Soaking In It
In a Bundy Ranch article in The Truth About Guns (an excellent news source for Second Amendment issues), commenter “doesky2″ left this note on the difference between left-wing and right-wing culture in the US. (I made only minor edits for punctuation and such:
…and you can be sure that the author firmly believes that there is no such thing as a radical left-wing.
A leftist is fully capable of living in the leftist cocoon of our culture today and [have] zero contact with and thinking of a conservative culture. To hear views of a conservative nature, leftists have to active SEEK out these views in a few select places like the WSJ, Fox, and some churches.
In contrast, conservatives are BARRAGED with leftist ideas and viewpoints that are essentially impossible to avoid. Their kids’ primary schools, their kids’ universities, movies, art, essentially every major newspaper, essentially every TV channel, and finally the message from our government. A conservative’s ideas are challenged, questioned, and mocked 24/7 so it has forced us to really think through our ideas.
That’s why when you talk to a leftist, they are almost universally really incapable of justifying their ideas. They can live their whole life without really having to think through their ideas and to discover how stupid they are.
Rare Exceptions
There is, it seems to me, a lot of truth to this. There are exceptions, but they are relatively rare. One example is the television show Duck Dynasty, which apparently depicts a sort of conservative set of philosophies in a manner that the left can use as fodder for humor. (Until one of the stars made comments outside of the show, and was vilified for something he never said at all.) I don’t know how well this show portrays conservatives; I do not watch television have have never even seen clips from it. The premise sounds a bit peculiar to me, but so does reality television in general.
But, as the commenter noted, attacks on conservatism are ever-present, from attacks on patriotism to attacks on the Constitution to attacks on free enterprise to attacks on faith. These are not from the fringe, from from our leaders and mainstream media. While conservative messages and the notion of a limited government Constitutional republic were once common, they are being pushed out of academia, out of the media, and out of public life.They are becoming thought-crimes in a sense.
Selective Diversity
Much of this is being done in the name of diversity, and represents a rather poisonous and selective form of cultural relativism. Every culture, every form of thought, is good and valuable - as long as it is not that of a US limited-government Constitutional conservative, or any sort of a conservative for that matter.
Do you think the Founders were on the right track, and that the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence were good and valuable blueprints for government that have been distorted over the years? Then you are an extremist, not fit for polite company.
But I’m right there with you.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle