"Douglas Friedman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in part: >I do not recall a time when the left was civil. Certainly when I was in >college - early 1980s - the liberals' idea of a debate was to call anyone >who disagreed with them "racist, sexist, homophobe." Usually all three at >once, regardless of the topic. And when a conservative or even moderate >speaker came in (e.g. then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an old-fashioned >liberal Democrat), their tactic was to shout down the speaker or threaten >violence to get the speaker to cancel (e.g. the South African ambassador) >and to call that "free speech."
>> > I'm a little younger than he is, and I can't say whether that's really >>the >> > case, or whether we're just prone (for some reason) to view the past as >>a >> > time of greater civility of discourse. >I'm a little younger than you and while the popular thing to say now is how >much worse things are, I recall the invective hurled in Reagan's direction >when he confronted the liberals' precious Soviet Union or backed tax cuts or >changes in policy. I think things now are exactly where they were two >decades ago ito incivility. I think the left acted the same towards the >right during Clinton's administration too. I don't buy this idea of a >change. I know a lot of people do, but I think it's because the leftist >media promotes the idea that there's greater incivility as a further way of >attacking Bush. Then is it possible that the "left" turned uncivil & withdrawn first, reaching its current description by the early 1980s, but that since then the "right" has turned uncivil & withdrawn too? In Your Sly Tribe, Robert _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
