That would explain (4.00 / 1)

why we are so weird, touchy, sensitive and impolite.  

Montani semper liberi

---

by: Sadie Baker @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 11:41:10 AM UTC

and if you throw in (0.00 / 0)

people who are discriminated against directly or indirectly on: disability, sexuality, gender, age, poverty, class status, citizenship status, other race issues besides Blackness, language of preference or accents...suddenly you have an immense majority whose concerns are weird, touchy, sensitive impolite fringe issues.

Funny that ;)

Let us build links, both virtual and real, among the weird, touchy, sensitive, impolite fringes that are the people of the United States :)  We can start here at Open Left - I would suggest diversifying the blogging corps and the issues written about in the interests of building these links.  Then we can show Obama what real progressive diversity looks like.

---

by: dr anonymous @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 13:10:01 PM UTC

Where does it leave me? (4.00 / 1)

I'm not a member of any of the demographic groups discussed, even on the good dr.'s expanded list, "people who are discriminated against directly or indirectly on: disability, sexuality, gender, age, poverty, class status, citizenship status, other race issues besides Blackness, language of preference or accents..."

Yet, still, I'm often considered "weird, touchy, sensitive and impolite" on a regular basis.

Maybe it's not a question of demographics, after all.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

---

by: SpitBall @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 13:58:24 PM UTC

so could it be that yr expression of discomfort verifies the author's thesis? (0.00 / 0)

hmmmm?

"If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other people, then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding..."
Zora Neale Hurston

---

by: bruce.dixon @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 14:35:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I dunno (0.00 / 0)

I'm pretty comfortable being "weird".

Which theses my comments verify is, perhaps, another question.

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

---

by: SpitBall @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 15:19:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just giving a damn, maybe? (4.00 / 1)

I have maintained for a while that if you're a person who gives a damn about a particular fringe group, the contagion spreads. Heretic. And a person can be plenty concerned about things that don't directly affect them and while the opprobrium will be different, (a male feminist is never going to be able to fully recapitulate the experience of being female, for example,) it seems nonetheless just as real.

So no, I don't think it's a straightforward demographics question.  

---

by: Natasha Chart @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:49:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'd like to say "being human" (0.00 / 0)

but if it were that easy, it wouldn't be "fringe".


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

---

by: SpitBall @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 17:18:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The bad part of the Gas Guzzler stim.. (0.00 / 0)

I've looked around for a replacement for my car both before and after this plan.

The problem was and is that the dealers are still asking top dollar, as if wages and the economy were booming away.

The result is the customer gets conned into a larger auto loan and the dealers make double their profit having no incentive to lower the purchase price.  

Nationalism is not the same thing as terrorism, and an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy.

---

by: worldlymother @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 15:19:32 PM UTC

While you were gone, Natasha, someone commented to the effect (4.00 / 1)

that women going to work had lowered the quality of education in this country, and that he could say that here, because this was a blog where he didn't have to feel "male guilt." I don't know that "guilt," per se, is terribly germane or interesting, but, Christ, did that comment amuse me. I'm glad to hear you had a wonderful time, but it's nice to see you back as well.  

---

by: sb @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 15:45:01 PM UTC

Ha! (0.00 / 0)

Funny, funny. Now for the weeping.

I'm glad to be back, though. There're a few in every crowd, but I really like the community here at OpenLeft.

---

by: Natasha Chart @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:40:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

But it's not OK to be "touchy"... (0.00 / 0)

... about being told to wait 10 or 15 years for a health care system that might actually work for the "marginal fringe"?

I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.  

---

by: lambert @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:41:11 PM UTC

I dunno (0.00 / 0)

I'm touchy about that, so no one had better tell me it isn't ok.

---

by: Natasha Chart @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:50:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Though in more seriousness ... (0.00 / 0)

I don't think Chris is saying it's wrong to want more. He's often said he thinks it's wrong to insist that people advocate for policies they don't want, but the public option is what he thinks is viable right now and I agree, even if I'd far prefer single payer. And as I understood it, his point is that is that it isn't the fault of grassroots activists that we don't have single payer.

I'm going to keep wanting single payer, I just don't think it can happen this time around. Personally, I'm glad there's still a vocal contingent of people pushing for it, because the insurance companies are vile and we should be trying to get rid of them.

I think part of the reason we're not quite there right now is that a larger, anti-corporatist case has yet to settle in the public mind and that's a longer project. It also affects a number of other key policy areas where there hasn't been as much headway as I'd like to see. The glorification of corporate identities, rather than human capital productively employed or valuable services provided, prevents progress on many fronts.

Anyway, I hope you won't feel like you're being told you have to support things you don't believe in.

---

by: Natasha Chart @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 17:02:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

? (0.00 / 0)

What's the question?

---

by: Noland @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 17:51:59 PM UTC

Can the interests of more than half our society (0.00 / 0)

truthfully be considered to be on the "fringe"?

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

---

by: SpitBall @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 18:20:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]