I am too young to drink in this country. I am too young to vote in this country. I am too young to enlist in this country. I am even too young to drive in this country. But I am old enough to know that Neoconservative media is, if nothing else, disgusting, and to hate the Bush Administration.
I was first interested in politics but a few years ago, and since then I have be captured by the convulted, unending tale of American politics. Though my parents are Democratic, and I live in MA, the epicenter of the Democrats (or so some like to portray it), I first dived into American politics with an open mind and unending optimism. To my great regret.
I began my journey into American politics and news through the conventional, typical media. I read American news magazines and watched the news on the television. I was finally fed up with them both when the Channel 5 news broadcasted yet another feel-good story about the cesspool that is Iraq. So I designed to go to what seemed to be the polar opposite of the conventional media. Blogs like this one. And the reasoned arguments, large, amazing archives, lack of annoying advertisements, and the filter that let only actual news through into the sites amazed me. Naturally, these were the liberal blogs.
Having so happily rolled about in liberal blogs, I decided to see the conservative side of blogs. I went to Matt Drudge's site, and Blogs for Bush, among others, and I was initially revolted. After a few days of forcing myself to read the conservative blogs with as much attentiveness as I had for the liberal equivalents, I was still disgusted.
So why did I hate conservative blogs? To quote from a recent post that I just found in Blogs for Bush: "Most of our problems in Iraq have been the result of anti-Bush elements resident within the State Department and CIA". Whoever posted that atrocious statement provided no evidence, arguments, or even other conjectures to back up his statement. Giving yet another quick read-through of Markos' site, I see mostly news articles with some conclusions based on them, or essays with thoughts posted. In a vain effort to be unbiased, conservative blogs did likewise, but the unceasing lies and distortions from people who could easily be my neighbor disgusted me. For another example: while liberal blogs pointed out the diplomat who accused the US was "stingy" with foreign aid was actually quoted erroneously, the conservative blogs took another chance at recanting the oil-for-food scandal as a justification for their chosen administration's stupidity. In addition to all of this, there were countless occurances of the conservative blogs angrily denouncing the "liberal media" for reporting bad news on Iraq, but providing paltry - at best - arguments for any actual distortion of the truth.
But it was not just the blogs that assisted in my wholehearted disgust of the conservative media. My public broadcasting station interviewed a prominent Neoconservative leader, whose name escapes me currently, and he said that the news was "just opinion" and that factual correctness had nothing to do with getting politicians elected. After hearing that and seeing his genuinely happy face, I had unpleasant flashbacks to reading 1984. That, in addition to uncountable minor slights, finally completely and utterly convinced me to read only liberal blogs, unbiased or counteracting sources be damned. They had their chance.
But why do I hate Bush? Just think, what do I hear? I hear that the forests I want to visit being cut down, the national parks I want to visit being reduced, the air I want to enjoy forever being polluted, and my fellow Americans dying in some far off desert. I hear my leader lie without chastisement, my future attorney general support torture, my last attorney general a religious fanatic, people - innocent and guilty - arrested and held without due process, my future jobs being replaced by sweatshop workers or machines, my country spitting on the UN, my children paying off this president's debt, intellectuals being derided by fools in positions of power, my state being slandered by our leader, media coerced and threatened into supporting but one party, my neighbors driving SUVs so that I may suffer the consequences of their idiotic selfishness, chemicals being dumped into my water, my parents' money being funneled into the pockets of conglomerates, and countless more grievances I cannot currently recall.
This diary entry was my first. It was not meant to be a shocking news story I uncovered, or an excellent anecdote many other kos diary writers create. It is merely backround to my opinion, so that future posts and diaries of mine may be further understood. It is also to provide one child's view of this once great nation. And most of all, this is to excuse my bitterness, pessimism, and borderline hostility towards a whole half of my nation. Lastly, I apologize if I offended anyone.