re: LOL!
*Rectum
(okay NOW you can put it in flame.)
Nah, only a moderator would wade through to the end to find your poo-poo-class humor, and even then I think the reaction would be, "hey, not my job to keep SDAI-Tech1 from looking childish"....
But seriously...I've been thinking about the number of posts to Flame that are about politics and probably could've been posted here on CurrentEvents. The reason might be a sensitivity to the "all Liberals/Conservatives are _____, present company excepted, of course" dodge, and how failing to abide by that fig leaf might lead to flaming with a real person here, and that would be just awful.
Except, we all know that that's just a "white lie", and I suspect that it tends to inhibit political discussions here. When the question on the table really is "all Liberals/Conservatives _____", and a moderator might interpret addressing it head-on as flaming, people pull their punches and dance around the issue instead.
I think questions that general are legitimate, and even if their generality makes them applicable to individuals here, we should be able to discuss them.
In that vein, I've wanted to bring up John Dean's excellent "Conservatives without Conscience", because it's an analysis of modern Conservatism, written by a Conservative; and in that it stands out from the more anthropological works by outsiders like George Lakoff. Dean began the book in the early 90s with Barry Goldwater, which I hope ought to give Conservatives pause to reflect and take it seriously; and after the Senator passed away it took until recently to get it into print (coincidentally, of course, just a few months before the upcoming election).
Dean and Goldwater's criticisms, as traditional Conservatives (or as modern Conservatives would sneer, "paleoconservatives"), are directed at the tsunami of authoritarian conservatism that's swamped the Republican Party in recent years...a movement exacerbated by 9/11 and the subsequent insecurity, much to the glee of authoritarian conservative strategists like Rove.
I see strong indicators of authoritarian conservatism in people here. My wrangling with Mark over on Community over the resurrected "treason!" issue provides a vivid illustration of authoritarian conservative thinking, and I discuss it there a little bit. Authoritarian conservatism is a real worldview, and it's not some idea fabricated by Leftists just to make Conservatives feel bad. It's worth talking about, even if there are authoritarian conservatives amongst us at this very moment.
Flame, or CurrentEvents? What do you think?