I have a friend. He is very intelligent, funny and nice. I respect him very much.
He’s also a conservative. Despite the fact that I’m an official left wing commie nutjob, I’m not of the mind that being conservative and intelligent are mutually exclusive.
Anyway, this conservative friend and I were “talking” on Twitter the other day about the Tea Party (who apparently are also called TPers… OMGLMAO) and it was implied, though not overtly stated that they are constantly misrepresented by the liberal media.
And, I started to disagree, but then I thought… hey, maybe I do only read liberal media. Maybe I should read “conservative” media, too? It’s a good question, you know, how much does presentation of the facts affect political viewpoint?
I mean, am I liberal because I read liberal media or do I read liberal media because I’m a liberal?
So I said this:
He agreed that he would participate, but amended the agreement to say “four additional sources in ADDITION to what we already read.” Because I think the conservative media is like a vaccine against the liberal media cooties or something?
Anyway, in the spirit of compromise, set forth by the great Obamessiah, I agreed.
I think he thought it was all a joke and left Twitter to do something far less important like spend time with his kid on his birthday.
You know what, whall? It’s not a joke.
I’m going to follow through with this.
SO, liberal nutjobs of the Internet…
I need your help.
Let’s make a reading list of news sources.
A list that we would give a conservative friend if we wanted to help him not be conservative anymore… um, I mean… come over from the dark side…. wait, I mean… stop hating poor people… no, that’s… uh… I KNOW… broaden his perspective?
Remember, I said READING LIST.
News that is read, not watched. Because we’re avoiding the crazy.
Let the cootie attack begin.
P.S. To my conservative friends reading this, if you’d like to participate in this, let me know. I’d love for you to do a guest post on “What I learned from the left wing media”. No joke. Let me know in the comments if you want to do it and I’ll e-mail you the finalized reading list.
Hmm… I’m trying to think of all of the things my father hates.
The Huffington Post is a huge one, obviously.
I guess you could read the online transcripts and reports of NPR.com?
I only read Drudge.
(I never read Drudge)
This is why I love and respect you to death. I always learn something from you, even when you’re not actively trying to teach me anything.
But Anyhoo….
Regarding the Tee Pees, I have spent time really learning and looking into their organization, because I am one of these weird people that need to learn all parts of the conversation before I make a decision. Every time I feel like my opinions and thoughts are leaning more towards the conservative and when I start to understand (and dare I say appreciate) the Tea Party, someone within their ranks does or says some borderline racist or xenophobic shit that I can’t wrap my head around or justify. That’s where I am at. Hopefully by watching you complete this project, my mind can re-open about them.
**By the way, I do feel that Conservatism and the Tea Party’s beliefs are at different ends of the spectrum….do you agree?
@Robin, Yes, I do.
Do blogs discussing policies and politics from a left-leaning perspective count? If so, there is talkleft.com and Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald.
What is on your list of conservative reading material? This is an interesting experiment, and I doubt I’d have the patience to do a whole month of only conservative media. Kudos to you!
i second the glenn greenwald recommendation! also, robert fisk.
and am too sleepy to suggest anything else right now, so i shall be back. and that is a THREAT. (because, you know, moz-lems are always threatening, just like the TPers say.)
You need to find news sources that come from the perspective of those hardest hit by the political stance of the Tea Party. Like minorities. And women. And the poor. And gays. And non-Christians. And… wow… this could take a while. It would seem there’s a lot more than four.
I wish you luck with your project. I would go insane and die. I can’t listen to people scream about how they want government out of their lives in one breath, then say the government should dictate who can get married in the next. I can’t watch people rail against a public option for healthcare because its “socialism,” then turn around and claim Medicare is some kind of sacred right. I go nuts when I see people claim that they are being persecuted for their religion, then persecute other people because they have a different religion. This kind of non-stop hypocrisy is damaging to rational thought.
Stay strong. And remember… Faiqa is always right!
Frankly, I can’t wait to see what he recommends that you read. Here’s hoping you’ll share it. I’m all for “broadening” what I read. (I, too, don’t read conservative sources as a rule.)
My favorite libertarian news source is Reason magazine, also found at http://reason.com. I think it would do you both a little good.
I look forward to reading a few more liberal news outlets. Thanks!
I was going to suggest NPR, too.
I honestly try to read from everywhere, if for no other reason than I find it interesting (and maddening, more often than not).
Reading? Damn. I was going to suggest they should spend time with minorities, the poor, the unemployed.
I have to second what Dave2 said and suggest blogs, but that’s not what the experiment is about either.
DAMMIT!
I am no help.
But I get my news from Twitter.
@Miss Britt, I do spend time with minorities, and poor, and unemployed people. My opinion remains that having the victim mentality is poisonous to growth. “I caaaaaaan’t get ahead because I have brownish skin, and my mom made bad decisions, so I’m poor!” is a whiny statement of failure. “I have to work harder to get ahead because I’ve got to make up the hole my parents dug.” is a statement of determination, and that’s what makes a winner.
Don’t be a hater, Britt.
@Allyson, Wow.
As a brownish person myself, I resent this comment. My parents always taught me NEVER to have a defeatist attitude about life as for every 5 brown people who couldn’t make it, there is always one that could…and did. However, you can’t possibly ignore (or piss away) the fact that there IS bias and that there ARE minorities that haven’t made it directly BECAUSE of said bias. For you to dismiss Britt’s comment and say “don’t be a hater” shows that you need to spend MORE time with minorities and REALLY understand their inherent struggles rather than just glossing the surface.
@Robin, I agree that “white America” has historically been bent on keeping minorities down. I think that in today’s global community, however, there is a path to success for EVERYBODY. I know that there is bias, and prejudice against people who “look different.” This is true on both sides though.
I went to a party at my friends house. He’s black. When I arrived at his house his father went into a a fit while trying to figure out, “Who invited g-damn crackers to my house? This is not a house for whitey. This is a house for ME!” After my friend calmed his father down, and introduced us formally, the father did apologize to me, saying it wasn’t my fault that I was white, nor was it my fault that he hates white people the way he does. I have another friend, this one from Cambodia, who moved to America to go to school, and later got a job (where I met him) at a children’s hospital. We worked closely, and got to know each other a bit. His family in Cambodia is VERY poor. They struggle daily for things even my friend has come to take for granted. He is working hard to bring them all here where he feels they can have a better life. He had to struggle through language and cultural barriers to get his education. He had to struggle with the fear that he would not get hired because he didn’t know if there were any Americans who even knew where Cambodia was, or how they would react to meeting someone from there. But by not having a defeatist attitude, by not allowing himself to become a victim, he has not only made himself a respected individual at his job, and in his community, but he succeeded in providing for his little brother, and his parents, the kind of life they dreamed of. He is 25. I HAD yet another friend. She is white. When I met her, she had two children, a job, and the help of two of her siblings to keep her household running. She was a good mom. She was a loyal friend. Then she got pregnant with child number three, and it all fell apart for her. She gave up. She became a victim. She began blaming everyone but herself for every failure in her life. Her sisters didn’t take enough care of her. The government wasn’t giving her enough money for daycare. Her father didn’t rescue her often enough (He paid the mortgage on her house). I tried to help motivate her to not succumb to the victim attitude, but after four years of encouraging, helping, listening… I left. I cannot abide listening to ANYONE blame others before looking inward to find the answers of what went wrong.
And yes, I agree that it is HARDER for Americans with a little bit (or a lot) of color in their complexion to get ahead, but it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE for anyone. Strength comes from within, and so does weakness.
And telling Britt “don’t be a hater,” was more about her making judgments on people she doesn’t know and how they came upon their opinions. Something she, as an outspoken liberal, shows herself to be a hypocrite when she lowers herself to that route. And for the record, I do not think she is a hypocrite, I assume she was being thoughtless, and perhaps funny, when she made her comment.
@Allyson, Your friend’s dad is an asshole. ‘
Plain and simple.
I am so sorry that you had to go through that – that shit was just ignorant and it had to have hurt.
And as I read the story about your friend who had three kids and started blaming everyone else for her problems when her life fell apart – that pisses me off greatly…and makes me appreciate more where you’re coming from.
Maybe we are in agreement after all.
@Robin, Thank you for reading that HUGE comment. From other comments of yours that I’ve read (here and elsewhere) I had suspected that you and I saw things similarly, at least on this issue. You have always seemed to me to be the type that sees challenge where others see obstacles.
@Allyson, YAY! Your friends now! Best comment thread ever. I love it when people see eye to eye…
I will say that, for the record, I definitely am also of the mind that defeatism can seep into the mindset of many disenfranchised people… not just people of color and is at the heart of their problems. HOWEVER, I also think that there are a good deal of people who, despite their strongest efforts to not be a victim, are still victimized by cultural and economic systems that are set against them in ways that make it almost impossible to overcome. All that said, I respect your opinion as one that is well thought out and certainly valid.
@Faiqa, OMG. I meant, “YOU’RE” not your… I blame the pain killers…
I’m about as bleeding heart liberal as they come, but I work in a very conservative company. If you’re looking for sources from the right, I’d go with:
The Wall Street Journal
FOXNews.com
A few episodes of Glenn Beck (keep sharp objects at bay)
The Economist
The Washington Examiner
Good luck and good for you for attempting to see the world through a more conservative lens. I have to do it daily and, frankly affirms my personal positions.
Ok. So, I’m conservative. Buuut I’m socially liberal. As in, I want government out of my home, but I think any people who love each other should be allowed to express that love and commitment any way they choose. In fact, I don’t think the government should be in the marriage at all. And, I believe that all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or “class” should (and do) have the ability to have whatever status they desire – as long as they are willing to work to get there. That having been said, I think that while your experiment is a good one, I have read some liberal articles here and there, and I find that there is a fundamental difference in what we want the country to look like. Our description of utopia is simply different. But, I love to read. So please keep me informed on what the reading list includes. Both sides, please. I would like a month of keeping myself informed. And I think I can handle the headache of conflicting opinions.
What a great idea! I would suggest Religion Dispatches.
As a bleeding liberal on many levels (and not because I read liberal viewpoints), I also try to keep an open mind on many things. Whall and I disagree on many political points, which is why on Twitter, we talk more about The One True YesToteBag, Steely Dan, VMware, IT stuff and Star Wars. Safe bets on civil conversations on topics.
I think what you are doing is very cool. Challenging, but trying to cross that divide and have an understanding of what the other side reads.
I thought that according to the Right, every media outlet except Fox was too liberal?
I don’t read or watch the news any more, since there’s nothing I can do to fix the wrongs that plague us, but back when I did, I liked these for conservative or libertarian news:
http://www.wnd.com/
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/
Mondoweiss
AJE
The Guardian
The Independent
The Nation
Stephen Walt in Foreign Policy (they’re all realists but Walt’s got good perspective as does Drezner)
Counterpoint
Pulse Media..