Progressives, social liberals, the left in general are silly and a little bit funny…

[amicus]

Back and forth watering and tending my garden in the early evening hours, it’s a weekend so the news is blah, so I surfed around and found a program I had seen before, “The Little Ice Age: The Big Chill”. A Science or History Channel thing that spent all but the last five minutes of the program outlining the ’natural’ causes and effects of climate change over the centuries, a rather informative and interesting program.

But the last five minutes of the two hour special were awkwardly out of context and jarring as they tried to blame the latest climate change on ‘anthropo…something, genesis or morphism, didn’t hear it right, any way, man caused ‘greenhouse gases’, you know, the whole global warming scam.

I thought, Jesus, the damned left wing activists corrupt everything.

So I clumped away, disgusted, and changed the sprinkler from the corn to the potato patch and came back, looking for something else. Saw V for Vendetta was on, love Natalie Portman, but, once was enough. Then there was , “The Cider House Rules.” Sounded familiar but I didn’t remember the plot.

Ah, yes, didn’t take long, Michael Caine as an Obstetrician justifying abortion. It is, however, a rather well done film with some touching moments…so I left it on…back and forth.

Harvested a handful of cherry tomato’s and had a little snack…thinking.

It is quite a lengthy process to get an idea, a story, a book, into a screen play, get it financed and filmed, promoted and distributed.

I am continually searching for something interesting to watch on television. I don’t go out to movies or rent them. It never ceases to amaze me as I read the synopsis’s of hundreds of films, the number that promote left wing issues. Abortion, gay rights, lesbian parents, single mothers, deadbeat dad’s. A lot of chick flicks I guess, I usually don’t watch them.

Then there is another genre, that without fail, blames greedy and corrupt businessmen and polluting corporations, the rape and pillage of the environment for ’profit’, that dirty word of the left.

The guy from ‘Virgin’ enterprises, Sir Richard someone, was interviewed about his charitable contributions to various causes. Reminded me of other left wing benefactors, such as George Soros and others who funded the now bankrupt “Air America” a left wing satellite radio network that failed because no one listens to left wing talk shows.

Now Democrats in Congress want to re-institute the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ of the Federal Communications Commission to force the presence of left wing programs on the public.

Part of the left wing mantra is to make those successful, wealthy individuals feel guilt over their accomplishments and donate resources to ‘humanitarian’, always left wing, groups.

Liberals are like a voracious virus infecting the film world, not just that the book world and the art world and of course, education at all levels.

It is like a strange mind/body dichotomy that used to be a topic of conversation in philosophical studies.

One side works and saves and studies and goes on to build the skyscrapers, roads and bridges; to forge the new technologies and to entrepeneur a new age of television and computers and space travel, to create the means by which we live with mines and factories and farms and business in general and the other side, paints and dabbles and talks and like the Gypsies of old, entertain us. Yet they basically also perform as parasites on the living body of the healthy.

It is not, though some think so, a symbiotic relationship where host and parasite both benefit. Not at all, the left parasites drain the life of the host and bleed it to death.

I used to consider this conclusion a terrible tragedy for mankind with a very dark future in store for all. Now I just find the left liberal progressives as funny and silly and repetitious to a point that soon, even the general public will laugh at the antics of the left.

I know, SUA, Shut Up Amicus.

Sighs…but I do ask that you do as I did, surf the channels, read the content, see what you find.

Amicus….

 

[slyc_willie]

I did. I do.

But my eye is not as jaundiced as yours. I still keep an open mind.

 

[amicus]

Hmmm...I pride myself on having an 'open' mind to new ideas and new thoughts. But the wimps have been with us forever and there is no need to be 'open minded' about them.

They simply are, like mosquito's and rats and other vermin, something to be dealt with.

Amicus...

 

[slyc_willie]

Hmmm...I pride myself on having an 'open' mind to new ideas and new thoughts. But the wimps have been with us forever and there is no need to be 'open minded' about them.

They simply are, like mosquito's and rats and other vermin, something to be dealt with.

Amicus...

Oh, come on. After that, is anyone really to believe you're open-minded?

It's like you open the door to a soup kitchen, then put bouncers out front to only let the 'really needy' in.

 

[amicus]

Oh, come on. After that, is anyone really to believe you're open-minded?

It's like you open the door to a soup kitchen, then put bouncers out front to only let the 'really needy' in.

~~~

Well, if I opened a 'soup kitchen' (gads back to the depression?), I might indeed have someone to prevent others from stealing the cauldron that held the soup.

There are always criminals among us, and I view the parasites as 'criminals', stealing from those who produce.

Open mindedness is not a concept accepting all the kinky and crazy new theories, such as 'life does not begin at conception', that come along. Reality and common sense do play a role in filtering new things that come in to play. Do you not have the same filter?

Amicus...

 

[slyc_willie]

~~~

Well, if I opened a 'soup kitchen' (gads back to the depression?), I might indeed have someone to prevent others from stealing the cauldron that held the soup.

There are always criminals among us, and I view the parasites as 'criminals', stealing from those who produce.

Open mindedness is not a concept accepting all the kinky and crazy new theories, such as 'life does not begin at conception', that come along. Reality and common sense do play a role in filtering new things that come in to play. Do you not have the same filter?

Amicus...

Then I would have to ask what your ideas are regarding 'reality' and 'common sense.' I have no doubt that our ideas on both would differ. Not a bad thing, in my opinion, but that would lead to an entirely different discussion.

*snicker* I knew you would have that reaction to the soup kitchen analogy. Forgive me; I just had to do that.

But back to your original post. If what I gather is your intent, you see an awful lot of the left-wing thought bias being inserted into what should be, as I assume you feel, totally unbiased programming. If I am wrong, I apologize.

In principle, I can agree: programming which offers theory and fact should be unbiased. But if you look hard enough into any such sort of programming, you will find bias. The question then becomes: is it really there, or are you just perceiving it to justify your own views?

 

[amicus]

[QUOTE=slyc_willie]Then I would have to ask what your ideas are regarding 'reality' and 'common sense.' I have no doubt that our ideas on both would differ. Not a bad thing, in my opinion, but that would lead to an entirely different discussion.

*snicker* I knew you would have that reaction to the soup kitchen analogy. Forgive me; I just had to do that.

But back to your original post. If what I gather is your intent, you see an awful lot of the left-wing thought bias being inserted into what should be, as I assume you feel, totally unbiased programming. If I am wrong, I apologize.

In principle, I can agree: programming which offers theory and fact should be unbiased. But if you look hard enough into any such sort of programming, you will find bias. The question then becomes: is it really there, or are you just perceiving it to justify your own views?[/QUOTE]


~~~


Hmmm..looks like we are have a private conversation on this thread....so be it...

Differing viewpoints I suspect, make the 'world go round', and as such, I have no objections to them.

However, had I been Charles Lindburgh, hell bent with his passion and quest to fly the Atlantic, I would not have taken heed of your 'differing' opinion, as to whether it was a valid idea or not.

By that I mean to say, that passionate adherence to principle and vision is essential for progress to occur. And further, that, differing opinions, must, of necessity be ignored from time to time.

What I was trying to get at and it is a difficult task, was to illustrate the saturation of one particular mindset in 'media' matters. The left looks at the right as being ignorant and stupid and non cultural in many ways. That is somewhat correct as the conservatives are engaged in life itself and the liberals are engaged in a criticism of life.

Were I to expand on the theme, I would compare man to woman, wherein she is a, or was, a compliment to his life, adding, subtracting, modifying, ameliorating, and tamping down the natural masculine imperatives. That also would not be well accepted on this forum.

Liberals perform quite the same function, I perceive, muting the thrust of progress for more, 'humanitarian' considerations. I would even, (if complelled) admit that they are probably necessary, like a Mom, telling her son to put a jacket on before he goes out and reminding him to brush his teeth. Necessary, but not pleasant and a disruption in his plans...


Amicus...

 

[BlackShanglan]

Liberals perform quite the same function, I perceive, muting the thrust of progress for more, 'humanitarian' considerations. I would even, (if complelled) admit that they are probably necessary, like a Mom, telling her son to put a jacket on before he goes out and reminding him to brush his teeth. Necessary, but not pleasant and a disruption in his plans...


Amicus...

From his point of view.

I think that's the rub in all of this. Yes, there are times when it's necessary to press ahead and put aside the quibbles of others. There are times when too much time spent seeing every possible side of a debate can be paralyzing, and action might be better. The question is, when are those times? And the problem is, it's human nature to answer, "Any time that I personally really want to do something."

Children tend to see any limit on their behavior as unreasonable, and some of us carry that habit onward throughout our lives. Others tend to resent any change as too unsettling, or fall into habits of envy or resentment, and they too can carry that on through their lives. The two sides do both need each other; I just personally wish that each would spend a bit more time thinking about balance and seeking it rather than assuming that it must come from everyone taking as extreme a position as possible and then fighting to a standstill.

 

[Pure]

ami,

they tried to blame the latest climate change on ‘anthropo…something, genesis or morphism, didn’t hear it right,

it's one of them big words the collige types use, ami, but not to worry, they're just libralls.

high schools have some programs on the envirnment that might be easier to unnerstan.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

From his point of view.

I think that's the rub in all of this. Yes, there are times when it's necessary to press ahead and put aside the quibbles of others. There are times when too much time spent seeing every possible side of a debate can be paralyzing, and action might be better. The question is, when are those times? And the problem is, it's human nature to answer, "Any time that I personally really want to do something."

Children tend to see any limit on their behavior as unreasonable, and some of us carry that habit onward throughout our lives. Others tend to resent any change as too unsettling, or fall into habits of envy or resentment, and they too can carry that on through their lives. The two sides do both need each other; I just personally wish that each would spend a bit more time thinking about balance and seeking it rather than assuming that it must come from everyone taking as extreme a position as possible and then fighting to a standstill.

Nice.

What I wish is that the two sides would refrain from insulting each other. Just make your point and let the listener/reader decide for him or herself who's a dick.

I also wish that those on the left would abandon their presumption of moral superiority. In this they are identical to religious extremists, and to Objectivists of a certain stripe. Related, I wish that they would accept that their preferred policies inevitably have negative unintended consequences, and very often these far exceeed the intended positive ones. Instead the pattern is to blame those on something else, or add one more little requirement needed to make the policy work: Change human nature. Things get bloody when they chase that pipedream.

I'm not sure the sides "need each other." In the "where are the health care innovators" thread I have noted that modern societies will not accept extreme inequality in health care. Those on the far right want to ignore that, while those on the left want to ignore the existential reality of scarcity and pretend that everyone can have everything they want. A reasonable debate would begin with accepting that the first, rejecting the second, and proceeding to discuss in civil terms how to reconcile those seemingly contrary realities.

I would invite you to join in, Shang, but I see that you've undertaken (in verse no less!) to improve your quality of life by avoiding contentious and futile debating. (Backsliding a bit by entering this thread, aren't you? ) I hate to be a "pusher" tempting you back into bad habits (GD me, anyway), but if you do happen to glance at that I'll direct you to posts 9, 55 and 96.

 

[Pure]

roxthose on the left want to ignore the existential reality of scarcity and pretend that everyone can have everything they want.

it's glib, but is it factual? are you getting into ami's habit of addressing various invented deluded folks rather than actual discussants?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

roxthose on the left want to ignore the existential reality of scarcity and pretend that everyone can have everything they want.

it's glib, but is it factual? are you getting into ami's habit of addressing various invented deluded folks rather than actual discussants?

I don't think I am.

How does scarcity come to be reduced? It's much less now than it was in caveman times, or 200 years ago, even though there are many more people. It's getting less every year (but will never disappear). How did all the extra stuff come to be? What was the primary motivation for all those who produced all the extra stuff?

I contend that a vital ingredient of this motivation is material self interest, and the incentive that produced all the extra stuff was the chance to make a profit.

In pursuit of increasing equality of condition, to various degrees the left contends some combination of two things:

* That we now have enough (or too much) stuff, and can reduce that incentive and accept a slower increase in the amount of stuff.

* That this incentive is not really all that important anyway - we can still have just as much increase in stuff with less of this incentive.

Note that these two contentions are mutually contradictory.

 

[Pure]

yup, that left shore is fucked up. if i ever meet one of them no-good sumbitches, i'll deliver the message.

PS. Glad you specified "material self interest" as the motivator. Adam Smith, Mill, Aristotle, and others didn't have your clarity. It's important to ensure that no mystical nonsense about "nonmaterial self interest" enters into the discussion.


==
Anthem, by Roxanne:

How does scarcity come to be reduced? It's much less now than it was in caveman times, or 200 years ago, even though there are many more people. It's getting less every year (but will never disappear). How did all the extra stuff come to be? What was the primary motivation for all those who produced all the extra stuff?

I contend that a vital ingredient of this motivation is material self interest....

 

[CeriseNoire]

You know, this made me smile. I notice, Amicus, that you are often prompt to accuse everyone around here of calling you names and discounting you regardless of your merits, just because you hold positions opposite to theirs. Yet it seems every other post calls liberals "wimps", "idiots", "weaklings", or whatever else is the put down of the day. Name-calling is name-calling even when curse words aren't used Just musing on the irony I suppose...

On topic, I think whether it's on TV, in conversation, or in literature, we're apt to see what we're looking for. I remember a professor assigning a particular text to the class, and then randomly assign us a particular critical lens. We then were to write a paper deconstructing the text through that lens (regardless, obviously, of what particular school of thought we subscribed to). Funny enough, it didn't take all that much skill.

 

[amicus]

That is only a little bit interesting, Cerise...

For just a moment consider that I am not a particularly emotional or spontaneous sort of person and that each 'slur' is intentiollnal; what might my motives be?

Secondly, you avoid or evade the nature of my post and your choice of college text books is rather a sore point with me.

Almost forty years ago in the dimwitted state of Kentucky, at a "Teacher's" college, I met a bright young man studying economics.

He was in his Junior year when we met and had never been introduced to Classical Economic theory, nor modern free market economics.

Like in the film, "Random Hearts", with Harrison Ford and, oh, damn, forgot her name, the female lead, she said, I paraphrase, "You are a Democrat probably, well, we can talk, I can give you some books to read..."

Well, this young man wasn't necessarily a 'Democrat' by choice but rather by circumstance as that was all he had been exposed to in his young life. And it was continuing in college until we talked and I gave him some books to read.

I suggested that those who want to understand, simply make their own little survey of what is available to watch and read and be honest enough with yourself to admit that the progressive, left wing liberals own the arts in the media.

In most cases, they do it badly, leaning over from their lofty perches to talk down to the masses in pandering terms with oodles of overkill and, truly, it is funny.

Like Cloudy on the forum, you seem to be emphasizing and promoting your ethnic background, another favorite ploy of the left, why not have a token black in every film; why not have several black Presidents in our films, or a woman President and women in positions of power, like the Power Puff Girls or Kill Bill several times with feminine skill.

Like I said...funny and a little silly.

Amicus...

 

[cloudy]

Funny, I have an extensive education in economics - lack only a couple of classes to have a degree in it, as a matter of fact - but my view and yours, ami, are so far apart as to be ridiculous.

BTW: whether I was green or orange or even blue, I'd still think you were full of shit, and if Cerise didn't post a pic of herself, you still wouldn't know which ethnic group she belonged to. For fuck's sake, grow up.

 

[CeriseNoire]

I know your slurs are usually intentional; you may come across as many things here, but too stupid to foresee the effect of your own words isn't one of them. I was just noticing your first step is often to do exactly that of which you accuse others.

I'm a bit confused about your comment on my choice of college textbooks, since I didn't mention any. I was simply saying how that particular assignment I was given illustrates how easy it is to view any given action in the way that benefits us most.

Now, I am not one to try to convince people to move over to "my side". I must say I enjoy a debate as mental exercise. Now regarding the media, though for some reason you assume otherwise, I am quite aware that extremism of various sorts is often present. I can recognize a hyperbole, even when it is used to promote a view I agree on. Not that hyperbole and overkill ever only used by the left

I find it funny that you'd accuse me of playing the race card around here. It was not something I spoke about much until a certain debate brought my race into question, because it had been assumed to be otherwise than what it is. Had you read my posts around a little more carefully, you'd know I'm unlikely to push for having a token [insert group here] as a means for change. I think, among other things, that my comments in the thread about Isaiah Washington(?) made that clear.

But call me funny, call me silly... after all, does it actually matter?

 

[Pure]

ami Like Cloudy on the forum, you [cerise n] seem to be emphasizing and promoting your ethnic background, another favorite ploy of the left,

P: amicus you're got a lot of racist scum in you. hypocrisy too, since your beloved pres. GWB, is inclined to promote prominent "persons of color" so long as they suck his dick (alberto gonzales, for example).

 

[Guest]

Damn, ami. You are completely fucked up.

Back on ignore you go. If I want to view racist, misogynistic and homophobic claptrap I'll watch Fox News.

 

[amicus]

My, oh my, the fur doth fly.

There was a time when, if a person did not like a person of another race, religion, sex or philosophy, that one could actually express it.

But, oh, no, not now with the PC of the left in full bloom.

Let us be correct and not acknowledge that Muslims are killing Jews and other Christians by the droves in an attempt to complete an ethnic cleansing, aka, Russia, Germany, Japan and Serbia.

Let us all just stick our heads in the sand and pray for forced equality and mandatory integration.

I may or may not be racist, regardless, that is my choice. It is also your choice, to believe what you want.

What I voiced was just how the liberal left wing media is pushing their agenda all through the entertainment world. It struck a bit close to the bone, I think, as you suddenly realized what I said was obviously and evidently true beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Few ever point thatgone out and when they do, as I did, note the frantic response.

The left elite believe, with a faith usually reserved for God, in their right to impose integration on southern schools. They believe they have the right to include sex education, the use of condoms, to kindergarten kids, regardless of what parents say and provide abortion counseling in middle schools. The so believe in socialized medicine they eagerly contemplate confiscating the choice and lives of medical professional to serve their needs.

One day, soon, I hope, the recent 5-4 decisions of the Supreme Court may become 6-3 and all the activist liberal court decisions over the past half century will be repealed.

That is my fervent wish.

Gone will be Brown vs...and Roe vs...gone will be an entire range of mandatory social manipulations that has been part of the leftist movement for oh so very long.

I want the freedom to choose my friends by standards I set and if that includes ethnic or gender based characteristics, then so be it.

It is called human individual freedom and liberty, stupid, maybe you should try it sometime.

Amicus...

 

[cloudy]

My, oh my, the fur doth fly.

There was a time when, if a person did not like a person of another race, religion, sex or philosophy, that one could actually express it.

But, oh, no, not now with the PC of the left in full bloom.

I don't give a flying fuck whether you like me or not. I promise, I'm not going to waste a lot of time worrying about it.

My race has diddly-squat to do with it, as does yours.

Only people of limited intelligence choose race as a defining factor. You force me to view your intelligence that way by bringing race into any and every discussion.

Oh, wait...I used big words.

Oh, well. Look 'em up.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

. . . if Cerise didn't post a pic of herself, you still wouldn't know which ethnic group she belonged to.

I agree. All you would know is that she is a thoughtful, polite and civil person who apparently has experience in the educaton realm that she gracefully draws on to make insightful comments when that is the issue du jour.

Given her Lit name one might speculate that her skin is dark, in which case one would admire a clever and attractive Lit name. (That was my thought process when Cerise appeared, pre-photo av.)



~~~~

Ami, most of the time your ad-hominems come across to me as slightly goofy and more worthy of eyerolling by your targets than real hostility. In this case I have to call a foul. If there was a Lit penalty box and I had referee authority, you would be in it.

 

[Pure]

yep, the South will rise again, ami, and maybe you'll be very happy there with your kind. you white boys should certainly stick to sucking each other's dicks, your favored use of "individual freedom and liberty."

you definitely should "choose [your] friends by standards [you] set"; it's a sort of 'birds of a feather' principle that you slow-witted bubbas do best to honor (prevents unfavorable comparisons with those of wit or learning.)

 

[Liar]

I agree. All you would know is that she is a thoughtful, polite and civil person who apparently has experience in the educaton realm that she gracefully draws on to make insightful comments when that is the issue du jour.

Given her Lit name one might speculate that her skin is dark, in which case one would admire a clever and attractive Lit name. (That was my thought process when Cerise appeared, pre-photo av.)

And my thought, post-photo av?

Glad someone started a make-out thread. Because damn.

Sorry people, I can't dignify ami's nonsense in this thread by getting angry. Gotta look at the bright sides of life, and the talk of Cerice's AV made me turn on image loading in my browser to see what the fuss was about.

So all in all, kinda worth it.

 

[CeriseNoire]

Ami, you know, I'm always one to say I'd rather know if someone dislikes me simply because of my skin color, because that way I can adjust my expectations accordingly. For example, someone calling me the N-word makes it clear I shouldn't feel too safe around them. I'd rather know. As I said, you make very big assumptions as to what I think.

Roxanne and Liar, thank you. You're making me blush with all the compliment though