I am writing in response to the demands by Roger Burton (“Dear New Times,” June 6) and others that your regular contributor Al Fonzi be barred from your pages.
The opinions of those with whom we disagree are the opinions that we most need to hear. No one is well-served by limiting themselves to an ideological “echo chamber” in which they are exposed only to the thoughts of the like-minded. You can always hire a cheerleader for that, or a skilled bartender can always accommodate the need for confirmation, at least if a generous tip is proffered.
While I am conservative, I keep up with the thoughts of those on the left and would never try to censor them, no matter how annoying I may find them. I trust myself to be able to discern what opinions are worth considering, and which opinions are, well, crazy. I don’t need to be protected.
While Mr. Fonzi is undeniably conservative, I have found him to be thoughtful, reasoned and, yes, relatively moderate. His opinions won’t hurt you any more than some of the ranting on the left will hurt me.
John Donegan
Pismo Beach
This article appears in Jun 13-23, 2019.
I pretty much agree with Donegan on this one, but in reverse. Here’s my take. There’s no reason to shutdown Al Fonzi. Al Fonzi isn’t offering anything you can’t get on the mainstream outlets. He promotes a very mainstream type of liberalism we like to call “boomer conservatism” that you can find anywhere. It passes for conservatism in America but doesn’t really have anything to do with actual conservatism or “right wing” politics. (you can say the same about progressivism in America too, it’s milquetoast). Most people under 40 are abandoning this old kind of saccharine politics for more intellectually vigorous political thought more relevant to their life and times. New Times, being the free local events paper for bourgeois progressives probably isn’t an outlet where Al Fonzi will find too many fans but at the same time he probably does a good job in confirming the readerships biases of what “the other side” is like. Al Fonzi is what progressives think the right is like but in reality you just have two sides of a dying ideology pointing fingers at each other as they retire on the central coast and share cocktails. Rome is burning but remember that time in 1980 when you refused to pay for my abortion so I couldn’t go to Bali that year, rabble rabble rabble I’m so mad at Al Fonzi! So Al Fonzi’s posts are actually contributing to the echo chamber and confirmation biases of “progressives” more than getting rid of him would be. Progressives need that boogie man to define their politics just as the so called conservatives do. It’s all bread and circuses. Just look at the democrat party, their only platform now is not liking Trump (even though he legalized man on man anal in Botswana and moved the USA embassy to Jerusalem, sheesh what more do people want, that’s the winning platform right there!). Trump allowed the democrats the ability to not have to be accountable for their own corruption and unwillingness to respond to the popular will of their constituents. Al Fonzi can be the New Times’ Trump. I’d say let him stay, he seems like a nice enough guy and probably needs something to do when the grandkids aren’t over. Let him speak. Al Fonzi and the progressives he triggers are funny and free speech is not only enshrined as the very 1st amendment for a reason it’s also part of our identity as a Western culture.
Well said sir. I agree with you entirely Mr.MatarBongo.
The problem with Col. Fonzi is that he has become THE conservative voice in SLO County, appearing in the Atascadero News and elsewhere. Really, are there not any younger or factually informed conservatives in our county that the NT could add into the mix?