Should Liberals Go Heeled?

By Kleinheider Posted on April 1, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Ilissa Gold thinks it might be wise to take your whistle with ya if you’re fixin’ to leave your house as a progressive:

But I wonder if it’s something that all progressives, regardless of sexual orientation or other factors, have to worry about. The violent rhetoric from the right about rising up and overthrowing the government is growing. Republican leaders are actively calling for a “revolution”. Militia activity has been on the rise in the last few years, and is expected to increase with Obama’s presidency.

And while you’d rather think of people like Jim Adkisson shooting up a Unitarian church in Knoxville as an evil aberration, you do have to wonder how many others like him are out there, whose minds have been so poisoned by the violent right-wing rhetoric that they could snap at any moment, and look to take out those whom, again, they perceive as “weaker”.

This isn’t going to stop anytime soon, and I’m of the opinion that we need to be prepared. I’m not saying all liberals need to (or should) carry, nor am I saying that anyone should rely on weapons at the expense of reaching out to others through dialogue and eudcation. But it’s a civil liberties issue, as far as I’m concerned–if the Bill O’Reillys and Glenn Becks and Michelle Malkins of the country have the right to spread violent rhetoric, then those of us at whom the rhetoric is aimed have the right to defend ourselves. We cannot be caught off-guard again.

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Tags: firearms, guns, Ilissa Gold, liberals, Militia activity, progressives, revolution, sexual orientation  

Shrugging Off The Violence Inherent In The System

By Kleinheider Posted on May 8, 2008 at 6:59 am

A study from the National Science Foundation reveals that those with right-wing ideological predisoposition tend to be a happier lot:

If your beliefs don’t justify gaps in status, you could be left frustrated and disheartened, according to the researchers, Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University. They conducted a U.S.-centric survey and a more internationally focused one to arrive at the findings.

“Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives,” the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, “apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light.”

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Tags: Conservatives, contentment, happiness, help help I'm being oppressed, liberals, satisfaction