Lawrence O'Donnell: 'I’m Not Policing Thought - I Encourage Thought'

May 15th, 2011 8:25 PM

For many years I've been saying it takes a lot of rationalizations to be a liberal these days.

As additional evidence, I offer the following statement by Lawrence O'Donnell published in the June issue of Playboy:

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL, MSNBC: The trouble with approaching government from the standpoint of “I hate government” is that you are extremely unlikely to find a better way for government to do anything at all. You are also extremely unlikely to be the persuasive person on the matter of what the government should no longer do. And it’s even worse because of a horrible dynamic that doesn’t allow a Republican to veer from the right, no matter what he or she thinks. Occasionally a Republican would realize Rush Limbaugh had gone way too far and said something absolutely unconscionable and indefensible, and that Republican would say so, and then Rush would immediately discipline that Republican on the radio, and that Republican would apologize, all within a 12-hour news cycle. That policing system is flawless. And when you have a policing system like that on thought, thought stops.

PLAYBOY: If the media are complicit, and Limbaugh and others are the biggest offenders on the right, you have to be included in the list of the biggest offenders on the left.

O’DONNELL: I’m not policing thought. The opposite. I encourage thought. I want thoughtfulness. I want people to understand the complexity of the issues. Otherwise nothing meaningful will ever change. I want debate. I want people to be educated enough to have a conversation.

Got that? One of the most divisive people in the so-called news industry today thinks he encourages thought and wants thoughtfulness.

Here are some recent examples of O'Donnell encouraging thought:

Some thought encourager, huh?

(H/T TVNewser)

Readers are advised that a link to the Playboy article was not provided for what should be obvious reasons.