Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 18, 2012

Does Mark hate the person or the behavior? I think GT is trying to appease the conservatives.

To repeat what I said yesterday, racism is stereotyping. If Mark, in his greying years, can’t avoid thinking in stereotypes, then yes, he’s becoming dumb (and conservative). This is a liability against which aging persons like GBT and myself have to be on guard.

Let me just add here that a cartoonist’s stereotypes like GBT’s won’t become racist so long as Trudeau and his readers recognize them as stereotypes. If you really thought that Ray, for instance, stood for all black soldiers, or that Becca Bickle represented all female intellectuals, you’d be a racist stereotyper. (Sorry, the noun doesn’t exist; I had to make it up.)

Is it misplaced to be a misanthrope?

Young person: “I want to clear your mind of prejudices.”

Old person: “Can’t I hold onto the few that I’ve got left?”

I have no prejudices except ones against those people who would hate me for what I am and not who I am. I’m fine with the people who hate me for who I am.

He is describing the behavior/attitudes, not calling people names. So Mark could deplore the behavior without being prejudiced against the person and would be just right-thinking, neither conservative nor liberal.

you have to pay extra for fox news in canada. too much canada bashing, and the ratings were really low. fox news makes canada as the worst place on earth, worse than a war zone, a failed, state, north korea, and hell combined.

We pay dearly for having Fox News in the USA, too…although not in the way you’re talking about.

@GatoCat, you really know you are onto something when you survive long enough to be postjudiced.

And Yassir, how about the effect of “Limpblow” on the military. Could be part of the reason for the crazed excess mission-destroying violence and prejudice against “foreigners”, like the Native Afghans who live in their country.

We have to pay for Fox ewwws in the UK too. I checked the viewing figures and apparently they’re so low they don’t even register.

The double-edged sword thing seems fairly intuitive, too.

Which means, in practical terms, that we get to blame it on the other guys – or keep pointing out how their sword has a sharper double-edge than our sword.

But about the cartoon. Strongly held views aren’t necessarily prejudice, even hate. Hating racism is one thing but, “hating” racists may be counter productive and to be avoided, but still not prejudice — as long as you go on a case by case basis. Redneck does not equal racist, for instance. The Professor’s “study” may however lead people toward prejudice. I think Mark’s tongue is in his cheek.

I’m not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.

Spaghettus1, palin drome, aircraft-engineer and surfstuff55, I left responses for you on yesterday (Saturday’s strip).

The left-wingers are the most prejudiced, anti-freedom people there are.

A person who consistently and without thought defends a mildly liberal status quo: is he a conservative, a liberal, or a progressive? A person who wants to radically change a mildly liberal status quo, and remake society into something it has never actually been, based on a theoretical model and certain unproven assumptions about human nature: is he a conservative, a liberal, or a progressive? These labels are largely meaningless, and only serve the function of dividing us into opposing factions (to use James Madison’s term) or tribes, and so divided that we cannot deal with any issue realistically.

The hysteria and vitriolic comments about Fox news prove the hypocrisy of the liberal agenda. Freedom for a liberal is defined as the right to agree with their narrow minded and politically correct view of the world. Any deviation from this view has to be attacked and ridiculed.

That wouldn’t be prejudice. Prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” (Stole that from the dictionary).

BTW, I would not call Mark’s dislike of racists prejudice because it IS based on reason and experience.

I am 100% service connected disabled because I told the psychiatrist that I hate stupid people and second lieutenants. Is that redundant?

Prejudice “pre-judging” is a natural human reaction, probably a survival trait. What we need to do in modern society is get ourselves to overcome that prejudice and not let it develop into racism or sexism, etc. I suspect this is harder for people of low intelligence.

I am truly amazed and frightened by many of the the things I read here. Many of you who leave comments thinking you’re clarifying and forwarding the author’s ideas had better take a lesson from history. Trudeau is carrying water for the WH and expects the drones to disseminate the message down the line to friends and co-workers. Trudeau and the like are all a part or the propaganda ministry. I admire those who can filter the lies and half truths. P.S. U R digging y r own grave. God help us.

Interesting. I have been around for awhile so I know how to push the “left’s” buttons. Often but, not always, it is futile to show superior intellect for they are always the smartest in in the room. The most effective strategy is the use of simple common sense. Good luck.

Say what?

Ah yes, the old liberal tried and true stand by, You RACIST!!! Sorry, won’t work here. By the way, did you know governor George Wallace, THE George Wallace of Alabama was a Democrat? Fancy that.

Sorry, I have to go now. It’s been fun. Like cat and mouse, meow….

It’s " if p, then q ; q, therefore p"Affirming the Consequent.

The ultimate hubris from a man who gets knowledge of Fox News from watching to MSNBC. Get a life, Trudeau.

And in the role of Mark is special guest Dave Foley.

I’ve always preferred stereo.the scratches on the stereo records are much more clearer and have a deeper sound quality to them than the flat sounding old monaural records’ scratches.

No matter your feelings or stand on ANY subject; you are predjudiced, if you cannot see the value in other ideas or opinions!!

@Sharuniboy Is a stereotypist a steno-typist with ear buds?

Compassion is the key.

Thanks GT for muddying the water with a very sophomoric comment. I remember thinking thoughts like this when I was a teenager (oh, so long ago!).

I can’t presume to speak for GT, but I think it’s just a clever satire of the kinds of arguments conservatives use.

GT should’ve used an asterisk to indicate which study.

I thought Robert Reich was more of an economist, I guess he has that universal academic progressive look. (not a stereotype)

Fox is the ONLY one that tells both sides. that’s what liberals hate about it.

Very nice Zen Zinger.

Yes, George Wallace was a Democrat. He was also an Independent. By the time he ran in 1968, he ran as an Independent. Like many other southerners, he abandoned the Democratic Party after LBJ took a strong stand on civil rights.

Oops someone else already explained that. Sorry to be redundant.

Fox tells both sides? Right. They tell one side and that is their side.

This is how I’ve seen this work out on many, many threads:Liberal gives reasoned factual answer.Conservative calls liberal names .(Repeat several times)Liberal, frustrated, calls conservative a name.Conservative says, “See you’re all just name callers. We have the facts.” Liberal logs off.

It’s really quite easy to avoid prejudices. Don’t talk/interact/listen to people. Once you stop, you stop caring what other people are or do. Really. It works.

A lot of this stems from a simple, and inaccurate, conflation of “prejudice” with “dislike”..Dislike, whether reasonable or not, at least is situational and personal: you dislike a person, or a behavior, for particular reasons that can be discussed and understood, and either be affirmed or refuted..Prejudice is always unreasonable, because it’s a sweeping generalization about persons, not because of what they are and what they do, but because of what they are, in some accidental, arbitrary, and superficial way. It can’t be reasoned with, or even discussed without starting an emotional (and unproductive) argument.,Going back to the strip (remember that?), Mark is being deliberately provocative — tweaking his guest by saying he’s “prejudiced against racists” when he clearly means instead that he intensely dislikes what they say and do. He’s too intelligent not to have done that deliberately, so he’s just playing mind games with his hapless guest, for fun. (Just as GT is playing mind games with us!)

“Fox News surpasses Liberal Radical Thoughts, and False Philosophy”-——————————————————————————-So true, Fox News is much better at radical thought and false philosophy than liberals are.

@calimesajim, who said, about 1 hour ago,

“This strip is no fun anymore. Too many intellectuals posting most of their knowledge and too many liberal socialists posting most of their beliefs.”

You mean this is longer a fun place to show off your ignorance and post your anti-liberal beliefs?

Have to delete your earlier posts, have you? Must not have much faith in what you are saying.Anyway, let me know when you have an adult coherent argument to make. Insults are for children.

There is a reason we call it Faux news

I’m back. Oh yeah. Forgot to mention, although the main line of defense is the race card, the second line of defense is personal attacks with a dash of misinformation. Sorry gang I’m not buying it. The new Democrat party is the party of Lincoln, lol. Read your history again. You missed something

In engineering, I could end arguments by saying, “You’re right!” – and others have seriously criticized me for not defending my initial second-best opinion. (It took a decade to intuit that the same approach was effective with my wife and kids.)

@ SCAATY

“Mark is being deliberately provocative—-tweaking his guest by saying he’s “prejudiced against racists” when he clearly means instead that he intensely dislikes what they say and do. He’s too intelligent not to have done that deliberately, so he’s just playing mind games with his hapless guest, for fun. (Just as GT is playing mind games with us!)”

You may be right, SCAATY. But if Mark is intelligently self-aware, why does he repeat a vulgar sophistry (“if p is q, then q is p”), and why does GBT set up the interview by having Mark, like any Fox News watcher, scanning for a headline to confirm his views?

Many of us who are considered liberal have certainly studied Lincoln rather thoroughly actually. That is precisely why we love him. Check out Doris Kearns Goodwin’s work— she is very informative.

Hey gang, with all the one sided, slanted, bias, less than professional so called news organizations, i.e. CNN, MSNBC ABC, CBS, etc. Why this obsession with Fox? Oh right , they’re the only bias one out there.

Being “liberal” means listening to the other person’s view, even if you do NOT agree with them. Being “conservative” in TODAY’s “body politic” there, means NOT listening to what your fellow “conservatives” say, and believing them, despite the facts.

On “racial issues” in the south, the “parties” have indeed swapped positions since LBJ.

The “parties” aren’t what matters, but the positions. Being “pro-war”, led by fools, is idiotic, period. Being AGAINST your own best interests, despite the evidence, is idiotic. Buying into ANY radical, lie-based premise, is idiotic. “Judging” folks, as individuals, even if they are “leaders” in their cultures, based on FACTS, is not “prejudice”. NOT “judging” folks based on the REAL facts, and not analyzing their phony propaganda, is idiotic.

Thanks for the direction. The other day I was reading News Week and investigated the featured story about man made climate change, formally known global warming, formally known as global cooling and many times throughout the article the reader was encouraged to go to a partiular web site. I did and was encouraged to join the ranks of the civil disobedient . Imagine that

Most of the news organizations simply are not liberal. I think Current TV is the only one that really qualifies as liberal and most folks don’t seem to be aware of it. msnbc provides some liberals but they have their conservative voices too, such as joe Scarborough and Steve Schmidt and others.

To answer your last question, many outlets have an agenda. Once you commit to an agenda you cease being a news organization and become an appendage to a cause. Get it???

We have in the past paid with the blood our our brave men and women in uniform. I thought most people knew that. But, don’t take this the wrong way, I have to remind myself I’m talking to the Doonsbury crowd, the bastion of liberalism.

One last thing about the media. Key word: filter. Develop one and use it. Don’t eat everything the feed you.

I didn’t vote for Al Gore Sr. I voted for Al Gore Jr. and was and still am very proud of that fact.

Wonderfully done Garry.

Trudeau logic.

Thanks, that was a good article. So why aren’t the repubican presidential candidates talking about those points, instead of contraception/abortion/gay marriage etc.?

What?

Excellent question, Mark! The study just doesn’t say whether the link is causal or exclusive… :) Some other group might also be entitled to prejudice!

Smirk giggle snarf giggle giggle

Don’t Hate the player…

Obama has not really fulfilled everything we hoped for on the left… Funny that so many right wingers want to hang out here. It is kind of much more fun and interesting for a liberal on huffpost.

Just read all the comments and thought I would say something relevant…. “something relevant”

But prejudices never die.

‘If liberals are so smart, how come they keep getting surrounded by idiots?’Because they don’t filter comments like the right does.

GBT is a national treasure – a man who goes “where angels fear to tread”.. The abortion series was magnificent.

Any so called research paper that uses the word “study” should come with the following disclaimer: “The results claimed in this document are base upon subjective data and the conclusions represent the biases of the authors.” The news media need to recite this disclaimer before reporting it.