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In reply to the discussion: Sanders: 'Trump is right' on Australian healthcare system [View all]BainsBane
(53,031 posts)I would like to see you address that toward those, like yourself, so convened about the optics of Obama's speech. I can only imagine the shit storm if Nancy Pelosi had made these comments. I don't see much intellectual integrity in determining everything one politician says or does is right, no matter what. I far more often see the absence of it, such as mocking posters concerned about Americans whose lives are put in jeopardy by Trump's repealing ACA. That goes far beyond concerns of intellectual integrity.
As I said in another post, I can't claim to know what Bernie says. Truth be told, I cannot stand to watch him. As a result, my principal exposure to him is through articles like these. The few times I have watched the video in question, I haven't seen evidence that quotes were taken out of context, but then I don't claim to have first hand knowledge of all of the statements that have let to this endless string of articles. Even assuming his supporters are right, that Bernie is continually misrepresented by the press, there is nonetheless a problem. He chooses to spend a great deal of time on national television. The media is eager to have him, likely because he is good for ratings. So if the media is out to get him, why does he continue to appear on their programming? If they so often misrepresent him, why does he cooperate with them? And why can't someone who makes his living speaking before the cameras figure out how to avoid making the kinds of statements that lead to these articles? If his defenders are right, he's not effectively communicating his message. Or perhaps he is communicating it as intended.
Either way, it's a problem for me. Now I understand that for many nothing involving Bernie can ever be a problem. I sadly have reconciled myself to the fact that I live in a political culture where great men are valued more than intellectual integrity, principles, or citizens. I have learned to expect nothing, but even so I periodically find myself startled-- not, in this case, by Bernie but by some responses in this thread.
I try to exercise intellectual integrity, but I have no doubt I regularly fail. We are blinded by our biases, and I can't pretend to be unbiased in regard to Bernie Sanders. That said, I became upset yesterday when I twice saw people insisting Devine's contracts with Yanukovich was supposed to suffice as evidence that Bernie colluded with the Kremlin. And of course they ignore the fact Podesta also had contracts there, no matter how many times that is pointed out. Bernie's reputation doesn't rank among my concerns, but intellectual integrity and the truth does. I think the eagerness to spread that sort of thing is the very same tendency that led Clinton haters to spread the Kremlin propaganda about her. It makes me despair for democracy, which is my same reaction to the absolute reverence for great men that grips our current political culture.