Cinnamon Stillwell Retro-Ping
FReepMail me if you want on, or off this low-volume Ping list.
Posted on 09/11/2011 10:55:00 AM PDT by SmithL
As one of a handful of Bay Area conservative columnists, I'm no stranger to pushing buttons. Indeed, I welcome feedback from readers, whether positive or negative. I find the interplay stimulating, but I am often bemused by the stereotypical assumptions made by my critics on the left. It's not enough to simply disagree with my views; I have to be twisted into a conservative caricature that apparently makes opponents feel superior. They seem not to have considered that it's possible to put forward different approaches to various societal problems and not be the devil incarnate.
But in some ways I understand where this perspective comes from, because I once shared it. I was raised in liberal Marin County, and my first name (which garners more comments than anything else) is a direct product of the hippie generation. Growing up, I bought into the prevailing liberal wisdom of my surroundings because I didn't know anything else. I wrote off all Republicans as ignorant, intolerant yahoos. It didn't matter that I knew none personally; it was simply de rigueur to look down on such people. The fact that I was being a bigot never occurred to me, because I was certain that I inhabited the moral high ground.
Having been indoctrinated in the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, I thought America was the root of all evil in the world. Its democratic form of government and capitalist economic system was nothing more than a machine in which citizens were forced to be cogs. I put aside the nagging question of why so many people all over the world risk their lives to come to the United States. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, women's rights, gay rights (yes, even without same-sex marriage),...
So, what happened to change all that? In a nutshell, 9/11.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Cinnamon joined us at many a counter FReep in San Francisco. Sometimes it was just 20-30 FReepers against 100,000 unwashed maggots. Good times.
It’s amazing when a conservative “comes out” from the liberal nest, how the stunning ignorance and arrogance and childish touchy feely mushy thinking they describe is exactly as vaporous and vaccuous and mindless as it looks from where we sit.
Amazing.
If 2004 was populated with “9/11 Republicans,” then 2008 must have been fraught with “half-white guy Democrats.”
Yes they were good times, and it was great being with you and Cinnamon and everyone else.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.