Good Point, Idiot
There was a pretty good piece in The Washington Post by Gerard Alexander asking "Why are liberals so condescending?" Not exactly groundbreaking, but useful as it states certain basics for the record.
So I was interested to see this response at Pharyngula:
[Alexander] does demonstrate nicely that many liberals do categorize many conservatives as idiots, but he doesn't seem capable of addressing the question of why they think that [....] He doesn't consider the obvious explanation that many conservatives are amazing idiots pursuing idiotic policies.
This is a problem with politics, or should I just say beliefs in general. By definition you believe in the arguments that support your side. If you believe strongly enough, it can become hard to understand why people take contrary positions. You start thinking they must be stupid or evil or dishonest, so it's natural to condescend to them. You don't even see it as condescension, you see it as clarity.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:16 AM
10 Comments:
You could easily substitute "conservatives" or "environmentalists" or "neocons" or "catholics/Fundamentalists/New Agers" etc.. for the word "liberals" above- its the tragedy of true believers
Yes, that was clearly implied by the post.
@ Anon.
True, but while I think you could also substitute "Democrats" for "Liberals," I don't think you could easily substitute "Republicans". I'm referring to the political class. There are loud mouth neo-conservatives who condescend all the time - it's part of their schtick, but actual Repuiblican office holders, it seems to me, rarely condescend. Is there a Republican office-holder who is the counterpart to Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin or, indeed, Barack "I won" Obama.
Geez, DG, are you setting yourself up or what? John McCain, George Voinovich, John Warner, I think you'd be lucky to find 20 percent of Republican office holders who don't condescend.
CG
Funny you choose those three Republicans, since they're the ones who sound most like liberals.
Snowe, Colins . . .
Interestingly, the essence of Sarah Palin is reverse condescension -- I'm so real -- you use teleprompters -- we don't need a professor, etc. Denver Guy is apparently tone deaf when he agrees. I agree with Anon #1 -- the true believers on all sides condescend and it's gotten extremely annoying.
By the way, George W. Bush expressed himself very clearly in his early years -- he had won, and if he didn't need you, then he wasn't interested. In fact, Obama was reacting to the condescension coming from the right when he said he had won -- they always present themselves as the "true Americans."
Did I miss those speeches by Bush where he said he didn't need the Democrats? Maybe he was too busy passing Kennedy education bills and drug benefits for seniors.
Seriously - cite me a quote of McCain, Bush, Snowe, Collins - any Republican in office sounding condescending toward Democrats. I bet there are some, but boythey don't stand out. George W. Bush's schtick was self-deprecation (adopting the term "strategery" after his mispronounciation gaffe.
Again, I'll grant massive condescending attitudes among the Rush and Hannity crowd. But they are entertainers making a buck playing to their audiences. Don't you remember, it was Al Gore's condescending snicker that lost him a debate to George Bush.
Mitch McConnell cannot open his mouth without sounding condescending. Dick Cheney (recently in office) sneers out of the side of his mouth that "Democrats are more interested in reading terrorists their rights than in protecting America." Sarah Palin (I realize she just quit -- but seriously, she is a politician) is cited above. When one side sneers that the other side is idiotically wrong, it's just condescending. If you can't see that, it can only be because you're buying in (cretin).
Humor alert. Don't write back.
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