off so you can have your HDTV today. And look at the thanks we get!
There is another thing that must be pointed out lest it be ignored. There is a difference between racism as you see in this clip and "animal rights activism" (broadly defined) in that everyone agrees that there is a part of the "animal rights" trope that is valid, but there is no part of the racism that is.
So we can say: "We need to have certain rules of procedure and conduct when it comes to lab animals" but we do NOT say: A certain amount of racism is valid."
Beyond this, I would venture to guess that a larger percentage of people involved (again, broadly defined) in environmental and animal rights issues are not hateful creeps, though they may be a bit off on the logic of some of what they are dong, and in many cases, following the above, are doing something quite reasonable, while the yahoos shown in the clip posses hate that runs very deep and very broad.
The most extreme animal rights people are probably just barely as bad as the most extreme racists, and as we pull back from the extreme ends, there is a very different pattern of falloff (and fadiness as well, I would imagine).
truly frightening.. have you seen this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPg0VCg4AEQ
Can you find video of any edited interviews of Obama supporters just after a rally? Like to see, for comparison.
Interestingly it's the Democratic party that has a much more sordid history with regard to supporting racism and enacting segregation and Jim Crow laws. Ignorant uneducated racists have a long history of voting Democratic and only recently moved over to the "right" when there was a cynical co-opting and courting of the intolerant and religious by the Republican party in the early 1980's. I suspect that the racist comments in the video are more about ignorance and fear than political ideology. I would also anticipate every older person in the video would be more supportive of Obama's take on Social Security, Medicare, the economy etc... as opposed to McCain's if the candidates name and skin color were separated from the platform.
I'll second the mention of the animal rights nuts. They're the only ones I'm aware of that have fairly recently bombed and burned legitimate science labs and tried to stop research that can help save resources and peoples lives.(And lets not forget freeing oppressed chickens!) So based on the actual and recent violent and criminal actions of those with political motivations and bazaar ideas one really should be much more concerned with crazy liberals. Logic, no??
I saw this video on another site recently. Someone made a comment to the effect: Would these same be so hateful with McCain and his family standing there? Don't forget, the McCains have an adopted daughter.... And surely, the campaign (and McCain) is aware of this behavior and yet they don't try to stop it. Is Brigit McCain special? Because she was *saved,* somehow, by the McCains? I guess my real question is: How can the McCains look their daughter in the eye and seemingly feel no shame?
I want to ask these fine people "If Obama is a terrorist, and we can't catch him here, in our backyard, what in hell makes you think we'll ever capture bin Laden?" And are these fine people aware that some of their speech qualifies as hate speech?
"War on Terror" Indeed.
Uh, Greg? I think you have me confused with my (all grown) children.
All you guys with the idea that liberals are just all around nice and would never do these kind of things suffer from a conveniently selective memory (or attention) to current events bordering on self delusion. Just take this year's Republican National Convention. Liberal protesters there burnt cars, threw bleach on delegates faces and clothes, smashed car windows of people involved with the convention and 800 people were arrested for unlawful conduct. In comparison, the Democratic National Convention had one arrest of a journalist for trespassing, and someone made an anti-abortion sign on a hill. But it's OK to toss mysterious substances in Republican's faces because they're all ignorant rednecks racists who think Obama's a Muslim. I get it.
Although the examples of left-wing extremism are valid, I think the major difference between the two is that right-wing extremists such as the racist/bigoted people in the video are supported by the leadership of the Republican Party. The McCain/Palin campaign are intentionally encouraging these types of viewpoints. While on the otherhand, left-wing extremists like PETA are generally shunned by the Democratic leadership.
Dr. Frankencain seems to be undersiege by his own pitchfork wielding villagers otherwise known as the far right underbelly of the republican party.
As Powell said, the republican right seems to be moving further to the right then they ever have before. Likely out of shear disperation true but still not a pretty picture for individuals that call this conservative.
This is not your fathers Republican party. If you want an objective opinion, I think Colin Powell provided a fairly compelling indorsement. John Dean also writes some compelling perspectives of what the republicans have decended to as well.
This is also why there is a rising tide of people that declare themselves independent voters. As Goldwater said about jerry Falwell; that SOB deserves a good swift kick in the ass, if he wants to be a minister then he should stay out of politics and if he wants to be in politics, he should leave his personal beliefs at church.
Republicans are no more conservative fiscally (by example) then democrates. Note the discretionary spending undertaken in the last 8 years.
Republicans can always claim democrates will raise your taxes for good reason; after 8 years of this administrations spending habits what does the next president have left to do?
ElasticPlanet
You are delusional. This is utter BS. The move-on.org component around here will no doubt agree with you, however.
There is no institutional support by the GOP for racism.
So here's a question: anyone want to take friendly bets on whether the GOP fractures enough to break the two-party lock on American politics or whether we replay the events of a century ago and after some rearrangement still have two major parties?
I'll put 100 quatloos on the latter, but I could be persuaded.
MBA,
You think that Palin saying Obama "pals around with terrorists" and the RNC doing robocalls and email spams saying that he's a Muslim isn't institutional support for racism?
You are the one who's delusional.
No, actually, I don't think you do. If the far left wing of the Democratic party were consistently acting as you describe, and the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates were using choice, incendiary catch-phrases to further foment such actions, your comparison would be fair. This, however, is clearly not the case. The reality-challenged racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, religiously-fueled denizens of the far right, on the other hand, have effectively hijacked the republican party. McCain can't control them. Palin is one of them. No one is saying that there aren't wingnuts on the left, but I see no evidence that anyone to the moderate side of that is condoning such actions, even tacitly.
You obviously don't live in an area that enforces the obscure laws against Driving While Hispanic.
Danio,
Like I said, you don't see it because you choose not to see it. You are guilty of doing the very thing you claim to despise. It is a very convenient, if not very reflective, form of argument.
"No, actually, ...the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates were using choice, incendiary catch-phrases to further foment such actions, your comparison would be fair. This, however, is clearly not the case. "
It's clearly not the case because you're 'decoding' and 'selecting' the catch phrases in each case. I see this very plainly on both sides, each one finding diaboilical messages in the other side, and rejoicing that thay don't behave this way.
I in no way support Palin's politics, but the way that people here (and on scienceblogs in general) interpret her speech in the worst possible way, and Obama's speach in the 'best' possible way convinces me that self serving blindness is all over the political map.
Sorry for being the lone "single bullet theory" supporter in the room.
ElasticPlanet
You don't have your facts straight. McCain is not doing robo-calls saying Obama is a Muslim. He has even corrected people at his conventions who have said this. Obama does have history with Ayers, however. You may not think that is important, but it is nevertheless true. It is unclear how mentioning that is any more incendiary than many other things that are said during an election year. In many respects, McCain is effectively gagged because many of the things he could say would be interpreted as racist by the media, who have already interpreted some very strange things that way.
MBA,
I didn't say McCain was doing robocalls, I said the RNC was. I suggest you actually read what people write and then comment on that.
Obama's "history" with Ayers was deeply investigated during the primaries. He sits on an Education board with him about once a year, along with a few Republicans I might add, and they live somewhat near each other. That's it. If you want to play the guilty by association game, then I suggest you look at McCain's ties to Watergate thief G. Gordon Liddy and Palin's ties to the Alaskan Independence Party and witchdoctors.
Also, you said "It is unclear how mentioned that is any more incendiary than many other things that are said during an election year." Please provide examples of Obama, Biden, or any of the Democratic leadership saying anything remotely like what the Republicans are to back up your strawman argument.
Check out the opinions of these Squirrel-Meat Belt voters:
"I'm sorta scared of the other race, 'cause we have so much conflict...."
"I don't like the WHO-sein thing. I've had enough of WHO-sein."
"I don't feel like puttin' a black man in there...I ain't prejudiced, or nothin'...."
Yeah, dig that tu quoque hole a little deeper, there, sporto...
Ok, I'll admit it when I'm wrong. Turns out McCain really is doing robocalls: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/19/two-gop-senators-denounce_n_13…
I am not aware of nor can I find any evidence of the RNC doing robo calls stating that Obama is a Muslim. If they were, it would be reprehensible, and I doubt they would be that utterly stupid, as I suspect that it would severely backfire on them. Perhaps you have a link?
MBA,
There's a link in the post just above your last one.
Here's another great story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-villa_park_signoct17,0,150…
I grew up a few towns down from Villa Park, and I can't believe this crap.
As you said, these are links that say McCain is using robocalling to tell people of Obama's association with Ayers, which I did not dispute. I have yet to see any link that states that the RNC is robocalling to claim that Obama is a Muslim, as you have stated they are. As for your link, it is perhaps interesting, but I would not, in the neighborhood in which I currently live, risk putting a McCain sign in my yard even if I were apt do ever do such a thing. I would fear a similar response.
'While on the otherhand, left-wing extremists like PETA are generally shunned by the Democratic leadership.'
Left-wing extremists like Bill Ayers, on the other hand, are NOT shunned by the Democratic leadership.
Sheesh.
Look, I detest Obama for what he did to his grandmother and would never vote for a man so indecent. And I detest Palin for being a demented nut who believes actual demons are trying to control her conduct. I dislike McCain for being soft on the Bill of Rights and cannot find anything in Biden to hang an opinion on.
But this hunting for hidden witches' marks should be left behind in the 17th c.
Do you happen to have a link or something for that?
While showing a selection of American nut jobs at a political rally on Al-Jazeera would definitely reinforce a negative stereotype of the US, the same thing has been occurring on US television for a considerable time in reverse so to speak. They show wild eyed crazies screaming "Death to America/Israel/Insert group here!" at a political rally in the Middle East which reinforces its own stereotype.
But I suppose it's a commonality of media everywhere regardless of if it's Al-Jazeera or Fox news - ordinary doesn't grab headlines (and ratings), only sensational does. :P
You've got to admit the black thing, however. If Obama gets elected, a black man will in fact be president, and thus have "taken over." Talk about nuance.
Just read about this link on another blog. It's from the Howard Stern show. Listen anyway.
http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3
Do I think this clip represents all or most Obama supporters? Of course not.
Dumba$$es and bigots are everywhere, on EVERY side. Some post here fairly often.
I guess I prefer to read the science topics on science blogs, where a scientist says "this is true because the vast majority of valid scientific research supports it" or talks about science issues/news, versus If you don't agree with my politics, you are a "privately racist, bigoted, sexist, islamophobic hater."
Who's spewing hate? Surely not the benevolent, tolerant, racially benign, religious-choice supporting...whatever you are.
Guess I can read the posts but avoid the commenters.
Ouch! Easy with the Ohio stuff. This is a product of a Palin-crowd sample, not an Ohio sample. The fact that haystacks are in the background makes it regionally identifiable. But one need only turn on the AM dial to hear the same comments broadcast from coast to coast, then repeated back through any number of partisan listeners.
I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE EXIST LIKE THIS....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGSOjx5Mh7w&feature=user
OT-somebody mention squirrels? There's a colony of all-black squirrels that live down the street from me on Contee Road, surrounding an apartment complex that's enclosed with cemetery-style iron gates (it's been rumored that the 9/11 hijackers lived there at one point.) They're super cute and don't seem to mind much when you approach them. I wonder how such a large concentration of melanistic squirrels occurred, though...
"Yeah, the fact that it's on Al Jazeera makes it even worse, because it's perfect anti-American propaganda."
I haven't watched al jazeera much. How biased is it? As bad as Fox? same? Where could I watch some?
"I detest Obama for what he did to his grandmother"
What did he do?
Re James Fox
Ignorant uneducated racists have a long history of voting Democratic and only recently moved over to the "right" when there was a cynical co-opting and courting of the intolerant and religious by the Republican party in the early 1980's.
I am afraid that Mr. Fox is off by more then a decade in this assertion. The movement to the right by Southern whites began in 1968 as a result of the Southern Strategy begun by Richard Milhous Nixon.
cpmcq: You can watch Al Jazzera's streaming news on their website: http://english.aljazeera.net.
They seem to make an effort to be fair and balanced. But I'm a commie socialist liberal European, so what would I know?
Over here in the UK, the national news channels have been showing similar films - those people in Ohio, Bethlehem and so on and been seen and heard across the world.
Sorry.....
Re MBA
Obama does have history with Ayers, however.
How about Senator McCains' history with the Reverend Sun Yung Moon?
James: Interestingly it's the Democratic party that has a much more sordid history with regard to supporting racism and enacting segregation and Jim Crow laws. Ignorant uneducated racists have a long history of voting Democratic and only recently moved over to the "right" when there was a cynical co-opting and courting of the intolerant and religious by the Republican party in the early 1980's.
This is interesting but utterly irrelevant when trying to make this absurd argument that the two 'sides' are balanced in the degree of how asinine they can be. The history of the party system involves a shift from one party to the other. There was a time when there were zero Republicans in the south. The Democratic party absorbed the southern Republicans. This is the REASON there is such an imbalance in yahooism today, and this is the reason that racism and genderism are the hallmarks of the Republican, not Democratic party. This is the reason that it is absurd to talk about balance.
Sessions: Sorry, I interpreted "I remember it but was not there" to "I was not there" rather than " I was there" ... you must admit, that was a bit ambiguous.
MBA: You have tasted a certain kind of kool ade that will be hard to expunge, so I'm not really going to try. I will say that if a fascist state arrests MORE people that does not make what the people are claimed to have done MORE worse! It makes the state more fascist.
That's an odd thing to say. The animal rights movement, while being political, doesn't fit onto any spectrum of views on the role of the state in interacting with its citizens that form the basis of left/right politics.
"I haven't watched al jazeera much. How biased is it? As bad as Fox? same? Where could I watch some?"
From what I've heard the english language service is not bad.
The arabic version, however, is the equivalent of Fox news in its impartiality.
MBA, have you ever heard of Lee Atwater? What about the Southern Strategy?
When? Please link to specific stories that are falsely describing something in this election as racist?
Harry Eager:
What, specifically, did he do?
SLC, the Republican courting of the racist vote goes back a bit further than '68 - the Dixiecrats formed in 1948 because the Democratic Party was getting too integrationist for their taste. The shift probably wasn't really complete until the late 60s/early 70s, though.
Jayh :
It's clearly not the case because you're 'decoding' and 'selecting' the catch phrases in each case. I see this very plainly on both sides, each one finding diaboilical messages in the other side, and rejoicing that thay don't behave this way.
Do you happen to have a link or something for that?
I read a lot of blogs, so I'm not going to quickly be able to point to all the cases. I've heard it claimed she wants to ban birth control (not true) because the poster had a strawman view of her.
PZs site had a lot of exagerated perceptions, but Obama pretty much got a pass when he did god-talk.
Even on this page:
The McCain/Palin campaign are intentionally encouraging these types of viewpoints.
This discussion is just another case of Compulsive Centrist Disorder matched with the GOP habit of backing their arguments with speculation. They have no evidence that any Democrat rallies and politicians, certainly on the presidential stage, have matched the GOP we saw in the video for racist, loopy views. They simply assume anything their side is doing, the other side MUST be doing, and the evidence be damned. It's just another example of how anti-intellectual and faith-based the GOP has become.
The Howard Stern clip isn't even close to the same thing. Ignorance, yes, but there is no evidence that it is systemic to Obama supporters like the many many clips of the GOP show. There are no threats of violence against the GOP candidates as there is for the Dems, and there sure as hell isn't anything close to Palin riling up the racist goofballs on the Dem side. The animal rights PETA wackjobs are condemned by the remainder of the left, not egged on as Palin is doing with her Klan wannabes. Open your eyes people, this is not your father's GOP, and that's why so many of us have left it.
Re MBA:
Baloney. I live in the Twin Cities, and work within the area that was cordoned off (real fun, lemme tell ya). The only ones causing all the trouble and mayhem were a crew of pure anarchists who came into town for no other reason. They didn't have any political agenda, they didn't have any association with the local liberals who were engaging in legitimate and legal protesting; they just wanted to break stuff.
Anarchists =/= Liberals.
And I believe no bleach was thrown on anyone.
I just have to say, it pisses me off that the idea that 800 people got arrested protesting at the RNC is somehow an indictment of the left. The Right has been ruining this country for years and has thrust us into two wars. So yes, people are moved to protest. The number of protesters and arrested protesters are not indexes of the wackaloonery of the left, they are indexes of the wackaloonery of the right.
Stop. Blaming. The. Victims.
Of course there is! How do you think the Republicans got so much support from the South after the Democratic Party dropped most of the Southern racists in the 1960s?
Neither party should have courted those bastards.
And Ward Churchill is no liberal.
What is it in the US with calling everyone on the left a 'liberal'?
Um. I'm lost for words at what some of those people said. Mind you, a pastor taking computer courses at the school I work at did say that Obama slipped up in a speech and admitted that he was a muslim. Propoganda about Obama is even alive and well in Canada. I was hoping he was an isolated case though. Well, if Obama gets assassinated, then we'll know why. Sigh.
Oh, come on. Al Jazeera?!?! I'm sure they didn't have an agenda. That's like Keith Oberman asking John Best to explain global warming. Answer: the AIDS quilt.
TexDoc, whatever about the agenda of Al Jazeera, this sort of reporting is pretty much par for the course of most european TV news networks at the moment.
This is exactly how the McCain supporting voting populace are being portrayed all around the world.
I'm also curious, what the heck is Obama supposed to have done to his grandmother...?
@Laser Potato: The black squirrels were brought to lovely Kent, Ohio from Ontario by a KSU landscaping employee who thought they were cute. You can get all sorts of black squirrel paraphernalia from the KSU bookstore. They do seem to be more aggressive than the grey sort, although the two certainly interbreed--you see multi-colored squirrels, charcoal-grey squirrels, raccoon-striped squirrels, etc. around Kent. They do not like being petted but will usually graciously allow you to feed them by hand if you're patient.
Hubby is a KSU alumnus :)
" 'I detest Obama for what he did to his grandmother'
"What did he do?"
He pilloried her as a racist, which apparently she isn't. But even if she is, you don't drag your granma's name through the mud in order to score some political points.
He did it not just once, but three times. Don't you guys remember the 'she's a typical white person' meme?
I could never vote for a person who'd do that to his own grandmother. I'd be worried about what he'd do to my granma.
Oh, please. Acknowledging that his 85 year old grandmother holds some mildly racist views is hardly pillorying her, considering the time and place she grew up in. He has related that she would make derogatory remarks about black people - what is that other than racist?
Considering that his grandmother is still alive and they apparently have a good relationship, I sincerely doubt she is bothered by this. Maybe she is aware of her attitudes, or her former attitudes. Maybe she agrees with him. And if she isn't holding it against him, I fail to see why I should.
Is this a case where X commenters' blatherings get imputed to the whole?
ElasticPlanet: How did McCain/Palin encourage any of this? Do you mean by use of code words like this sort of nonsense? http://www.volokh.com/posts/1224640416.shtml
Simon said: "Citizen Deux, I've heard that argument before, that the left is as bad. I have never heard anyone on the left using racial epithets, questioning patriotism, or inciting such aggressive levels of hatred. The far left may want to take taxes, but the far right want to take people's humanity."
This is an oldie, but I go to it whenever I need to tar and large group of people with the actions of a few
http://michellemalkin.com/2005/02/08/comments-trolls-and-the-lefts-cont…
I go to this when I get good memories about Manhattan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stI
Can you guess the voting/ideological proclivities of the perpetrators in the above? For each of them, guess which way they'd vote on liberal hot topics.
Isn't the comment above about enviros being not liberals something like a "no good Scotsman" argument?
Sigmund said: "From what I've heard the english language service is not bad." Listen to the last 8 seconds from the above, the AlJazeera reporter signed off with the-aren't-we-so-lucky-not-to-live-in-a-barabaric-country-like-the-US comment: "hate and fear are still powerful forces in American society"? (Am I reading too much into his tone, Euro/Canadian-smug?) Considering the nature of hate and fear, aren't they powerful forces everywhere and at all times? What, the rest of the world is fueled by ponies and pretty flowers? Or did they expect better of the USA, a conglomeration of all the world's beat-upons and losers?
Orac: I love your site and your work, keep it up.
Orac's commenters: work harder to say something that surprises me, like, "I fear that putting the legislative and executive branches in the hands of one party might not be such a good idea."
NY then, NJ now:
Listen to the last 8 seconds from the above, the AlJazeera reporter signed off with the-aren't-we-so-lucky-not-to-live-in-a-barabaric-country-like-the-US comment: "hate and fear are still powerful forces in American society"? (Am I reading too much into his tone, Euro/Canadian-smug?)
He may actually be American himself. Al Jazeera hires people from all over the world, and there are plenty of Americans who are concerned about how powerful hate and fear remain, despite decades of work on civil rights and tolerance. I think you may be reading too much into his tone. I could be wrong, but I didn't get the impression he was impugning all of America. Just the segment of it which is fueled by hate.
"hate and fear are still powerful forces in American society"?
NJ/NY, are you arguing that hate and fear aren't powerful forces in American society?
And really, if you want to complain about others being smug, commanding that everyone "work harder to say something that surprises me" might not be the best way to go.