Just spent six hours on the motorway (M5/M6 for anyone who knows UK - nightmare around Birmingham!), and I come home to this!
In another thread I said I was glad that this thread had not taken off (3 days ago). I get home to this!
I come home, 3 year old little boy sick, wife a little knackered after driving for six hours, me a little cranky after sitting in the passenger seat for six hours, and I am greeted with this!
I am called a woman by Ringo, complained about because I am not contributing (by a person who replies to a message stating that I would be absent without computer for the weekend) and the central point of the topic is not really answered. Good points though made by Faith regarding subjectivism and by Mick for highlighting my point about the Guardian and the BBC.
I am still reading through the thread but a couple of points. First up, I think that CanadianSteve and me are talking at cross-purposes. I meant the Guardian in the UK, published in Manchester and London. Not the Cuban Guardian or the North Korean Guardian. Affirmative action! A topic not really up for discussion in the UK, and definitely not called that (quotas in local govt parlance, and not actionable other than to appeal politically in the local area). Pacificism. When? Being against YOUR wars is not pacifism. Pro-intervention in the former Yugoslavia, Rawanda and other disputes around the world. Socialist economics. No. Absolutely not. As an economics student in the late 80's I remember the editorial slant of the Guardian with regard to the economy. Collectivisation, common ownership, nationalisation were not mentioned. Free universal health care, a low individual tax regime, private enterprise and private home ownership were. And deregulation. Talk about socialist! Over the years many editors and commentators have joined the Guardian from right-wing papers and have editorialised in the same manner unchallenged.
Second, the topic veers this way and that, mentioning single issues and the opposing views that posters have on those issues. That was not the point of the topic. The labelling of myself, or individuals as leftist or far left because of a perspective on a single issue is pointless. As is the same with right wing/conservative perspectives. What I was trying to get at is the knee-jerk labelling that goes on (and I am as guilty as many others), and the gulf between definitions on each side of the Atlantic. Not just what, but why?
Will carry on reading and may post again.