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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (35390)	7/30/2002 9:11:33 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think that the categories of <left,liberal> and <right, conservative> are failing and we are beginning the see those cracks. One way of looking at the media bias issue is to notice how many people are saying the media doesn't represent them. People are not getting very juiced by much of what they hear and read from the media. One consequence of the failure of the old categories is that most of the media and the politicians have run to the center. The centre becomes a confused, bland mish mash of popular opinion. Outside of the WSJ journal editorial page, it is hard to find a very difficult for me to find a decent discussion of economics, that rings true for me, in the popular media. I imagine the same is true for people on left where they have opinions as definitive as mine. I am not sure what will emerge to replace or renew the left-right distinction but I think the terms are losing their relevance today. Paul

To: Dayuhan who wrote (35390)	7/31/2002 12:22:35 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I had a similar experience when I moved from Florida to Boston in the late eighties. I found that my politics had shifted from far left to far right without having altered.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (35390)	7/31/2002 9:05:25 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

One difficult thing about dealing with the whole media bias issue is the problem of where you draw the center line. I completely agree and if you were to, further, argue that the left-right distinction hurts more than it helps, I would also agree. It's just that so much of our political language is contaminated with the distinction, I find it hard to change to something else. It does, also, catch something, however little. As for the center line moving depending on context and issue, again I could not agree more. Several posters have noted that the US left would be center in European countries, etc. However, I'm sort of wimpishly struggling against the conflation that folk on the right push, which is that everything to their left is where, traditionally, the left is. Simply arguing with that notion. For one, I consider the notion that the NYTimes is left wing to be ironically hilarious, even painfully hilarious, given the Times campaigns against serious left wing issues. But then I don't take all this stuff too seriously. Well, that's not true. I get ticked off when the right calls anyone to its immediate left unpatriotic. Too much McCarthyism in that. Needs to be addressed everytime it pops its ugly head.