(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

This city is full of idiots, except for you, you, you, and you.

<broad generalization> Until the progressive movement stops being a bunch of militant assholes and the moderate liberals actually inform themselves about what the fuck is going on before they whine about things, instead of protesting because stuff sounds wrong, nothing will ever get changed in this country. Not that anything will, at the rate the stock market is going down the shitter. </broad generalization>

Comments

[dayone.livejournal.com]

Well said. Thank you.

[I spent almost all of Friday night in a shouting match with my grandfather trying desperately to convince him that while he could keep his views, mine were my own, and I was interested in educating myself on what everybody thinks. But anyway. ]

[timefortea.livejournal.com]

Wooooo, I'm not an idiot! You have completely made my day. No, my week.

[noog.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I love how said LJer responds to artboyx's caution against kneejerk responses with a kneejerk response. I love how ze accuses artboyx of not giving hir a chance to post hir well-researched views when hir post was the chance to post such things. I fully agree with you-- while I would definitely consider myself progressive/leftist, I'm sadly disillusioned to find that a leftist can be just as ignorant, uninformed, and walled in by prejudice as any member of the religious right. But I'm glad you think I'm not an idiot. :)

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

I know, it's this terrible disillusionment that I still wish I could be in the dark about. One wishes to put one's ideals and those who hold said ideals upon a higher plane than weird freaky fundie people, but like any sort of belief, it can become dogma for some (Like those morons riding out the Friday of every month on their bright shiny Treks and Schwinns to make a big annoyance/political statement). Jon Stewart (yes, I get my political commentary from Comedy Central, and sadly it is a better source than most news channels) said the debate is not so much about left vs. right anymore, but moderation vs. extremism. I'm inclined to agree with that, if only because the "moderates" are uninformed idiots and the extremists' knowledge is prejudiced by their views.

[noog.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I entirely agree with that. I think it's possible for a person to have radical politics and still remain balanced and informed. It's hard, yes, but I think it's possible.

In a lot of ways, I think, it tends to be an issue of class privilege. You see a lot more staunch conservatives among the working class than you do staunch leftists because the news resources working class people have access to are the conservative ones-- the mainstream papers, TV, Reader's Digest, and the like. You see a lot more staunch leftism among people in higher income brackets, I think, because the rich kids are looking for something to rebel against. And I would argue that it's a very efficient social mechanism, because in appropriating leftist politics, the rich kids can rant and feel radical, but they're not going to implement any actual policies that equalize social relations, because that would entail them giving up their class privilege, and because in most cases, the view from the top down is not as clear as the view from the bottom up-- class/race/gender relations mean much more to a person who is a class/race/gender minority.

*shrugs* I dunno. Just thinking out loud.