Are we as obnoxious as the other side??????

[lisa58]

....tonight I heard a right-wing devotee say that he wouldn't take anything Moveon.org said seriously...have we cancelled each other out?

I wouldn't take anything the Heritage Society seriously or AEI or those people who never want to pay taxes.

Truth matters to me.

Am I just a sucker or do I actually stand for something?

[KoKo]

1. We stand as the TRUTH and INVESTIGATION against their LIES & Think Tanks who run them...

It's been a battle for over a decade against their lies and the powers behind the lies.

Others here might have more detailed information. I'm just giving you the quick explanation.

NO we are NOT LIKE THEM...even though we have trolls here from their side...the core of DU is NOT them!

[Mojambo]

2. Probably, but we're MUCH better looking. n/t

[Jennicut]

22. And a helluva lot more fun.

:)

[elocs]

3. We are certainly as self righteous and covinced we are correct as the other side.

We are blind to our own flaws although we are quick to point them out in others.

[Texasgal]

4. And we have better cookies!

:hippie:

[Juche]

5. Depends on the source

Many right wing devotees reject everything but fox news as liberal. They even discount network news and CNN.

Liberals, in my experience, discount conservative media outlets but are comfortable with the non-biased ones (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, BBC, etc). Conservatives denounce all media outlets except the conservative ones. That alone should tell you something (liberals listen to both news that is biased in their favor and unbiased news, conservatives only listen to biased news).

I see shrill responses from liberals, but honestly anti-intellectualism seems to be worse on the right. That isn't to say we are above it, but I wouldn't lump Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly (who lie every week) with someone like Olbermann. If Olbermann started lying every show, then yeah the comparison would hold. But off the top of my head, I can't think of any media outlets on the left where lying every day is acceptable the way it is acceptable for media outlets on the right.

[Posteritatis]

6. Sometimes, probably

And I don't dare exclude myself from that.

I do think the natures of our respective obnoxiositudes probably don't overlap as often as some people who'd otherwise agree that we are would suggest, though.

And it's possible to stand for something and still be a sucker; I stand for, or against, many things, but I'm also aware there's some subjects where I just turn my brain off, even if I shouldn't.

(I'd also love to see the answers to this question if posed on The Other Site.)

[Hello_Kitty]

7. They find the most extreme and obscure example of something "our side" has done

And draw a false equivalence to the hateful rhetoric that has become mainstream among teabaggers. For example, Pres. Obama is being compared to Hitler and Nazis all over the place, at events and on RW radio and on their blogs. One time back in 2004 MoveOn did an ad contest and a couple of people submitted ads comparing Bush to Hitler. MoveOn removed them, liberals denounced them, the right freaked out, and a condemnation was read on the floor of Congress.

[armyowalgreens]

8. I find most of MSNBC to be extremely obnoxious...

I also cannot stand Mike Malloy.

I cannot stand most of the talking heads for any party. That includes the democrats.

[emulatorloo]

20. Most of the time MSNBC swings to the right. They have only 3 "liberal" shows as far as I can tell

That is 3 hours out of the day. (Ok yes they repeat them)

All of those shows can stand up to fact checking. None of the right wing shows can. That is really the basic difference.

JMHO.

[Caliman73]

9. Simply....No

We can definitely be obnoxious and in your face. The extremes on both ends tend to be as aggressive and annoying as each other in their rhetoric. However,the major difference is that progressives tend to be more about trial and error, meaning that we can admit when something we were doing isn't working. We also know how to apologize and think that it is necessary sometimes. People on the right are usually devoid of those qualities.

I think we stand for Progress. We stand for improving society. We don't always succeed, but we try. Conservatives on the other hand stand for keeping the status quo of a mythincal bygone era, an era where women and people of color had little power and little voice.

[unpossibles]

12. "We also know how to apologize and think that it is necessary sometimes."

This is a big one: every conservative sees apologizing or admitting error as a sign of weakness, therefore would never do so. THey never apologize, even when it turns out we were right about something (or a lot of things). Look at how they reacted to Obama when he went around the world being a diplomat - they accused him of hating America and making us look weak. I think that says a lot about their mindset, and why they seem to see violence and force as the only solution to everything, forgetting that diplomacy is still needed after almost every war.

[Hello_Kitty]

19. I agree. I think we're more concerned with substance and they're more concerned with form.

Not that it's always a bad thing to be worried about image but not to the extent that you don't care about real people. Liberals also tend to think institutions should serve people and should be remade if they aren't. Conservatives tend to believe that institutions should be preserved at all costs.

[unpossibles]

10. Short answer: no

While there are definitely biased sources on the left, most of the ones - especially the bigger ones - tend to use links to other sources instead of just making things up whole cloth, a la FOX, Rush, WND, etc.

One problem is, in addition to them not trusting the media, universities, science, books, solid reasoning, and apparently all other sources of information which do not feed their nonsense, they have also been told that all non-rightwing media (and even some of them) are funded by George Soros, and are nothing but lies. In other words, they accuse us of being the same, yet deny that they even have any bias.

But as a real world example, let's look at the health care debate. Their media and pundits have spread many lies which are easily debunked - and have been repeatedly - such as the 'death panel' nonsense. Or in another issue, look at how they complain about Obama's birth certificate, environmental laws, and all sorts of other issues which have no basis in reality.

Trust me, I am something of a skeptic in that if our side did that all of the time I would not support them. I also don't tend to spread information which I have not at least made some effort to verify - another thing they never seem to do.

So, no - we're not the same, although we are biased. But as Colbert said, reality seems to have a Liberal bias.

[Toucano]

11. Well, YOU are. But not the rest of us!

LOL!

Just kidding.

Actually, SOME of us are as bad as some of them in the sense that we won`t listen to reason when it makes us uncomfortable. By in large, however, the left looks for answers and tries to change things. By definition. The right is not looking to change or improve things. By definition.

[lisa58]

13. thank you ...and...agreed

[Lint Head]

14. Right wing theocratic fascism is not just obnoxious, it is

criminal and treasonous! :dem:

[Life Long Dem]

15. No, they are always like that.

The conservatives were pretty obnoxious admitting to no WMD's in Iraq.

[Forkboy]

16. Well I am.

:evilgrin:

[lonestarnot]

24. I confess also!

:evilgrin:

[deaniac21]

17. Yep.

[rug]

18. Only in GDP.

[MadMaddie]

21. It's possible but the difference between us and them is we

don't advocate death and destruction on those who we disagree with.
We are not shooting up Holocust museams or blowing up federal buildings. We are not showing up at public functions with weapons to threaten others....

[emulatorloo]

23. False equivalency. It is like saying "Barney Frank is the same as Michelle Bachmann"

Huffington did a speech on that not too long ago. (Sorry no link)

Frank is fact based, Bachmann is fact free.

I hear others claiming Olbermann is just like Limbaugh. Limbaugh makes shit up, Olbermann is fact based.

[emilyg]

25. Yes.

[proteus_lives]

26. We can be.

[WonderGrunion]

27. I am.

And I apologize. :nuke:

Apology over now. :evilgrin:

[Ajaye]

28. No, of course not.

Hasn't this latest public policy debate proven that?

We bring up the facts and are told they are irrelevant. 46 million uninsured. 22 thousand people dying every year for lack of access to affordable health insurance. People lining up for hours to get free health care in makeshift clinics that normally work in third world countries. Insurance industry executives raking in obscene salaries and other compensation. We spend more than any other countries with less benefit. We rank lower in terms of longevity and infant mortality than most other industrialized countries. The overwhelming majority of people in countries which have "socialized medicine" are happy with their health care system. Nobody in these countries is ever forced into bankruptcy due to health care bills, unlike this country in which 87 percent of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills and a majority of those are people who have insurance. Health care insurance companies have been known to rescind policies. Individual policies are almost unaffordable. Many people lose coverage when they lose their jobs and many people cannot leave jobs they don't like because of health insurance issues.

These are just the facts. They point to the conclusion that our health care system is not fair and is not as effective as it could be. They point to the obvious conclusion that not many people are truly secure in this system, secure from losing everything in the event of a catastrophic illness. If we take a rational look at other nations, similar to ours, we see that they have health care systems that they have more efficient and more ethically sound systems, if the measure is the greatest good for the greatest number.

But from the other side? Death panels, death books, socialized medicine, Obama is Hitler, rationing by the government, get your government hands off my Medicare, we cannot afford it because of the deficit...think of the children! of course, we didn't say anything about those tax cuts to the wealthy, but that's different, they're all coming to America for health care b/c socialized medicine sucks, they're gonna cover illegal aliens, they're gonna cover abortions, this is a government takeover!

Okay, find one fact there. Just one. That's the difference.
Frankly, yes, they are more obnoxious and more noxious to society.

[WillyT]

29. Yep... Want Proof ???

Go here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6381151

:hide::evilgrin::hide:

[bridgit]

30. The depth of their ability to be obnoxious is still being fathomed

[alittlelark]

31. Truth has a liberal bias - esp. w/in a corporate media structure.