"Intolerant Liberals" and Other Alternate Realities

Examples of anti-liberal conservative memes with little sting to actual liberals. Source: Medium

Writing this blog has taken a backseat to a lot of things lately, but part of my problem is I feel like I've been hit by some kind of reality prism, something that makes it impossible to focus on just one thing. My mind shoots in a hundred different tangents on any subject. Succinct debate on just about anything lately is impossible. There is so much askew, so much off-track, linear arguments are next to impossible to make. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on our new President for having parentheticals inside parentheticals in virtually each and every utterance? No, not going there.

Another strange meme in a world where the president
and his followers are hyper-sensitive to virtually
any criticism or slur.

But part of what I'm getting at is the absolute gaping divide between right and left. People pretend we were divided by Obama in some Machiavellian plan to destroy America. Nope. He had nothing to do with the vastly different way conservatives and liberals see the world, see each other, see virtually everything. And I know I'm biased, but I think--I'm pretty sure--the left (not the uber-left, just the left) is more securely moored to objective facts, to reality as it is. Conservatives (of most flavors) tend to see the world as a) they want it to be, b) they feel it to be or c) how they perceive it to be despite all evidence. Oh, and d) elements of all of the above.

I'm not trying to slander here, I'm talking about a group of people who look at something that happened, and either believe it to have happened differently, or even more bizarrely, have remembrance of it that is almost a complete invention. It happens with things big and small. An obvious example, is hearing and seeing Donald Trump say something completely untrue, easily disprovable, and then call him a "truth teller," a straight-shooter who "tells it like it is," and "says what I'm thinking." Further, they can look to Trump as "one of us," while seeing, say, Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren as "elites."

Another common one, that starts with the non-"fact"
that liberals want to take away all guns.

I think this very strange dichotomy is responsible for why conservative humor (or rather Conservative with a capital C, politically-motivated attempts at humor) fails so badly. It starts with misconceptions about liberals, exaggerates them, and then adds a layer of meanness. The result is rarely funny because it has so little truth to it. On the other hand, conservatives themselves--who believe the misconception to start with--roar with laughter. Oddly, even if it's the ten thousandth time they've seen "Rachel MadCow." You see more evidence of this in memes, like those featured here from the excerpted article. And even more in the current short-list of alt-right insults (cuck, beta, snowflake, buttercup, safe space, etc.). It takes a perceived notion of "how liberals are," exaggerates it, and then paints every contrary opinion with the same brush.

Anyway, all of that is a convoluted way of me saying: the twain will never meet between right and left, until something unifies them enough to see the same basic thing as the same thing. So long as Trump looks like an absurd, buffoonish clown to one side, and a strong dynamic leader to the other, we're not going to understand each other. Frankly, seeing Trump the liberal way used to be fairly standard for him, even part of the way through 2016. Seeing him the conservative way is actually a fairly recent invention. Dare I say,

artificial. It's a conservative prism, I can't think of anything else to explain it.

[Excerpt]

Intolerant Liberals

. . .I have some difficult news for everyone: Progressives aren’t interested in diversity. We aren’t interested in inclusion. We aren’t interested in tolerance. The progressives I know give exactly zero shits about those things. We have no interest in everyone getting treated the same. We have no interest in giving all ideas equal airtime. We have no interest in “tolerating” all beliefs. I don’t know where this fairy tale comes from, but it’s completely disconnected from every experience I’ve had with progressive liberal folks in my lifetime. . .

Read more at: Medium

Rachel Maddow on the Not-So-Factual Politifact

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Rush Limbaugh (and his supporters) are Inside the Bubble

I don't know how Rush fits in there.

There's something odd going on right now. First, it's odd that Rush Limbaugh and his vile self have overshadowed the GOP presidential contest. But second, it's odd that the whole episode is being argued by Rush and his supporters from an alternate universe. They are all inside the bubble, using their own "facts," irrespective of what is actually going on.

I was just listening to Kevin Wall, the local Las Vegas drive-time host on KXNT radio. He started with a clip from Don Imus about Rush, calling his "apology" insincere. Wall then asked his listeners to vote on that topic. Then, he launched into a diatribe about how Sandra Fluke wanted "us" to pay for her birth control. That she was 30, and should buy her own, not expect it for free, with "us" footing the bill.

Fluke wanted nothing of the kind. She was--first of all--not arguing for herself, but for a friend of hers. And that friend--a lesbian with no need for contraception--needed the pill for ovarian cysts. And because her insurance--which she must buy as a student at their school--didn't cover it. Even at her doctor's request. This has nothing to do with Fluke's sex life, which she never discussed. This has nothing to do with "us"--taxpayers--paying anything. Here's a link about the whole thing, if you want to know more.

But how can Rush turn this into a now nearly week-long battle (losing now nine sponsors), when the actual meat of the story is 100% wrong? How can simpleton Kevin Wall continue the discussion with no idea what the story is actually about? And how can Rush's fans and supporters be standing with him, still insisting that Sandra Fluke is a "slut?" This is astoundingly stupid.

Rachel Maddow: PolitiFact, You're Fired!

Agreed. When their "lie of the year" turned out not to be, the writing was on the wall. Rachel Maddow took them to task on Wednesday night and again on Thursday. Here's her first piece, to be followed by the new one when it is posted.



And here is the followup.

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