[ExI] the myth of the US "liberal media"

[Damien Broderick]

On 7/11/2011 1:15 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>> You think there are posts here from "near communists"? What's an example?
>
> Jeff Davis described himself the other day with these words:
>
>>> >>For the record, while I warmly embrace both "liberal" and "hippie", I
>>> >>currently favor, for myself, the term "hard left progressive".
>
> While that is not communist, it's in the the same basic neighborhood.

Jeff Davis a *communist*?! Mwahahahaha.

I'm sure Jeff will provide his own inimitable commentary, but I'd parse 
that as:

"hard left" = "much tougher minded than squish soft feel-good Kumbaya 
left,"

and "progressive" (in what I gather is its original sense, the sense 
that Heinlein was originally one**) means "proceeding by steps, not by 
an instantaneous and bloody overthrow of current oppressions." Obviously 
it also has overtones of "progress is good change, stationary is dull, 
reaction against change is bad," where all these value-terms are 
themselves up for semantic grabs.

**see William Patterson's fascinating biography, part 1 (1907-1948), of 
Heinlein.

Damien Broderick