Bitter As Gall

Bitter as Gall.
By: J. D. Longstreet
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You know, one of the things that troubles me most, these days, is the overt bitterness of the liberals/progressives/socialists among us. It runs like a sour note through a symphony. It spills over into conversations one tries to have with a liberal/socialist. It runs through their writings, too.

If you have visited any liberal websites, you must be struck, as I have been, with the bitterness there. Without doubt the most profane, sour, wrathful, speech I have ever heard/read comes from liberal/socialist websites or from comments liberal/socialist leave on the websites of conservatives.

What’s that about? Has the communication skills of Americans degenerated to the point that we cannot have a single civil conversation in which we disagree without become profane and heaping scornful, demeaning, language on the opposition?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I can toss about the Anglo-Saxon with the best of them, but you may have noticed we make a conscious effort here to not do it at all, on this site, or hold it to an absolute minimum.

When I began this piece I though maybe it was just “me”, my sensitivity to profanity. Thirty years on the airwaves, as a broadcaster, with the FCC watching your every move and you DO become extremely conscious of what you say. You must… or face humongous fines from the government. So, I thought it was just “me”. Then, I decided to investigate a little. A few clicks and I learn that it isn’t just me. It is true.

Matthew Sheffield over at the Washington Times has a piece on profanity on the blogs. You’ll find it interesting. It’s at:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/07/profanity-greater-on-liberal-blogs/

Some seem to think that the Left side of the political spectrum in America is filled with anger and rage and, yes, bitterness at the world not going the way they want it to go… and it has them frustrated and feeling impotent. Apparently, the left cannot accept that the majority of Americans are conservative, to one degree or another. Non-acceptance of this fact doesn’t change the fact, therefore… their frustration. Facts are strange that way.

I have noticed, over my year, that it is almost always the weak among us who resort to profanity to attempt to lend weight to their argument. It never works, and the fact that it doesn’t work only weakens the user’s argument further and often causes them to emote even more bitterness, which, often turns quickly into personal attacks upon the opposition. The liberal has yet to grasp that the intelligent argument will win every time.

In Sheffield’s article, mentioned above, it is pointed out that Liberals are 12 times more likely to use profanity in their blogs than are conservatives. Sheffield posits that it may be a reflection of the religiosity of conservatives over liberals. Since conservatives are more religious they tend to use less profanity in their daily lives and that, naturally, carries over into their writings on the web.

That may be true. And if it is, it tells me something I have suspected for a very long time. Liberals are a very unhappy lot. Isolation from God does that to the human animal. It sours our soul. It causes us to look inward for strength that isn’t there and we find instead, aloneness, fear, and impotence which turns to frustration, anger and bitterness at the world around us.

It would appear, then, that liberals fear lack of control. But, what really sets them apart is that when they have control that fear is still with them. When they gain control their happiness is fleeting for they soon fear losing that control and their anger is re-born of that fear and, this, I have concluded, explains their frustration. It is a frustration born of never feeling secure no matter their circumstances. Their existence is a never-ending cycle of hypersensitivity and one emotional crisis after another.

Study after study has been made over the past four decades as to why liberals are so unhappy. In his book “Gross National Happiness” Mr. Arthur Brooks puts forth his idea that conservatives seem to feel that working hard and playing by the rules will bring success. Therefore conservatives are more optimistic, feel more in control of their lives and, as a result, are happier than liberals. I think he is on to something.

The left side of the political spectrum, especially in America, is now the home of liberals and is a very unhappy place. Liberals have managed to coalesce groups of victims (real and perceived), of all sorts of social and economic unfairness beneath the banner of the Democratic Party. It is our opinion that the gullibility of the liberal mind has allowed leaders, of both sexes, to take advantage of their unhappy, angry, emotional, state to re-enforce those feelings and secure their own positions of power within the leftist movement.

There is a very old expression: “misery loves company”… and you know the other one about “birds of a feather”, etc, etc. That’s what I see when I survey the Democratic Party. They are, quite likely, the most miserable people in America. And it is sad, really. We live in the greatest country on the globe where opportunities abound for the optimistic individual willing to take the risk necessary for success. The liberal left is missing out on so much.

J. D. Longstreet


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