for some right wing publication.

I could bill it as a far left wing progressive "explaining" liberalism to a readership of conservatives. Then I could rattle off a lot of the most hackneyed cliches from the most discredited fringe extremist old school leftist screeds, like power to the people, and power derives from a mandate of the masses, and property is theft, and hey you know if everyone just got loaded as much as possible and don't trust anyone over thirty. Man.

And it would have about as much relevance or shed about the same amount of light on anything serious in progressive thought as this idiotic, shallow, string of extreme right wing cliches being mouthed by what I still think must be a professional comedian impersonating a "former administration official" in the Bush White House does about actual conservative thought.

NB: Salon: Massive fail. If it's satire it's dull and inept, and if it's serious it's just pathetic. We have actual issues to hammer out in this country and whatever they are, this ain't it.

Played for fools

Look, Salon has pulled a fast one on all of us. And playing us all for fools.

Wingnut is performing the role of a troll, someone who seeks to stir up the conversational thread by making offensive and stupid remarks with the sole purpose of causing outrage.

Wow. Salon hasn't done that since.... er, the last Camille Paglia column.

"Salon is publishing sensationalist tripe just because it's sensational" is a statement that couldn't be more true. "This is something new for Salon" is one that couldn't be more false.

I mean the whole feature. All of the columns so far are composed of a series of non-sequiturs at best from the Jonah Goldberg school of laughably extreme right provocations (Fascism is communism! Liberals are conservatives! Nazis were progressive!) and presented as "a conservative" brought in to explain conservatism to a hostile audience.

Are you serious? I mean the title at least, "the Wingnut" would be more or less applicable, but going on to call this a "conservative" viewpoint is inane.

"Bush was extremely successful and popular, the liberal media just don't want you to know that" isn't a "conservative viewpoint", it's a psychotic break with reality.

Well, hostile audience is right, judging by the comments which understandably enough consist almost entirely of heaping ridicule on the shallow comic-book attempt to provoke scorn, which is exactly what it does.

The column itself however responds each week to a "letter" along the lines of "Dear Mister Conservative, what an interesting and thought-provoking column last time! Gosh, I'm almost convinced, as a long-standing Liberal (presumably also one of the Communist-Fascist Progressive Nazis) to become a conservative myself! Something I've been wondering though, we liberals think that financial market deregulation sort of well, messed things up a little. Can you convince me otherwise?"

The column then starts with "Yes, judging by the letters, I certainly do seem to have provoked some interesting and well-reasoned debate! Now, for this week...."

"Debate"? Thirty pages of people saying "What mindless drivel" is "debate'?

The disparity between the comments, which pretty uniformly treat this nonsense with the sarcasm and scorn it deserves, and these earnest "letters" is pretty obvious. So my question really is just this:

Does Salon really think that anyone is buying this? Or has it sunk so low that it really doesn't care? Being called "the Jerry Springer Show of the online world" is okay with you, is it?

Okay then.

The first time he's satirized a Democrat?

You've got to be kidding.

I don't know if that's a right winger's paranoia or just someone who's never read Tom Tomorrow much but-- check the archives.

Personally, I think Joe Biden's unwashed, non-vetted loose cannon remarks are the least of our worries in this world. So he didn't get in lockstep with the Administration message. Gosh.

I guess if we all campaign against him as hard as possible then the evil of non-cleared individual thoughts coming from an administration member will be purged at last.

With the number of politicians out there resembling a carload of evil clowns, color me unimpressed with Biden speaking off the cuff as anything worthy of Tom's satirical sword.

uh, trueblue

i don't think the point here is to make fun of biden himself....

You don't?

It was making fun of who then, zombies?

...and even when you've changed it or condensed it!

(click sig)

Just thought this was worth actually seeing at this turn in the road. The only lyric that's not exactly spot on is "no matter who you are", since the Republicans are very clear that it's only anything by a Democrat that they're automatically against. Otherwise it's their theme song, it's perfect.

The "even when you've changed it" part is particularly important, lest anyone ever make the mistake again of modifying anything in any way to try to mollify their objections. Won't work. May as well not bother.

This all may seem obvious but I hope people realize this when considering the "Don't prosecute because Republicans might not like it" argument.

Your mother thinks you're boring.

Whatever gave you the idea that the hokey, old-fashioned, holier-than-thou, dull-as-dishwater moralizing scold should automatically get more attention? At least the other guy is interesting.

I know that this is fiction, but there's a lot to be said for listening to your characters.

That's the one about how if you're using the subjunctive, all of the verbs have to stay in place behind the object until the meaning is caught, right?