[quote=briansd1][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
The Paper of Record has taken a sabbatical from reality.
[/quote]
The NYT is the establishment. That’s conservatism IMO.
The conservatives of today have moved to the right. The are no longer the buttoned down folks of polite society. They are the pitchfork, riled up peasants.
[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
(a good example being the US negotiating with the “Viet Congs” (sic) to end the Vietnam War. There were no Viet Cong left; they’d been decimated by the US during Tet ’68. The US was negotiating with the North Vietnamese Communist government),
[/quote]
You argue semantics more than anyone else.
Le Duc Tho was as Vietcong as you can get. Remember, he’s the one who along with Kissinger go the Nobel for their negotiations.
[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
You also don’t confront facts or data that don’t “agree” with your worldview. If someone asks a question that conflicts with what you hold as revealed truth, you either ignore it or attempt to answer around it.
But conservatives are the ignorant ones, eh, Brian?[/quote]
Conservatives are the ones who ignore news media accounts as biased. They mostly listen to talk shows that are opinion based.
Conservatives generally dismiss academics and the conclusion of their research. They retreat to ideological think tanks.
*
Back to the happiness bit. It’s much easier to be happy when you’re ignorant or delusional.
I know a couple who I believe are happier than me. The husband cheats on his wife and he’s perfectly happy to have his cake and eat it too. The wife is happy because she’s ignorant of the situation. They have a happy family life.
Praying to God is completely without facts. It’s a total waste of time that’s bordering on the delusional.[/quote]
Brian: Well, being Jesuit educated, I don’t believe in intercessory prayer and I also don’t confuse spirituality with religiosity (which you frequently do in your condemnations of Christians.)
As far as conservatives and media and think tanks, that’s arrant nonsense. The breadth and depth of such organizations and agencies spans a wide ideological divide and it’s quite easy to find as many foaming-at-the-mouth Leftist groups as Rightist groups. You constantly attempt to frame arguments within the rubric of “thoughtful, intelligent Liberals” and “raving, rude Conservatives”, all while personally hewing to a rigid, dogmatic view that avoids all facts, data and logic that doesn’t fully support your position.
Lastly, Le Duc Tho was not a Viet Cong. Read your history. He was instrumental in establishing the Viet Minh, that much is true, but was very much part of the Vietnamese Communist Party (of North Vietnam) following. He sat on their Politburo and was an integral part of the North Vietnamese power structure. The North Vietnamese Communists liquidated what was left of the Viet Cong after their seizure of the South in 1975 and put the rest into “re-education” camps. The Viet Cong were not involved in the US – North Vietnamese negotiations and were already considered a threat to the North’s planned consolidation of power within Vietnam, post-hostilities.
