News Nation: Bill O’Reilly: ‘I Don’t Have Any Progressive Friends’

Source:News Nation- left to right: Chris Cuomo & Bill O'Reilly. Yes, that Chris Cuomo & Bill O'Reilly.

"On his podcast “No Spin News,” author Bill O’Reilly said: “I don’t have any progressive friends anymore. They’re gone because I can’t stomach them.” NewsNation host Chris Cuomo asks: Whatever happened to being able to have disagreements with your friends, even if they differ politically? O’Reilly said: “As I get older … my tolerance for irrationality becomes smaller.”

From News Nation

As I argued last Friday in my post about Liberals and Conservatives on The New Democrat, for political labels to mean anything and not just be verbal darts that people throw at each other, almost as political insults, or attempts for one to hide their own real politics, they have to be used correctly. 

Bill O'Reilly is not actually talking about Progressives or Liberals here. Even though he uses both of those labels to talk about radical leftists: 

"Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to represent the left of social democracy, while others limit it to the left of communist parties. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes." 

From Wikipedia

To their credit, (and I give MAGA credit for anything positive as often as Seattle runs out of coffee or Detroit runs out of automobiles) MAGA and all their media outlets, including their cult leader Donald Trump, doesn't describe radical leftists (Socialists and Communists) as Liberals or Progressives anymore either. They call them radical leftists or extreme leftists. It's really just the mainstream media, the network news divisions, as well as CNN and MSNBC on cable, the national, mainstream newspapers, that still call these hardcore leftists, Progressives and in some cases Liberals. 

But to Bill O'Reilly's point about not being able to be friends with any radical leftists, (my words, not his) I actually agree with him. I would have a helluva hard time, don't even think it would be worth the effort to have a friendship, with someone who thinks Israeli civilians, or any civilians, from any other country, are the real terrorists and HAMAS are the freedom fighters. Or that the Houthi terrorists in Yemen, are the real victims and the American military are the real terrorists. 

Just like I would have a hard time being friendly with people who think that the Ku Klux Klan or Nazis are freedom fighters, and civil rights marchers and organizers, are the real terrorists and criminals. But that's me. 

Now, I might have a conversation (especially on social media) with these folks, if I didn't think they're were drunk or high on drugs, escaped mental patients, or something. But that would probably be mostly for my own personal entertainment. Because they're so hard to take seriously and simply can't handle contradicting facts, to their own fringe ideology. They live in their own little world when it comes to facts and evidence. 

If you are actually interested in knowing what a real Progressive is and what they're about, I tell you anyway: Progressives are people who believe in progress, pure and simple. Not people who believe in government totalization and who see that individual freedom and personal choice are threats to society. Or anyone whose from any minority group, has some constitutional right to never be criticized, or to be made fun of, or face any legal sanctions anytime that there's evidence that they're responsible for any serious crime.

To give you a more official definition of what it means to be a Progressive: 

Progressive: "of, relating to, or characterized by progress" 

From Dictionary

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