The Liberal Mind – Asymmetric 'Cacooning' (updated 25may12)

George Rebane

For some years in these pages I have written about the apparent ignorance of the liberal voices about what’s going on and how things work.  Quite often I, and other conservative bloggers, have been taken to task by our left-leaning readers accusing us of ‘introducing’ some outlandish new notion.  But more often than not, the notion is neither new nor outlandish in the greater scheme of things.  It only appeared so to the more narrowly exposed readers.

I have argued that a contributing factor to these one-sided expressions of outrage is that liberals in the aggregate are disposed to seek out news and information from liberal outlets.  These include the usual lamestream outlets and, of course, the Hollywood led entertainment industry.  Sources which the conservatives cannot help but also frequent, if for nothing else then curiosity as to what the other side is talking about.

National commentator Michael Barone on polipundit.com has noticed that same phenomenon and writes about it here (H/T to Russ Steele for link).  Barone cites the notion of ‘cacooning’ introduced by journalist Bill Bishop in his recent (2009) The Big Sort.  Bishop observes that professionals and idea shapers on both sides migrate to enclaves that best match their views – e.g. San Francisco area and Dallas-FtWorth.  But where liberals in such areas can totally immerse themselves in like-mindedness, conservatives find that impossible to do because of the pervasive left tilt of the national media, academia, the arts, and, of course, Hollywood et al.

The conservatives are bathed in both lights wherever they may live, and therefore benefit from a broader understanding of the beliefs and notions held by the American public.  One indicator of this is the types of fruitless debates that go on between the two sides, where one side wants to examine, say, the impact of a proposed idea of governance while the other side is simply outraged that someone would ‘introduce’ or even consider such an idea.

Some years back Alan Abramowitz and Bishop, while working on his book, wrote a piece, 'The Myth of the Middle', in the Washington Post describing the findings of a study and poll that confirmed what many of us were witnessing daily in the national dialogue.  Again, somehow much of the left (most certainly our local locally focused brethren) missed the report of this revelation.  The article concluded -

For the past three decades, the major parties and the electorate have grown more divided -- in what they think, where they live and how they vote. It may be comforting to believe our problems could be solved if only those vile politicians in Washington would learn to get along. The source of the country's division, however, is nestled much closer to home.

This, of course, contributes to and confirms the overall polarization of the country, and has induced many conservatives to begin exploring the notion of a Great Divide (q.v.).

[25may12 update]  This evening we finished an historic week in the annals of defending the First Amendment and religious freedom.  Over 22 churches and institutions (including the liberal Notre Dame University) have filed suit against the administration regarding Obamacare’s revealed strictures on what is a church and who must deliver abortion services.  This is a big story, and promises to have a material effect on this election as it heads toward SCOTUS, where the justices already have that travesty under their microscope.

But the added news here for the record is that liberals looking to the lamestream for its news have again literally no idea that any of this is going on, let alone the scope of this exploding national debate.  To again demonstrate in which basket it has all of its eggs, the lamestream channels in toto devoted only 19 seconds(!) to reporting this story during the entire week that has passed – this according to people who track media coverage as was reported by Fox News.  Talk about asymmetry.  Exit question: Isn’t there at least one pissed progressive in the country who would stand up and demand that his news not be selectively censored?

Comments

[Brad Croul]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=D9vQt6IXXaM&hd

[George Rebane]

Thank you BradC.

[Brad Croul]

Found it in my inbox this morning - my dad sent it to me.