The T. Rex Essay
Lies About Liberals
The time has come for someone to set the record straight. Obviously the media won't do it and I'm growing more and more afraid the Democrats can't do it. Someone has to get the message out that the vast majority of information and opinion that is circulating about American liberals is utter nonsense. From the mischaracterizations of the Bush administration to the rabid anti-liberal hate of the media to the stunning ignorance of the average voter, it's almost all wrong.
At the lower levels - voters, local politicians - I am willing to give conservatives the benefit of the doubt. I'll let them get away with saying that they just don't know any better. Heck, most of them have probably never met a liberal. And those who have probably only remember the crazy-sounding, granola-crunching, loud-talking, bicycling-all-over-town-without-showering, ZZ-top-beard-growing guy with a strange hat, a Nader t-shirt and sandals on. Let me make it perfectly clear that these people are not liberals. These people are socialists or Communists. And unless you are ignorant or evil, you know that there are huge differences between liberals and socialists and Communists.
At the higher levels - pundits, writers, politicians, presidents - there is no excuse. These people work with liberals on a daily basis. These people debate with liberals regularly. These people are completely knowledgeable about what liberals really stand for and really do. These people are unmitigated and unrepentant liars. And this isn't just a few people, this is a huge wave of hate and bile that is being told to the public as truth, when, in reality, it couldn't possibly be any more untrue. Listen to any conservative politician talk about liberals, watch any television news show that features a conservative, listen to any show on talk radio, go to one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of anti-liberal web sites online - in all of these places you will find a broad and deep flood of bullshit being spouted about liberals. Much of it will be the exact opposite of what liberals actually believe and stand for.
Below is a composite list of the many lies that I have come across. These have come from many sources, but I'll only include the sources that are readily accessible online so that you can go read the original yourself. These lies come from a variety of sources - from prominent national figures to lowly nobodies whose most famous moment in life will be when I publish this essay on my web page. I will update this list as I come across more. The numbers after each lie correspond to the sources they came from, which are listed at the end of this page.
Liberals hate America (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9): This is obviously untrue. Liberals live in America and we resist every call for us to leave the country if we don't like it just the way it is. The truth is we lover America even more than the conservatives do, we're just much better at recognizing reality. America is a great nation, but it is a great nation with flaws. In order for America to be an even greater nation, we should work on eliminating those flaws. And that's what liberals want to do. Conservatives want to maintain the status quo or, even worse, roll back much of the progress we have made as a country. We're going to do what we can to stop them.
Liberals are out to destroy America (1, 3, 4, 7, 11): Clearly this is untrue. There isn't one liberal in the entire country that has any interest in destroying America. We are Americans and we live in America. If America were destroyed we'd all have to move to Canada and it's much too cold up there.
Liberals are traitors or treasonous (1, 3): Obviously, conservatives either don't invest their money in a dictionary, can't read or don't know the address of dictionary.com. A traitor is one who betrays one's country and betrayal is defined, in one sense, as treason. Treason is defined as "Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign." The Constitution also specifically outlines the only ways one can be convicted of treason in the U.S.: "levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." Clearly no liberals are levying war against the U.S. It would take an extreme stretch of reality and logic to find that any liberals are adhering to U.S. enemies. I don't know that any liberals are giving any aid to U.S. enemies and while our opposition to war may give them comfort, rest assured that we are willing to go to war if there is an actual legitimate reason to do so, something conservatives don't need in order to send American's young people to death.
Liberals hate themselves (1): I've known many liberals, seen many on television, heard many on radio and record and read many books by liberals and haven't seen the slightest shred of evidence that any liberal hates him or herself. Liberals typically have very high self-esteem.
Liberals are mindless (2): Liberals tend to be intellectual and thoroughly examine real world evidence in support of their viewpoints, changing those views if the evidence warrants a change.
Liberals are liars (3, 5, 12, 14): Every human being is a liar. Liberals are less likely to lie than most. One of the biggest tenets of liberalism is honesty, even if the truth doesn't agree with your preconceived notions. Obviously there are liberals who don't do this, but a true liberal would call the dishonest person to task. The only way to win the battle is to do it honestly. Nothing will get a liberal ridiculed quicker than getting caught in a lie, so we do our best not to do it and to be the first to ridicule those liberals who we see doing it.
Liberals manufacture quotes (3): I'm sure that at some point, somewhere in the world a liberal has done this, but I've never heard of it happening or seen any evidence to support this contention.
Liberals call conservatives names (3): Everyone calls everyone names. Conservatives are much more likely to call people names than are liberals. In fact the very quote which this item comes from calls someone a name in the very same sentence it condemns name-calling. Talk about your hypocrisy. "What liberals normally do in response to a principled conservative argument is lie, manufacture quotes, and call conservatives names - as some dissolute drunk did in the New York Post a few days later."
Liberals don't read books - they don't read anything (3): I can legitimately claim to have read more than 800 books in my lifetime. I have a library of more than 2000 books at my home that I am working my way through. Every liberal I know has a huge library and it is far from a library for show - liberals love books. Books contain ideas and liberals love ideas. Sure, we don't read the latest Charles Murray or Dinesh D'Souza propaganda or the newest Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh screed, but we read actual books with actual ideas written by actual scholars who conduct actual research.
Liberals vote on the basis of urges (3): Sure we do, like the urge to pick the candidate who will do the best job for the American people. Like the urge to avoid voting for candidates who are racist or homophobic or jingoistic or who hate the poor.
Abortion is liberals' only remaining cause (3): I don't have the slightest idea where this one is coming from. How about stopping U.S. unilateral invasion of Iraq? Or defending affirmative action? Or protecting homosexual rights? Or stopping racial profiling? Or stopping the Bush administration's erosion of the Constitution? Or stopping the Bush administrations erosion of the wall of separation between church and state? Or protecting the environment? Or stopping dumb-ass pundits from making dumb-ass comments? And these are just the causes that seem really important this week.
Liberals want to spread anarchy (3): Obviously not. We favor the Democratic system and are big proponents of law and order - fair law and order.
Liberals want to spread perversity (3): Something that is perverse is defined as "Directed away from what is right or good." Liberals' entire agenda is about trying to reach for what is right or good - what is really right or good, not what one narrow Christian advocacy group says is right or good.
Liberals denigrate America (5): Telling the truth is not denigrating. America is not a squeaky-clean place and it is necessary in a free democratic society to make sure that our errors are brought to light.
Liberals denigrate American heroes (6): As I said above, telling the truth is not denigrating. If we venerate people who were racist or owned slaves or abused women or slaughtered Native Americans, we are sending a message to children that these actions were perfectly acceptable.
Liberals despise the military and want to weaken it (6, 9, 14): Liberals don't despise the military and, in fact, are quite fond of soldiers. We're so fond of them, we don't think they should be killed in meaningless wars or wars of aggression. What we despise are leaders who send the military into situations that are unnecessary and unjust. We don't want to weaken the military, but we know that unlimited military spending is pointless and helps no one. We favor realistic military spending - spending that has some relationship to our goals and needs as a country. When Republican members of Congress pass funding for $2 billion dollar stealth bombers that the Pentagon doesn't even want, we think that is stupid.
Liberals venerate those who seek to tear our country down (6): We certainly do not. We totally oppose those who seek to tear down America. We even have a name for those who say the worst things about our country, who say how bad things are here and how they're getting worse all the time - we call these people conservatives.
Liberals are Communists (7, 13): Left-wingers who support Communism are called Communists. Left-wingers who oppose Communism are called liberals.
Liberals support Slobodan Milosevic (7): Of course we don't. Liberals were the ones who pushed for the use of military force to get Milosevic out of power. If I remember correctly, it was conservatives who almost unanimously opposed our going into that region.
Liberals support Saddam Hussein (7, 9): Totally untrue. Liberals hate Saddam Hussein, who opposes everything we stand for. We don't think that a unilateral war against Iraq just because President Bush says so is a good idea and we don't think Hussein currently warrants the sacrifice of the lives of American soldiers, but we certainly don't think Hussein should be in power and we certainly don't support him. Unlike the administration, we don't think he should be allowed to just slink off to another country in exile, either. If and when Hussein leaves Iraq, he should be arrested and prosecuted as a war criminal - just like Milosevic.
Liberals dream of a Communist revolution in America (7): Liberals would be among the first to line up to fight against a Communist revolution in America. We wouldn't be ahead of those right-wing whack-job militia guys, but we'd be pretty quick.
Liberals want America to lose the war on terrorism (7): Terrorists don't discriminate between liberals and conservatives when they attack, so they are certainly our enemies as well. Besides, we completely oppose the use of violent aggression in all cases, not just in the case of the Bush administration.
Liberals hate the American government (7): I'm not sure how we can hate the government and favor big government. Neither is true, of course. We think there is a role for government and that government should be run efficiently and effectively - things that are certainly not happening under the Bush administration.
Liberals hate ordinary Americans (7): This may be the biggest lie of the group. Liberals are the group that works hardest to protect the rights of ordinary Americans. We also are willing to admit that often times one right of the American public conflicts with another right of the American public and hard choices have to be made. We make those hard choices based on the biggest benefit for the most people.
Liberals are the main threat to America today (8): Terrorists are the main threat to America today. The second biggest threat is the Bush administration.
Liberals caused 9/11 (8): American support for extremists in the U.S.S.R.-Afghanistan conflict caused 9/11. American decisions to support, train and fund Islamic fundamentalists in the war against Communism caused 9/11. American presence in Saudi Arabia caused 9/11. Unquestioning and unwavering support for Israel caused 9/11. Lax immigration law enforcement caused 9/11. Lax airline security caused 9/11. Bureaucratic incompetence caused 9/11. Most importantly, fundamentalist religion caused 9/11.
Liberals believe that Jesus was evil (9): Totally false. Most liberals believe in Jesus and are Christians.
Liberals believe all Christians are fundamentalists (9): Most liberals are Christians and most of them do not denigrate their own kind.
"Liberals feel that a world ran by dictators is safer than a world ran under democratic ideals" (9): Liberals despise dictators and totally support democracy, true democracy, in all contexts.
Liberals are against war at all costs (9): Liberals favor just wars - wars in self-defense, wars to prevent genocide, wars to prevent nuclear annihilation. We just don't support wars that are manufactured by politicians to distract people from sexual scandals of flagging economies.
Liberals want 9/11 to happen every day (9): Liberals want an end to terrorism and know that to prevent 9/11, you can't just go dropping bombs on people, you have to address the root causes of the problem.
Liberals want the Taliban to still be in power (9): Liberals opposed the Taliban long before 9/11 and were sounding the trumpet about these villains long before conservatives even knew who they were.
Liberals want Hitler to still be in power or in some other way approve of Hitler or are comparable to Hitler (9, 13): It was the leadership of liberal presidents Roosevelt and Truman who got Hitler out of power. Liberals despise Hitler as the worst example of what happens when your politics go too far to the right.
Liberals want slavery to still exist (9): Liberals have always opposed slavery in all forms in all time periods of world history.
Liberals want the U.S. to still be a colony of Britain (9): It was liberals - those who fought for change - that started the Revolution. The conservatives wanted to remain with the status quo and stay part of Britain. The liberals said no.
Liberals are racist against whites (9): Most liberals are white and it is impossible for a white person to be racist against a white person. Liberals have no specific problem with white people, but we know that since white people have always been the ones with the power in America, that white people have caused almost all the problems in America.
Liberals think blacks have it worse today than in the 60s (9): I don't know of any liberal who thinks such a thing. Liberals were heavily engaged in a civil rights movement in the 1960s. That movement was largely successful and is much smaller today. The only way that can be true is either all the liberals have been killed or all the liberals realize that blacks are much better off now than they were in the 1960s.
Liberals think terrorists are peace-loving people (9): No, liberals think that terrorists are war-mongers who use violence against civilians in an attempt to push their agenda upon others. We think Arabs and Muslims are peace-loving people. Anyone with half a brain knows, of course, that very few Arabs or Muslims are terrorists.
Liberals believe in shoving homosexuality in everyone's faces, including little kids (9): Liberals don't believe in shoving anything in anyone's faces. We believe that homosexuality should be treated no differently than heterosexuality.
Liberals believe Columbine was all the guns' fault (9): Liberals think Columbine was the fault of bad parenting, a culture that ostracizes people who are different, lax gun laws, a culture that focuses on violence as a solution to problems, a culture that disparages counseling or any type of assistance for those with mental problems and numerous other factors. There are no simple answers to complex problems.
Liberals like to separate and classify society (9): Society already is separated and classified and it always has been. Liberals like to bring those separate groups together by showing that despite our differences, were really have a lot more in common than we have to disagree about. Liberals like to bring those groups together by breaking down walls of ignorance and fear that are brought about by intentional or unintentional segregation.
Liberals are anti-individual (9): Liberals completely support the concept of the individual and trust that individual to have as much freedom as possible, as long as another individual's rights aren't denied. We totally support individual responsibility, but know that in the real world, everybody needs help from time to time.
Liberals are cowards (9, 11): Liberals are people of action. We don't just sit around bitching about problems, we get out and try to do something about those problems. Too bad more of us don't get out and vote.
Liberals are self-serving (9): Everyone is at least a little bit self-serving and liberals are less self-serving than most. Our whole philosophy is based on helping others. We oppose the greed that drives economic conservatives. Greed is self-serving.
Liberals are hopeless (9): Liberalism is the optimistic creed - it teaches that if we work on our problems we can come up with solutions. It teaches that if you give help to people, they learn how to help themselves. It teaches that if you give people a chance, most of them will do the right thing. Liberals think that America can always do better - there is always hope for the future. Conservatives are much more pessimistic.
Liberals are anti-freedom (9): Liberals are the staunchest defenders of freedom in the country. Our entire philosophy is based on the idea of freedom. We think everybody should have the right to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt others or limit others' freedoms. It is conservatives who want to ban this and censor that and limit this and make people do that. Any look at the platform of mission statement of any conservative party or organization and the attempts to limit freedom will leap out at you.
Liberals and Democrats are the same thing (10, 14): Most liberals are Democrats, but not all of them. Many Democrats are not liberal and there are clearly many conservative Democrats.
Liberals are angry (11): As with any human beings, liberals occasionally get angry, particularly when it comes to the lies and bullshit that we hear from conservatives. In our normal lives we are rarely angry and we are among the happiest people on the planet.
Liberals are cynical (11): According to dictionary.com, there are four definitions of cynical: "1. Believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others, 2. Selfishly or callously calculating, 3. Negative or pessimistic, as from world-weariness, 4. Expressing jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity." Liberals believe that people are basically good, not that they are selfish. Liberals are focused heavily on helping others and not on helping themselves at the expense of others. Liberals are positive and optimistic. Liberals are energetic, not weary or jaded. We are only scornful of those things that are bad.
Liberals are bitter (11): Someone who is bitter is defined as being "Marked by resentment or cynicism." Liberals don't resent anything any more than the average citizen and are certainly less resentful than conservatives.
Liberals are fools (11): A fool is defined as "One who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding." Liberals look at all sides of an issue, examine multiple sources of evidence, try to understand various viewpoints and use sense, logic and evidence in coming to educated judgments.
Liberals have no concept of right and wrong (11): Liberals have the best-developed concept of right and wrong in America. We base right and wrong on the actual damage that something does, not on some abstract concept that has no basis in the real world.
Liberals are irrational (11): Liberals are adherents to knowledge, logic, evidence and reason - in a word, rationality.
Liberals can't make decisions that benefit the whole of society (11): Liberals focus all of their decisions on benefiting the whole of society. It is conservatives who champion small groups with real or imagined grievances and try to elevate those groups needs over the needs of the entire population.
Liberals are unhappy (11): Liberals are the happiest people in the country.
Liberals are unintelligent (11): Most of the most intelligent and intellectual people in American society are liberals. Liberals believe in learning and knowledge as ways of life that are necessary for survival in the world and required for the proper functioning of a democracy.
Liberals can't tell the difference between good and bad (11): Liberals have the best-developed sense of the difference between good and bad in America. Good are things that help people and the world, bad are things that hurt people and the world.
Liberals have no backbone (11): Liberals have such strong backbones that we stand and fight against the evils that those who would harm America, that we will fight wrong-doing even in the face of public opinion. We fought the racists when most were racist. We fought the hawks when we knew Vietnam was wrong. We fought Bush, despite his high approval ratings in the face of 9/11.
Liberals believe that anything goes (11): No we don't. We believe that people should be free to do what they want as long as it doesn't harm others or deny the rights of others.
Liberals don't stand for anything worthwhile (11): Liberals stand for everything worthwhile - freedom, liberty, equality, truth, justice, etc.
Liberals are hateful (11): Liberals only hate things that stand in the way of our ideals of freedom, liberty, equality, truth, justice, etc.
Liberals oppose stability (11): We oppose stability for stability's sake. We completely favor stability where it is necessary and helpful, which isn't everywhere. We opposed the stability that slavery and Jim Crowe provided. We oppose the stability that conservatism pushes for.
Liberals have a pat-yourself-on-the-back mentality (11): I'm not even sure what this one is supposed to mean. Do we pat ourselves on the back when we do something right and good? Sure, but so does everyone else. Do we pat ourselves on the back when we fail or do something wrong? Of course not. Do we elevate the patting on the back above the actual goals and achievements? Of course not.
Liberals magnify problems, they don't solve them (11, 13): Liberals are solution and results-oriented. We favor solutions that are proven to work and oppose solutions that have proven to be failures - like conservative economic policies. I know of know problem that has been magnified by liberals.
Liberals are hysterical (12): Hysteria is defined as " Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic." Liberals are in complete control of themselves and while we do show emotion, it is never excessive and it is never panic. We show fear when we examine the effects of the policies that the conservatives champion - because these policies will cause irreparable harm to the country and to the world.
Liberals are socialists (13): Liberals and socialists are different in many aspects. The most obvious is that liberals rejects the works of Marx and Engels as flawed and liberals oppose government takeovers of most industries.
Liberals use double standards (13): Liberals oppose double standards, but we realize that issues are almost never black and white and to those who lack intelligence, a complex viewpoint on an issue can appear to be a double standard.
Liberals are for free speech until they disapprove of the content (13): Not true. Liberals favor free speech as outlined in the Constitution. This does not mean that people have the right to say whatever they want without suffering any consequences. It means that people have the right to say whatever they want without government censoring them or punishing them. Free speech doesn't mean that other people can't ridicule you for saying something wrong.
Liberals favor big government (13): This is totally false. Liberals favor efficient and effective government that solves problems. We favor government to solve problems when it is clear that those problems can't be solved without government.
Liberals shout down their opponents (13): Only on talk shows and at political rallies, places where shouting down your opponents is required and expected.
Liberals are manipulative (13): To be manipulative is defined as " To influence or manage shrewdly or deviously." While everyone attempts to influence or manage things, usually shrewdly, liberals are never devious about what they do. We are honest and open about what we are doing and why we are doing it. It is conservatives who corner the market on deviousness, as ex-conservative David Brock testifies to in his book, Blinded by the Right, where he reveals that he manufactured facts and lied outright about liberals and liberal causes when he was the leading conservative sleaze writer.
Liberals are skeptical of Christianity (13): Most liberals are Christians and most liberals who are Christians are not skeptical of themselves.
Liberals are pro-disarmament (13): Totally untrue. Liberals don't like excessive armament, but we realize that the way the real world works, weapons and the military are necessary, particularly in defense of one's country or allies.
Liberals favor high taxation (13): Liberals favor levels of taxation that are necessary. When taxes are unnecessarily high, we agree that they should be cut, especially for those that can't afford high tax rates.
Liberals favor redistribution of wealth (13): Liberals favor the limited redistribution of wealth that is the heart of any democracy. We do not favor mass scale redistribution of wealth or government-forced equality of wealth.
Liberals are comparable to or support Stalin (13): Liberals oppose dictators of all types, regardless of where they fit on the political spectrum. While Stalin may have voiced support for some positions that liberals agree with, in reality he did not live up to those positions and was no better than Hitler or Mao.
Liberals are comparable to or support Mao (13): Liberals oppose dictators of all types, regardless of where they fit on the political spectrum. While Mao may have voiced support for some positions that liberals agree with, in reality he did not live up to those positions and was no better than Hitler or Stalin.
Liberals believe all solutions involve government programs (14): No, we believe that when there are problems that can only be solved by government that government should be involved.
Liberals believe all solutions involve government spending (14): No, we believe that many problems can only be solved by government and government can only solve problems if it spends money.
Liberals always use the politics of personal destruction (14): While I apologize for those liberals who do this, they are not the majority and they are not living up to true liberal values. It is conservatives, particularly the rabid-anti Clintonites, that use the politics of personal destruction - remember it was Clinton himself that used this phrase long before people like the author of this lie.
Liberals control the media (too many to list, why not start at
http://www.fightthebias.com/): Mainstream media in America is largely conservative or moderate. There is very little of the liberal agenda represented in the media and very few liberals allowed onto the mainstream media outlets. To most liberals the most qualified and respectable journalist in the business is Noam Chomsky. Chomsky can't get published or broadcast in the mainstream media. Remember that mainstream media organizations are owned by big corporations and big corporations are overwhelmingly run by conservatives.
Liberals control academia (too many to list, why not start with
www.academia.org/): While more teachers identify as liberals in academia (the numbers are only around 55%, far from control), teachers do not control academia, administrators do and these people, chiefly presidents, provosts, chancellors and members of boards of trustees and regents are not liberals for the most part. In most cases, teachers are at odds with these people. And I know that conservatives have a problem being unbiased, but many liberal academics do not. I am a liberal academic and I do my best to keep my presentation of material to the facts and try to balance my presentations. I am very successful at this. I offer my students five points of extra credit on their final grade if they can identify my political party and ideology. Of the hundreds of students I have had to date, only two of them have ever obtained this extra credit and they guessed. If you are really interested you can read my students' comments about this topic on my academic website at:
http://faculty.tcc.cc.fl.us/hss/quinnellk/feedback.htm. I am far from the only liberal academic who does this. The theory is, of course, that you can't force someone to believe what you believe, you have to present the facts to them and hope they make the right decision based on the facts. Most will.
Sources
1. Editorial: America Haters, by David Horowitz. FrontPage Magazine. September 10, 2002.
2. Top 10 Reasons that Thinking Americans Love Their Country, by Dan Flynn. FrontPage Magazine. October 28, 2002.
3. Ann Coulter: Left Is 'out to Destroy the Country', by Phil Brennan. NewsMax.com. June 25, 2002.
4. Review of Dan Flynn's "Why the Left Hates America", by Various Authors. FrontPage Magazine.
5. Why Multiculturalists Hate America, by Dan Flynn. FrontPage Magazine. October 23, 2002.
6. Why the University Hates America, by Dan Flynn. FrontPage Magazine. October 22, 2002.
7. 100,000 Communists March On Washington To Give Aid and Comfort to Saddam Hussein, by David Horowitz. FrontPage Magazine. October 28, 2002.
8. How the Radical Left Spawned 9/11, Jamie Glazov. FrontPage Magazine. June 14, 2002.
9. Personal communication, by JeN-JeN. January 19, 2003.
10. Personal communication, by Ken Guthrie. January 7, 2000.
11. Personal communication, by J. Fairfield. June, 27, 2002.
12. Personal communication, by LJ. July, 1, 2002.
13. Personal communication, by GungHo. November 1, 2002.
14. The World I Know, by Peter Apel. Personal website.
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