tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post8348839937741952742..comments2024-02-11T03:50:53.613-05:00Comments on Counterlight's Peculiars: Stop Taking the Bait!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-42291638239433674442010-02-01T02:15:58.755-05:002010-02-01T02:15:58.755-05:00I'm thinking more and more about Stanley Fish&...I'm thinking more and more about Stanley Fish's seminal essay, "There's No Such Thing as Free Speech and It's a Good Thing, Too."<br /><br />Countries like the Republic of Germany have made a <i>rational</i> decision: "Holocaust Denial will have NO place in our nation. It's against the law. Full-stop."<br /><br />...yet the U.S. of A.---our Constitutional, Representative Democracy---is expected to withstand the FACT-FREE <b>assaults</b> of FAUX and Limbaugh and Wingnut Talk Radio, ad nauseum.<br /><br />Can it? Really?<br /><br />Differing <i>opinions</i> are one thing . . . but <b>differing facts?</b> [Or, I should say, people differing between ACTUAL FACTS (Barack Obama was born in Hawaii) and FALSE "Pseudo-Facts" ("Barack Obama was born in Kenya---there's No Birth Certificate to prove otherwise!")<br /><br />Sigh . . . and yet.<br /><br />"Electoral Tests" were used to discriminate in the South (failing the test . . . to be white!). The Soviet Union locked up <i>rational</i> dissenters, merely CALLING them "crazy".<br /><br />But I can't help thinking, "What if we had a test to screen out Irrational, "Conspiracy"-Obsessed Crazy People at our Polling Places?"<br /><br />...but WHO would adjudicate what's Fact, and what's Crazy? There are simply NO COMMON AUTHORITIES anymore! <br /><br />"There was no King in Israel; everyone did what was right---or Right Wingnut---in his own eyes": Sigh.JCFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-78138357417726603192010-01-28T09:48:30.507-05:002010-01-28T09:48:30.507-05:00There are times when I feel like the only option l...There are times when I feel like the only option left to us really is prayer and Divine intervention.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-6441408802674102862010-01-26T15:45:17.692-05:002010-01-26T15:45:17.692-05:00Look at the operation of Bobby Jindal in Louisiana...Look at the operation of Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, and you see in microcosm the US under Republican rule. You see the beginning of the destruction of state institutions and the privatizing of the governmental functions. It's true that the state has a huge budget deficit, but the only two agencies in the state budget which can be cut are Health and Hospitals and Higher Education. The funds of the other agencies are dedicated, and I believe constitutional amendments would be required to fix the situation. That will not happen.<br /><br />Draconian cuts to the budgets of the colleges and universities have already resulted in cancellation of classes and pending major reductions in staff. <br /><br />The same is true for Health and Hospitals with budgets for services to the poor and to children and adults with disablilties, always the most vulnerable amongst us, being cut back drastically and privatized.<br /><br />As to what we are to do, I don't have answers.<br /><br /><i>The historian Richard Hofstader pointed out 40 years ago that there has always been a dark crazy aspect to American politics, that resentment and paranoia have always played large roles in our history.</i><br /><br />That is quite true. I blame the English. ;-)<br /><br />Not really.June Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01723016934182800437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-44534850413898637952010-01-26T13:06:07.420-05:002010-01-26T13:06:07.420-05:00Will pinch this for FB, if I may.Will pinch this for FB, if I may.Göran Koch-Swahnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925549945659350649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-86884006929732738332010-01-26T10:18:06.489-05:002010-01-26T10:18:06.489-05:00Maybe its because I live in Texas and was raised b...Maybe its because I live in Texas and was raised by a good o'boy southerner, but non of what you said particularly surprises me. <br /><br />I wish I could say that being immersed in their environment has given me insight into how to reach them, but I can't. They're arguments are illogical and they believe the lies that are spoon fed to them by Fox, Limbaugh and all the rest.Katyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02610117543051640146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-17256403353966209642010-01-26T08:52:48.962-05:002010-01-26T08:52:48.962-05:00What frightens me is that we have example after ex...What frightens me is that we have example after example of [groups of] people who are willing to wreck a country and its people in order to gain power. They would think nothing of scapegoating minorities and women, destroying the intellegensia and wrecking its political and educational institutions in order to rule. <br /><br />The naiveté many moderates and liberals have is that we believe that at some point our right wingers are going to wake up, realize they are causing a great deal of harm and stop. We think that our "democratic culture" and basic human notions of fairness are enough to stop people from going too far. <br /><br />I have serious doubts about that.toujoursdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08106158181662408311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-11636399886076662862010-01-25T22:59:09.330-05:002010-01-25T22:59:09.330-05:00agreed - Republicans practice the politics of rese...agreed - Republicans practice the politics of resentment, and it pays off. It is always easier to get people to sit on their duffs and have a Two-Minute Hate than to get the same people to feel enough hope to do something constructive. For a very large percentage of people, the pleasure of hate is greater than almost any other human pleasure, including sex.NancyPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-62758188194035359182010-01-25T22:23:08.694-05:002010-01-25T22:23:08.694-05:00But how DO we respond, Counterlight? If we can'...But how DO we respond, Counterlight? If we can't convince people with reason, logic, and data, what do we do?<br /><br />I'm teetering on the edge of despair here. I've watched a bullet-proof Democratic Congress piss away everything they were elected to do. It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever knock on doors for a political candidate again--and I may not even vote the next time out. What's the use? Congress and the President don't give a rat's ass about me, and now the SCOTUS has said that a corporation has really more rights than I do (since it can line people's pockets with lobbying $).<br /><br />How do we take care of ourselves and our country? I'd really like to have some hope that it can be done...<br /><br />Pax,<br />DoxyWormwood's Doxyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10882756844690851674noreply@blogger.com