Karen Amy posted this chart on facebook and so did Gail Cousins so this is really only a repeat, probably at a larger size for easy reading. The chart was made by the very generous Vanessa Otero whose blog title is All Generalizations Are False.  In her blog, Ms. Otero qualifies the chart thusly, However, I weight the ranking downward is if it has a significant number of stories (even if they are a minority) that fall in the orange or red areas. For example, if Daily Kos has 75% of its stories fall under yellow (e.g., “analysis,” and “opinion, fair”), but 25% fall under orange (selective, unfair, hyper-partisan), it is rated overall in the orange. I rank them like this is because, in my view, the orange and red-type content is damaging to the overall media landscape, and if a significant enough number of stories fall in that category, readers should rely on it less. This is a subjective judgment on my part, but I think it is defensible.

Vanessa Otero

I will defend a woman’s right to choose and stand with Planned Parenthood. On the front page of Doug Jones’ Website. 

I’m thrilled and a little surprised that Doug Jones won. Still, I must admit that, up until today, I really didn’t know what he stood for, although I donated to his campaign, so my vote was really against Roy Moore who has seemed despicable to me ever since I read about his putting the Ten Commandments in front of the Alabama Supreme Courthouse. Well, really a copy of the Commandments because, to state the obvious, the original no longer exists; and really, only his interpretation of what they said, if they even ever existed, because that is the way with religion, everybody has their own interpretation of somebody else’s interpretation from more than a thousand years ago.

Increasingly, in the magazines, papers, and websites, that I read, Roy Moore has been painted as evil. From the quotes I’ve read and the clips I’ve seen of him and his wife, Moore seems to have gone out of his way to reinforce that picture of evil. It is only slightly tempered by what seems as monumental cluelessness and cultural myopia. He doesn’t even try to sound reasonable. Yet, he almost won and that is surprising. I’m not ready to chalk it up to only racism or abortion rights, or, even, homophobia although I am sure all were contributing factors.       

I have no idea how many people voted for Doug Jones rather than against Roy Moore, most I hope. However, if most did, I didn’t. Going to Doug Jones’ Website before I donated money, I went to the Priorities Section which seems to be written as innocuously as possible. Jones says I will bring integrity back to Washington but that is close to meaningless (and, in my opinion, isn’t going to happen soon). On Healthcare, Jones does say Health care {sic} is a right, not a privilege and Coverage must meet basic standards that protect individuals and No woman should be denied coverage of services based on the religious beliefs of her employer and We need more robust Medicaid funding. There is no mention of ObamaCare or Single Payer although religious beliefs of her employer is probably an oblique reference to abortion rights and Medicaid is a Federal Government program.

Now, when I went back to the Website, which I very much doubt has changed since the election, the front page says:

• • Everyone has the right to quality, affordable health care.
  • I will defend a woman’s right to choose and stand with Planned Parenthood.
  • All children deserve a first-class education regardless of where they live.
  • College must be affordable without burdening a student with overwhelming debt.
  • I believe in science and will work to slow or reverse the impact of climate change.
  • It is past time we raise the minimum wage to a livable wage.
  • Women must be paid an equal wage for equal work at all levels.
  • Voter suppression is unAmerican – we must protect voting rights.

While this isn’t Bernie Sanders territory, it is closer to Sanders than Clinton and has made me feel even better about Jones’ win. 

Any data that do not fit the solution or theory we have already clung to are ignored or discarded. Merim Bilalić and Peter McLeod, “Why Good Thoughts Block Better Ones” in Scientific American. 

“Can’t we all just get along?” Rodney King

Persuasion may play a part in a man’s conversion, but only the part of bringing to its full and conscious climax a process which has been maturing in regions where no persuasion can penetrate. A faith is not acquired; it grows like a tree. Its crown points to the sky, its roots grow downward into the past and are nourished by the dark sap of the ancestral hummus. Arthur Koestler, The God That Failed

A couple of days ago – maybe a week, depending on how long it takes to write this – an old friend that I haven’t seen anywhere but on Facebook asked me, “What is it that concerns you about a lack of dialogue between “liberals” and people who disagree with them? That if they talked to each other more it would change things? I think that until willfully ignorant people start educating themselves about reality, we have to just do the best we can to limit the damage they’re doing.”, and I didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t know the answer and I’m not sure I still do; still, those are the best questions so I’ll give it a try.

Every one of the following sentences should start with I think, or, In my opinion, so consider that included. The answer to the first question is implied in the second question, as corny as it sounds. Yes, if we did talk to each other, it would change things. But the third sentence highlights the problem; if it is only the other person who is willfully ignorant and needs to start educating themselves before we even have a conversation, then the conversation is probably not going anywhere. If we define the problem as “We are right and they are wrong and the only answer is for the other guy to change”, we have done two things that are sort of contradictory: we say your opinion is worthless, so worthless that you are not worth even listening to, and we give them all the power by saying that we can do nothing to bring change, they are the only ones that can bring change.

Our beloved country has been drifting in the wrong direction for several decades and Trump is a giant leap in that wrong direction. Still, I understand why some people voted for him; what I do not understand is why most of those people would still vote for him and the only way I am going to find out is to listen to them. I have learned a couple of things by listening. One is that different Trump voters have different reasons they voted the way they did, the Trump voter block is not monolithic. Some voted for Trump because they expect they will pay less taxes and they will probably be right. I don’t think that is a good reason, not even a moral one, but it is rational. Some voted for Trump because they think the country is such a mess of vested interests that throwing a grenade in the works is the only way to stop it from getting worse. They might be right, the country might get better under Trump but that is unlikely and there is a real possibility that Trump might make the situation much worse. I’m sure that some people voted for Trump because they are bigots – although I have never talked to anybody who has said they voted for Trump because they don’t like black people or Jews – and lots of people voted for Trump because he isn’t Hillary.

I have no data to prove that listening to the other, honoring that the other has a point of view worth considering, actually works to calm the turbulent waters of conflict, but I do have lots of anecdotal evidence that yelling or mocking the other doesn’t work.