I have often said that I find Joe Bageant’s blog depressing because of his merciless depiction of the decline of the West. Well, I can’t exactly say I find Muskrat Hunt depressing, mainly because it is somewhat lightened by Doogman’s acerbic and jaundiced sense of humor. But although not depressing, it is, underneath the humor, scary—and getting scarier by the day.
What scares me is the many links he posts to YouTube clips showing the disgusting depths of racist hatred being displayed at pro-McLame and/or anti-Obama rallies (e.g., “Very white kinda pride” 10/19; “This is un-American” 10/19 ; “These white people ARE trash” 10/15). But what really raised the terror alert to code red was “The cycle of violence” 10/21, which linked to a podcast on “Campaign for America’s Future” that featured someone discussing what she called “far-right eliminationist rhetoric,” which is a fancy way of referring to rabid wingnuts talking about killing us. To put it bluntly, if you think the far-right rhetoric is ugly now, wait until they feel really threatened by the resurgence of liberal activism and start violently acting out their rage and fear. Wild animals always fight most fiercely when they’re cornered, and the far-right is, quite correctly, beginning to feel cornered and very threatened, and they’re going to be acting it out in increasingly nasty, vicious ways. I’ve already mentioned (8 Sept “Who cares? It’s all lies.”) the possibility of Obama getting assassinated, and the meaner and scarier the racists get, the more imminent the threat becomes. He combines the vulnerability of Martin Luther King with that of John F. Kennedy, and no number of Secret Service men can ultimately protect him from another Lee Harvey Oswald in another school book depository, particularly if the agencies responsible for protecting him suddenly and mysteriously get negligent in doing their job. The racist thugs may be losing political power, but they still have influence and probably money, and money has its own power. And where money fails, sheer evil meanness can always accomplish a lot.
Perhaps the scariest thing about these maniacs, and one of the most difficult for us to comprehend, is that they are convinced they’re right and are thus impervious to any kind of argument or dissuasion. In fact, the attacks and criticisms they get from people for whom they have nothing but hatred and scorn simply convince them all the more firmly that they’re right. They believe firmly and unshakably, by upbringing and acculturation, that America is or should be a white Christian nation, and that they have a God-given duty to eliminate anyone who tries to make it otherwise. Atheists may blame this belief primarily on the perverted dens of iniquity which masquerade as Christian churches in Dixieland and its cultural extensions, and they doubtless do share a large part of the blame, but I suspect it has its followers among people who got it from elsewhere. This conviction is based on the simple fact that racism is not part of Christian belief in any of the mainstream churches outside the Deep South, and is in fact vigorously (but not vigorously enough) opposed and condemned by them. Racism has cultural and psychological roots much deeper than simple heretical belief.
Still ten days left for an October Surprise. Halloween would be a good time to scare the living shit out of the whole nation, woonit?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Preaching to the choir
On 28 September, Muskrat Hunt posted a notice of an anti-Palin rally in Boulder on Saturday 4 October. More out of curiosity and an excuse for a half-decent walk than out of any show of support, I thought I’d drop by to see what was happening. The post said the walk would begin at 9:00 “somewhere near 28th Street” but failed to specify 28th and what, so I just arbitrarily parked at the Millennium Harvest House motel south of Arapahoe. At 9:00 there was no sign of any demonstrators walking down 28th Street—nor of very many people walking at all, in a culture where most people go to heroic lengths to park as close as possible to the entrances of the businesses they patronize. Still no one at 9:15. I was mumbling cynically to myself about not expecting anything better in the People’s Republic of Boulder, when finally, at about 9:35, I saw some sign-carrying demonstrators straggling past Safeway. If I hadn’t stopped to take a shit at Dead Robin, I’d have missed it.
So, not wanting to waste the trip into Boulder and having nothing much better to do, I joined this rag-tag pack of about 25 to 30 adults and a few baby-strollers (and one dog other than Major), carrying home-made signs which were about equally anti-Palin and pro-Obama (the only one of which showing the slightest originality being one that said “Polar Bears for Obama”), as they strolled up the main north-south highway in the People’s Republic. Most of the drivers-by honked their support, of course, as one would naturally expect in the elitist yuppie ghetto of pseudo-liberals which constitutes Boulder. I’d almost have welcomed a few who threw empty beer cans at us or yelled “Love America or leave it, terrist assholes!” It would have at least been the beginning of some sort of dialogue.
The whole exercise was a classic example of preaching to the choir, and when I’d almost given up on it before 9:35, I was attributing the failure, not to the slightest shred of support for Palin, but to the general prevalence of my own attitude of “What’s the point? What would it accomplish?” If such an event had been staged in some place like Colorado Springs or Loveland, it might have served the purpose of making a few on the other side think twice about their loyalties, but in Boulder it was just another piece of narcissistic circle-jerking by said elitist yuppies and had absolutely no effect on the opinions or decisions of anyone in the other camp. Several times in my posts I have echoed Bageant’s contention that the liberals are going to go down in flames yet again unless they make some effort to reach across the gulf and try to communicate with the other side. However, I also admitted, in “Dialogue with raving lunatics” (17 September), that such an attempt might be doomed to failure by the intransigence of the “mouth-frothing psychopaths of the ultra-super-hyper-fringe-right.” But such a statement itself epitomizes the reason why such dialogue is nearly impossible. I’m the first to admit that I’d be the last to try to open up such dialogue, just as I’m among those who call the opponents insulting names. More and more commentators are observing that civil discourse has almost totally broken down in the political arena, replaced by increasingly polarizing, vituperative, and hysterical name-calling and demonizing. This is not the way to reach amicable resolutions of problems; this is the way wars start, and the present climate of political “debate” is approaching, or has long since reached, a state of verbal war.
Mark Udall’s opponent (whose name I don’t even know) in his (Udall’s) run for a Senate seat naturally attacks his record as a Representative, again for reasons I don’t know because I don’t watch any campaign commercials; and I think I’ve already stated that I don’t have a lot of use for Udall myself, for various reasons. However, just to see what the lesser of two evils has to say for himself, I opened his site (www.markudall.com, not surprisingly) and read the page on “Mark’s Established Bipartisan Record,” in which he boasts about his consistent efforts to “reach across the aisle” (a.k.a. the gulf) in order to accomplish things by consensus rather than by battle. Of course one could probably protest that many of the things he accomplished this way shouldn’t have been accomplished because they didn’t fit the more hard-line agendas of one leftist faction or another, but the fact remains, he deserves some credit for being among the few who try to bridge the gulf, in a climate where such moderation is railed against as a betrayal of “liberal principles” (whatever they are).
My niece in Longmont sent me a delightful satire of the yuppie elitism of liberals which I so scorn. (Also, obviously, a satire of the outcry against illegal Mexican immigrants). As I told her, liberals need to be told once in a while how ridiculous they can seem, particularly in the perception of rednecks. I’m not very clever at embedding links, so I’ll simply cut-and-paste it.
From the MANITOBA HERALD, Canada (a very underground paper):
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.
The possibility of a McCain/Palin victory is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O’Reilly.
Canadian border farmers say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists, and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.
“I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota.
The producer was cold, exhausted, and hungry. “He asked me if I could spare a latté and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn’t have any, he left. Didn’t even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?”
In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. “Not real effective,” he said. “The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn’t give milk.”
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border, and leave them to fend for themselves.
“A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,” an Ontario border patrolman said. “I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though.”
When liberals are caught, they’re sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.
In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove they were alive in the '50s.
“If they can’t identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age,” an official said.
Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies.
“I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can’t support them,” an Ottawa resident said. “How many art-history and English majors does one country need?”
So, not wanting to waste the trip into Boulder and having nothing much better to do, I joined this rag-tag pack of about 25 to 30 adults and a few baby-strollers (and one dog other than Major), carrying home-made signs which were about equally anti-Palin and pro-Obama (the only one of which showing the slightest originality being one that said “Polar Bears for Obama”), as they strolled up the main north-south highway in the People’s Republic. Most of the drivers-by honked their support, of course, as one would naturally expect in the elitist yuppie ghetto of pseudo-liberals which constitutes Boulder. I’d almost have welcomed a few who threw empty beer cans at us or yelled “Love America or leave it, terrist assholes!” It would have at least been the beginning of some sort of dialogue.
The whole exercise was a classic example of preaching to the choir, and when I’d almost given up on it before 9:35, I was attributing the failure, not to the slightest shred of support for Palin, but to the general prevalence of my own attitude of “What’s the point? What would it accomplish?” If such an event had been staged in some place like Colorado Springs or Loveland, it might have served the purpose of making a few on the other side think twice about their loyalties, but in Boulder it was just another piece of narcissistic circle-jerking by said elitist yuppies and had absolutely no effect on the opinions or decisions of anyone in the other camp. Several times in my posts I have echoed Bageant’s contention that the liberals are going to go down in flames yet again unless they make some effort to reach across the gulf and try to communicate with the other side. However, I also admitted, in “Dialogue with raving lunatics” (17 September), that such an attempt might be doomed to failure by the intransigence of the “mouth-frothing psychopaths of the ultra-super-hyper-fringe-right.” But such a statement itself epitomizes the reason why such dialogue is nearly impossible. I’m the first to admit that I’d be the last to try to open up such dialogue, just as I’m among those who call the opponents insulting names. More and more commentators are observing that civil discourse has almost totally broken down in the political arena, replaced by increasingly polarizing, vituperative, and hysterical name-calling and demonizing. This is not the way to reach amicable resolutions of problems; this is the way wars start, and the present climate of political “debate” is approaching, or has long since reached, a state of verbal war.
Mark Udall’s opponent (whose name I don’t even know) in his (Udall’s) run for a Senate seat naturally attacks his record as a Representative, again for reasons I don’t know because I don’t watch any campaign commercials; and I think I’ve already stated that I don’t have a lot of use for Udall myself, for various reasons. However, just to see what the lesser of two evils has to say for himself, I opened his site (www.markudall.com, not surprisingly) and read the page on “Mark’s Established Bipartisan Record,” in which he boasts about his consistent efforts to “reach across the aisle” (a.k.a. the gulf) in order to accomplish things by consensus rather than by battle. Of course one could probably protest that many of the things he accomplished this way shouldn’t have been accomplished because they didn’t fit the more hard-line agendas of one leftist faction or another, but the fact remains, he deserves some credit for being among the few who try to bridge the gulf, in a climate where such moderation is railed against as a betrayal of “liberal principles” (whatever they are).
My niece in Longmont sent me a delightful satire of the yuppie elitism of liberals which I so scorn. (Also, obviously, a satire of the outcry against illegal Mexican immigrants). As I told her, liberals need to be told once in a while how ridiculous they can seem, particularly in the perception of rednecks. I’m not very clever at embedding links, so I’ll simply cut-and-paste it.
From the MANITOBA HERALD, Canada (a very underground paper):
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.
The possibility of a McCain/Palin victory is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O’Reilly.
Canadian border farmers say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists, and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.
“I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota.
The producer was cold, exhausted, and hungry. “He asked me if I could spare a latté and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn’t have any, he left. Didn’t even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?”
In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. “Not real effective,” he said. “The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn’t give milk.”
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border, and leave them to fend for themselves.
“A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,” an Ontario border patrolman said. “I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though.”
When liberals are caught, they’re sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.
In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove they were alive in the '50s.
“If they can’t identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age,” an official said.
Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies.
“I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can’t support them,” an Ottawa resident said. “How many art-history and English majors does one country need?”
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