The Politics of Fear: Some Political Views May be Related to Physiology video, audio [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Sep 21, 2008 - 38 comments

Intense debate about weighty issues like racism, abortion, and immigration... between animals in funny hats! This is the silly punditry of Scenario: Dog v. Cat: Round 1, round 2, round 3.
posted by hjo3 on May 28, 2008 - 7 comments

From unprecedented chart-topping, to crossover appeal, to the bizarre image change and retirement from music, he was truly country's Michael Jackson. While many of us may not have cared for his music or paid much attention to his core audience, those of us who were inspired despite ourselves by the (previously posted) Will.i.am video might just find something in the surprisingly liberal prince of the red states. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Feb 14, 2008 - 69 comments

My Right Wing Dad is a new-ish and rather informal blog that aims to provide "a chance for folks to examine the unrestrained rhetoric that is quietly passed from in-box to in-box in America," by hosting a collection of the emails that form an often untraceable and unacknowledged part of public discourse in the U.S., especially on the Right. Tagged by category (for example: God, college, flag, liberal, and World War II), the amateur archive presents a range of colorful opinion, not all of it strikingly accurate, and some of it offensive. In efforts to understand liberal and conservative habits of communication, it may be worth considering the role of forwarded email in the electoral process, and the reasons that the forwarding of email is popular among some people, and whether this behavior tends to correlate with particular political opinions. The emails hosted on MyRightWingDad may in any case be enlightening, unless you're already on the forward list of someone in the know.
posted by washburn on Aug 15, 2007 - 105 comments

Results of tonight's election in Quebec are in. The Quebec Liberal Party has managed just barely to hold onto power in that province, winning a minority government--the first time this has happened in la belle province since...well...since the year the phonograph was first patented. But there's an even bigger story. And that's the apparent collapse of the separatist Parti Québécois vote, in favour of the centre-right Action Démocratique Party, surprising just about everybody other than those who actually live in the province. Here's the breakdown in the vote as of 11:00PM:
Liberal (32.50%) - ADQ (31.19%) - PQ (28.48%). What these results mean for Canada's federal parliament---also in a minority situation---is anyone's guess at this point. The smart money is on Prime Minister Harper calling an early summer election. These results tonight would certainly give him reason to think that Quebec voters are in the mood for change. But like spring weather in these parts, things are quite changeable these days.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism on Mar 26, 2007 - 69 comments

True Majority Weird+political+gadgets: The inventor of Hokey Spokes has teamed up with Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's fame) to add a computerized EL-wire light display system to Ben's family of motorized pigs, which illustrate the relative size of the military, education, and world health/AIDS budgets. All is service of Ben's TrueMajority project. Pics here.
posted by re6smith on Mar 1, 2006 - 10 comments

Why does the Supreme Court Make Justices More Liberal? Does it? If so, why, and why more liberal not more conservative?
posted by caddis on Jan 12, 2006 - 61 comments

Conservative Blogs Rock! NEW YORK In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.
posted by Sagres on Dec 9, 2005 - 51 comments

truthdig --drilling beneath the headlines. A new webmagazine, offering expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major “digs,” led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content... Robert Scheer is editor in chief (you may know him from the SF Chronicle). The current featured "dig" is on religion and homosexuality.
posted by amberglow on Dec 2, 2005 - 12 comments

UK politician chooses his blog over his party: Paul Leake, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Durham, was asked by his local party to remove any "controversial" posts from his weblog and to give them the right to vet future posts. Denis Jackson, another Liberal Democrat on Durham City Council, said that the Labour councillors were using the blog to find "lurid headlines". Leake refused, and stepped down from the party. He'll now serve his constituents as an independent. [Via The Political Weblog Project]
posted by tapeguy on Sep 19, 2005 - 3 comments

The truth behind the spin? - three party political broadcasts (.wmv) made by Lee and Dan, the men behind the VW Suicide Bomber advert, and commissioned by the UK's Channel 4
posted by Navek Rednam on Apr 30, 2005 - 10 comments

Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual is the catchy title of a thoughtful piece in the Chronicle Review, an offshoot of the Chronicle of Higher Education. While it may be an op/ed piece, it's interesting to hear Mark Bauerlein, an English Professor and Director at the NEA discussing the False Consensus effect and the Group Polarization Effect in the context of academia in America (and likely elsewhere). His wish? "An intellectual climate in which the worst tendencies of group psychology are neutralized."
posted by loquax on Nov 11, 2004 - 41 comments

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It? According to Philip E. Agre, previously discussed here and the guy behind the Red Rock Eater News Service, the answers to these questions are simple (if 13k+ words = simple).
posted by boost ventilator on Aug 15, 2004 - 41 comments

A bushy-tailed morning in the quest for truth : MemeTank and dKosopedia This morning, I wondered - where's the update to (the deceased) Steve Kangas' mighty liberal FAQ ? "Update?", thought I, "Well, this attempt ran out of steam" Then..."Ah, a Wiki !" Then, "well, isn't truth the point ?...shouldn't it be Bipartisan, or multipartisan ?" Daily Kos was just sniffing (May 28th) along that trail, it seemed....partway : "We hope the dKosopedia will become the progressive-political version of the Wikipedia, a political FAQ so to speak" Would the "Dkosopedia" benefit from a less partisan stance ?

But, the MemeTank rocks -with it's bestiary of Liberal/Progressive, Right Wing, and "other" memes and the (MemeTank's) "Meme Development Project....This section is for people who want to invent new memes and try to encourage professional journalists to start using them."
posted by troutfishing on Jun 6, 2004 - 10 comments

Is the American left regrowing its backbone? Kurtz: For hard-core libs who are angry about impeachment, Florida, the war, the budget deficit, the tax cuts, the "bring 'em on!" president, the Texas redistricting and the California recall, Dean and Franken, in different ways, provide a welcome sense of relief. Finally, someone out there who feels their pain! Politics as group therapy, maybe.
posted by skallas on Sep 4, 2003 - 30 comments

Oh, I So Wish So-And-So Were On The Other Side! Just move over, dude! For conservatives, it's often the case that our allies are a damn sight worse than our worst so-called enemies. Here's a prime example, extremely rare in its totality: an embarrassing piece by an embarrassing neo-con, John Laughland, about an even more embarrassing neo-con, Michael Ledeen, in a totally embarrassing magazine, American Conservative. Do liberals and lefties have it any easier? Who are the Center's and the Left's most difficult-to-explain compagnons de route dudes? Quite honestly - and although they're certainly not immune to the exquisite unease of political companionship - I enviously fear that they do.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jul 5, 2003 - 64 comments

Politics are allowed in politics, but there are limits, and there is a pale, and Metafilter has managed to deceive those limits, and sensationalize beyond that pale. What makes this quote funny? It's automatically generated by this site, which can add your name or website to any accusation of liberal bias you'd ever want. This will save so many people so much time.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Oct 14, 2002 - 37 comments

"Whatever else is going on, the liberal-left alliance has taken as big a hit as the conservative-fundamentalist alliance after the blame-America remarks of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ... It may be [...] that the far left's bluff has been finally called ... For the first time in a very long while, many liberals are reassessing--quietly for the most part--their alliance with the anti-American, anticapitalist forces they have long appeased, ignored or supported." Andrew Sullivan in Thursday's Opinion Journal. Strong piece, but is he correct? I've seen a few people reassessing here and there, but not a lot, at least not yet.
posted by aaron on Oct 3, 2001 - 25 comments

Metafilter seems to slant liberal and other favoritisms: BushII's been in office for six months. Occurences of "Dubya" come up 538 times in a Google sitesearch of Metafilter. The word, Clinton: 823--despite his several more years in office since Mefi's inception. "Bush"=1580. "Bush" and "idiot" come up about 1/3 that of simple search for "Clinton". 91 times does "Clinton + idiot" come up, some of which seeming to berate Gore. Mr. Nader, ahem. . .about 618 hits! What other lexigraphic mixtures of keywords can you get the skinny on?
posted by crasspastor on Jul 11, 2001 - 126 comments

New Democrats or Old? On one hand you have the New Democrats (Clinton, Gore), who's agendas are more centrist (some would say right leaning) but have had victories (Clinton being elected twice). On the other hand, the more liberal wings seem to say that it's better to stand on principle and convince the populace to come over to your side.
posted by owillis on Jun 27, 2001 - 37 comments

The Age of Embarrassment "Bush’s cabinet choices are an assortment of right-wing ideologues, fat cats, has-beens, wannabees, and plain ol’ opportunists. There’s not a visionary in the bunch." Truth? Or liberal hysteria?
posted by owillis on Jan 4, 2001 - 14 comments