May 03, 2005
Among The Left Branch Davidians
Part 1 of a series. Despite the Fiberals article (and store), and a tagline that reads "Because liberalism is a persistent vegetative state," (and store) I don't hate liberals. If I did, I wouldn't spend so much time trying to figure out how and why they think the way that they do.I've spent many hours surfing liberal blogs, holding email discussions with a few of the more coherent (to a point) liberal bloggers, and lurking at the Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, and other liberal online strongholds. I've also spent my fair share of time reading liberal columnists, watching liberal pundits and politicians on television, or listening to them on radio.
I want to understand them, becuase I've always felt that if I could understand the way that they think, then I might be able to understand why we are so very far apart on so many issues. After many months of trying to understand liberals I've come to a several disturbing conclusions, the first of which is this:
Liberals really do live in a "reality-based community."On a strict linguistic level, "-based" simply means something similar to, but other than. Water-based paints have water in them, but the paints are hardly water. In this same way, the "reality-based community" has some reality in it, but reality is only a small component of their constructed world. This construct takes certain elements of the real world and blends them with strongly-held and rigidly self-reinforced liberal ideologies. In short, liberalism is exactly as advertised: not reality, but something loosely based upon reality, with plenty of fantasy included.
It is in this world of non-reality that the mainstream media has a nuetral or even a conservative bias, despite the fact that in the reality the rest of us inhabit, the media readily admits to its liberal bias.
In the reality-based community, the "evil conservatives," are uneducated white southern NASCAR-loving blue-collar idiots, who somehow find the time to balance their plate by being rich, imperialistic "rethuglican" fascists who rape the world as they run huge oil-guzzling multinational corporations.
Moderates are hardly viewed as being much better, with moderate Democratic and Republican voters derisively referred to as "sheeple," unable and unwilling to think for themselves.
To you and I, it would seem nearly impossible for someone to be an illiterate redneck and a rich corporate CEO, but the liberal conception of conservatives seems to be just that.
These strongly-held, unquestioned beliefs will be discussed in later articles in this series, and amount to a cult-like faith. Welcome to the reality-based confusion that is life among the Left Branch Davidians.
