Liberals Are Bullies, Too

A bully is someone who picks fights with someone weaker than he is; someone who can't defend himself or fight back. And so I contend that liberals, special interests and progressives are bullies.

In China, a man who had gone to his local government office to complain that his local school wasn't being funded appropriately was severely beaten for his efforts. When he complained to a larger regional government office, he got a larger response. To remedy the situation the school was burned down and his tongue was cut out. In Iraq (while Saddam was still in power) a man who publicly spoke out against Saddam was captured, his tongue cut out, and then he was put in the back of a pickup truck and paraded around town so others could see what happens to those who speak out. There are numerous other examples, but take these as evidence that around the world "free speech" is relatively unknown, which brings me back to the bullies here at home.

In the US of A people have the right to say just about anything they want. Jeremiah Wright can call the country the US of KKKA and he's within his right to do so. Yes, slavery was bad, but the number of slaves in the US accounted for about 1% of slavery worldwide, and slavery is still practiced in places around the world. I'm not trying to minimize slavery as an evil practice, but I never owned any slaves, my ancestors never owned any slaves, and further, no one alive today owned any slaves. Blacks are on equal footing and have more rights here than anywhere else in the world. It was not always thus, and it took a long time to get here, but we're here. People like Clarence Thomas will tell you the only thing keeping a black man down is that man himself (for which he is denigrated by people on the left - the only time it seems OK to attack a black man is if he is conservative politically).* But, Wright is entitled to his opinions, and even if people feel he's misguided and, to use a favorite phrase of the Obama campaign, manufacturing controversies, that is his right as an American.

People can (and do) say numerous vile and untrue things about George W Bush. People can put bumper stickers on their cars decrying his perceived stupidity without fear of their tongues being removed.** Even if what people are saying is not true, it's their opinion and they're free to express it. That is their right as Americans.

And this is why they're bullies. They make whatever hurtful allegations they want about whatever cause they want, absent any facts or intelligent debate, and because it's their right to do so nothing can be done to stop them. They pick fights against which there's no defense.

Witness the text of billboards popping up around the country (Washington, DC, Wisiconsin, Illinois and Colorado right now) [emphasis is mine]: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

This makes shopping for the atheist on your list pretty easy. They get...no presents. Not even a lump of coal.

In seriousness, the allegation is that if you are religious, you are superstitious have a hard heart and an enslaved mind - and by proxy you enslave others and harden their hearts. So goes the contention - and if you disagree, you can do nothing about it, because it's their right as Americans to pay for and post these billboards.

But let's reverse the situation...if you posted a billboard that said "Atheism is an ignorant non-believing practice that has no value and nothing to offer more intelligent society" do you think there would be an uproar? Do you think the ACLU would step up to their defense? You bet they would. How dare anyone put such hateful words up for public display? Hate speech! That's the cheese! Hate speech is not protected by the 1st amendment, so let's get this torn down!

And that's the bullies mantra. If they're fighting against (insert preferred noun here: republican president, republican anything, organized religion, corporate entity, heterosexualism, globalization, etc) it is a just an noble cause. If the target of their ire fights back, it's hate speech. I've written on other posts that it's all one way with the far left. Free speech as long as it's their speech; tolerance for others as long as they don't have to practice tolerance. They rail and complain against the establishment because they can get away with it. The very country they so often condemn is the same country that permits them to condemn it - but that irony is lost on them. The rules of engagement that they hide behind do not apply to them - and that is the ploy of the bully.

*I'm sure that these opinions could be viewed as controversial. If you disagree or think I am oversimplifying the issue, I invite you to leave a comment and we can debate the issue.
** My personal favorite is "When Clinton lied, no one died" This should serve a confirmation that liberals and progressives, with their moral relativism, can't be trusted. One could paraphrase this statement to read "I believe it's OK to do whatever you want, including lie under oath, provided no one directly dies as a result."