The Enduring Fallacies of American Liberalism
Public life in the United States is continually shaped, and continually perverted, by the "conflict" that supposedly blazes between liberals and conservatives, between those who falsely imagine themselves to be on the "left" of the situation and those who falsely imagine themselves to be on the "right." In truth, of course, there is not much actual difference between the two sides (with each side being guided, in their own heedless way, by an unwholesome muddle of faulty reasoning and threadbare delusions), but liberals, in particular, appear to thrive on the wide number of shallow disputes that effectively separate one half of America from the other half.
Most American liberals are happily dedicated to following a self-satisfied way of life, subscribing to a collective outlook that carefully avoids any hint of contamination by untoward verities. They read The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Nation. They watch PBS and MSNBC, and listen to NPR. They vote for any Democrat who happens to be running for President at any given time. They eat organic food, practice yoga and mindfulness, promote "green energy," take frequent holidays in third-world countries, and offer mild sentiments about their desire for peace. They casually espouse equality, tolerance, and diversity, taking great pride in being "open-minded."
They are generally affluent (or, if not, are actively seeking to be so), and display no shame or regret at being far more comfortable than millions of other people. They tend to be highly educated, believing that holding a marketable degree is the key to achieving a life of wealth and luxury. They are attentive in regard to worldly matters, with money and security as their main priorities. When pressed, they do express a middling concern for the unseemly plight of those who are deprived, but they stubbornly refuse to abandon their blind acceptance of capitalism, thereby ensuring that widespread poverty and overt inequity will continue without hindrance.
They become slightly uneasy when America openly engages in the killing of civilians in foreign lands, but they are loath to take a firm stand against America's wars. They are adamant in maintaining their faith in the United States as, essentially, a "good" nation. They steadfastly dismiss the many assaults against humanity that America has regularly committed throughout its history, choosing to view such acts as rare deviations which are not, in their belief, representative of what they consider to be the "true" America. They are hopelessly resolute in their support of this fantasy, and no amount of knowledge or information can induce them to relinquish it, or even question it.
For American liberals, the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States in 2016 was a gift from the gods. With Donald Trump as their President, ungraciously showing himself to be both a laughable figurehead and a thoroughgoing rotter at every turn, liberals needed only to loudly excoriate him to achieve a good feeling about themselves. His temerity allowed them a prime opportunity to wallow in the enduring fallacies of American liberalism. What will they do when Donald Trump is no longer their leader, and no longer provides them with a daily supply of bounteous inspiration for their narrow animosity?
Most American liberals are happily dedicated to following a self-satisfied way of life, subscribing to a collective outlook that carefully avoids any hint of contamination by untoward verities. They read The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Nation. They watch PBS and MSNBC, and listen to NPR. They vote for any Democrat who happens to be running for President at any given time. They eat organic food, practice yoga and mindfulness, promote "green energy," take frequent holidays in third-world countries, and offer mild sentiments about their desire for peace. They casually espouse equality, tolerance, and diversity, taking great pride in being "open-minded."
They are generally affluent (or, if not, are actively seeking to be so), and display no shame or regret at being far more comfortable than millions of other people. They tend to be highly educated, believing that holding a marketable degree is the key to achieving a life of wealth and luxury. They are attentive in regard to worldly matters, with money and security as their main priorities. When pressed, they do express a middling concern for the unseemly plight of those who are deprived, but they stubbornly refuse to abandon their blind acceptance of capitalism, thereby ensuring that widespread poverty and overt inequity will continue without hindrance.
They become slightly uneasy when America openly engages in the killing of civilians in foreign lands, but they are loath to take a firm stand against America's wars. They are adamant in maintaining their faith in the United States as, essentially, a "good" nation. They steadfastly dismiss the many assaults against humanity that America has regularly committed throughout its history, choosing to view such acts as rare deviations which are not, in their belief, representative of what they consider to be the "true" America. They are hopelessly resolute in their support of this fantasy, and no amount of knowledge or information can induce them to relinquish it, or even question it.
For American liberals, the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States in 2016 was a gift from the gods. With Donald Trump as their President, ungraciously showing himself to be both a laughable figurehead and a thoroughgoing rotter at every turn, liberals needed only to loudly excoriate him to achieve a good feeling about themselves. His temerity allowed them a prime opportunity to wallow in the enduring fallacies of American liberalism. What will they do when Donald Trump is no longer their leader, and no longer provides them with a daily supply of bounteous inspiration for their narrow animosity?