Text 13470, 75 rader
Skriven 2007-04-12 03:51:51 av Vorlonagent (16915.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Attn JMS: The five stages of grief and  "FALLEN SON: THE     DEATH 
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"Amy Guskin" <aisling@fjordstone.com> wrote in message 
news:0001HW.C2425061003CEDCDF0182648@news.verizon.net...
>>>On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:56:14 -0400, Vorlonagent wrote
> (in article <i7YSh.7760$u03.3145@newssvr21.news.prodigy.net>):
>>
>>
>> Many writers and artistic persons take a left-of-center view of the 
>> world.
>> Current US leftism carries an undertone of condemnation toward the US.<<
>
> You've said this before, but I think you're missing the point here, a 
> _big_
> point.  Don't confuse sentiment about _what the US is currently doing_ 
> with
> sentiment about the US itself.  It's like in the B5 episode where the
> shopkeeper had anti-Clarke signs up, and one of the Nightwatch thugs tried 
> to
> get him to take them down, calling it sedition.  Sheridan reminded the 
> thug
> not to confuse the condemnation of the _person_ with condemnation of the
> _office_.  You can take exception to what the government is doing in your
> name, and in the name of all Americans, and still love this country.

Absolutely you can critisize the government.  Absolutely you should.

On the other hand, "dissent" does not cover anything you want to say. 
That's why there are sedition laws on the books.  That's why the First 
Amendment is not in any sense an absolute or unlimited right.

I'm not referring to stuff that I consider criminal disloyalty, so there is 
no direct match to the Nightwatch incident.  Nor do I refer to Bush-hatred 
except as an exceptionally virulent subset.  Liberalism has its favorite set 
of punching bags, which include the US government (when in the hands of a 
Republican), Christianity, the police, big business and, I'm sure, a few 
other that don't come to mind.  In fact there's a good chunk of liberalism 
that levels hatred at some of all of them.

When Tony Stark is converted into a metaphor for everything a liberal 
dislikes in big business, I have a problem with that.

A big part of Civil War was showing the US government arbitrarily declaring 
good people "terrorists" (when they refuse to register, and registration 
means they now work for the government).  The label "terrorist" is not used, 
but it doesn't mean to.  And a prizon is built in the negative Zone that 
equates to the "gulag" that Guantanamo Bay is alleged to be and isn't.

There's nothing seditious in this, let's be clear.  But it's not any kind of 
legitimate dissent either.  It's a cross between a generic liberal view of a 
Republican government (gotta watch 'em every second or they'll turn the 
countyr into a police state) peppered with a few Liberal War on Terror 
assertions.  It's like Clark's ISN hatchet job on Sheridan.  They're making 
their characters say and do what follows their viewpoint.

Another comics I have seen depicts US soldiers executing Iraqis for no good 
reason.

I see this stuff all the time from Liberal sources.



-- 
John Trauger,
Vorlonagent

"Methane martini.
Shaken, not stirred."

"Spirituality without science has no mind.

Science without spirituality has no heart."

-Methuselah Jones
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