Bloggasm

Bob Riven: I started meat-eating leftist as a forum for myself and two other friends, AK and JBC, merely so we can vent to each other about current events, political ideology, and simple self-appeasement. I run a small family farm in upstate New York, in Delaware County, one of the infamous red counties in the Catskill Mountain region. While not exactly a bastion of leftist politics, the county is mostly comprised of dairy farmers who tend to lean towards the libertarian end of the spectrum, making me (and AK who lives about 6 miles away) a very minor Socialist minority.

I grew up in a schizophrenic household. My mother is a devout Christian who makes a big show about her religiosity. My father is a staunch Communist and atheist, who always ridiculed my mother’s faith. Needless to say, my complete mental state to this day is in question thanks to these two and the damage inflicted on my sense of identity. My posts tend to bash organized religion and embrace leftist thinking and approaches towards gaining power for individuals in an increasingly corporate-owned world.

We never meant for the blog to take off in popularity, nor has it yet, so any attention we get, like this interview, is a welcome surprise.

Simon Owens: Which conservative bloggers do you think create the most spin? And if you had to pick a conservative blogger to label a worthy adversary, which blogger would that be?

BR: Honestly, I don’t spend too much time on conservative blogs. It’s not that I don’t care, but what I wind up doing is listening to the likes of Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly and from there you can figure out what conservative bloggers are writing about. The right suffers from a dearth of individuality in ideas. What morons like Hannity and O’Reilly preach about comes straight from GOP talking points and to their credit, right wingers tow the party line. As far as worthy adversaries go, I don’t think conservatives stand a chance on issues in general. All you need to do is arm yourself with facts and any possible intelligent discussion is over.

SO: If Democrats were to take power of congress and the executive branch, what are some of the first policy changes they’d have to make to reverse the damage of the Bush Administration?

BR: Democrats are part of the overall problem. I mean, replacing one corrupt party with another, that is just as close to big business, is pointless, to me. I don’t see much difference between the two parties, to be honest. Sure the Republicans are evil and corrupt and all that, but the overall structure of the two party system is so flawed that it doesn’t really matter who runs Congress because in the end, politicians on both sides of the aisle are beholden to big business, not to me and you. As long as we live under a two party, corporate-run system, we can never experience true democracy. If we want real change after the Republicans lose, then we need to address a multi-party system where all voices are represented.

SO: How much damage do you think the noise machine, Fox News, has caused to the mainstream media due to their “echo effect.”

BR: Mainstream media lost its backbone a long time ago when it ceased being independent and started being snatched up by companies like Disney. So what we see is FoxNews which is nothing more than an arm of the White House, and then on the other side we have the mainstream ‘liberal’ media that is too scared to be truly investigative any more. I don’t think that Fox has had an echo effect to be honest. I think that mainstream news outlets are the bitches of their corporate masters, and hence, when profits matter more than real news, well then, they would never cover anything too controversial. And they would certainly be soft on the Chimp.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

BR: Democratic Undergound

Lenin’s Tomb

American Leftist

The Raving Atheist

Newshounds

And of course, Liberal Street Fighter

Permanent link to: Interview with Meat-eating Leftist