Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Hit 'Em Again, Dipnut!

Dipnut over at Isn'tapundit has an excellent disassembly of Bezerkly professor George Lakoff's assertion that conservative think tanks "use language to dominate politics." Excerpt:
No, don't tell me, I think I can guess:

We say things that make sense, and you don't?
Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff.
No fair having ideas! That's like...like...beating up a baby or something!
The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive.
That's not our only dastardly trick. We also have ideas which map to the world we live in as it actually exists! We've harnessed objective reality itself, to serve our political ends! Bwahahahahaaah!
Go read the whole thing. It's great for a laugh.

When you're done with that one, go read this outstanding City Journal piece (link courtesy of Bill Hobbs) on "Why We're Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore." When you're done with that, go read Hobbs. It's all outstanding. (And I'm not saying that just because he linked to me long, long ago, either.)

UPDATE: Swen of Coyote at the Dog Show comments on the original piece, and makes some telling points.

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