a foe on the horizon of TLA

I am glad to hear that The Oxford Comma (TOC) is making progress, even gaining a convert on the far north side.  It's not technically part of TLA but I like to think of it as a fellow traveler as it stands for reason and clarity much like TLA. 

 It seems to me that as people communicate and travel more they become increasingly liberal and tolerant. 

This is a basic tenet ot TLA.  If we live in communities where everybody is ethnically just like us we begin to think of the other in a hostile way, as in who knows what they are up to, probably something bad for us, maybe of taking over.  And if we are thinking that of them then they must be thinking the same of us so we should not let them have any advances.  But as we get to know the other as they marry our sisters and we marry theirs, why hells bells, they aren't that different from us, there's no reason to fight and fuss and when we put that aside we can devote that energy to moving forward to a better society.

Education is a big part of that.  Part of it is just getting a bunch of kids of different stripes together in a big old public school classroom, part of the reason I don't favor private schools or home schooling.  The other thing is you learn things, for instance some history and some science which right there will disabuse you of any racial superiority ideas.  And then there is just learning how to think, not so much in high school where I remember the teaching as pretty rote, pretty much it's true because teacher says so, and this is going to be on the test so you better get it right, but in college you get exposed to more ideas that don't necessarily agree and you have to think about them and that thinking leads to other thoughts and so on and so on and doobie doobie do on. 

I want to make a distinction here between leftist and liberal.  One can be both, but leftist is kind of a position on let's call it that line, like those number grades leftist and rightist groups give congressmen as a result of their voting records.  A liberal is someone who likes to think things through, to hear both sides of the issue, to think if this then that.  I think this is a strength in that you make a more thoughtful decision, but it is a weakness in practice if the guy on the other side is a hundred percent sure of his position and doesn't see a need to discuss anything.  It's what makes liberals seem wishy washy.

Does that sound preachy?  It is preachy, another weakness of the liberal is that they think they have found the true path (be thoughty and tolerant) and they want to spread the word, they want to enlighten the well, the masses, the ones who haven't gotten around much, who haven't had as much schooling, who don't read a lot. 

But nobody likes preaching, well preaching about something different than what they believe and the masses can see that these preachers are looking down on them.  We liberals are denying it but of course we are, these people are clinging to ignorant beliefs that impede progress. 

Maybe Obama said it best:  And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. He got in a lot of trouble for that, not least because that is what we liberals think.  Of course we don't mean it that way we mean something like because these people have been oppressed by the man they fall into patterns of thought that blah, blah, blah.

And I decry the habit of some of my ilk to toss around terms like fascist, sexist, racist, like they are nickels, to brand their opponent with that label and then think they have won the argument, to brand certain thoughts as just wrong so that anybody bringing them up is a bad guy.  This is the antithesis of TLA, 

Historically I think this takes us to the emergence of the tea party, and I will get to that next.  Income equality is a complex issue and we will have to wait on that.

I am just putting my thoughts together as i write this, I am just tracing my ideas and I can see where people might disagree and that's fine.


The Sexual Harassment Scandals  are a hysteria, fanned by those of my ilk who like to toss terms around and feel so, so righteous when they say it.  Those who are guilty should be punished of course but right now it is a witch hunt.  Like a good liberal I have more to say than that, but right now I want to continue with my TLA agenda.