ZephMarshack wrote:
Yep, Dan perfectly epitomizes the banality of much of social and cultural liberalism today. For the vast majority who proudly identify themselves this way, such beliefs are merely matters of self-esteem and/or social signaling, rather than reflecting any kind of genuine concern about or effort to change material conditions in the world. Dan's major contribution to this fight he's proudly crusading for is belittling people he disagrees with, a noble endeavor which just so happens to converge with his favorite pastime of demonstrating his superiority to others.
Tall Midget wrote:
Your observation about Dan's apparently contradictory politics explains why I have been calling him a neoliberal here for many years. Dan embraces multiculturalism--racial tolerance, condemning atavistic or "individual" acts of bigotry, etc--precisely because doing so provides him with the sheen of progressivism without having to advocate a politics that questions the structures of power at work in our society. His multiculturalism is an empty signifier of radicalism.
sinicalypse wrote:
this one's easy.... i once heard a quote like "when you're young/er if you're not a liberal you have no heart/soul.... when you're old/er if you're not a conservative you have no money" and i think that in and of itself explains dan's situation pretty well.
he obviously wants to appeal to his listeners that he's a modern * fingersnap * with it type of guy, out there surfing the waves of social "progress" and "fighting the good fight" and all that..... but when it comes down to money, he's the FOTS @ a major CBS radio station, he's making a good amount of paper and he definitely doesn't want to get on the wrong side of the monied moguls who have made his cushy life possible.... so when issues that tend to deal with mostly/money pop up, he's quick to side with the owners/rich/powerful/etc.... he's definitely on their side of life, but he wants to offset that with being as "modern" and "progressive" as possible when it comes to dumb pointless stuff like the formal status of people whose taste in human-orifice-spelunking differentiate from the norm (or, as the case may be, endeavor to become to the new norm =)
it's the best of both worlds, and he's far from alone in "getting with the program" of media people who are socially liberal to the point where you start to overlook a lot of their fiscally conservative views.
Yes. This. All of this.