This thinking would carry through to the Civil Rights era. Liberals, of course, were in favor of Martin Luther King Jr's agenda of freedom and equality for all people regardless of skin color or race whereas conservatives were against it. Case in point: William F. Buckley Jr., an icon of the post-World War II conservative movement, wrote an essay in 1957 titled "Why the South Must Prevail." In this essay, he declared the white race the more "advanced" race. Not a very bright thing to say from such a well-educated, articulate guy. Even Buckley himself realized he was wrong and changed his mind in the next decade, thereby siding with liberals.
What about supporting the Women's Movement? Putting an end to the Vietnam War? Legalizing marijuana? Once again, when those issues were front and center in America, liberals were in favor of them whereas conservatives stupidly held firm against them.
Bear in mind that in the beginning of any social, economic, or political movement, the mainstream media usually tend to side with the traditional values of conservatives. And despite what conservatives and right-wing Trump supporters say about the "lamestream" media being too liberal, the opposite is true.
Take the Iraq War, for example. The New York Times, always considered very liberal by conservative standards, was pro Iraq War from the beginning. In fact, one of their star reporters, Judith Miller, was the one who pushed the phony WMD stories. Later, she was forced to resign and got a job at Fox News.
Of course, the reason the mainstream media are always a step behind any liberal or progressive movement is because they are dependent on conservative corporations that spend big busks to advertise with them and the reactionary masses who buy their papers. Later, when the zeitgeist turns more progressive, the mainstream media suddenly get religion and do stories that are against the establishment. But even then, they only go so far.
Go back to the 1980s, for example. After Ronald Reagan, the "amiable dunce," took the solar panels off the White House roof that Jimmy Carter had installed, how many revelatory stories did the mainstream media do on renewable energy or global warming? How many hard-hitting articles or exposes did they do against the fossil fuels industry? Damn few! The only enlightening stories that told the truth came from the alternative liberal/progressive press.
Now that global warming is a stark reality, the mainstream media are happy to report on its ramifications. Unfortunately, even at this late stage of the game, even when the sea level keeps rising, even when the glaciers keep melting, and even when we're being choked to death by forest fires in California, many conservativesespecially Trump supportersbelieve that climate change is just a liberal hoax. Can you call this anything other than stupid?
I could go on, of course, but I think it's clear that old John Stuart Mill knew what he was talking about when he said most stupid people were conservatives and didn't need to placate them by using euphemisms. And now that Trump is on his way out and Biden on his way in, many Democrats are hopeful that things will change, that Biden will support a more liberal/progressive agenda.
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