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But then, will you really be able to effectively argue with someone of opposing beliefs? After all, you need to establish common ground to conduct a fruitful debate -- and I don't consider either Moore or Coulter common ground.

I find this article a bit irritationg. What makes her think that we've been insulating ourselves to one point of view? Ever since I first got internet access back in 1996-7. I have been doing nothing but debate liberals and expose myself to their point of view. I cant escape them on the internet even if I wanted to. I've argued with them in chat rooms, message boards, usenet newsgroups, blogs, etc.

All they know is what the Michael Moore's and Al Franken's of the world tells them. Those guys come up with some new book or article, and the liberals are breathless with excitement as they post it everywhere they go on the net and email to each other endlessly untill someone like me comes along and takes apart piece by piece their newfound "evidence" of Republican wrongdoing.

Their fellow liberals emailed it to them, therefore it had to be true!

believe it or not, there are some smart liberals out there. They aren't all hippies without an education. And we conservatives have our share of morons as well. You can't live in a bubble and expect to fully understand where the other side is coming from, nor can you ultimately be able to DEFEND THE CONSERVATIVE PHILOSOPHY by simply hanging out on FR. Turn on NOW with Bill Moyers sometimes. Listen to NPR. Head over to the New Republic website sometimes. I don't mean head over to DU and listen to Franken. They are not intelligent places to learn the other side. You need to see places in which there is REASONED argumentation of the liberal position. But ultimately, we need to do it to a degree (doing it too much will drive you insane of course). If we do not, conservatism will not be able to thoroughly demolish the left like it should be able to do. If we do not, our opinions will not be as strong when defending our positions since we can't refute the core logic of the other side, only the Democrat Party talking points since that is what you learn to do on FR. FR is great. You get to work with others to fight the left. You get to have fellowship with others. You get to see many amazing news articles and discuss them with like-minded people. You get to have FUN. But ultimately, you have to get your hands dirty to be a fully capable supporter of freedom and limited government. You need to get out there and observe what others think, debate with them, have pleasant conversations with those who are willing to do so instead of shouting you down (tough to do, but possible). Just like Jesus calls us to go into the nations to evangelize in a world that is not our home, as conservatives, we need to go out and get to know the enemy so a proper refutation of liberalism can be offered. And who knows, perhaps we will win some converts...and friends...in the process.
22 posted on 04/06/2004 1:00:13 AM EDT by rwfromkansas

I'm with lowbridge on this, RW: I used to post to a CSPAN board, and after a certain point it became ridiculous - leftists arguments are predictable and lame because they are simply arguments to take the easy way out instead of taking the long view. "In the long run we are all dead," John Maynard Keynes said. True - individually. But it should really read, "In the long run each of us is dead," because there is, 'til the Lord's return, posterity.

Leftism simply urges that we eat society's seed corn, risking the stagnation of that geometric increase in living standards which has made the prosperity of an American secretary today comparable to that of Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901) in her time. That is the "big picture" in my vision; journalism is by its nature an amplified (if not distorted) view of a much smaller slice of reality. In that small picture our attention is focused on many things, many of them negative, which are in the big picture inconsequential.