Liberalism and the Fallacy of Open Mindedness

This past week has highlighted the fallacy behind the supposition that liberals are open minded and receptive to opinions that differ from their own. Progressives have long touted the view that unlike conservatives, they are willing to accept beliefs different than their own. Of course, this view subliminally presupposes that conservatives are therefore close minded. In reality, those individuals who live on the far left or far right are not open to opinions unlike theirs. Fortunately, most of us live somewhere between these two extremes.

Bill O'Reilly was a guest this week on The View. The discussion of the mosque near ground zero came up and the conversation got quite heated. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar left the stage. They did not like the fact that Bill O'Reilly refused to change his position that the world has a problem with Muslim violence targeted against non Muslims. Later in the week, Juan Williams was on with O'Reilly and stated that he had an internal feeling of fear whenever he was on an aircraft and noticed individuals dressed in Muslim garb. National Public Radio fired him for this remark.

So, if liberals are truly receptive to opinions that differ from their own, why would both of these instances have occurred? Some claim that it is political correctness gone amuck. While this may be true, I believe that hard core liberals are no more open minded than the hard line conservatives that liberals like to condemn or belittle. It is time that those of us of a more conservative point of view begin to challenge liberals on this point. They are not any more open minded than me and I refuse to relinquish the philosophical high ground to them. Opinionated bigots exist on both sides of the political spectrum. When either side raises its voice, stomps off like school children or uses its power to professionally harm someone with whom they differ, they hurt the progress of healthy debate. I say, shame on Goldberg, Behar, and NPR!

De Oppresso Liber