Today's post is my very first one from college! While it's weird that I am living 1 hour in the future, it's also incredibly exciting to finally be done with high school and be able to do whatever the hell I want, when I want.
Again, a little off track of elections because right now the polls utterly depress me, I'd like to talk about my initial impressions (both personal and political).
So far I've really only met my floor and a few more people. My floor is amazing! We are mostly freshman (excluding my roommate and a few others, but we love them too) and it is just so awesome to see people open to being with new friends and meeting people from all over the country and even the world. I feel very blessed to have been introduced to everyone I already feel very close to so far - in high school, there was so much immediate judgment, while in college everyone just doesn't give a shit. I love it!
It's also more interesting to see the political views of my fellow youth. While readers of this blog can get a pretty good feel of how I conduct my politics, I'm finally able to see a large group of people who certainly have the power to vote and come from different backgrounds. It always amazes me when I meet a non-liberal in college (I guess that's just a stereotype I can't get over), but I find it even more interesting when I meet someone who doesn't care about politics at all. Now don't get me wrong....I don't expect everyone to be active or agree with me - as hard I as try to convince them to - but the reasons behind why everyone feels the way they do always make me appreciate the human intellect just that much more.
I don't want to give names, or give too many details in case she ends up reading this, but I did meet a fascinating girl (who happened to agree with my stances) that I just can't resist writing about. Her family is from a country occupied with war and bitter religious hate between two different peoples, and she just has the most positive outlook on life I have ever witnessed. I love her to death already, and I hope we can stay great friends throughout college.
I met another girl and a boy who claimed to be very conservative....and they are, but I don't know if it's for the "right" reasons (bahaha pun intended!). They both (at least I think they do) come from pretty wealthy lifestyles, and both are Republicans because of many issues they described to me. We actually tried to stay out of the political discussion because it is so polarizing, but the information they said was...interesting, like I said. It really all just makes me hate the media more and more. This whole idea of a liberal-media bias is so ridiculous. These people must have gotten their (okay I will say it...false) information from somewhere, whether it be their parents (who inevitably also got it from the media) or directly through the media. That's as far as I'd like to touch on that subject though; they are both very nice people who I hope I will spend a lot of time with this year and in the future.
However, as of right now, classes haven't started. I am wicked (I'm in Boston, I can now say wicked to describe everything) excited to see whether college professors have that stereotypical liberal bias towards life, or if maybe society doesn't give the ivory tower of academia enough credit to be independent.
And I leave with one final note: it is often said that college professors have an extreme tendency to favor liberals and Democrats...but it is often acknowledged that these people would not have their jobs if they weren't the most intelligent people on the planet. Hmm, go figure.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
On Progressives
A little off of what I would normally talk about, but I'd like to discuss the reasons that I shall never again proclaim myself to be a progressive.
Although I would never associate myself with any far right (or even right of center) political parties, I also find myself confused as to what, if anything, I should associate myself with. The Blogosphere of the left? Netroots? Cable news? Non-mainstream media? There are only so many options on the left without becoming borderline insane.
In the spring of 2010, I had the opportunity to visit my brother who helped organize a guest speaker for his university's Democrat club. Who did they invite AND pay to speak? None other than Amy Goodman of DemocracyNOW!. While I had never heard of Ms. Goodman, I kept an open mind and was eager to hear her ideas and intellect on the world around us and her experiences.
But what did I find? The textbook example of an "America-hating liberal progressive". I honestly didn't think it existed, but she managed to convince me that it does really exist. Rather than focus on the recent accomplishments in Congress that the Democrats have done (and we can argue on whether they are accomplishments or not all day long - but it's still very different from what we've seen before), she decided to attack former President George W. Bush, his cabinet, and the Congress from 1994 to 2006. Granted, I knew we would see something like that - I myself haven't gotten offer the Bush administration. However, I listened and kept my ears and mind open in hopes it would move past the belittling of what will go down as one of the lesser presidencies.
She continued on and on about minutia surrounding where Donald Rumsfeld lived, who John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney associate themselves with, and yadda yadda yadda. Is this really important? No.
Then she approached the subject of Haiti's disaster at the beginning of the year. All we heard about was how terrible the crisis had been handled and how the US ignores other countries when we should be helping them and how terrible we are and how our politics are stupid and blah blah blah. Uh...what about the US? What about taking care of ourselves at home before going abroad? When did we get ordained as the world administrator who must repair any problems? Are you ever going to be happy with what the president does?
This is just how frustrated I get with the radical left. You ask for this, this, that, and that, and if it's not done NOW, well the radical left will just need a new candidate. Jeez...give the guy a break, he inherited a mess that has to be cleaned up!
There's more about Ms. Goodman's visit that troubled me. For example, her support of Norman Finklestein, who you can all read about yourselves. I didn't like anything this man has had to say/publish.
I admire Ms. Goodman's courage to stand up for what she believes in, but it reaches a point where it's just as bad as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. When you constantly need new things to bitch about, we don't actually "progress" to anything...we just get stuck in the mud.
Although I would never associate myself with any far right (or even right of center) political parties, I also find myself confused as to what, if anything, I should associate myself with. The Blogosphere of the left? Netroots? Cable news? Non-mainstream media? There are only so many options on the left without becoming borderline insane.
In the spring of 2010, I had the opportunity to visit my brother who helped organize a guest speaker for his university's Democrat club. Who did they invite AND pay to speak? None other than Amy Goodman of DemocracyNOW!. While I had never heard of Ms. Goodman, I kept an open mind and was eager to hear her ideas and intellect on the world around us and her experiences.
But what did I find? The textbook example of an "America-hating liberal progressive". I honestly didn't think it existed, but she managed to convince me that it does really exist. Rather than focus on the recent accomplishments in Congress that the Democrats have done (and we can argue on whether they are accomplishments or not all day long - but it's still very different from what we've seen before), she decided to attack former President George W. Bush, his cabinet, and the Congress from 1994 to 2006. Granted, I knew we would see something like that - I myself haven't gotten offer the Bush administration. However, I listened and kept my ears and mind open in hopes it would move past the belittling of what will go down as one of the lesser presidencies.
She continued on and on about minutia surrounding where Donald Rumsfeld lived, who John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney associate themselves with, and yadda yadda yadda. Is this really important? No.
Then she approached the subject of Haiti's disaster at the beginning of the year. All we heard about was how terrible the crisis had been handled and how the US ignores other countries when we should be helping them and how terrible we are and how our politics are stupid and blah blah blah. Uh...what about the US? What about taking care of ourselves at home before going abroad? When did we get ordained as the world administrator who must repair any problems? Are you ever going to be happy with what the president does?
This is just how frustrated I get with the radical left. You ask for this, this, that, and that, and if it's not done NOW, well the radical left will just need a new candidate. Jeez...give the guy a break, he inherited a mess that has to be cleaned up!
There's more about Ms. Goodman's visit that troubled me. For example, her support of Norman Finklestein, who you can all read about yourselves. I didn't like anything this man has had to say/publish.
I admire Ms. Goodman's courage to stand up for what she believes in, but it reaches a point where it's just as bad as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. When you constantly need new things to bitch about, we don't actually "progress" to anything...we just get stuck in the mud.
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