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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Freedom and "Desent"

For the record, I am not against people speaking their minds. I myself am not afraid to let my opinions be known. But I do think there is a clear line that distinguishes "free speech" and "fighting words."

For example:
PROTEST: Leftists Protest a 9/11 Memorial


Now I see why Nancy Pelosi is San Francisco's representative. (Kidding, kidding.)

Besides making my stomach drop, this video allows for the beliefs of these members of the "Revolutionary Communist Party of America" to be known world-wide. It also informs people that the group actually exists.

The video was posted on conservative blogs such as Truth Caucus and CR Nation. The significance here is that these blogs are actually products of college republicans (people generally between the ages of 18 and 25). This age range is one of the most sought after voting blocs by both (or should I say all?) parties because they are up-and-coming voters that could significantly help or hurt a party. Also, the people who fall between these ages are more likely to participate in grassroots activities such as phone banking and precinct walking. Despite the fact that both parties need the efforts (and votes) of young people, the parties seemed to be more concerned with, in effect, brainwashing us with their ideas instead of reaching out to us to understand what we want and going from there to gain our votes. The "blogosphere" allows us to say what we want, what we like/dislike and how we feel regarding issues.

Continuing with the discussion of protests:



I actually went to this protest... not to participate (in this or the counterprotest), but to see the other side's point of view and understand why they do what they do.

Unfortunately, the only thing that stuck out to me was the anti-war protesters yelling obscenities and "you're stupid" to a man who was doing the same thing they were: letting his opinions be known. I was disheartened by the fact that a group of people who claim to want freedom and the right to "desent" (as spelled on an anti-war poster) did not want a fellow dissenter to have the freedom to say what he wanted. Instead they tried to censor him by yelling "you're annoying," and another man actually used the back of his anti-war sign to write "dumb ass" with an arrow pointing in the direction of the "annoying" person.

Oh, and the organizers of this march stopped the HIPS (helping innocent prostitutes survive) group from protesting with their song and dance ahead of the "contingent" (aka 10) of Iraq veterans who were the stars of the protest.

Seems like censorship to me.

2 comments:

DIMC Foodie said...

There are stupid people on both sides of the fence, but I think your bias is bleeding through in your posts.

Its pretty easy to rip that video off of youtube and look at those protesters in horror, but one has to ask themselves the state of OUR society when a group of people does something like that.


If you listen closely to those protestors - you'll find a lot of what they say is true. The United States IS committing many atrocities, we ARE hurting other nations both economically and politically, and more importantly over stepping our reach into other nations.

Of course your going to argue with me and say its all in the name of freedom, but in my opinion, the word freedom has been reduced to a clever political tool used to manipulate people.

There are stupid people on both sides, I commend you for going out and trying to understand what the other side sees- but I really am dissapointed that your post only focused on the left.


There are pretty radical people on the Right as well. The Pat Robertson / Jerry Fallwell circus (and if you want to argue that point with me, tell me how I'm not supposed to be offended when the 700 Club calls Mohammed a terrorist, Fallwell claims 9/11 happened because people are homosexuals and fornicators, or you can watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_EKHK1C2IE )



There is truth, and there is political spin. Your post would lead one to believe that the other side wasn't really saying anything at all. That they have no facts, no evidence, and are a bunch of lunatics who line up in front of memorials to defile America.


Those 'loonies' are saying something that I think should be properly examined (and if its not being examined we both know why $$$ hint hint). They wouldn't be doing what they are doing if something wasn't right.


You might be offended but I'm trying to say that the banner for conservative right and liberal left does not accurately describe the bulk of the United States citizens.


Most Americans still have no idea why 9-11 occured. They are told to believe that an evil group of terrorists slammed into our building because they want to destroy our freedom. (That isn't the reason).

Most Americans do not want to be at war. Here's some political twist for you. Bush made a speech about the war producing results and that the people were legitimately in better condition. As soon as the speech ended there was a CNN correspondent who stayed in Iraq and was asked "Is this true?" and the correspondent responds immedately " The conditions are horribl." The majority of Iraqis will echo that sentiment.


No one wants to admit they are wrong or give the other side any credit. 90% of the world believes the creation of Israel was a bad idea, but does anyone listen? Fact: The Red Cross has called it genocide. Your going to tell me the world hate Jews.

People out there thoroughly believe that all Americans hate the rest of the world, but is that true? Nope.


Political propaganda is a tool used for deception. If you want to know what I would like to see, I'd like to see a social commentary on both the right, the left, and the moderates and what you think is the best overall solution without hiding behind the veil of slogans that are more or less used to control people.

Lyndsi said...

just for the record... blogs are supposed to tell the blogger's point of view.

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