- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The thing that pisses me off most about this is that it is the continuation of a trend in American political discourse that has been going on for quite some time. Before this, it most recently manifested itself in John Kerry's 'botched joke' fiasco and Warch Churchill's 'little Eichmanns'.
The problem is that media coverage for some reason focuses more on someone's tone or some choice quote deemed to be 'offensive' with absolutely no explanation of the context or the broader point being made. Both of the above cases are examples of this. The result of this is that the list of things you are allowed to say and arguments you are allowed to make shrinks further and further, until you hear absolutely no difference between the rhetoric of Republicans and Democrats. As it now stands, the only things you're allowed to talk about are "supporting the troops", being "pro-family", having "deep faith", and liking puppies and sunshine. Any finer points are either not made public and simply stuck into conflicting bills, or couched in vague, wishy washy "I understand...but on the other hand..." language. Look at the pathetic surge meta-debate and the fact that another resolution exists for no other purpose than to say 'we support the troops'. How about adding another resolution mandating that everyone wave a flag around?
Fuck people who feel 'offended' by this or that. Do you realize that the entire Republican party's POSITION on social issues, not just their rhetoric, is inherently offensive to the people it affects? When people are actively trying to prevent you from having the same rights as heterosexual couples, or force you to go through unwanted pregnancy (yes, yes, I know, no one 'forces' you to have sex - I'm sure all the men who make that argument are paragons of abstinence) - basically doing things that affect your personal life directly rather than just offend some abstract belief system that you've chosen for yourself - I'd say that's pretty fucking offensive right there. Liberals aren't trying to force abortions on conservatives or prohibit them from practicing their religion or heterosexual lifestyle. So it's not a matter of 'respecting other's opinions' when those opinions are basically attacks on your own personal life.
The problem is that people on both sides are just too fucking spineless and idiotic to actually debate the issues at hand, and the American public has been so brainwashed that they're unable to digest anything larger than a soundbyte. So we go on, each side waiting for the other to make some minor slip-up so that we can all pile onto a semantics issue. Pathetic and ridiculous.
