Openminded, Fairminded

The entire purpose of this website is to promote openmindedness, which by definition requires fair mindedness. WE see far too little of both. The most brazen examples of the absence of fair minded thinking is in American politics.

Barrack Obama is a socialist. Barrack Obama is a Moslem. Conservatives are fascists. Capitalism is nothing but greed and exploitation. And it never stops.

If Obama were a Moslem he would say so. Have you ever known anyone who is not proud to enunciate their religious values?

Obama care, in fact,  leaves insurance in the hands of corporations which have no connection to government. His health care system, so villified, is only remotely socialistic. Richard Nixon was more socialistic than Obama. He wanted to force all employers to pay for health care, instead of requiring contributions from the employee.

Socialists are never reluctant to identify themselves as such. If he were a socialist, Obama would say so, (and he would never be president).

Greed and exploitation play a large part in capitalism, but there is much more to free enterprise than that. A child with a street corner lemonade stand is a capitalist, but exploits no one.

People who make such outrageous remarks about those with whom they disagree do not in fact believe their own words. Nobody really believes that Obama is a Moslem, for instance. Everyone knows better. Think of the worst thing you can say about somebody, (or what you personally consider to be the worst thing)  and say it, even if you don't really believe it, even if you know good and well it isn't true. This is the pattern of our cultural warfare, this is the sickness of our culture.

People who do this reduce themselves to the level of mindless hate mongers. They thus forfeit their integrity. As the current presidential campaign unfolds, it will be interesting to listen to the comments the candidates make about each other; so far, their comments are pure examples of dishonest hate speech. It really is unfortunate that we in America so often behave this way. We can do better.

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