They set the terms for all of the public debates on everything, and we all accept those terms as given.
They say what "Christianity" and "religion" are, and everyone lazily and thoughtlessly buys it. They also define the terms for what an "atheist" is, and we all buy it, including atheists.
They determine what "patriotism" means, and again, we all lazily and thoughtlessly buy it, accepting it as the time-honored norm, when it fact it is only time honored back to 1980. (By the standards of today's über-patriots, Thomas Jefferson would be shot for treason).
They set the definition for what "marriage" is, when in fact the "timeless institution" of the single nuclear family headed by a father with a mother who stays home dates only back to the late 19th century. Again, we all buy into it as accepted "fact" when it's not fact at all.
The far-right determines what is "conservative" when conservative thinkers from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley would hardly recognize what passes for "conservative" these days. They determine what is "left" with the line being set lower and lower every year. By today's standards, President Eisenhower was a flaming Bolshevik. Again, we all thoughtlessly accept their terms.
The Far Right really does rule our world.
Maybe we should stop letting them do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment