How the media pushes an agenda subtly

polgara said:

Greetings, Jack. :2wave:

Being a little weary of politics at the moment, I'm having an Easter egg hunt this afternoon for the children of the children that used to have so much fun finding the eggs I had hidden all over my property for them! *sigh* Time marches on, but children don't change much - they still enjoy fun and games with lots of "prizes" for everyone, don't they, even when some of them are adults now? :lamo

I have asked the Deities that control the weather to please hold off on the rain we are predicted to get, so maybe my wish will be granted since I did nicely point out that this is a once-a-year event that loses something if it has to be rescheduled. Like you say - we shall see. :shock:

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Edit: The "hunt" was successful! There were nine children, the oldest 7YO, the youngest 4YO, and they all carried bags to put their "found" eggs in. Some eggs had money in them, the rest had "prize" printed on a piece of paper. Amusingly, the squirt guns were the favorite prize, with all the rest of the prizes quickly and eagerly chosen till the table was bare. The temperature was around 76 degrees and sunny.

Now, at 17:45, it's just starting to sprinkle hard, so the climate gods cooperated to make it a fun day for the children, with lots of new toys for them to take home to play with. One little girl told me as she looked around the table - "this is wonnerful, just wonnerful," - which made all my work of hiding over 100 eggs all over the place over the past several days and getting all the prizes displayed on the table - worthwhile, and the big hugs were very nice, too! :thumbs:

My neighbors came over to watch the festivities, and one of them works for Budweiser, which he brought for everyone, so the beer drinkers all had a good time, too! I'm didn't have a beer, since I was wearing a rabbit costume and everyone knows that rabbits don't drink beer!!, but that's okay - I'm having a bourbon and water now as I post! :lamo

Its called social engineering

Nickyjo said:

Don't be naive... We are all dependent on government one way or the other.

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that's a pathetic way of justifying spending one's life attached to the public umbilical cord

Just a suggestion for everyone who gets bent out of shape over "liberal Hollywood" and such.

Watch Big Bang Theory and laugh. Happy people live longer and better than those who get their panties in a bunch over the slightest thing.:3oops:

Jack Hays said:

Well, no. Neither sees the world for what it is.

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Liberals and moderates represent most scientists. Only 6% of American scientists self identify as conservatives. Science is the systematic pursuit of knowledge about the real world. It's easy to draw conclusions from those statistics. There is little ambiguity.

Nickyjo said:

Don't be naive... We are all dependent on government one way or the other.

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Which is merely to say we are all dependent upon the greater society we live in for our advanced life styles and high quality of life.

Russell797 said:

Liberals and moderates represent most scientists. Only 6% of American scientists self identify as conservatives. Science is the systematic pursuit of knowledge about the real world. It's easy to draw conclusions from those statistics. There is little ambiguity.

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This post amounts to your concession. The exchange was about liberals and conservatives. Now you've tried to sneak "moderates" into it. Consider yourself caught in the act.

Jack Hays said:

The scholarly literature is quite clear on this point.

Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals - The New York Times

www.nytimes.com/.../conservatives-are-happier-and-extremists-are-happiest-of-all.ht...


Jul 8, 2012 - WHO is happier about life — liberals or conservatives? The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature ...

WHO is happier about life — liberals or conservatives? The answer might seem straightforward. After all, there is an entire academic literature in the social sciences dedicated to showing conservatives as naturally authoritarian, dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity, fearful of threat and loss, low in self-esteem and uncomfortable with complex modes of thinking. And it was the candidate Barack Obama in 2008 who infamously labeled blue-collar voters “bitter,” as they “cling to guns or religion.” Obviously, liberals must be happier, right?
Wrong. Scholars on both the left and right have studied this question extensively, and have reached a consensus that it is conservatives who possess the happiness edge. Many data sets show this. For example, the Pew Research Center in 2006 reported that conservative Republicans were 68 percent more likely than liberal Democrats to say they were “very happy” about their lives. This pattern has persisted for decades. The question isn’t whether this is true, but why. . . .

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More evidence that conservatives are more inclined to view the world on their terms. They think it should be as they would like it to be. Liberals on the other hand view the world with the cold hard fact that existence is not constructed for benefit of human beings. That can be a bit depressing. We die, things go wrong. The conservative thinks that's because WE don't do things right and that there is A right way. The liberal recognizes that we must conform to reality, not the other way around. Conservatives are better at burying their heads in the sand. Ignorance is bliss. Liberals confront things and seek to address recognized problems. Right wing conservatives pray and go to church, liberals do science. Conservatives reject science on many fronts, in favor of their religious beliefs and larger ideology. It's enough to drive us liberals to despair!

Jack Hays said:

This post amounts to your concession. The exchange was about liberals and conservatives. Now you've tried to sneak "moderates" into it. Consider yourself caught in the act.

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Oh really? Even moderate Republicans are deemed RINOS by the far right conservatives. They are liberal compared to the far right which happens to have taken over the political landscape. Liberal and conservative are relative terms. You seem to prefer to us them as strict lines drawn in the sand....That's another form of conservative ideology...a dislike for the fuzziness, gradation or continuum of reality. Everything must be seen as discreet and well defined without ambiguity....must be very comforting.

Russell797 said:

More evidence that conservatives are more inclined to view the world on their terms. They think it should be as they would like it to be. Liberals on the other hand view the world with the cold hard fact that existence is not constructed for benefit of human beings. That can be a bit depressing. We die, things go wrong. The conservative thinks that's because WE don't do things right and that there is A right way. The liberal recognizes that we must conform to reality, not the other way around. Conservatives are better at burying their heads in the sand. Ignorance is bliss. Liberals confront things and seek to address recognized problems. Right wing conservatives pray and go to church, liberals do science. Conservatives reject science on many fronts, in favor of their religious beliefs and larger ideology. It's enough to drive us liberals to despair!

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I'm neither liberal nor conservative, but this is why I find liberals more repellent.

[h=1]“Conservatives and those on the right are usually willing to settle for thinking themselves correct on political issues; those on the left have always needed to feel not so much that they are correct but that they are also good. Disagree with someone on the right and he is likely to think you obtuse, wrong, sentimental, foolish, a dope; disagree with someone one the left and he is more likely to think you selfish, cold-hearted, a sellout, evil-in league with the devil, he might say, if he didn't think religious terminology too coarse for our secular age. To this day one will hear of people who fell for Communism in a big way let off the hook because they were sincere; if one's heart is in the right place, nothing else matters, even if one's naive opinions made it easier for tyrants to murder millions.”[/h]
― Joseph Epstein

Russell797 said:

Oh really? Even moderate Republicans are deemed RINOS by the far right conservatives. They are liberal compared to the far right which happens to have taken over the political landscape. Liberal and conservative are relative terms. You seem to prefer to us them as strict lines drawn in the sand....That's another form of conservative ideology...a dislike for the fuzziness, gradation or continuum of reality. Everything must be seen as discreet and well defined without ambiguity....must be very comforting.

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I'm neither conservative nor liberal, in fact I'm one of those moderates. But I know slippery argumentation when I see it.

Jack Hays said:

I'm neither conservative nor liberal, in fact I'm one of those moderates. But I know slippery argumentation when I see it.

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Sure. I guess you are a "moderate" who plays a hard-right conservative on these boards.:lol:

Russell797 said:

Liberals and moderates represent most scientists. Only 6% of American scientists self identify as conservatives. Science is the systematic pursuit of knowledge about the real world. It's easy to draw conclusions from those statistics. There is little ambiguity.

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many scientists are publicly funded. many scientists reject the myth of religion and will identify with "liberals" on social issues as do many of us who are libertarians. Liberals like to pretend that on some policy issues, they have facts on their side which is complete bunk. Income redistribution, more government, gun bans, increasing union membership etc have no scientific argument in their favor.

RickJames3000 said:

Sure. I guess you are a "moderate" who plays a hard-right conservative on these boards.:lol:

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Well it's closer to reality than hard left posters who won't admit to being so.

RickJames3000 said:

Sure. I guess you are a "moderate" who plays a hard-right conservative on these boards.:lol:

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Whatever you say. You'll need to explain when it became hard right to be pro-choice, to oppose the Freedom Caucus and not to regard the federal government as the enemy.