Brainpan

[berbalang]

Someone challenged me to define my position. What did I mean by calling myself a "progressive"?

Had a thought this morning that encapsulated things neatly.

My definition of Progressive: a person who's smart enough to judge when it's good to be conservative and wise enough to know that being liberal isn't bad.I know I've got more of an entry on

Comments

[berbalang]

Actually.....this is funky, I can speak directly to this.

Then again, I'm not a huge fan of liberal extremeists either. Knitting a quilt in the name of peace never solved anything. =P

My ex was a fundraiser for the AIDS Quilt project. Far from being useless, it raised several million dollars and increased awareness about the disease at a time when the Reagan Administration would just as soon have denied its existence entirely. Not all such events are extremist nor useless

[prickvixen]

You mean you wish the liberals would assassinate people, too. Point taken. :)

[berbalang]

*ahem* I would like to make clear that I am not, nor have I ever, advocated assassination as a means of inciting social or governmental change within the United States.

That said, however, all possibilities are on the table.

....Karl? Did I get that right? *fumbles with his mic*

[berbalang]

See, now, this is spot on. Not only are you putting your money where your mouth is, you're putting your time there as well. That's awesome.

Awareness is indeed the problem. Ignorance is another good word for it. Just as people don't want to know where their meat comes from, where those cheap t-shirts come from or where that cheap (yes, cheap) oil comes from, they don't really care how America fits in with the rest of the world. So long as we've got access to the cheapest of everything and our 500 stations of unmitigated crap, evidently we're fine with the consequences of our foriegn policies.

Well, up until planes start slamming into buildings; then we're happy to see The Enemy get pounded into paste, even if our Fearless Leader can't readily define who The Enemy is. First it was Terror. (So we're at war with an adjective?) Then it was Terrorism. (Which existed prior to 9/11, so if it wasn't a war before, why is it a war now

[frenchpresser]

Awareness is indeed the problem. Ignorance is another good word for it. Just as people don't want to know where their meat comes from, where those cheap t-shirts come from or where that cheap (yes, cheap) oil comes from, they don't really care how America fits in with the rest of the world.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only Right-leaner in SoCal who gives a damn about consumer awareness. On the rare occasion I buy clothes I always shop for USA-made clothing whenever humanly possible (though my favorite underwear is made in Canada), eat almost exclusively organic, utterly abhor waste of food to where I will go to insane lengths to make sure I use everything down to the leftover pizza crusts and parsley, and I see no point to rely more than I need to on expensive oil and thus want to get a Toyota Prius or some other fuel efficient car. Aside from it saving me tons of money, it's a nice feeling to know you're not just living to consume the shit out of things.

[frenchpresser]

same mouthwash, different cheek.

Brilliant analogy. I'll need to remember that one.