Reply #46: I remember that thread.

[noamnety]

Also a discouraging one, where we weren't able to move beyond attacking a man by attacking his masculinity. I read that sort of thing and just cringe because I cannot believe our best insult still, even among progressives, is to try to emasculate men, to imply they are more like women (the ultimate low blow). :(

Just like in this thread, I suspect the people in that one believe they can make those comments in some sort of magic cultural vacuum, where the words and thoughts only affect McLellan, and don't hang in the air floating and landing where we least expect them.

I didn't bother posting in that thread for the same reason I don't post in GD much anymore at all, it just seems so hopeless to try to have a discussion with people who function on the level of "you're fat" "your eye is droopy, mister mcdroopydroop" or "your dick is small."

But yes, you were right, Bob Dole WAS telling the truth. I don't know if you ever read "Lies My Teacher Told Me." One of the points in there is that high school textbooks raise us on this villain-hero version of history. I think we get trained to classify people as good or bad, and public education being what it is (a form of indoctrination), we lose our ability to engage in actual critical thinking beyond that. It makes us unable to look at Dole's words and see the truth in them, just as it often makes us unable to see or acknowledge flaws in our own candidates.