Along the whole range of political opinion there is one quality that sets some apart from others, and that is the extent to which people operate from and perceive the world - and others - through predetermined and inflexible ideological blinders. It is those whose powers of perception - including moral perception - and intellectual perception have become enfeebled and flabby such that they need external exoskeletons of rigid ideology for support, who I see demonizing others and often large, undefined groups. Does demonization ever do any productive work ? I doubt it.  

Though I see more coming from the right currently than from the left it is likely this a characteristic of our poltiical age and not some eternal truth : demonization knows no left or right.

A few days ago, as this story was heating up, I posted an idea - that the bloggers who say they support the "Stop The ACLU Coalition" should simply be asked, directly and politely - one by one as individuals with their own voices - whether they thought the outcome in Indian River was a good thing. I only emailed few people - 7 in all - and only received a response from one person, whose views I sharply differed with but who was willing to post his views and who was, in the email exchange, quite polite.

However, nothing more than my call for such an undertaking - which really could have only worked if many joined in, because one person alone cannot serve as any sort of collective moral voice - had an unexpected result. Others in the group of 200 bloggers listed as supporting the "Stop The ACLU Coalition" stepped up as voices of moral clarity to shame an entrenched few who chose to hunker down and defend their behavior.

When I called for such a project, there were voices on the left who told me that my idea was pointless because the group in question was "extreme" and all the same. Well, the word "extreme" doesn't usually do much work in my lexicon - "extreme" relative to what ? But from looking from even 10 or 20 of the blogs of the group of 200 one of the few things I could say was that they all disliked the ACLU. Another commonality, if one could call it that, was the diversity of the group.

These were individuals, each one, and not cookie cutter people. I don't know what else one would expect to find... "Stepford Bloggers" ? I've never seen such a thing and hope I never do.

No, the right is diverse, and the left is diverse. And, each time anyone points to some vaguely defined group and demonizes that group - based on little evidence and with broad brush strokes that tar indiscriminately, I would call that a type of violence.

Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst for Political Research Associates and Talk To Action commentator, has said that demonization is not just a problem, it is the problem, and I am coming to believe him

by TTA Site Administration on Sat Jul 08, 2006 at 12:23:56 AM EST