Obama takes direct aim at anti-government rhetoric

Source: Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- President Barack Obama took aim Saturday at the angry rhetoric of those who denigrate government as "inherently bad" and said their off-base line of attack ignores the fact that in a democracy, "government is us."

Obama used his commencement speech at the University of Michigan to respond to foes who portray government as oppressive and tyrannical - and to warn that overheated language can signal extremists that "perhaps violence is ... justifiable."

--snip--

His advice: If you're a regular Glenn Beck listener, then check out the Huffington Post sometimes. If you read The New York Times editorial page the morning, then glance every now and then at The Wall Street Journal.

"It may make your blood boil. Your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship," he said.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA?SITE=OHCIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Much more in the article. Good read.

an excellent speech. I don't think the nutty right listened to it but only fake news to cut and paste, and distort it to their own interpretations and will send it out to their brain dead minions for them to spout the venom of lies.

'Took aim' mischaracterizes his tone entirely, and in fact starts reader off with 100% wrong attitude. Same with 'used his commencement speech . . . to respond to foes.'

It was a GREAT speech, imo, as it was a history lesson from which we ALL should learn. As Prez O said,

'listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship.'

I mean, we discuss conservative media like Fox News and the Conservative Internet frequently here. The President made a good point.

i read the nation & national review.

posting from the latter i tried once

it wasn't pretty.

i really agree with obama's point. diversify your exposure to conflicting viewpoints

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There are some viewpoints that can be dismissed perfunctorily and without wasting much of one's time. Anti-evolution creationism comes to mind - there are many others. There are a lot of viewpoints out there that simply do not merit serious consideration.

I think Obama makes a good point as long as it involves improving one's knowledge base with good information. Unfortunately, there are a ton of viewpoints out there that exist solely to manipulate, or to con, or to create harm, or that are just plain goofy. It would be a mistake, therefore, for citizens to waste much time exploring such nonsense beyond a cursory review for general informational purposes. While it doesn't hurt to know about some of the goofy viewpoints that exist, we shouldn't waste any time delving into them. There is far too much important information to learn in the short time we have.

I have less than zero problem with that. Plenty of other boards welcome Republican views or views from all sides. The Internet has enough room for all kinds of boards. I like this one very one-sided. I smile every time I see a right winger who somehow managed to get to 1,000 or more posts tombstoned.

If you wanted to counter the teabag philosophy in three words, this is how you would do it.

:thumbsup:

but it's hard to imagine any three-word argument that would work on someone who's 'analytical.'

stuck in an us vs. them mentality. The gov. is us.

Fuck AP, Obama mentioned RL and GB, Rupert Murdoch is on AP's payroll , thats why.

speech in our society. If only the librul media exposed this inciting to violence for what it is. :shrug:
;

We may not be a Democracy, but the government is at least 10 times more of something that approaches a democracy than any of the alternatives to "big government" that conservatives always espouse.

:thumbsup:

So long that our sources of information are controlled by the rich and powerful, then our own best guesses are corrupted by the influence of people who do not have our best interests at heart.

The Government is not Us.

The Government is Them. We just happen to live here.

President Obama mentioned that we need "real news in this country not talking heads with oppinion".

If we look at all other corrupt governments over history one of the things that stand out is that the media played a huge roll in crippling those governments.

With the likes of Murdoch and other like him having the ability to buy up all forms of media and control them. We have to go back to allowing owners to only own pieces of media not all. I don't remember the law but the Republicans did away with it.

but then say "Oh well, it's their own fault" when they fail to overthrow the bloodiest governments (Saudi Arabia, Colombia, etc.)?

I see a double standard. Either we are the government -- or it's your own damn fault for accepting occupation.

But, I have no double standaard. A lot of my posts end with this cartoon because the cartoon is the logical end to what many of my posts say.




When 307 million people do nothing about a government they don't like except complain, their government is their own fault.

government is their own fault."

True, so how would that make what Obama said a fairy tale? Perhaps I misunderstood you, to me, whether the government works
to the liking of the people or not does not change the government most certainly is us.

The only thing stopping us, is us. I attended an AFL CIO protest march in Manhattan recently, there were at least 7000 people.
Could have been 500,000, the people did not show up.

but the government IS definitely ours.

"is" all the people of this vast nation is quite the fairy tale.

The government is what a few people in the Republican Party and a few people in the Democratic Party choose to put in office. The story about Harry Reid selling Obama to other powerful Democrats because Reid did not want to deal with the Clenis via Hillary should be enough to illustrate that.

You can play a similar scenario for offices lower than the Presidency, too, both state and federal.

And the Superdelegates gots to go!! Having a body whose sole function is to take the nomination out of the hands of primary voters whenever the back room boys deem desirable is the antithesis of Democratic, whether you use a lower case d or an upper case D.

How dare the socialist federal government swoop in with National Guard and other enviromental folks to butt in & try to clean up the Free Market's mess?

Oh, because Jindal asked them to? Hmmm. Federal Gov'ts not so bad all of the sudden, Bobby?

What about the GOP's "no gov't intervention" argument? Doesn't apply now that a private industry fucked something up they never planned how to fix?


I see .... <facepalm>

...even during the Bush years and all the years before Bush. Since Nixon, the MSM has screwed over every administration that has come along. They've played up our conflicts and played down our common interests and accomplishments. They're still doing it, actually.