Saturday morning rant

I don’t have anything really to report about, as we’re still sitting around recovering from the cold that wouldn’t go away. Secondary infections for everyone! Now my parents are suffering, which is too bad (and definitely all Zoey’s fault). We had to cancel my father’s birthday dinner last night, as he just didn’t feel up to it. Just as well, who can enjoy a nice dinner when you can’t smell properly?


Is anyone else following this Jeff Gannon/Guckert thing? It seems to me there’s all this evidence out now showing how the administration is systematically using the media to propagate its agenda. Does anyone seem to care? I’m not sure. I think the country has too many people who have already chosen which side they are on, and are thus choosing to ignore any evidence that might possibly get them to take a hard look at their leaders. My very conservative brother once expressed it succinctly: People choose a side, and then just spend the rest of their time gathering supporting evidence to back up their choice. This is standard human brain stuff. We accept a belief, and then choose only to notice evidence that supports that belief and ignore the stuff that contradicts it. We see only what we choose to look at.

Here’s an interesting exercise: Look around the room you are in for one minute, and notice all the stuff that is blue. Now close your eyes….



And ask yourself to name everything you noticed that was yellow.

What? Yellow? I was looking for blue things; I can’t remember anything yellow. Exactly. We choose what we want to notice. This goes just as well for people who identify themselves as “conservative” as well as “liberal.” The labels have gone too far. Now, instinctively, I blame the conservatives for their excessive push to define the terms as “good” and “evil,” respectively, but then, I tend to identify myself as “liberal.” And of course, once I out myself as a “Liberal,” then everyone who is conservative only notices the label, assumes bias, and ignores anything I have to say as communist, America-hating propaganda. To them, I’ve drunk the kool-aid and refuse to see the “truth.”

I personally like to view myself as “liberal” because I believe in keeping an open mind about things (i.e. opposing viewpoints have their place in any argument); that there’s a lot of gray area in between the black and white, and it is in this gray area we all exist; that people have a right to choose for themselves what they want to believe and how they want to live; that there’s room enough in this country for all kinds of people; that we should accept other people for who they are and not who I think they should be; and that our society has an obligation to help those less fortunate. Unfortunately, this sort of open-minded viewpoint (“tolerance” is a bad word to some) gets lost in the right’s rhetoric.

I have a relative whom I adore—he’s a wonderful, kind and caring person—who is a conservative with a Capital “C.” And of course, he disdains liberals with a Capital “L.” But on a one to one basis, he’s full of love for his liberal-minded family members (this includes his possibly gay stepson, and a number of his sisters). He of course sees them as family, not as “Liberals.” No, the “Liberals” are just the TV personalities and the faceless hordes that march against the war or support choice, or the lazy poor masses that just suck off the government teat. I have trouble with this dichotomy. It’s like people who are racist, but have friends of other races who are an exception to their stereotype.

We choose what we want to see.

So this means I also choose, and I do wonder if I just choose to ignore any facts coming from the conservative side. Am I as blind as they are? I am uncertain, but then, this uncertainty is what makes me a liberal. I am comfortable with uncertainty. Some people are not.