I'm glad hotels carry HBO.

I enjoyed this week's episode, but there weren't any really stand out moments. Maybe the fact that there were no conservative guests this week had something to do with my enjoyment. Max Cleland, the former Senator from Georgia and Vietnam war hero who lost three limbs serving his country in that conflict, was the surprise hit with several very funny, slightly off-color remarks.

This episode, coupled with my recent experiences in Austin, have got me thinking. This harkens back to a much earlier post I made here about aging hippies and how they're hurting their causes by the way they present their issues.

I very much respect and appreciate progressive grassroots activists, especially those doing anti-oppression work. In fact, I often consider myself one of them. What frustrates me, and I experienced it again this week, is when they take offense and quibble over every little detail, arguing for the sake of arguing with anyone who will listen to them, even if their current target is otherwise a very strong ally.

It's why second-wave feminists have so easily been portrayed as lacking a sense of humor and a big reason why second-wave feminism was so easily ridiculed and contested by conservatives. I'm not saying I agree with the ridicule, but it does speak to how a group presents its ideas to a general public that isn't necessarily in the same headspace as the subgroup.

Aging hippies, second-wave feminists and conservatives all have something in common: they all believe that everybody is coming from the same starting place. Let me explain.

For aging hippies and second-wavers, they generally believe that the general public will naturally side with them if they present the "truth" or the "facts" about an issue. What they fail to recognize is that the baseline is different for every person, and on average is much farther to the right than they expect. One person's truth is another person's crazy fringe conspiracy theory. When the aging hippies and second-wavers test their messages, they preach to the choir without taking into consideration how someone outside their circles will respond. Other progressive groups do it too and it breaks my heart. They could do so much good if they could just learn to evangelize instead of preach to the converted.

Conservatives by the same token think we all start in the same place - with the same access to resources and opportunities. They hate to accept that oppression exists, that some people have a harder time making the same gains and accessing the same opportunities simply due to the color of their skin, who they screw, how much money they make, whether they had the opportunity to go to college, how they pray and so on. If someone failed to make proper use of the same opportunities that they frequently take advantage of, it's that individual's personal failing. It's a glib and frankly obnoxious worldview.

Aging hippies and second-wavers (and many other progressive constituencies) have a distinct advantage over conservatives in universal truths, such as the existence of oppression. Conservatives however are much more astute at speaking to the masses on an accessible level. Audre Lord talked about the fallacy of dismantling the master's house with his tools. I respectfully disagree if we consider preaching to the "heathens" a tool. Progressives used to know how to talk like the populists we are, and it won us wide majorities for decades.

Anyway, I could go on and on about that, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll end with this snippet from the final New Rule:

Among social conservatives, sex is to be tolerated only as long as it's joyless and toy-less, and, most importantly, within a marriage. But we certainly can't have jezebels like Harriet Miers - think they can just use their genitals for pleasure and then waltz onto the Supreme Court! What would we tell the children?

How about this? Why can't she just be somebody who likes to live alone? Not co-dependent. Single because she likes it. I hope Harriet Miers is having a rich, guilt-free sex life. You go, girl! That's what should be normal...

From someone who likes to live alone and is single because I like it, thank you Bill Maher. At least you're one mostly progressive guy (who tries to hide behind that "independent" label) who is still railing against the banality of homogeny.

Next week (this Friday, actually): panelists will beTV talk show host Tucker Carlson (note to Tucker: bowties are only cute on old men or with tuxedos...they just make you look even more out-of-touch than you sound), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (the way this woman defends the Bush family disasters, you'd think she married one of 'em...or at least served as White House counsel) and filmmaker Spike Lee (I hope he gives the first two guests the smackdowns they deserve).