After diving into the sewers of the comments section here and at places like Talking Points Memo, I’d have to say that many so-called liberals aren’t as liberal as they might pose as being.

The level of vulgar name calling, sexism (read some of the comments about Ann Coulter, Orly Taitz, Michelle Bachmann, or Sarah Palin, for instance, for some rather stomach churning examples of sexist hate speech[*]), and general inability to take others opinions into account strikes me as virtually the antithesis of what I’d define as liberal.

In fact, I find very little to separate the extremes of the right and the extremes of the left in terms of manner of thinking and interacting with their fellow humans. I’m reminded of an illustration in Ivan Stang’s classic _The Book of the SubGenius_ which shows the political spectrum not as a linear continuum but as a circle, with the “right” and the “left” meeting 180 degrees away from moderation (and, of course, “Bob” picking the pockets of both).

And, of course, if one looks to Europe, one quickly finds what we in the States consider to be “liberal” to be somewhat center-right in most countries there.
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[*] Note that I do not endorse any of the points of view of the women mentioned — I just find the sorts of attacks upon them in allegedly liberal publications to be anything but liberal.

One Response to “From Mother Jones magazine”

1. BruceWho
   June 26th, 2010 @ 8:26 pm

   Libby Rule: I read your comments and wonder what definitions your are using for liberal v. conservative viewpoints? For example, “liberal and/or progressive” in the current context means that a person has an orientation towards big government, high taxes and spending without regard to a balanced budget, along with ignoring or trashing the US Constitution. On the other hand, “conservative” means linearly the opposite. The conservative orientation means having a civil society in which laws are enforced and these laws originate from the US Constitution. In this context, government is smaller. These political orientations do not seem circular, rather linear. The trashing of women in politics by liberal/progressives has been going on for quite some time and I agree that this tendency is difficult to understand when liberal profess to be humanitarians who uplift people to a higher level. Kyle-Ann Shiver has written an informative article titled Defeating Political Ridicule” on May 15, 2010, published in American Thinker (www.americanthinker.com) and this article gives a good background in the kind of degrading treatment liberals have been giving to women for quite some time.

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