How sad. Just saw the video segment that Jeff Jarvis was in. If not for having listened for a few minutes to Randi Rhodes on Air America, I would have taken it as an isolated incident. The heirs of Rush Limbaugh are everywhere, and liberals now figure prominently in their ranks. "How can you possibly compare these people to Rush Limbaugh?" you ask? There doesn't appear to be any reasoned discourse. Just vicious appeals to negative emotions. The lowest common denominator.

I can remember when I made a radical change in my perspective after hearing a good friend quoting Rush Limbaugh. My mom would listen to the 'conservative' conveyors of hate on the radio. It would make my skin crawl and my ears bleed, and it broke my heart to hear my mom quote that shit as fact.

And now it appears that some liberal commentators have decided that this approach works. It appears that reason. empathy, and civility are becoming increasingly scarce. Jeff Jarvis seems to be so caught up in his antipathy to Bernie Goldberg that he can't seem to see what that video segment would look like to someone who doesn't know any of the people on that show from Adam. Both sides seem to just be preaching to the choir, and have no interest in reasoned discourse, and never entertain the possibility that the other side, no matter how distasteful to them, might have an important contribution to make. No self-reflection. Decisions that get made by the loudest voice are rarely the best decisions, but no one can hear the quiet voices any more, because of the loud ones.

Reflection on yourself: the ability to step outside yourself for a moment, and see yourself as might look to an objective observer. If you can do that, you find yourself trying to minimize how petty you look to that observer. :)