A note on strategic hate management
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Occasioned by Rebecca Solnit's episode of hippie punching, this post rings true:
It's a funny thing, this division into two parties that supposedly divide the world's "legitimate" opinions between them. Many of the commenters at Balloon Juice think that they hate Republicans more than anything. But their behavior suggests that they hate Glenn Greenwald more. Tbogg might say that he hates conservatives more than anyone. But he sure hates Yves Smith more. That's what his behavior tells you. That's what his rhetoric tells you. People who say they hate conservatives start to sound like them at the merest hint of criticism.
Yep.
Follow the hate, just like follow the money. There's a good reason to get as far away as possible from the legacy parties and their loyalists and apologists as possible. It's like turning off your TV and getting clean. I know. I used to have quite the "meticulously curated temple of snark and flippancy" myself; I like to think that I don't do that any more. It's not the way, er, forward.
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Comments
Sarcasm is a low form of humor
It is always at somebody else's expense. I too have been there and done that. It is not where I want to be. I prefer situational humor or contradiction humor like Gary Larson. Lately I am loving Louis CK. Divine comedy. Lewis Black too has a kindness underneath all the bluff and bluster and four letter words that makes him a treasure.
It is a lonely time for me and other non supporters of Obama or of national electoral politics. Most wars of the 20th century were started or expanded greatly by Democrats in the name of "saving the world through democracy". That I believed for so long that Democrats were morally superior is to question my ability to think for myself. Why was I so dumb? Well, I feel much better finding some kind of alternative path to the one I followed like some old plow horse.
I am reading Staughton Lynd. What a life of service. I am humbled by him and his wife.
moral superiority
Democrats were, and continue to be, morally superior -- at least compared to Republicans. The problem is that the Democrats maintain a consistent relative level of moral superiority to the GOP. Back in the day, when the GOP was merely wrong and lacked compassion, the Dems were okay. But now, with the GOP completely batshit crazy, the Dems are simply abhorrent, despite being relatively morally superior to the Republicans.
when exactly was that moral superiority?
Was it when we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Was it when we bombed agricultural dikes and hospitals in North Vietnam during Rolling Thunder or when we doused South Vietnam with Agent Orange? Was it when Madeline Albright bragged about killing 500,000 Iraqi children?
I had one of those Cold War liberals for political science in college. He was one of the designers of the Phoenix Program that decided since then "enemy" had no hard assets like factories to destroy, we should murder anyone with an education.
The GOP may have gone batshit crazy but really, are they any worse than the lions of liberalism like Kennedy, Humphrey, of LBJ?
Yes
Yes, they are/were.
To purists, things like the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, Urban Aid, etc. are chopped liver. So YMMV.
OK
Nixon gave us EPA and OSHA, so even batshit insane Republicans did some good. Whatever chops your liver. This does NOT forgive these people for being war criminals.
The problem with most Americans is that they know no history nor have had any experience with war. So of course, they can forgive war crimes. This is a meaningless and trivial category for them. Naturally, food stamps are more significant than blowing up colored folks and destroying their cultural artifacts and means for survival somewhere most cannot even find on a map.
YMMV indeed.
Hyperbole is not an argument
So if one approves of the Civil Rights Act, EPA, OSHA and food stamps, we also "forgive war criminals" and find these things "more significant than blowing up colored folks" etc., etc.?
Good to know you feel that way, but your characterizations are no requirement for me, and since I do approve of those positives, I'm not going to accept your juvenile, made up Hobson's choice, since I don't condone war crimes or "blowing up colored folks" either.
Your arguments aren't made any stronger when you have to go back to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, or when you state blatant falsehoods like "Madeline Albright bragged about killing 500,000 kids". The truth is bad enough without making shit up completely or going back to WWII.
You asked if they were different. I said yes, I didn't say "god-like", just different.
Yes, my mileage does vary indeed, harrumph.
Solnit is just a Democratic
Solnit is just a Democratic "the beatings will continue, until morale improves" enforcer going through the faux liberal, faux progressive veal pen with an in your face, unapologetic TINA, lesser evilism effort to marshal the troops er, voters before the election. Fuck her and the horse she rode in on.