If left voices were more polite and even-handed would America improve?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

(Watching Jon Stewart on Rachael.)

Stewart remains dedicated to the view that extreme voices on the left are part of the problem.

Let's get practical... if every extreme voice on the right STFU the nation would improve overnight. If every extreme voice on the left STFU hardly anyone would notice and the net result would be a slight further drift to the right.

Extremity on the left is obnoxious but it does not have a particularly bad effect on America. Stewart doesn't get that distinction... weird.

But since he was just explaining that FOX NEWS is idealogical but not partisan it may be time to simply appreciate Stewart as a gifted comic voice and hope that he gets over the need to be one of the "serious persons."

[AndrewP]

1. That's kind of what I've been thinking for the last week or so

Stewart's a funny guy with a good show. That's it. It's like getting political analysis from Sharon Stone. I just don't care.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Could be a defense mechanism, sometimes reason is thought to be not feeling.

reason also has a feeling component, since that is part of what helps make a reasoned decision.

Jon shows much feeling in his reasoning.

[DJ13]

3. I've run into conservatives that hold the same view

Itys like they're blind to the raw hatred expressed by the tea party over the last year.

[T Wolf]

11. Someone I know tried to pass off the Michigan assistant AG whor targeted the gay student

as just some fruitcake, without any connection to the thugs and their propaganda. I told him...

That excuse just does not cut it. Expressly because the bigotry ginned up and used as such a basic part of the republican political philosophy (e.g., see "southern strategy") directly feeds this "fruit cake" behavior. It is also not out of character for a sizable proportion of GOP voters to have virulent anti-LBGT feelings and to support imposing those feelings through laws that discriminate. Opposing marriage equality is in their damn platform! So is denial of reproductive freedom (among other rights) for women. Those on the opposite side of the GOP on these and other issues are "traitors", "baby-killers", "Feminazis", "illegals" and countless other labels that invite denigration, dehumanization, and attacks of all kinds.

And this was no "civilian" but rather, someone high enough in the GOP to rise to be their ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL - that is a statewide position. Add in the weak (if at all) condemnation by republic politicians of the violence/hatred/bigotry that has come from the right and you cannot avoid the obvious conclusion. Those views lead DIRECTLY to harassment of all sorts, up to and including violence.

The responsibility for this behavior, just like the assassination of Dr. Tiller, the threats against the first black President, the violent & legislated attacks on immigrants, etc. lie directly in the lap of the GOP.

[MadMaddie]

4. No! We have observed for the last two years of President Obama

speaking cordial, respecting the Republicans, reaching out to the Republicans and he gets dirt thrown in his face.

They do not expect us to fight back that is their perception of the Democratic party. That is to our detriment.

I have a dear friend who believes that we should just not raise our voices or stand toe to toe with the Republcians because that makes us just as bad as they are. I disagree, bullys don't back down because you give them your lunch money. They back down when you punch them in the face and say enough is enough.

[butterfly77]

5. That is the damn problem now..

most of the people with the mic blame the Dems no matter what.

What is wrong with these people in the last few days crazy talk, is something in the food,water,air...

[Toucano]

6. Stewart tends to do a little of Rush Limbaugh's trick.

Always clearly trying to excuse himself from the world of "serious persons" by saying, "I'm a comedian! Our show is on 'Comedy Central'!"

Limbaugh calls himself an "entertainer" (by which he means clown, I think).

Stewart and Clobert are political commentators. Comedic political commentators, but still political commentators. Like it or not, they have become part of the media machine that they lampoon and criticize.

Limbaugh is clearly being disingenuous, but I'm not sure that Stewart just isn't naive.

[baldguy]

7. Like sitting down to tea with a rabid Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"False equivalency" is the appropriate term.

[AndyTiedye]

8. Are You Sure This "View" Isn't Some Form of Deep Parody?

Stewart remains dedicated to the view that extreme voices on the left are part of the problem.

[sally cat]

9. It was like the Twilight Zone, watching the adoration of him here after the rally. Took a while but

folks finally fingered it out.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

10. That sums it up.

It was one of the weirder DU moments.

(And the dupes were so condescending about how they "got" this deep thing that was not there.)

[Hydra]

12. "Extremity on the left is obnoxious"

Where is this "Extremity on the left"? Most of the farthest people I know who speak publicly would only be considered moderately left before we started taking the goalposts and running to the right as fast as we can.

Am I annoying for advocating against torture, poverty and capitalism?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

13. It is possible that someone wrote something on the internet that is not about you

[Hydra]

19. Yes, but that doesn't answer my question, does it?

I have been called "looney left," but I want to know who comprises this extremist left and why they are annoying.

Consider it similar to me asking what the supposed "gay agenda" is and who is running it.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

24. Advocating against capitalism is a classic example of left-wing extremism.

The vast majority of left-wingers, including me, believe that the best possible economic system would be a capitalist one. We differ from the right wingers (and from one another) in how we think that system should be implemented in terms of things like taxation, regulation etc, but not in the fact that we support a capitalist system. Advocating a switch to a non-capitalist system is a classic example of left-wing extremism.

[Hydra]

26. Congrats- capitialism is currently succeeding in American

As it was always designed to do. If you don't like these results, don't blame it on all the things we could have done to control it. "Capital cannot abide by a limit"

[TBF]

14. Jon Stewart is a millionaire with an interest in keeping the status quo. nt

[struggle4progress]

15. Tone isn't the main problem. The main problem is that we're not

organized at the street level to talk with more ordinary people, to refine our message, and to push for concrete goals

When we organize, we'll start winning

[Angry Dragon]

16. There is a group of people out there that compare Obama

to FDR and how he transformed this country.
I think he needs to be more like Teddy R.
Walk softly and carry a BIG stick.

It is time to start hitting the republicans
about all the bullshit that they spread.

[David__77]

17. What the hell is "evenhanded?"

There is a right and a wrong. Compromise should always be only a means to neutralize one's enemies to win further victories later, grasping relation between strategy and tactics. Most of the left is toothless and invalid.

[mzmolly]

18. I wonder what he would have said about Rosa

Parks? UGH.

He mentioned history. There are times when satirists have been helpful in promoting social change. I'm sorry Jon doesn't see his own role, as anything more than a critic of 24 hour news. I think he's brilliant, but as far as I'm concerned he lost cred on that issue as well.

Off to continue watching MSNBC.

[kctim]

20. YES

You don't take from somebody and expect them to be happy when you dismiss and demean them for daring to question or disagree.

The left sells "I'll take that and give you some of this."
The right sells "I'll leave you alone."

It is impossible to change those perceptions by speaking down to people or by yelling and them.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

21. Only under certain circumstances

One of those circumstances is not a reality, to-wit: that both sides have an equal number of people being equally loud.

If you lined up "liberal" broadcasters opposite those of the right-wing, and yelled "Go," you'd never be able to hear the liberals. That's because we're outnumbered to the tune of 1000-to-1. Just TRY to overtalk a thousand people. It doesn't happen. That's because it's physically impossible.

Moreover, the falsehoods even pervade our attempts to discuss the phenomenon. What "Left?" If you look around the world, you can get a decent picture for what "left" actually means. We don't have any of that here, at least not at a statistically relevant level. What the right wing has taught America (via its media hegemony) is that the hardcore, proto-fascist right is the "center," when it's anything but. It's like being told that a habanero chile is "mild" and then finding out there are blisters forming inside your mouth as you run screaming to do something about the burn.

[LeftinOH]

22. There aren't nearly enough loud & brassy voices on the left: As long

as they keep their facts straight (which would distinguish them from the right)- I'd be perfectly happy if there were more of them.

[Zoeisright]

23. Hell no. If we weaken our message any more, it will disappear entirely.

They're a bunch of screaming, lying bullies with guns and the microphone. Hitting them hard is the only way to fight them.

[UTUSN]

25. Answer: Taking it to the logical extreme, Lefties really would end up in camps/gassed. n/t