American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
I have no idea how I happened upon this item in Salon, because I was actually trying to figure out whether Turkey has sufficient trauma surgeons to deal with the number of amputations that are inevitably attendant when a lot of buildings collapse in an earthquake. But happen upon it I did, and I have to pause to admire the incredible ingenuity and advancement of American research laboratories--they are truly pioneering new frontiers. Look what they've created! They have invented an Iowa Writers' Worshop graduate who is suffering extreme angst about the possibility that her Facebook page is a liberal echo chamber:
Within a few more minutes, others had begun to add comments of their own, nearly all of which made reference to the president’s skin color, “questionable” national origin, or socialist death-panel agenda. I nearly fell out of my chair. My heart was racing. I squinted at the screen. I read the comments again and again. This was the real deal, not on Fox News but right here on MY computer, on MY Facebook page. I’d invited it in, that horrible place I’d left the day I graduated from high school. I looked down at my keyboard and saw that my hands were shaking. I decided to add a comment of my own: “Don’t like! Boy, am I glad I don’t live in Richmond anymore. You are un-friended!”
Trying to distract myself, I browsed the status of my other Facebook friends, listened to a little NPR, and yet I kept returning to that moment of profound disorientation, that feeling of having slipped into some alternate political universe. Where am I? I’d felt like asking. Who are these people?
Goodness, honey. I'd hate to see what happens when you find out about death and taxes.
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Sep '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Do you remember that Youtube video of Chris Christie leveling someone in a public forum?
"Sir, you must be the thinnest skinned man in America"
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
I'm sorry, but that piece is hilarious. Heart racing? Falling out of chair? And as for the bit about how abhorred she is by the mention of Obama's actual name, how did she miss the copious references to it by .... President Obama?
Sep '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
I think she needs to let her corset out a notch and increase the number of fans.
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
My faith in America has been completely restored. If we can create her, we can create anything.
Mar '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
The woman is a parody of liberals everywhere.
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
No! She's not a parody! At least I don't think she is, although ... wait--maybe she is? Did I miss the joke?
Dec '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
This could only come from a liberal. No conservative college student could ever be surprised by by the flippant nature with which their peers make outlandish, unsubstantiated and often offensive remarks about their own political belief.
What this poor, naive gal is missing, is that the echo chamber is far larger than just her Facebook page.
I would probably find more humor in this, if I wasn't going to spend a good chunk of my morning in a classroom filled with the likes of this one.
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
A budding Pauline Kael: "Nobody I know voted for Nixon."
Nov '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Claire, you had me going there for a minute, until I saw the reference to NPR. It's just a little too over-the-top that this mythical liberal woman was trying to calm herself by listening to NPR, like a distraught Christian listening to gospel music. The hands shaking was a bit much too. Nice try, though . . .
Oct '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
When OWS was just a few days old I went on an OWS forum to check out the comments. They were as silly and self-indulgent as the Salon writer, and I couldn't help posting (in a sympathetic tone) the hard cold facts;
Recent polls show that over 40 % of Americans self-identify as conservative.The same polls show Liberals at half that percentage. There's no getting around the fact that this is a center-right country and the sensible course for the left is emigration. There are plenty of countries sympathetic to their thinking.
What do you mean I was wrong to do that? I was just trying to be helpful. These hot-house toadies with their delicate sensibilities could settle right down in the warm, enervating waters of France, Italy, or even Greece and they wouldn't even notice things heating up.
Apr '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Good Golly, I sure hope Mumsey and Daddikins will break it to her gently about the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus while keeping her away from open windows and sharp implements!
Pseudodionysius
I think she needs to let her corset out a notch and increase the number of fans. · Oct 24 at 6:44am
Wasn't Thurston Howell the Third revived with a wad of cash after fainting?
Jul '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
No! She's not a parody! At least I don't think she is, although ... wait--maybe she is? Did I miss the joke? · Oct 24 at 6:54am
No, it was not a joke and no, she is not a parody. What you are seeing is a person that ventured out of their comfort zone and is now disoriented and questioning themselves. Shortly she will realize that she was right all along and go back to her “enclave of liberal, secular, urban-dwelling, like-minded 30-somethings so sealed off from the rest of the world”.
May '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Anyone else find this part of it hard to believe?
Maybe I'm sheltered, too, but, traveling in conservative circles my entire life, I have never come across the racism liberals seem to think is endemic among us.
I have heard a lot of complaints about baseless imputations of racism and about affirmative action and "the soft bigotry of low expectations".
I wonder whether her brain can compute the fact of Herman Cain's current frontrunner status.
Aug '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Old fashioneds indeed.
And three names ? His middle name is Hussein ?? I was thinking something along the lines of Chance.
Edited on Oct 24, 2011 at 1:27pmJan '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Yes, her remarks are ludicrous. Yes, her remarks tell us that, at best, she's unworldly. Yes, she doth protest too much. And, yes, she's worth a chuckle.
But, she votes. And, she's not alone. So, I can't smile at her thoughts.
Science didn't bring us this type, public school education did - and continues to do so.
May '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Her dad's comment was funny, too. "He told me that he frequently listened to patients rail against the looming menace of socialized medicine right before happily handing over their Medicare card."
The problem is that if you're on Medicare, you have no choice in the matter. That's worth complaining about.
May '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
katievs: Anyone else find this part of it hard to believe?
Maybe I'm sheltered, too, but, traveling in conservative circles my entire life, I have never come across the racism liberals seem to think is endemic among us.
Katie, you and Andrew Breitbart just haven't figured out the code (warning, language). The "code" talk starts about 2 minutes into the video, but it's worth watching the whole thing for context.
May '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
Thanks Claire; that's hilarious.
The Salon comments for the article are also full-tilt echo chamber. ("Closing off dissent is one thing, but closing off crazy is another thing entirely.") Which is expected.
Apr '11
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
I like that one of the final points of the article was "people are complicated, and can't be reduced to just their political and social opinions." That seems like the kind of thing a "liberal" should know already... I really feel bad for these kind of people. So often they are unaware of how unfriendly and unkind their attitudes really are to those with whom they disagree. The question is maybe having identified her own failings will the author of the article now change her behavior?
Aug '10
Re: American Scientists Create the Most Sheltered Woman in the World
But President Obama has a stimulus plan to get rid of both problems entirely! (Or maybe that was VP Biden misinterpreting a campaign promise.)
Also, could someone explain to me the great disdain some liberals have for gated communities? It seems to me that residents are not "so afraid of the unfamiliar world they had to erect a physical boundary to keep it at bay"... it seems the gates are a reaction to the known world of crime and petty vandalism.
Surely the liberal worldview awash in utopian, fuzzy giddiness for "open-mindedness" must admit some barriers against known, undesirable elements of life. Does wearing warm clothes in the snow show a fear of the unfamiliar winter?