We pardon this lecture on political civility...

[Landslide Lyndon]

The only defender of the truthers on this forum was Libertas, all left wingers mocked them.

What does this forum have to do with anything? Majority of truthers are/were definitely left-wingers, although obviously the movement attracted some libertarian and paleo paranoids as well.

I'm pretty sure that most "truthers" would be libertarian/Ron Paul types. Not liking George W. Bush does not necessarily make one a left-winger.

I think the left wing position on the War on Terror is that it's a War for Oil.  But that does not necessarily entail a 9/11 conspiracy.

There were some truthers in the left too but I don't remember any of them being elected in congress or commanding the respect of the Democratic establishment.

Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel...

McKinney was thrown out from the party and Gravel certainly commands no respect from anyone in the party establishment.

[Хahar 🤔]

OK so what does that make the ratio of stupid signs in relation to teabagger stupid signs? 1:1000?

Both sides have probably equal proportions of their protestors with inappropriate signs.

Don't claim false equivalence.

[Phony Moderate]

OK so what does that make the ratio of stupid signs in relation to teabagger stupid signs? 1:1000?

Wait, what? This has to be one of them, right? It's an extremely inappropriate and inaccurate sign. Who else would could possibly be responsible for it? I know that the Left, after lecturing America about the need to tone down the nasty rhetoric, would never stoop this low. Ever.

Okay, you got us.  It's ok to call Obama a Nazi Muslim now.

You've never heard me say that or justify anyone saying that. In fact, I'm always a major eye roller at that nonsense. I'm extremely embarrassed whenever I hear people say he's a Nazi, not a natural born citizen, a Muslim, etc.

You're intense.

[Boris]

I doubt there's any scientific means to determine which "side" has the most "offensive" signs and slogans (although I'd be willing to bet the visibility of each side's "offensive" rhetoric intensifies  when they're out of power), but hey, continue wasting a beautiful Saturday afternoon or night arguing about such pointless things. And I'll continue to waste mine chastising y'all for it

Seriously though, a lot of the protestors are teachers, right? Ergo, they should be able to do math. Why not hold up signs with the math proving that Walker's budget claims are bogus (if it is)? And why don't the counter-protestors do the same, except in support of Walker's budget claims? I mean, we're not in 7th grade anymore; intellectualism is pretty sexy.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Most people are political idiots, let's just leave it at that.

[Boris]

[Brittain33]

Truthers were banished from Daily Kos. Think about a parallel situation about birthers on the right...

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The truth is a combination of what Inks said and what EMD/DeadFlagBlues said.


The arguement that tea party protestors are less intelligent then leftwing protestors is impossible to prove conclusively in any way. Only a partisan bias can produce anything close to a sure way for your to "know" one way or the other for sure, as some of the people in this thread claim to know.


It has been said that Liberal protestors, behave like wildchildren in terms of cleaning up after their messes whereas Tea Party Protestors aren't so disrespectfull to the environment. oh, the irony if so. Of course the only sources I have are indirect anecdotal stories about a select few events and to make a conclusive deduction from such a limit pool of evidence would be irresponsible.

[Keystone Phil]

So because some Wisconcin protesters made themselves a dumb sign, all the Tea Party signs now are okay?

No, the point is that both sides can make really dumb signs.

So because some Wisconcin protesters made themselves a dumb sign, all the Tea Party signs now are okay?

In fairness, that doesn't seem to be Phil's point. Rather it seems to be that there are stupids on both sides.

Thank you.

[Lunar]

Truthers were banished from Daily Kos. Think about a parallel situation about birthers on the right...

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/02/12/vigilance-im-banning-birfers-truthers-and-groups-affiliated-therewith/

??

[Brandon H]

OK so what does that make the ratio of stupid signs in relation to teabagger stupid signs? 1:1000?

Both sides have probably equal proportions of their protestors with inappropriate signs.

Very unlikely. There is no Birther equivalent among left-wingers and the anti-Walker people for example.

Truthers?

Some of the things Bush has been called by the left are pretty hateful, though some of it is true (and probably should just be express in a less hostile way). (And some applies to Obama, but he gets a pass on it.)

[Roemerista]

Generally Political signs are dumb, so "making a few" is an understatement.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-15-photos-from-wisconsin-hate.html
The most offensive is obviously Justin Beeber, or however you spell his name.

[Redalgo]

Most people are biased or poorly educated enough on political matters that they seek out ways to rationalize how the group they associate with is intellectually and morally superior to the opposition - even if this demands that they ignore or apply a double-standard to folks in their own faction who say embarrassing or hateful things.

There will always be some bad apples among activists since one need not be a respectful person or well versed in politics to get passionate about an issue, shout about it, and hold up a placard. What seems to happen too often is that the opposition to any given group looks at these kinds of bad apples and uses them to stereotype what the rest of the people in their organization must be like - setting aside the reality that most of the group is often more polite, some of the hardliners are very intellectual, and that a lot of the people are more moderate.

In this sense people can easily become prejudiced along organizational or ideological lines.

[Brittain33]

Let's talk about equivalence and "both sides do it equally."

Does anyone remember the moveon.org commercial competition? People were invited to submit commercials opposed to George W. Bush to their website for moveon to run during the 2004 election. One of the submissions from the great wide world of the Internet included footage of Hitler in comparison with Bush.

This was a civility scandal of the first order! All of moveon.org was tarred by association with this submitted video, with statements of outrage from every Republican and conservative columnist who could find a microphone and a pen. How disgusting, how vile, that moveon.org had compared Bush to Hitler (which it hadn't, recall; a submitter did.) The left should condemn this beyond-the-pale comparison. We had to hear for years about how terrible and crass this comparison was.

Fast forward to the Obama years. Can you imagine a comparison of the President to Hitler being rare or beyond the pale? Signs policed out of protests? Major and influential tv and radio broadcasters not comparing Obama to the deadliest dictators of the 20th century? How many tea baggers have made this comparison? All of the leading lights of Washington saying the entire Tea Party had been discredited and should be dissolved because it made this comparison (citing as evidence one person's sign at the rally)?

It's illustrative how much the pale has shrunk since the party of the President switched from Republican to Democratic. So I can't buy false equivalence here by Republicans who need to feel absolved of what the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, and others are doing to big audiences.

[SvenssonRS]

My opinion of the situation is this: the lesson learned here is that neither party is good. Both sides can thus **** ** ****.