Proof? My thesis is self-evident
The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming: Liberals hate conservatives a lot more than conservatives hate liberals. I repeat: A lot more. You can ask anybody – or you could save yourself the time and just rely on some stuff people told Dennis Prager:
Where I live in liberal Los Angeles, drivers of most vehicles with Bush-Cheney bumper stickers have told me (and I have often seen) that their cars (and mine) were deliberately scratched. When I have asked about the fate of cars with Kerry-Edwards stickers in equally conservative areas in, for example, Orange County or even the Bible Belt, no Democrat has reported such intentional damage to his car. This does not mean it never happens, only that it is far more rare. I would bet a lot of money — and I am not a gambler — that cars displaying conservative messages in liberal areas are far more likely to be defaced than cars with liberal messages in conservative areas.
It’s hard to argue with such a cogent argument. So hard, in fact, that I considered giving up now and getting back to work before my boss fires me. But what the hell — let’s review the data set: Drivers have not only told Prager about the damage their vehicles have suffered by mean-spirited (and very hypocritical) liberal vandals -– but Prager has actually seen the damage. As in, “with his own eyes.” In addition, Prager — who bolsters his claim, I think, by reminding readers that he is not a gambling man, unlike his friend Bill Bennett — states that he’s willing to bet money that his conclusions would turn out to be accurate if he, or someone else, were to actually research the statistics. You know what? I’ve got an extra $12 I won for finishing second in our office NCAA pool, so I’ll bite. Now, if there were only some relatively easy way to find some statistics on this, and preferably something I could do without leaving my desk…
[Zeerp] “Hello, dum-dum.”
Oh sweet, it’s the Great Gazoogle. And not a moment too soon.
While this list is by no means comprehensive, David Neiwert has compiled a fairly extensive compare-contrast list of incidents reported to the police of threats, intimidation, property damage or other skullduggery during the 2004 campaign. Although the sample size might be artificially small because he does not, to my knowledge, cite any incidents reported by callers to Prager’s talk radio show, Neiwert came up with a 33-8 ratio of politically motivated crimes committed by conservatives against liberals. Neiwert also lists a whole bunch more here, including examples of liberal misdeeds cited by Michelle Malkin in Unhinged (which Prager doesn’t even bother to cite), but there’s way too many to list, so let’s talk about pies instead:
When Ann Coulter goes to college campuses, she is accompanied by a bodyguard. And colleges routinely bring in police to protect her and to guard against student violence. No bodyguard or police contingent is necessary for Al Franken. Another leftist, Noam Chomsky, a man who has devoted his life to attacking America, goes from campus to campus without worrying about having so much as a pie thrown at him, something regularly done to conservative David Horowitz.
Did you feel that, too, or was it just me? Because I could’ve sworn I just felt a shiver run up my spine. Regardless of your politics, I’m sure we can all agree that a pie in the face is far more intimidating than promoting legislation that threatens professors with lawsuits and dismissal for expressing views that David Horowitz disagrees with. And it really is a shame that someone who’s issued death threats in her nationally syndicated column would feel compelled to hire a bodyguard, while some liberal who says things about America that are basically true but mean flaunts his freedom of speech at campus after campus. Life isn’t fair:
There are a few reasons for this discrepancy. One is that the more left one goes, the more one is likely to encounter people who substitute “social justice” for personal morality. Another is that in the eyes of most leftists, people who oppose their “progressive” views on the environment, the war and taxes are such morally inferior people that they are not owed decent behavior. But the biggest reason is the most obvious one: Liberals hate conservatives far more than conservatives hate liberals.
Well, how about that? After a couple hundred words, it turns out that the thesis serves as its own proof. He could’ve saved us all a bunch of time by just titling his column “Who hates the other more – liberals or conservatives?” and writing his own shorter: “Liberals. And I’ve got some anecdotal evidence to back it up.” (I could also point out that “the more right one goes, the more one is likely to encounter people who substitute ‘social justice’ for personal morality,” but now that the New York Times has that conservative beat, I think we’re all familiar with the Religious Right.)
All this hatred sounds sort of … I dunno … hateful, as in, “full of hate.” If only we could discover the well from which liberals draw their lumpen, pie-spewing hatred of conservatives, we might be able to roll back their bleak vision for America, which no doubt would involve lots and lots of pies flying toward the faces of their enemies as if their faces were some sort of futuristic pie magnets. Luckily, Dennis Prager’s seen that well, and it’s one I wouldn’t think of making a wish and throwing a coin into, because a liberal would probably just give that coin to a panhandler — or, shudder, someone who bakes pies:
Liberals deem conservatives to be racist, homophobic, war mongering, money worshipping and sexist. It makes perfect sense to hate such people. I would, too. The converse is not true. Conservatives tend to view liberals as immature and foolish. But childish adults and fools don’t merit the hatred that racists do. And the liberal charge that conservatives generally label war critics “traitors” is pure fabrication.
Well, he’s totally right about that pure fabrication part. I wrote a post about this a couple of months ago at my own blog, and it took forever to create all those fake links I used to “support” my list of people who’ve been called traitors. In fact, he’s right about everything. Everything. I only tried to tear down his arguments as if I were a petulant child, angry at some mean ol’ authoritarian father figure, because — as all reasonable people are aware — that’s all liberals are capable of. We have no plan, and we aren’t constructive. All we’re good at is the politics of personal destruction, which we practially invented in the 1990s — back when we did things just because they felt good. So take that, whitey:
Cue the muted trumpet: Wah-waaahhhh.
One is that the more left one goes, the more one is likely to encounter people who substitute “social justice” for personal morality. Another is that in the eyes of most leftists, people who oppose their “progressive” views on the environment, the war and taxes are such morally inferior people
Hol’ up now, did Prager really just say that lefties are bad because we’re morally inferior and also because we judge others to be morally inferior? He shouldn’t worry about his car, I think somebody dinged his brain.
Liberals deem conservatives to be racist, homophobic, war mongering, money worshipping and sexist. It makes perfect sense to hate such people. I would, too. The converse is not true. Conservatives tend to view liberals as immature and foolish. But childish adults and fools don’t merit the hatred that racists do.
You know what, that is true to the extent that it makes more sense for anyone to hate a racist more than a fool. The problem is that Prager’s racists look at the left and us as anti-white, anti-Christian activists who are trying to steal their freedoms. It’s not that they see us as plain fools, but militant fools with legions of angry voters behind us, storming through their white privilege. Combine that radical fear of change with their racist, elitist, gun-loving tendencies and WHAM you have the underlying factors for Neiwart’s 33-8 ratio of violence against liberals.
And I have an anecdote to prove it. Working in Pennsylvania for the Kerry campaign on election day in 2004, one of my get-out-the-vote volunteers was attacked by a Republican woman on hearing that my vol wanted her to vote for Kerry. Seriously. She sucker punched her. Ergo, conservatives hate liberals more. See, I can play this game too.
And the more right one goes, the more one is likely to encounter people who substitute ‘fetus worship’ for personal morality.
Anecdotally, my car got vandalized for having a ‘BUSH LOST’ bumper sticker. I wouldn’t have been so sure about the causality if the numbnuts hadn’t tried to rip off the sticker as well as cutting through my soft top. Oh well.
The funny thing is I find that most people who are racist, homophobic, war mongering, money worshipping and sexist tend to be conservatives.
Strange how that works out…
Liberals hate conservatives a lot more than conservatives hate liberals.
Yes; witness how often liberals try to pass laws saying conservatives can’t get married, adopt children, or be given medicine according to a doctor’s prescription. Etc.
I don’t hate conservatives at all. It’s these lying, rightwing fascist freaks I can’t stand.
yo Travis.
The Great Gazoogle should only pop up to embarrass the miniscule fraction of intellectually honest conservatives into JFGIA* before spouting off.
Even though he’s omniscient like the internets, using him to demonstrate that information is already on the web gets perilously close to jumping the shark.
* = Just F***ing Googling It Already
Oh, yes, and Ann Coulter and Noam Chomsky are certainly comparable as invited speakers…..
There’s potential violence when Ann appears because…Ann deliberately provokes it.
Did Prager ask the follow up question “Were you double parked, taking up two spaces, or otherwise being an asshole when your car got keyed?”
Sadly, no!
I’m living proof Liberals hate Conservatives. And Jesus.
Oh come on, people, why does everyone act as if a pie in the face is some sort of harmless prank. Oh wait, it is.
Conservatives know that only those who haven’t found Jesus look for evidence. Once you’ve found Jesus, your search is over. For everything. Forever.
Next week: do cats hate dogs more than dogs hate cats? Tune in to find out! That is, if someone will only take the trouble to gather the statistics for us.
Conservatives know that only those who haven’t found Jesus look for evidence.
Damn it, on top of everything else it sounds like now Jesus is missing again.
Funnily enough, I just watched a recent Canadian documentary on Chomsky, and there’s a small section in the middle where his wife and a Canadian philosophy professor discuss potential threats to Chomsky because of his views. They don’t mention any actual incidents, but hey, I’m willing to bet my hemp farm and anarcho-syndicalist futures that more conservatives are plotting to assassinate MIT linguists than liberals.
Did Prager ask the follow up question “Were you double parked, taking up two spaces, or otherwise being an asshole when your car got keyed?”
I think it’s more likely that conservatives are just shittier drivers than liberals, and they sideswipe parked cars and ding up their vehicles on lamposts and trees and shit.
Prager’s out of touch. Everyone knows Michael Berube is now the top dangerous America-hating leftist academic in the US.
Chomsky is so 1969.
Shorter Dennis Prager: What’s a Freeper?
(Sorry guys, I can’t resist)
Annie, does that mean that all the liberal Christians hate Jesus? I’m confused…
Liberals hate conservatives a lot more than conservatives hate liberals.
Not so; liberalism is the political ideology of LOVE, man. FREE love. As in sex^H^H^H speech. And sometimes as in beer.
I’d like to ask Prager why it is that all my friends who have attached Darwin fish to their cars have had their cars vandalized in some way (usually including the attempted removal of said fish).
Apparently Prager is unaware that the singular of data is datum, not anecdote.
I think it’s more likely that conservatives are poor drivers because they’re selfish and inconsiderate; therefore, they are more likely to be poor drivers than liberals, who are thoughtful and considerate. I know this because it feels true. Another victory for truthiness!
Once again, a conservative makes sweeping generalizations about liberals using that tried and true scientific method..ask your biased friends. And they call the Republicans the “anti-science” party. Pffft!
hi, i’m originally from the mississippi, louisiana area.
i can tell you in the 2004 election season cars with kerry/edwards stickers were regularly vandalized.
i heard of practically NO similar situations involving bush sticker adorned cars ANYWHERE.
incidently, having an anti-bush bumper sticker can get you pulled over and fined in some red states:
http://progressive.org/mag_mc032706
Well, I personally have had my cars vandalized by Conservatives.
In 2000 (after the election) someone tore my Gore bumper sticker off my car. Just last week I witnessed someone walk up to my car and try to pull my anti-Republican sticker off. I was so dumbfounded I just stood and watched until he finally gave up.
A friend in a nearby neighborhood had his car keyed and a note left saying “fuck you democratic scum” left on the windshield. Some Republican neighbors had the class to apologize for their miscreant brethren but more than one also added “but lots of Democrats do the same thing”.
I have been flipped off, screamed at, called a “fag” and just generally abused for my political views, but I have never done any of these things to Conservatives nor seen it done by anyone I know.
Dennis’s problem (well, one of them) is that his crowd spends a lot of time at the Adult Book Ranch and Movie Center down on 3rd street and Wilson Ave. And everybody knows that the drunks in the dive bars around there *love* to key cars in that lot.
Correlation is not causation.
Now, see, my problem is that my car gets dinged by gnomes.
Lawn gnomes, forest gnomes, umm … underpants gnomes, you name it. Of course, I don’t have actual proof of this because I never see those darn gnomes keying and kicking my car. But it’s just gotta be gnomes, I know it.
I lOvE mEn As MuCh As ThE kId bY mE NaMeD sEaN HoRsT.
I lOvE mEn As MuCh As ThE kId bY mE NaMeD sEaN HoRsT.