Posted on 03/12/2002 7:54:52 AM PST by RikaStrom
Here is my example with WFTD.
Back in Biblical times, the word "shibboleth" was used as a password, because people from one side could say it easily and their enemies couldn't. It identified who you were and which side you were on.(snip)
Mere facts cannot compete with shibboleths when it comes to making people feel good. Moreover, shibboleths keep off the agenda the painful question of how dangerous it is to have policies which impact millions of human beings without a thorough knowledge of the hard facts needed to understand just what that impact has actually been. Shibboleths are the life blood of the media. Stories which seem to support the side of the angels are trumpeted from coast to coast, while stories which support the other side are either downplayed or ignored altogether. (snip)
Assumptions of being more concerned, caring and compassionate than their opponents can be found on the left from Godwin and Condorcet in the 18th century to a whole galaxy of liberal-left journalists, academics, organizations and movements today. But there were no such assumptions in the writings of Adam Smith in the 18th century or in those of Milton Friedman today. It was enough for them to say that their opponents were mistaken and their policies harmful -- and why.
What we need are more factual arguments and counter-arguments. With shibboleths, we are flying blind into the future, through mountains of hard facts that are being ignored when they contradict the vision that gives many people their sense of self-worth
Thomas Sowell hits the nail firmly on the head. In the liberal lefts desire to show the world how compassionate they are, they use their buzzwords, their shibboleths, to show their devotion to everyone. How else would the right leaning individuals of the world know how great and kind and generous the left is, unless it tells them. But then perhaps what it is really doing is trying to convince itself of how great, kind and generous it really is in the world.
Sowell brings to the fore the absolute lockstep, mindset of the liberals. They are for this, against that, and it is all for the benefit of the children, facts about the matter be damned. We mustn’t let facts get in the way of protecting people from themselves. His animadversion of the liberals is straight and to the point, something he, and I, wish heartedly that the lefts could understand. To them, facts are trumped by feelings and intent. Truth and what is factually correct have no place in the feel good society of a liberal.
The more we are armed with facts, figures, truth and the conviction that what we are doing is right, the more that we can fight the lefts with their reports of innuendo and accusation, force the lefts to prove with facts, what they are espousing. Shine the light on their shibboleths, don’t let them hide behind a buzzword, instead, make them back their proofs, their reports, their “facts’ with facts. Then we’ll confront them with the truth; tell them they are wrong, and why. Then we’ll watch them bluff; bluster and BS their way back into their holes!
Hehehehe....
Can we turn it into a drinking game?
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