On Card and Homosexuality

[netmouse]

brendand's comments On a footnote to an essay that Homosexuality is Sinful (and Homosexuals Hypocritical), by Orson Scott Card should be widely read.

The concept that liberals are narrow-minded knee-jerk reactionists who can't tolerate other opinions is getting all too much play these days.

Brendan, I suggest you send your comments directly to Mr. Card. There's a form on Hatrack River

Comments

[yuggoth.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I haven't read the essay, but I wonder if his problem is really with the liberal narrow-minded knee-jerk reactionists, and not so much with 'homosexuality' as a concept. I'm getting tired of hearing about the reactionist liberals myself, and unfortunately the entire party now tends to be associated with Michael Moore-ish activities. There is a trend now in the liberal agenda toward exactly the kind of anti-diversity in thought that Card complains about in his essay. Like any other trend, that does not mean that every liberal does not desire diversity of opinion, rather the party as a whole is showing signs of inflexibility. What's more, poor behavior (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0504051_ann_coulter_1.html) reflects badly on the entire party, and unfortunately it is rampant.
I consider myself a moderate liberal, but the liberal party is really starting to piss me off.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

But that's just the thing - poor behavior on the part of liberals is overwhelmingly outnumbered by instance of fine, reasonable behavior - which of course doesn't get covered by the press. Poor behavior isn't *rampant* - it's exceptional. What the party hasn't mastered is a way to react to that behavior or to counter the right-wing description of it.

I really don't hold the Democratic party responsible for the behavior of unruly individuals who have just reached their limit in terms of tolerating Ann Coulter. Then again, I don't think Ann Coulter should be tolerated - I think she should be lambasted and disagreed with every time she says something erroneous or misleading, which is ALL THE TIME, and I think people should protest any media outlet that carries her voice. -Not because she doesn't have the right to speak her piece, but because she doesn't have the right to pretend to be a reasoned commentator and I don't think she has any right to have the influential position that she obviously does.

[yuggoth.livejournal.com]

Well, whether that kind of bad behavior is everywhere or if it's just the media playing it up, it does not really matter because it fails to make any sort of point anyway. He did not respond with well-reasoned counter-arguments, he acted like a moron and got hauled away so he could make headlines. Those kinds of activities give the conservative party strength, because, whether it's an extreme expression or more of what's becoming the norm (and I still think it's more the latter than the former), it's still "them not us."

I'm not sure what can give someone the right to be influential other than the fact that they are influential. Power is not based on one's objective "correctness".

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Just to pick nits, I presume by "the liberal party" you mean the Democratic Party, correct?

The reason I ask is because there are other "liberal" political parties in the USA (e.g. Socialist Party and Green Party), as well as some that don't easily classify into the liberal/conservative continuum (e.g. Libertarian Party).

Mind you, I tend to consider the Democratic Party centrist and the Republican Party quite conservative. To me, the distinction is parallel to Iranian conservatives vs. reformists: they both hold conservative values, it's just that the reformists appear to be liberal when compared to the conservatives! The USA no longer has a large, strong party that I would consider truly "liberal" - the closest there is would be the Green Party, which Nader helped as much as he hindered.

'Nuff said for now... :-)

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Liberal and conservative are entirely subjective measures. If not, then what are they to the left and right of? Me? You? Everyone is a centrist when measured against their own internal reference point of what they consider to be correct.

[yuggoth.livejournal.com]

Actually I meant "liberals" in general, which means I should not really have used "party", but it's a Friday and I feel like partying.