Two recent Ethics Alarms posts collided on Ann Althouse’s blog today. She wrote that she was listening to the audiobook “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,”by none other than Jonathan Haidt, who uttered the Ethics Quote Of The Month recently discussed here.
In his audiobook, Haidt said that this statement “captured the spirit and self-image of the modern American left”:
“I am a liberal, and liberalism is the politics of kindness. Liberals stand for tolerance, magnanimity, community spirit, the defense of the weak against the powerful, love of learning, freedom of belief, art and poetry, city life, the very things that make America worth dying for.”
Who authored this ringing declaration of liberal principles?
Garrison Keillor, that’s who.
Men who really believe in the politics of kindness, tolerance, magnanimity, community spirit, and the defense of the weak against the powerful don’t abuse power and position to coerce women to service their sexual needs. Kind people don’t sexually harass women, which is a form of bullying. Tolerant men do not regard women as their props and playthings, and if you are genuinely magnanimous, you don’t threaten women you have abused to keep them from reporting you.
Men who are dedicated to community spirit don’t create a hostile environment for others in the community, and damage that community by betraying its members’ trust. Men who believe that the weak should be protected from abuse and exploitation by the powerful do not use their own power to abuse and exploit colleagues who have less power than they do.
This is why the sexual harassment and abuse witch hunt is much more significant for the self-righteous of the Left, and frightening for them. So, so many of them have been advancing their popularity, support, power and influence by claiming values, motives and principles that they only preach for their own benefit. They are hypocrites, and worse, they are frauds and con artists.
The sexual harassers and abusers of the Right are disgusting for different reasons, and equally culpable and accountable. They do not, however, have quite the stench of phoniness and cynicism about them that radiates from Garrison Keillor.
Ethics Alarms 
Possible we have a case of cognitive dissonance or maybe he’s just trying to cya:
Yep.
I have nothing else to say.
“I am a liberal, and liberalism is the politics of kindness. Liberals stand for tolerance, magnanimity, community spirit, the defense of the weak against the powerful, love of learning, freedom of belief, art and poetry, city life, the very things that make America worth dying for.”
The douche-o-meter exploded just from reading that.
I find the concept ‘city life’ in this quote quite fascinating.
Is it in polarity with urban life? And thereby referring to fly-over country?
Where does ‘city life’ stand for? Less social control. More space for social deviant behavior?
I noticed that too. What about “city life” is inherently liberal? Or what about “non-city life” is inherently not liberal? And didn’t this asshole make a living mocking, er, describing, rural midwestern life?
”What about ‘city life’ is inherently liberal?”
Proximity & concentration; facility of herding, corralling, & concentrating efforts to inculcate, instill, & enforce a “buzzing” hive-minded collective of one’s message, economies of scale applied with “cheaper by the dozen” time, effort, and resources?
I don’t know what any of those things mean 😦
I think it just means that there are more people to apply peer pressure to you in a city. 😉
I don’t suppose I’ve ever given it much thought before, but it’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing, isn’t it? Cities almost universally lean more Left than the countryside – so does the density spawn such thinking, or do the progressives exploit the density to spread their beliefs?
Lefties may exploit population density to promote intellectual density.
That, good Sir, was indeed “art and poetry”.
/hat-tip
–Dwayne
“I am a liberal, and liberalism is the politics of kindness. Liberals stand for tolerance, magnanimity, community spirit, the defense of the weak against the powerful, love of learning, freedom of belief, art and poetry, city life, the very things that make America worth dying for.”
When it comes right down to it, that’s just their haughty intellectual nonsense. This faux Utopia they strive for does not exist and will never exist for freely thinking human beings.
As is described in Kirsten Powers book “The Silencing: How The Left Is Killing Free Speech”, many Liberals are turning away from that haughty intellectual rhetoric above and becoming illiberals. It’s just as well, their haughty intellectual rhetoric has been crumbling and now it’s just a pile of rubble in the filthy immoral and unethical gutters they’ve been creating for years. The arrogant actions of Liberals and Progressives over the years built the foundation for Trump to build upon.
Is there a list of the accusations against Garrison Keillor?
I’m trying to track this. He has issued this narrative about trying to pat a woman on the back and somehow getting under her shirt by complete accident, that he apologized, she accepted, and then reported it in the wake f all the other late hits. Color me dubious that this is all there is.
Jack Marshall wrote, “I’m trying to track this.”
I’ve been looking at various ties over the weekend and I can’t find anything more.
Jack Marshall wrote, “I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,””He has issued this narrative about trying to pat a woman on the back and somehow getting under her shirt by complete accident, that he apologized, she accepted, and then reported it in the wake f all the other late hits. Color me dubious that this is all there is.”
Is this the one you’re talking about? “I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he wrote. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”
Jack Marshall wrote, “Color me dubious that this is all there is.”
I understand about Keillor’s rationalizations regarding Al Franken, I really do; however, right now, I’m not with you on this one. Based on available information I think the public has jumped the gun here, especially NPR! Some kind of pattern indicating intent is clearly missing in this one right now. Has everyone just set aside this annoying “innocent until proven guilty” concept in favor of climbing on the wagon of social justice.
”Some kind of pattern indicating intent is clearly missing in this one right now.”
The last things this societal tsunami cares about as it cascades forward are innocence, nuance, intent, or circumstance.
Paul W. Schlecht wrote, “The last things this societal tsunami cares about as it cascades forward are innocence, nuance, intent, or circumstance.”
Yup, that does seem to be the pattern of society.
Typo…
I’ve been looking at various times over the weekend and I can’t find anything more.
NPR has been hammered lately; maybe they threw garrison under the bus. Based on what we know, you are right. I just don’t trust the guy, and never have. Here’s an interesting read. Sample:
Even in the best case scenario, in which it has been posited that Keillor was attempting to engage in some terribly misguided irony, the stereotypes trotted out in his opinion piece dangerously belie the reality of the many, many same-sex partners and gay parents raising kids today….then there are the undisclosed facts about Garrison’s own private life – his failed marriages, his several children by different mothers, his extra-marital affairs that were, presumably, not sanctioned by his spouse at the time.
I think he’s a dog, and dogs are often harassers.
Jack Marshall wrote, “I think he’s a dog, and dogs are often harassers.”
He might in fact be a “dog” and I agree that “dogs are often harassers” but not always. He might actually be a real asshole and he might be guilty, but I just can’t justifiably render him guilty on this particular accusation based on the information that’s available.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the man or his show.