Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Good post Cliff, but didn't you just do what you guys are complaining about? You just stated that the radical left is responsible for the negative behaviors, and then lumped any liberal in the same boat, regardless of the behaviors displayed. The vast majority of liberals don't ascribe to that stuff. Frankly, there are posters in this thread that are damning liberals and using the same tactics they claim to be against. I hate the PC garbage that is being forced upon us by the radical left, but there are elements on this board that demand as much so they can attack their targets without reprisal. Is that really the free exchange of ideas you're interested in, or should we find the middle ground of the extremes and just have an open discussion free of the PC garbage?
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I
am a liberal, though these days I have to qualify that with 'in the traditional sense,' since liberal has come to mean something fundamentally different in the last 10 years or so. And I'm all for giving anyone the opportunity to express their views and challenge mine. Nothing beats an open and free-wheeling debate. That's how we make progress. Where I draw the line is efforts to silence or suppress discourse - which is what check your privilege, no platforming, and blanket accusations of bigotry are. That isn't just a different opinion, that's a threat to the foundations of liberal democracy. I get my back up when the right tries to suppress speech, and when the left tries to. Sadly, in the last few years years I've encountered the latter far more than the former. And I'm not alone.
So more people on the centre-left need to speak up about the suppression of liberal ideals by the regressive left. The radicals get a free pass from a compliant academia, media, and liberal mainstream politicians for a variety of reasons. Guilt. Cowardice. The belief that the radicals on your side somehow counter the radicals on the other. Simple partisanship. But liberals need to recognize they're losing more than they're gaining by letting the rhetoric and tactics of the radicals go unchallenged. They're risking alienating genuine liberals, and losing the centre.