"Hu also knows that the American Left loves to silence opinions that they don't like--and loves tyrannical dictators--and loves brutal, oppressive, totalitarian regimes--and that the Left controls the Democrat Party, the "Mainstream Newsmedia", Hollywood, and academia. I'm sure Hu's had many a chuckle lately"
Ok -- this is a little crazy even for my tastes...
I've seen outrage on this issue from both sides. As As weak as the left is, they do seem to have an interest in individual civil liberty issues. I think (hopefully)the media will continue to cover this, especially since it has an added bonus to them - it makes Bush look bad.
I'm personally disappointed in our supposedly conservative president for all the ass-kissing to this dictator. An apology for our freedoms? He should have turned to Hu and let him know that in this country people can speak their mind and keep their organs. Makes me wonder if Bush would have shared the same level of diplomacy to Saddam if we had the same trade with Iraq as with China.
Some people just don't deserve diplomacy. I think this particular communist dictator qualifies.
Okay. You do have a point. It is true that many Leftists are sincere (as opposed to the cynical, self-serving ones) and of good will (as opposed to some of the others);
However, remember the Carters et al. smiling for family-photos with Fidel Castro; Madeleine Albright toasting Kim Jon-Il, apparently with expensive Champagne; the Leftists' support for the corrupt dictators who run the United Nations; the Leftists' defeat of South Viet Nam that paved the way for Pol Pot; et al., et al., et al!
It's hard to know how much of such as this results from merely not giving it enough thought, how much from making a mistake, how much from merely being misguided or confused or misinformed, how much from errors in judgment, how much from bad judgment, how much from stupidity, or how much from self-serving malevolence,
But there is a pattern.
The Left tends to be controlling and selective and arbitrary in its concepts of justice, and most Leftists, if they were honest, at least with themselves, would admit that they favor totalitarianism, if for no other reason than that they distrust "the people" and that totalitarianism is the only way to achieve their agenda (one of the basic fallacies of Marxism, which the Left embraces either covertly or overtly).
I have many friends and relatives who are Leftists. Most of them are misguided. Many of the Leftist leaders are self-serving.
When I accuse Leftists of being morons and sociopaths, I'm levitating right there on the indistinct borderline between hyperbole and laconism.