Comments on: Political activism on campus: the Gore-y truth

By: Ray C.

Ray C. — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:48:40 +0000

Good point, Sneha. I see little more to this story than the Sarah Palins of the world riling up the anti-”elitism” teabag crowd for political gain, because that fringe now makes up such a large percentage of the conservative constituency. While legitimate debate is always good, it’s disappointing to see this garbage taken seriously on esteemed college campuses.

0 0

By: Sneha Thakur

Sneha Thakur — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:14:30 +0000

I agree; stirring controversy often seems to be the most effective way to draw attention, but I believe that it is far from the best way because data frequently has to be skewed.

Rhetoric is only good if it can persuade its audience. The overwhelming majority of people I talked to, most of whom consider themselves moderates, were far from convinced by the Not Evil Just Wrong flyers. If this was the group the Young Americans for Liberty was targeting, then they incorrectly gauged their audience.

0 0

By: bcronos

bcronos — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:40:19 +0000

You forgot to mention that only 20% described themselves as liberal while 39% described themselves as conservative.

0 0

By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:49:05 +0000

I did attend the film, and I thought it made some good points, though it spent too much time taking shots at Al Gore, perhaps an easy target. To complement this film, I recommend the PBS Nova episode on global dimming and the cooling effect of air pollutants, and the PBS Bill Moyers’ America episode entitled, “Is God Green?,” about a trend among Evangelicals to focus on stewardship of the earth, rather than dominion over it, and featuring interviews with working people in coal country.

I also attended another event sponsored by the Conservative Leadership Alliance, a very interesting talk on finding third ways. Apparently the CLA is trying to appeal to a broad center right spectrum, as the now defunct Progressive Action Coalition appealed to a broad center left constituency.

Why not bring back the Progressive Action Coalition, or something like it? In the meantime, check out Adam Shriver’s St Louis Activist Hub, http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/ I hope we can get beyond superficial labels such as “conservative” or “progressive.”

0 0

By: Steve Howerton

Steve Howerton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:22:00 +0000

1) it’s called rhetoric! would you like these groups to post footnoted academic studies? they’re trying to engage an audience, not win them over with a single flyer.
2) these national parties, when spewing out too much data/sophisticated arguments, get demonized as “elitist”. you’re placing the blame solely on the party organizations when it should also be shouldered by the sound-byte obsessed media and the lazy electorate who doesn’t want to spend time researching the issues.

0 0

By: Ian August Mosley

Ian August Mosley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:55:51 +0000

I appreciate your attempt to give a balanced critique, but with all due respect evaluating Not Evil, Just Wrong (which I did have the chance to see with my YAL buddies) on the basis of a single quote from the trailer is HIGHLY misleading. The film makes many substantive arguments, and though it focuses a little too much for my tastes on deflating the unrealistically heroic image most people have of Gore, it does not demonize him.

The unfortunate truth is that provoking controversy is usually not just the best way but the only way to get attention for your events. I wish we had the kind of campus where you could just advertise a discussion about first principles and 100 people would show up, but it doesn’t really work. Students aren’t required to attend extra-curricular events (as they are on some campuses), and in the absence of contrary forces our community tends to have a strong “Bowling Alone” tendency which Ms. Samborn has pointed out.

0 0