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Posted on 01/10/2012 7:25:15 AM PST by Kaslin
Only a fool believes that all those with whom he differs are bad people. Moreover, just about all of us live the reality -- often within our own family -- of knowing good and loving people with whom we strongly differ on political, religious, social and economic issues.
That said, I have come to believe that the more committed one is to leftism, the more likely one is to become meaner.
Two examples in just the past week offer compelling evidence.
Prominent left-wing commentators used the way in which Rick Santorum and his wife handled the death of one of their children to attack -- make that mock -- the former Pennsylvania senator.
In a lifetime of observing and participating in political debate, I have seen a lot of meanness. But one just assumes that some things -- not many, just some -- are off limits to political pundits and activists.
Among these few things, one has to believe, is the death of a child.
But I was wrong.
In 1996, Karen Santorum gave birth to a premature baby boy who died two hours later. After spending the night in the hospital with their baby son between them, the grieving parents brought the lifeless infant home for a brief period because, Santorum explained, it was important to them for their other children to "know they had a brother." The Santorums didn't want Gabriel Michael Santorum to be an abstraction to his siblings.
First, Alan Colmes on Fox News: "Once (voters) get a load of some of the crazy things he's said and done, like taking his 2-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real ..."
Colmes was then interrupted by Rich Lowry: "You are mocking him. They lost a child, Alan. That's very serious and it's not something you should be mocking on national TV."
Colmes' response: "I'm not mocking the losing of the child. But what I'm saying is I think it shows a certain unusual attitude toward taking a 2-hour-baby home who died to play with his other children."
In addition to engaging in a cheap and mean shot, Colmes simply made up the notion that the Santorums had brought the baby home for their other children "to play with."
The next day, Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer-Prize winning left-wing columnist for The Washington Post, said on MSNBC, Santorum is "not a little weird. He's really weird. Some of his positions he's taken are just so weird that I think some Republicans are going to be off-put. Not everybody is going to be down, for example, with the story of how he and his wife handled the stillborn child whose body they took home to kind of sleep with and introduce to the rest of the family. It's a very weird story."
Four times Robinson calls Santorum "weird," using the story about the death of the child as evidence. He was wrong on an important detail -- the child was not "stillborn." And, like Colmes, he made up a mocking detail -- that they took the child home "to kind of sleep with."
The meanness of these comments is self-evident, as Alan Colmes realized and later apologized to Santorum. Robinson, on the other hand, never apologized -- as RealClearPolitics, which has no political agenda, correctly reported -- even though repeatedly challenged to do so on MSNBC.
I raise these issues for only one reason: to provide further evidence of my belief that leftism makes more than a few of its adherents meaner people.
I have had many interactions with Alan Colmes, and while we always differ, I never found him to be mean-spirited. I still don't think he is mean-spirited, and though I am not the directly offended party, like Santorum, I accept his apology, because I believe he meant it.
So why did he say what he said?
Because leftism fills many of its adherents with contempt and hatred. It takes a person of great character and self-control to continually imbibe and mouth the mantras of the left -- that everyone on the right is sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, islamophobic, racist and bigoted -- and not become a meaner human being. If I believed just about everyone with left-wing views was despicable, I would be meaner, too.
In a previous column, I wrote about Thomas Friedman making one of the classic anti-Semitic libels when he wrote that the reason the Senate and the House gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing ovations was because "that ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."
How does a Jew write an anti-Semitic libel? Because he's on the left.
That was the reason Rep. Andre Carson said that members of Congress who support the Tea Party want to see blacks "hanging on a tree." Because he's on the left.
Leftists' meanness toward those with whom they differ has no echo on the normative right. Those on the left need to do some soul-searching. Because as long as they continue to believe that people on the right are not merely wrong but vile, they will get increasingly mean. The problem for the left, however, is that the moment it stops painting the right as vile, it has to argue the issues.
My boss started her when Kery was running. She told us she was voting for him and she has hated me ever since.
In every way, she’s a no class creep.
Casual, moderate "social" liberals can be pretty nice people, much of the time. But they do tend to bristle when you challenge their secular faith. And it is in fact a substitute religion for many.
But those who are consumed with the "cause" (such as college professors, political organizers and agitators) become ever more mean and more gratuitously cruel over time. Such people include our President, who I believe is quite capable of things many people would be frightened to even suspect. Look in his eyes when he speaks about Republicans and conservatives and tell me I'm wrong.
Read “You can still trust the communists to be communists” and you’ll understand the left better.
“anyway, on the day I returned to work after my mom’s hospital stay and subsequent problems, the first thing my boss went out of her way to come and tell me was: “You forgot to turn on the copier when you came in this morning!””
There is a lot of small evil out there that is intensely evil. I had a homosexual supervisor one time, and you talk about living in hell. That faygo resented my masculinity and targeted me every day I worked in that office.
What you went though was absolutely horrible...it’s a shame but the evil is out there. I don’t trust in man, I trust in God.
It’s almost terrifying how deeply committed they are to projection.
I have an old friend who’s a stereotypical liberal. When we first met, more than 20 years ago, we were college freshmen and we both had a lot of empty headed beliefs.
As time went on, and as I matured, I examined by beliefs by exposing myself to alternate ideas and weighed them for truth and logic. Today, I’m a Conservative Catholic, and he’s still the same empty headed person he was 20 years ago. Yet, he’s told me on several occasions, that I am the one who is closed minded.
He once told me that he wished someone would assassinate President Bush (43) and was literally shaking with rage, teeth clenched. I responded “don’t you think that’s a little severe?” to which he said, “I can see this is a very emotional issue for you, I’ll stop discussing it.”
He somehow has drawn the conclusion that Conservatives are obsessed with controlling other peoples lives. Of course he gave the “abortion” example, but was unable to process the idea that the motivation could be saving the life of an innocent. When I suggested that maybe it was the other way around and listed speech codes, restrictions on gun ownership, light bulbs, dietary restrictions, etc. he replied that those were “good” things so it’s okay.
I recently told my daughter that liberals were like sleep-walkers: They live in their own world which looks nothing like the real world, are animated by things that make no sense, and if you try to wake them up (with facts) they can become at best very upset, and at worst, violent.
My words leave me, but I am glad your mother made it through. I do hope you find a better job. Your boss is also a Loogan meaning an unsophisticated yokel, or whatever the female version of it is
And this is why liberalism is such an easy sell. The “generosity” of wanting to control other people’s money and actions “for the betterment of all” grants them a feeling of (false) virtue.
Tell a fool that he can be greedy and vain, and disguise it as probity, and you have a new liberal convert.
We are saddled with a whole camp of “respectable conservatives” whose first duty is to remind us of the moral superiority of the left, and the second duty is to never ever question the Left merely accept what they say at face value.
On Christmas, I would always buy a small box of candy for the bosses. It's candy that's too expensive for me in my own household, but makes a nice holiday gift. It's not a lot but it's what I could afford and I DID think of them on the holiday. Who doesn't like candy?
On the third year I gave it to my boss (the witch who does nothing to deserve a gift) and I said ‘Merry Christmas’.
She said: “Oh...I guess this is your usual.”
Not, “Thanks for the gift, we really enjoy the candy”
No class at all. Needless to say, I don't bother getting her a gift anymore.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2830740/posts
This previous posting on FR pretty much sums it up.
What do you call a liberal who sees racism everywhere? Enlightened!
(Think about it...)
Your boss, besides what others have said....sounds like a NARCISSIST, a mean one.
I could never say here what I really think of her, and get away with it!
I call the conservative "awake and situationally aware" ... I call the liberal "delusional".
But then, I'm not a liberal.
I'm awake, and situationally aware.
I am sure that she is Liberal BECAUSE she has no compassion and certainly NO CLASS!
No wonder. Liberalism provides a cover and a shield to the compassionless and the mean.
Why? Because of its politicization of morals. If you're a liberal, there's no need to be moral at all in everyday life. All you have to do is fall into line with the liberal talking points. If you say you don't mind paying taxes because you "support the disadvantaged," if you use the right euphemisms, if you lend lip service to the right causes, you're adjudged moral. Even if you're rotten in everyday life.
Better yet: if you're mean-spirited, liberalism has use for you. Looking for an excuse to pick on someone? Find "subtle racism." Looking for an excuse to stereotype someone you don't like? As long as that person votes Republican, you can be as hateful as you want. The only check is picking on someone from a protected group. That's verboten, but restraining yourself gives you the chance to flatter yourself about how good and moral you are. Solely because you acted civilly, something that un-mean people find easy to do.
Add to that the liberal habit of projection. I've long had the suspicion that projection developed as a way to shame the liberal ranks, but it's gone beyond that.
“I’m really a caring, compassionate person. I just act like a bat-s##t bi-yatch.”
No joke, no lie, I live and work in the SF Bay Area: if only I had a dime for every moral midget I’ve met who use their politics as a substitute for character.
I’m sorry your boss is what she is-having someone like that in your life can be draining. Just remember, though, at the end of the day she has to go home with herself.
My best for your Mom, we’re waiting on a loved one (Grandmother) ourselves.
Coming in here is like walking in a mine field. There are trip wires all over the place.
My boss is on a power trip and loves f’ing with me over everything.
If I am wrong, I am wrong, and if I am right, I am wrong... so I just shut up and let her kick s^%$ in my face daily. Walking through the door is like a general anesthetic... I go numb.
Wow! You’ve got me counting my lucky stars I never had a workplace like that!
Hang in there. For what it’s worth, I will pray for you.
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