If there is one theme that has been emerging lately it is that the left’s connection to reality is tenuous. Call this The Rhetoric vs. The Reality.
The rhetoric of Liberal Hedy Fry's “I’ll debate anyone” vs. the reality that this woman has no intention of debating anyone.
The rhetoric of global warming vs. the reality of falsified data, politicized science, obfuscation, Big Environment, and weather patterns that, er, refuse to cooperate with climate prognostications.
The rhetoric of BP – Beyond Petroleum “we’re the greenest of green”, and, ‘it’s just a minor spill” (in the early days) vs. the reality.
The rhetoric of the State of Washington opposing Arizona’s law vs. the reality of high illegal immigrant crime in Washington State.
The rhetoric of Obama uniting the world, controlling the atmosphere and causing the oceans to recede vs. the current, ahem, tiny, localized problem with the ocean in and around the Gulf of Mexico.
The rhetoric of altruistic socialism vs. the reality of socialism’s inherent selfishness and de-moralizing effects on the human soul and psyche.
The rhetoric of principled abortion rights and reproductive choice vs. the reality of unwanted unborn humans chewed up like twigs under a lawn mower.
The rhetoric of gentle, dignified Islam hijacked by anomalous extremists vs. the reality of Islam an inherently violence-oriented religion from the get-go.
The rhetoric of gay equality vs. the reality that same-sex union at its "best" is morally, medically, socially, and psychologically unequal to the best union of a man and a woman resulting in children growing up to know the love of their father and their mother and having the deepest longings of their dear hearts fulfilled.
The rhetoric of multicultural equivalence and equality vs. the reality that cultures are not equally moral, just, functional, viable, or successful. (Just why does Mexico continue to be such a disfunctional failed-state that Mexican citizens believe they have the right — the right — to illegally emigrate into the US?)
The lesson?
Beware of leftists bearing rhetoric. Leftist rhetoric consists of how they would wish the world to be. It is delusional. The facts on the ground are conservative. And, within those facts, there is plenty of room to act with love, compassion, and mercy -- as we are called by God to do.
But compassion and delusion are mutually exclusive categories.
And that's the way the conservative Ball bounces.
Update1. For an example of past delusional thinking, visit Steyn.
Update2. For another example of leftist wishful thinking, try this.
Update3. More delusional thinking here.
BEWARE OF RIGHT-WINGERS DELUSIONALLY BELIEVING THEIR OWN FACT-FREE RHETORIC
ReplyDelete"The rhetoric of global warming vs. the reality of falsified data, politicized science, obfuscation, Big Environment, and weather patterns that, er, refuse to cooperate with climate prognostications."
Right-wing rhetoric: "Climategate" hysteria, claims of "falsified data", etc.
Reality: repeated investigations have found no breaches of scientific ethics, nor substantive wrongdoing. On the other hand a prominent global-warming denying pretend-scientist, Christopher Monckton was shown to pervasively misrepresent research on the subject.
"The rhetoric of BP – Beyond Petroleum “we’re the greenest of green”, and, ‘it’s just a minor spill” (in the early days) vs. the reality."
Right-wing rhetoric: deregulate the energy industry, "drill baby drill", fantasies of energy independence (delusional given the US's oil demand versus its oil reserves).
Reality: MASSIVE regulatory failure & corporate malfeasance.
Delusional bonus: citing the self-serving claims of a multinational company as a "leftist" delusion.
[…contd]
[…contd]
ReplyDelete"The rhetoric of the State of Washington opposing Arizona’s law vs. the reality of high illegal immigrant crime in Washington State."
Right-wing rhetoric: Faux-News hysterical claims of a "Illegal Immigrants Crime Spree in WA."
Reality: a small handful of cherry-picked incidents in a state of 6-7 million, with around 20,000 violent crimes reported each year.
"The rhetoric of Obama uniting the world, controlling the atmosphere and causing the oceans to recede vs. the current, ahem, tiny, localized problem with the ocean in and around the Gulf of Mexico."
Right-wing rhetoric: Ball's godlikely-unrealistic exaggeration of expectations of Obama.
Reality: Obama is better-regarded, both domestically and internationally, than his right-wing predecessors (the latter having lowered expectations to such a degree that getting plaudits for tying his own shoelaces seems more realistic than the Ball-Obama expectations).
"The rhetoric of altruistic socialism vs. the reality of socialism’s inherent selfishness and de-moralizing effects on the human soul and psyche."
[…contd]
[…contd]
ReplyDelete"The rhetoric of altruistic socialism vs. the reality of socialism’s inherent selfishness and de-moralizing effects on the human soul and psyche."
DUMBARSE STUPID MORONIC DELUSIONAL Right-wing rhetoric: Obama is a socialist.
Reality: Obama is not even close to being a socialist (nor is any other mainstream US politician). There was a comment after the election that incoming UK Conservative PM Cameron had more in common with Obama than he would with any likely Republican challenger in 2012. the UK Conservative party is to the right of the Blair era ('third way') UK Labour Party, which is considerably to the right of the Kinnock era party (which was the last time that party had any credible claims to the "socialist" label). Anybody claiming that Obama is a "socialist" is simply thoughtlessly parroting right-wing reality-free talking points.
"The rhetoric of principled abortion rights and reproductive choice vs. the reality of unwanted unborn humans chewed up like twigs under a lawn mower."
Right-wing rhetoric: calling a small handful of cells a 'human', and using hysterical imagery such as " chewed up like twigs under a lawn mower".
Reality: many (most) "pro-Life" supporters also support the Death Penalty, spontaneous abortions are quite common (particularly early in pregnancy) and conservative Christian areas tend to have worse teen-pregnancy rates.
"The rhetoric of gentle, dignified Islam hijacked by anomalous extremists vs. the reality of Islam an inherently violence-oriented religion from the get-go."
Right-wing rhetoric: Islam bad!
Reality: Pot calling the kettle black. Christian 'proto-orthodox' authors libelling those they branded as 'heretics' "from the get go" (often amusingly with one decade's proto-orthodox stalwart being lambasted as the next's heretic). Early rise of antisemitism. Establishment of orthodoxy coincides with establishment as imperial 'warrior faith'. Long history of 'conversion by the sword' and violence against pagans, fellow monotheists, schismatics and heretics.
[…contd]
[…contd]
ReplyDelete"The rhetoric of gay equality vs. the reality that same-sex union at its "best" is morally, medically, socially, and psychologically unequal to the best union of a man and a woman resulting in children growing up to know the love of their father and their mother and having the deepest longings of their dear hearts fulfilled."
Right-wing rhetoric: delusionally unrealistic idealisation of heterosexual marriage, truthiness-based claims of its superiority over gay marriage in child-rearing.
Reality: numerous prominent serially-monogamous right-wing figures (undercutting 'tradtional marriage'[tm] far more than a gay marriage would), a cherry-picked reading of Biblical morality (DON'T attempt to impose any of the Bible's strictures on others until you're willing to impose all of them on yourselves -- including all the death penalties for minor infractions, Levatican tabboos, etc). Also a false dichotomy between gay versus heterosexual marriage. Just stopping them getting married doesn't stop them being gay -- the choice is between married, commited gay couples and unmarried, and therefore less committed, gay couples, nor would it have any real effect on a prospective, genuinely heterosexual, couple.
"The rhetoric of multicultural equivalence and equality vs. the reality that cultures are not equally moral, just, functional, viable, or successful. (Just why does Mexico continue to be such a disfunctional failed-state that Mexican citizens believe they have the right — the right — to illegally emigrate into the US?)"
Right-wing rhetoric: all lefties are post-modernist radical moral relativists.
Reality: only the most radical "lefties" take such a viewpoint. For myself I think many cultures are quite repugnant. However you can as easily find examples that are right-wing/conservative Christian cultures (Fascism in Spain, Italy and Germany in the mid 20th century, right-wing juntas in late 20th century Central and South America, 'child-witch' burnings in Africa, the Rwanda genocide) as you can in left-wing dominated cultures.
The REAL lesson: beware of right-wingers accepting truthiness as truth, and only listening to their own partisan (generally polemic and fact-challenged) news sources.
(PS: blogspot.com really doesn't like long comments -- comments over 4096 characters are explicitly rejected, and even those just under that size cause it indigestion -- which is why I split the above comment up so much. )
ReplyDeleteWashington crime statistics can be found at http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/wacrime.htm
ReplyDeleteWA violent crime peaked at 5.35/thousand population in 1992, and has since receded to 3.29/1000 pop in 2008.
While this doesn't prove that "high illegal immigrant crime in Washington State" doesn't exist, it makes it seem unlikely, and means that solid statistics would be needed to make the claim even remotely plausible.
Further on gay child-rearing, the main right-wing 'Expert' witness on the subject has (i) been repeatedly been criticised by trial judges (Miami-Dade: "Dr. Rekers’ testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers’ beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court cannot consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.") (ii) and has himself been caught up in a gay escort scandal.
ReplyDeleteBall DELUSIONALLY blames the left for a conservative's 'delusion'.
ReplyDeleteHenry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett, was admittedly a Liberal MP from 1923-24 (by which time the Labour Party had already eclipsed the Liberals). However he thereafter switched to the Conservative Party, for whom he was an MP from 1929 to 1931 (in 1930 he succeeded his father in the Barony).
Incidentally his views, given just before the Nazi rise to power in 1933, appear delusional mainly in hindsight.