Sorry if this comes off as a rant guys, but I am f*cking sick of the far left. The hypocrites on Daily Kos get away with bashing Christians and Israel all the time, but berate anybody who says something remotely anti-black, anti-Muslim, or anti-guy; they're a bunch of bigot hypocrites, no better than the ones on the right.

Not only are they bigots, they are A-Holes if you don't support their agenda 100%. For intance, if you say you think we should deport illegal aliens, they'll call you a xenophobic prick. If you're pro-death penalty, they'll call you sick and vindictive. This is really turning me off from Democratic politics. Can you guys re-assure the idiots on Daily Kos are just a small minority of the Dem party, not representative of the party as a whole?

Ultimately, anything like this requires that the observer (you) be discerning enough not to extrapolate the views of zealous subgroups to the entire group. Just as I keep telling myself that the billion or so muslims are good people, and to not let the views of the minuscule percentage who are extremist and evil influence that, you should continue to marginalize daily Kos in your mind.

That said, I can tell you that plenty of people - the vast majority - have mixed feelings on many topics. To find a group big enough to actually participate in politics on a national level that matches every one of your views is impossible. Thus plenty of democrats believe in the death penalty, plenty oppose abortion, most are conflicted over illegals. The continuing harangue in the press that the dems need to "get it together" and all speak with one voice is ridiculous.

The extremists get the press. They thrive on it and work for it (eg Ann Coulter). Most - at both extremes - offend more than they appeal to. So keep an open mind, and assume that aligning yourself with the Democratics in general does not mean you need to have a lobotomy and start goose-steppping. You can agree or disagree with many individuals, and with some of the widely held opinions, and still be respected for your input, if it is sincere.

I agree that there are extremists on the left. There are groups whose attitudes I applaud but whose tactics I abhor. That certainly doesn't make me want to be a republican! Nor to throw in the towel and support nobody.

Excellent post, dbciii. Excellent.

I know exactly how you feel, greyfox. And I wish that more on the left could own up to the fact that, in some ways, some on our side are just as bad as those on the far right.

But I think dbciii's point is very well taken. You will never find a group that agrees on everything. Even those of us here have had some pretty serious differences. IMO, the intolerance displayed by those on the far sides of the spectrum is among the most damaging things we have in this country. And intolerance only breeds hatred.

People would do well to try to see other points of view, even if they disagree with them, and even more importantly, they need to be able to admit that sometimes politicians in their party are wrong. Sometimes they didn't behave admirably. Sometimes they were less than perfect.

It takes two sides to make polarization, and the left is doing its part as much as the right.

well, maybe not QUITE as much! :) maybe our most extreme are as bad as their most extreme, but they have more.

The righties have tried to say we dish it out so have to take it, using MM's farenheit movie as example. Llikening the abc propaganda flick to MM's is quite a stretch. Yes, MM had an agenda, used editing to make his points stronger - but he didn't have an actor play an administration official and say or do things that were just flat historically wrong.

so even though MM is polarizing, and Al Franken is polarizing, I don't see either as nearly as extreme as someone like coulter, or the gang behind the abc thing. I suppose it is just my bias. A right-winger would say i was a wacko.

Unquestionably the intolerance and namecalling greyfox refers to, or that coulter et al do, is out of bounds. But that's just it. they are out of bounds. They don't count. Don't engage (or attempt to engage) in rational discussion with people who don't know what it is. If someone refuses to grant me any points, interrupts, just says "you're all wet" or "you're an idiot" I simply say "I don't have time for this" and walk away.

You will NOT change their minds, and you will not change their obnoxious attitude. Don't try. Even if they are hurling taunts at your back as you walk away, calling you fascist pig or whatever, just disengage. You save yourself a bout of high blood pressure, and probably give them one!

Yes, I amend my original statement. They are worse in that I believe they do it more often, and they're downright nasty about it, which isn't something you see as often from those on the left. And I don't see a left equivalent of people like Coulter, Limbaugh, etc. One can't liken Al Franken to Rush Limbaugh. There's no comparison.

As for how to handle them, yeah, there's probably no point. But it's hard to let the lies stand. I've written numerous letters to blogs and print media trying to straighten out the fallacies they print about Gore and about global warming. All we can do is try to set the record straight, but, as you said, dbciii. it won't change anything. But at least we haven't allowed the lies to stand in cases like that.

BTW, I find it a little hard to defend Michael Moore's techniques. There's enough real stuff out there to make his case that he didn't need to resort to the kind of editing he did (which is a distortion of reality) to make his point. Let's put it this way: If a right-winger had employed similar techniques to make a point we didn't like (not that they ever would do that :rolleyes: ), we'd have been screaming bloody murder. :mad:

Thanks guys.. I'm just glad the entire Dem party isn't just anti-Israel, anti-Christian, pro-illegal, intollerant jerks.

And yeah, f*ck Michael Moore. He's one of those left-wing lunatics. Moore spent much of the 90s trying to belittle Clinton/Gore.

Sorry you're so angry, greyfox. Probably better to take it out here than on those sites you're railing against, though. At least we understand . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/14/13360/6401

Take a look. Un-be-f*cking-leavable.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Okay, okay. [pant pant]

Yeah, there are a lot of blow-hards there. It's a tough environment to hang out in, which is why I generally don't.

I agreed with your post, and I voted in your poll.

Maybe you should just back out of there for a while? No sense getting your head bashed in, and I seriously doubt you're going to get them to see what you're saying. It's a shame, but, as we've said before, the right doesn't have the monopoly on jerks.

I just hope elected Dems don't give any credence to the idiots on Daily Kos. Already enough Dems post on there, sucking up to them.

From what I gather, Dems do use Kos as a way of measuring the pulse of their constituency. It's one of the more influential blogs, as you know.

But it is WRONG to sellout to those people.

I don't think I'd describe it as selling out, at least not what I was referring to. I just meant that they probably have people monitoring the site and they use it to some extent as a barometer for what people are thinking. You know politicians do that, and they use many different sources for their info.

Well, I've asked for them to delete my account. f*cking bigots..

They refuse to delete my account. How screwed up is that?

I hope these idiots realise their intolerance is just making me more anti-gay marriage, anti-illegals, and pro-death penalty.

You can't delete your own account?

Actually, now that I think about it, can you delete your own account here? :?: Probably not.

Did they specifically tell you that they wouldn't delete your account? If a member asks me (or if we need to ban someone), we can delete members here. Guess they don't want people jumping ship. The more members they have, the more "important" they appear to be. :rolleyes:

This is completely f*cked up. They banned me from posting, but won't delete my account.

They banned you? On what grounds? :mad:

Well, stick around here, greyfox. At least you're among friends.

Yeah, I have no intention to leave here, but why can't they just delete my account?