PUBLIC VIEWPOINT: Art Hobson Develops Own Facts

Writer Art Hobson thinks America is heading toward brighter days because we are getting over “our harmful shibboleths regarding gays, guns, abortion and other social issues.”

Got it? Or do you wonder what harmful shibboleths might be? I looked it up so the rest of the readers don’t have to. Shibboleth is an ancient word with various meanings but here Hobson apparently means any custom distinctive of a particular class.

So on guns, he means that guns bring out the worst in “some of ourc onservative citizens.” Nice touch, calling us citizens. He says we want congressmen to “vote against gun safety.” Anti-intellectual he calls us, the butt of jokes, paranoid even.

Alive and well in the South and even (gasp!) in some Midwestern states. He quotes lots of studies, so it must be true. It is just us irrational conservative citizens who don’t believe that banning assault weapons will make life safer. He never mentions conservative recommendations, but that is typical liberal shibboleth. Is that proper use of the word?

It is in the South and Midwest again that majorities still oppose gay marriage. He says most other states support gay marriage and are therefore rational. He apparently believes he is privileged to develop his own facts.

He likes the fact that there are more women in politics, most of them with “humane liberal values.” Most are not “macho types like Sarah Palin.” I guess he means we favor courageous women, which is what the word must mean when applied to a woman. Only liberal values are humane, of course.

He gets in the usual attacks on President Reagan and even says it was the “pre-revolutionary Scots-Irish immigration to America that brought an anti-intellectual, gun-loving, fundamentalist culture” to the South.

Hurrah for us Scottish Irishmen! He couldn’t possibly mean that as a negative or racist comment could he? Nah. No liberal would ever do that. Too humane.

Hobson finishes by saying he wants an honest debate about the things that matter. Mr. Hobson, please start by eliminating the shibboleth attitude.

TOM MURRAY

Bella Vista