Friday, November 21, 2008

14 within 48 hours; Instructive Bush coverage; Jon Stewart the coward

Megyn Kelly reported Joe the Plumber's Ohio State Records were checked by six different State of Ohio agencies in 18 separate instances - including 14 checks within 48 hours of the Presidential debate in which he starred in absentia.

At least some of the searchers have admitted searching out information "for the national media". This is implicit admission that these searchers valued political victory over morality, ethics, and duty.

Media, in their part of the sordid spectacle, aggressively went after a private citizen even as they avoided going after a candidate. Media abdicated neutrality and chose a side. Media were not Switzerland. They were France. They actively campaigned as La Resistance Pour Barack. Media were effective in this role, and they helped elect Barack. Had media done their duty and vetted Barack, Hillary would be President Elect today.

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Speaking of media, this is instructive: Bush unsnubbed.

One quibble: Jon Stewart did not merely play the "snub" angle during closing credits, but also prominently played up the "snub" angle during the opening comedy segment of his show.

No worries for Stewart. He doesn't do apologies. "It's comedy!" is his all-purpose excuse. Jon Stewart is a coward.

Stewart's staff researches gotcha questions for him to spring on his conservative guests. I have no problem with that. I have a problem with this: if guests flounder, Stewart pounces like a preening know it all; if guests riposte with intelligence and reason, Stewart does not tip his hat and acknowledge their superior reasoning. Instead, he retreats to jokeville. Cowardice. Stewart never acknowledges instances when his own reasoning - and that of his staff - is inferior.

This is typical of the left. They cannot acknowledge instances of their own inferior reasoning. Such would trash their self-conception as morally superior beings. Most of the left, when confronted by superior reasoning, quickly shift the field of play to a seemingly infinite supply of other gripes and strawmen. Stewart, however, has the perfect dodge: "I'm just a comic". He plays a morally superior being when he can, and a cynical comedian when he is trapped. Stewart is a coward who plays an intellectually brave person on TV. Lemmings cheer.

If you are unlike Jon Stewart, if your conversational purpose is to search for truth, then you can shift your opinion inside a conversation without feeling personally threatened or demeaned. Why would you? You self identify as an imperfect person who searches for truth. You are happy to find instances where your old thinking was misguided. Hooray! You can move forward in life unburdened by your former misguided reasoning. In conversations, you can be free and relaxed and open.

Conversely, if your conversational purpose is to celebrate your own virtue and superiority, you cannot ever admit error. You must move away from the superior logic - quickly! Divert the conversation to a different gripe or strawman. Repeat as necessary, ad infinitum. This is overwhelmingly what the left does in conversations.

Part of the changing and diverting of the subject comes from the left not really having thought through their assertions. They don't really know why they believe what they do. They just heard x and y were the correct things to believe, so they do. When they are challenged on x or y - even lightly - they have no reasoned response and they quickly divert the conversation away from x or y. I suspect they imagine - if only some better informed person from their tribe were around to explain things - x and y could be proven correct.

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