Reply #222: that is where the confusion is, in my opinion

[Two Americas]

I don't think that people are filtering or resilient to the propaganda. They think they are, yes. Bu the reject the propaganda point of view is being created by the right wing propaganda mills. That is their main purpose - not to rally the base or promote conservative ideas, but rather to define and control the opposition. The way in which people are filtering and rejecting and resilient to the propaganda is itself being created by the propaganda.

People think that because they are opposing and rejecting the right wing point of view - as presented and defined by the MSM - they are therefore on the right side of the issues and immune from the propaganda. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my opinion.

Left wing points of view may be adversarial in this environment, as you say. However it is the environment that has changed, not the left wing points of view.

Principles and ideals trumping party loyalty does not mean that everything trumps party loyalty. Many of the strongest critics of the party and the Dem politicians have also over the years worked the hardest for the party. I have worked for, promoted, voted for, and donated to hundreds of Democratic party politicians for decades. In my mind, that is loyalty - the only sort of loyalty that is of any value. That is true in my case. Here is how I see it: party loyalty trumps all except the principles and ideals.

I agree that some people feel personally attacked when their ideas are questioned. They too closely identify with their opinions, and that is in large part due to the trend over the last few years for liberalism to become a personal identity rather than a political philosophy. But we cannot ask people to refrain from criticizing certain ideas because that hurts a person;s feelings.

Contrarianism - when it comes to those in power - is our civic duty and moral obligation to express, in my view. That will always offend those who are uncomfortable with having the premises and assumptions upon which power rests challenged. Throughout history there have been those who have resisted that and said "it seems that you are always negative" and "will anything every make you happy?" and "you are being adversarial for the sake of being adversarial."

Some of us are always going to be critical when it comes to those in power. That is just the way it is. If anything, I worry that I am not being critical enough, since it is so much easier and more comfortable to go along with the flow and accept what we are told by those in power and not make waves. Others will always be resistant to and uncomfortable with criticism, no matter what it is or how it is expressed.



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