THE BLINKERED LEFT

DEFINITION: blinkered; adj. - A blinkered person is unable or unwilling to understand other people's beliefs, and blinkered opinions or ways of behaving show an inability or unwillingness to understand other people. DEFINITION: Blinkers - blinkers UK, plural noun (US blinders), two pieces of leather that are put at the side of a horse's eyes so that it can only see where the driver leads it, and not anything else.

Since Katrina, I have been debating the response with some of my MANY Leftie friends, (as a former Leftie raised by hardcore lefties in NY, NY, and I have many MANY Leftie friends - and even MORE FORMER-friends who are Lefties!).

One retort they ALL seem to make at some point goes sort of like this: "Don't give me that KKKarl Rove RIGHT-WING BLOG crap!"

They often say this after I send them something from The Washington Times, or POWERLINE, or INSTAPUNDIT, but it is just as likely to come after I send them something from the Washington Post or Fox News or a DoD briefing link or even an article they missed in the NYTIMES! IN FACT: on this blog, about 33% of all my links are to articles in the MSM - like the NYTIMES, the BBC, the WASHINGTON POST and the like! Which PROVES I am better informed than they are. HERE'S WHY:

They say that right-of-center media are bad as if:

(a) ONLY the MSM reports the truth, (and everything else is false); (b) if it ain't never been reported in the MSM, then it ain't true; (c) if it's ever been reported in any media outlet which is right-of-center then it is partisan and false, (but EVERYTHING left-of-center is objective); and (c) - HERE'S THE KICKER - if you ONLY READ/WATCH MSM/Left-of-center media then you are more informed and better informed than if you read all media - RIGHT and Left, MSM and blogs (even though all the bloggers always provide links/footnotes --- something you NEVER see in the DT-MSM!) -- as I do, and as they KNOW I DO since often I am arguing with them about how poorly the NYTIMES covers events and how this is ALWAYS biased against the Right.

Of course, their position is NUTS. But BLINKERING themselves is a necessary reaction formation for Lefties. WHY? Well, they need to do it in order to maintain denial in the face of a reality which contradicts their long-held beliefs, irrational historical analyses and failed prescriptive policies. This is the same impulse which drives them to BDS: BLINKERING themselves and thereby maintaining their wall of denial requires that a lot of emotional fuel; hatred is the fuel.

When Lefties DO start to read BOTH sides, they start to become deprogrammed. That's what they fear.