The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #38428   Message #540500
Posted By: marty D
02-Sep-01 - 08:52 PM
Thread Name: McCarthyism ... were you there?
Subject: RE: McCarthyism ... were you there?
Doug, for heaven's sake, surely you don't think that a liberal point of view is the result of NOT reading newspapers? There well may be millions today who haven't got the attention span or even the basic skills to get their information from other than CNN, but they're hardly all liberals. I think it's very safe to say that ignorance and awareness are just as evenly split between the left and right as everything else appears to be.

My teacher (who was a young guy during the forties and fifties) recalled how dangerous it was to have blacks and whites in the same car if you were noticed by the police. Do you REALLY think that was a lie? He explained why so many Jews 'anglicised' their names if they wanted to be anything but self-employed (and have a chance at promotion, or a tee time at the golf course). Would he have been a better teacher had he said 'just accept the status quo'? I know one thing, I would have been a worse human being had I not at least tried to change some attitudes along the way.

Suggesting that liberals get their information from Jay Leno or David Letterman is as unfair as my suggesting that Conservatives get theirs from Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson. They're all comedians in their way, and I think that for someone's opinions to count, they should make use of a pretty broad spectrum of information. My father in law (he'd better not see this or I'm in big trouble) has read the newspaper every day of his adult life, but because he can't tolerate even READING a dissenting opinion, his politics totally mirror the slant of his 'daily'. He reads, but I sure don't consider him 'informed'. He's a life-long Democrat who still thinks that Clinton deserves respect, by the way.

I've been away from the cat, working for a while, but I know from two years of hanging around here that you don't resort to insults to make your (sometimes 'a voice in the wilderness') political points, so please understand, I'm not trying to be overly argumentative....just defending a damn good old teacher of mine.

marty (a liberal, who reads so much it's a wonder his eyballs don't fall out)