Disgust
I was just trying to read Michelle Malkin, conservative blogger. I didn't get very far. I was looking to see if she had made mention of the offense that conservatives have supposedly taken this week to some comment made by California's Barbara Boxer to Condi Rice about Rice not having any family to pay the price in the Iraq war. I didn't get far enough into her blog to find out if she mentions that.
I have a problem whenever I try to listen to the conservative point of view, whether it's from conservative friends and relatives, conservative blogs, conservative preachers in church, conservative media hosts, or whoever. I'm wondering if the problem I have with them is a problem that conservatives also perceive with liberals. Let me give an example.
I won't mention names because I'm too lazy to go find this guy's name but a conservative friend loaned us part of a set of videos that she had used to home school her kids and the videos were hosted by a museum curator who held himself out to be an expert on the subject of creation science. That's what the videos were about. And in one of the videos this expert on science held out the legends of dragons in folklore as proof that dinosaurs existed during the same time period as mankind. I nearly jumped out of my chair when he said that! In fact, I probably did and probably went into an immediate rant once my laughter had subsided.
That little example and my reaction of disgust is a perfect example of why I have such a hard time listening to the conservative perspective. I'm content enough to entertain that conservatives have legitimate complaints about liberals, but they all tend to mask those complaints behind these ridiculous efforts to bend themselves over backwards in denial of one thing or another. There's always this perfectly obvious cloak of baseless denial that conservatives use to promote their ideas. They can't seem to avoid it. It's part of their way of framing issues.
And when I come across it in their arguments I'm disgusted by it. It's a real turn-off!!
But is this tendency unique to conservative thought or is it something that both conservatives and liberals have in common? Do liberals also use denial of obvious truth to frame their arguments? Any good examples? Are conservatives as turned off by this as I am? And why is it that conservatives can't seem to see how ridiculous it is to argue this way? My own experience has been that conservatives are insulted when truth is introduced into an argument. It's as though it's against the rules to frame an argument with the truth, and for me this makes it a disgusting experience to listen to the conservative point of view.
I have a problem whenever I try to listen to the conservative point of view, whether it's from conservative friends and relatives, conservative blogs, conservative preachers in church, conservative media hosts, or whoever. I'm wondering if the problem I have with them is a problem that conservatives also perceive with liberals. Let me give an example.
I won't mention names because I'm too lazy to go find this guy's name but a conservative friend loaned us part of a set of videos that she had used to home school her kids and the videos were hosted by a museum curator who held himself out to be an expert on the subject of creation science. That's what the videos were about. And in one of the videos this expert on science held out the legends of dragons in folklore as proof that dinosaurs existed during the same time period as mankind. I nearly jumped out of my chair when he said that! In fact, I probably did and probably went into an immediate rant once my laughter had subsided.
That little example and my reaction of disgust is a perfect example of why I have such a hard time listening to the conservative perspective. I'm content enough to entertain that conservatives have legitimate complaints about liberals, but they all tend to mask those complaints behind these ridiculous efforts to bend themselves over backwards in denial of one thing or another. There's always this perfectly obvious cloak of baseless denial that conservatives use to promote their ideas. They can't seem to avoid it. It's part of their way of framing issues.
And when I come across it in their arguments I'm disgusted by it. It's a real turn-off!!
But is this tendency unique to conservative thought or is it something that both conservatives and liberals have in common? Do liberals also use denial of obvious truth to frame their arguments? Any good examples? Are conservatives as turned off by this as I am? And why is it that conservatives can't seem to see how ridiculous it is to argue this way? My own experience has been that conservatives are insulted when truth is introduced into an argument. It's as though it's against the rules to frame an argument with the truth, and for me this makes it a disgusting experience to listen to the conservative point of view.
posted by Bill | 10:15 AM
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