joasis said:
Sounds to me like you are as unqualified to judge other's opinions as well...remember, this is only a forum. By the way, what have you done in the service of our nation that protects your freedoms?
Sorry, I have to laugh at the very last line because it seems that you're asking "How many people have you killed for America?" and if I tell you that I've honestly never put on a military uniform then you will disqualify me from debate. I don't believe in most wars. WWII was one we needed to be in. Just about everything since then has been a mistake, IMO, and I don't think the war in Iraq has ANYTHING to do with "preserving our freedom." How has it done so? How has it served the freedom of those who are forced to carry 100 lbs. of gear on their backs in a blistering desert where they're being shot at and they can't tell who's doing the shooting so they cannot even fight back?
I liked the rest of your response and want to reply point-by-point but you embedded your replies in my quote so.... I'll see if I can pull a few items out and give you some props..... you're in bold font......
"Left and right tend to be less noisy, in my opinion. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing wrong with differing political viewpoints, that is what makes our nation great. I am entitled to my opinion, as you are to yours. My opinion is: If you whine and cry and bitch about our nation, and constantly complain how bad we are..then leave...don't let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you."
So you think of "liberal left" as being to the left of just plain old "left"? This is a sincere question. I have always thought of "liberal" as being to the right of "leftist." Same thing on the right, I think of "right wing" as being to the right of "conservative." So it's also redundant (IMO) to say "conservative right winger". Doesn't really matter.
I agree that if people only whine and bitch about their country, first it just shows how lucky they are to be here because in most countries they wouldn't last very long, and it's mostly people who live in prosperous nations who get spoiled to the point where they have the luxury of complaining all the time. ....also people in really desperate nations complain to the point of overthrowing their governments so maybe I'm full of bull on that last point!
However, to complain about the policies of our elected representatives is not only justified, it can be patriotic! I've "fought for my freedoms" by starting political organizations, participating in protests, voting, educating, becoming more educated, etc. I don't think you have to don a uniform and march with a gun on your shoulder to say you "fought for your country", especially when most of the recent wars have been invasions of impoverished nations that pose absolutely no threat to the USA, only to our corporate interests.
"Ok, I have to ask...you write very intelligently...so you have an education...so where is the evidence or empirical data you reference to validate these statements with? Pull it out of you ass?"
Sort of. I believe you can look that up and verify those factoids for yourself (reporters are liberal, editors less so, owners the least). You'll find that I often post "what I remember reading" and I don't post sources because I'm here to chat, blow off steam, learn from others, laugh, etc., and I am not going to do a bunch of research before I post some "factoids" that I happen to recall. Sometimes I'll be wrong. So, yeah, I kinda "pull it out of my ass."
Sometimes I forget to pull my own head out when I'm spelunking for "facts", as you may have already noticed
"I actually try to stay informed of most sides of news stories...and there again..I can quote examples, but everyone knows....I suppose in your humble opinion, the growing conservative audience in talk radio (which I rarely listen to) is made up of conservative, simple minded idiots? What happened to the left's attempt of equal time with Air America? No audience? Why?"
My comments about bias are unbiased. We are all biased. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of scientific studies demonstrating how humans tend to remember things incorrectly, hear and see incorrectly, and intepret many aspects of the world according to our preconceptions. When you and I look at mass media, you see a liberal bias and I see a conservative bias. Yet we're looking at the same thing! What does this tell us about the media? That they're probably doing a pretty good job of being "somewhere in the middle" because people on either side of them think they're biased in opposite directions.
How can we objectively analyze this? There have been some attempts at using unbiased methods to analyze news content. So far, what few studies have been done (and they're naturally controversial) have failed to demonstrate the liberal bias that virtually every conservative seems absolutely convinced is there. Most people also believe in the absolute truth of the dominant religion of their culture, in spite of a lack of evidence to support their beliefs. And ya know what? Everything they see appears to be "evidence" to them.
Most people on this forum are Christians from what I've seen so far, so I suspect that you all see evidence of God wherever you go. You see it because you believe it. If you were a Hindu, you'd see evidence pointing to the validity of THAT faith in everything you experience because that would be your belief. Same with politics, we tend to believe rather than truly listen. I'm guilty of all the above, being a mere human.
A very entertaining read (or listen) is the book Stumbling On Happiness. It containts summaries of tons of experiments showing how biased we are and how we "cook the books" to make reality fit our preconceptions. It is totally apolitical and doesn't insult anyone's beliefs or opinions in the process, which is quite an accomplishment!
My opinion about
Air America is that liberals don't have fun talking points and they don't cater to the right demographics for talk radio. It's not a mirror image of conservative talk radio. I agree more with what I hear on Air America than I do with what I hear on Michael Savage, but Savage is about 50 times more entertaining than anyone on Air Am. so I listen to The Savage Nation. Conservative rants are entertaining and they are emotional so they feel good to listen to. Liberal rants are obnoxious. That's why liberals prefer listening to a Terry Gross interview or just music --- who wants to listen to Al Franken, other than insomniacs? :StickOutT