Is Liberalism the Only Side for Thinking People?

[TexasTowelie]

A Tennessean op-ed makes the case — unwittingly and with splendid irony


One knows full well the pointlessness of taking on every piece of jejunity that finds its way into The Tennessean’s opinion pages, but Sunday’s op-ed screed on the state of liberalism by the paper’s designated milquetoast columnist, Saritha Prabhu, taxes the immune system. The piece mostly just parrots the kind of knee-jerk left-bashing prattle that spews routinely from mouth-foaming commenters on Wall Street Journal articles. But what makes this high-school-quality essay worth highlighting is Prabhu's sublime (though presumably unintentional) sense of irony.

Prabhu charges liberals with trafficking in moral and intellectual superiority — rank condescension arising from conviction that their positions comprise “the only side a thinking person could be on.” Yet by erecting her argument on a gossamer thread of simplistic overgeneralizations and false moral equivalencies bereft of evidence or examples, she unwittingly makes the case for the very thing she condemns.

Let’s go to the videotape.

Prabhu: “They are trying their best to overthrow the results of an election through non-democratic means: trying to get Trump out of office with anything that sticks – mental unfitness, Russian collusion, Stormy Daniels, anything.”

Actually, Saritha, your average “thinking person” knows that machinations involving duly appointed federal prosecutors, conversations about impeachment, or notions of the 25th Amendment implicate distinctively democratic means — processes rooted in the Constitution and the rule of law. They may or may not be good ideas as matters of policy, politics or practice, but to call them “non-democratic” celebrates ignorance, not democracy.

Read more: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21004028/is-liberalism-the-only-side-for-thinking-people

[Iliyah]

1. It is for people who care about people on all level of humanity.

[S.E. TN Liberal]

2. "...liberals with trafficking in moral and intellectual superiority..."

Welllll, sorrry there dumb-fuck conservatives.

It is kinda like having a 7 foot tall person in with a bunch of vertically challenged people being said to be "...Trafficking in height superiority"...

Every metric says we are more intelligent, have better moral standards, and we have a capacity for "empathy"; which conservative brains can not process.


We are not going to dumb down so conservatives feel less mentally challenged.

[3catwoman3]

3. "We are not going to dumb down so conservatives feel less mentally challenged."

Damn right we are not.

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. Money shot

"We are not going to dumb down so conservatives feel less mentally challenged."


That seems to be the expectation of the Trump voter. And by Trump voter, I mean a person who has no clue of the inter-related impact of politics, economics, and history. A democracy needs an educated population. I think the 2016 election results reflect the challenges we face to maintain a democracy. They probably don't know what the platform of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party are. They don't read legislation....too difficult. They let Rush Limbaugh and Shaun Hannity tell them what to think. They vote the personality, not the substance. And there are a lot of them....


Anyways, just wanted to comment on your great and succinct post. This is why I read DU!

[sharedvalues]

4. Obviously. 85% of scientists identify as liberal.

Some of our smartest, deepest-thinking people, who are trained to evaluate data independently and come to their own conclusions, are our scientists.
In a 2014 poll, 85% of scientists identified as liberal. Only 1 in TWENTY scientists said they were Republicans.

It's a sign. Smart people are liberals. The GOP relies on propaganda which doesn't work well on smart people who do their own thinking.

Hi DUers!

[OAITW r.2.0]

6. Here is what Google defines as liberal-

lib·er·al
ˈlib(ə rəl/Submit
adjective
1.
open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.
"they have more liberal views toward marriage and divorce than some people"
2.
(of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.
synonyms: wide-ranging, broad-based, general
"a liberal education"


But Merriam Webster defines it better-

Definition of liberal
1 a : of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts liberal education
b archaic : of or befitting a man of free birth
2 a : marked by generosity : openhanded a liberal giver
b : given or provided in a generous and openhanded way a liberal meal
c : ample, full
3 obsolete : lacking moral restraint : licentious
4 : not literal or strict : loose a liberal translation
5 : broad-minded; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism
b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives

Anyone who wants to be the antithesis of a liberal is no one I cann to waste time with.