Letters to the Editor
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@ Don Carlo
In past years each loyal Bushie thought after they retired from a tiring or underpaying government job, they'd get a cushy wingnut welfare job at a think-tank funded by Richard Scaife, but he's facing a huge divorce settlement
to think, that the future employment prospects of so many right-wingers may go south due to the failure of Scaife to draw up a pre-nuptial agreement!
go long on schadenfreude, 2008 is going to be a great year for us!
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Victory is theirs! Greenwald admits defeat! Admits he can't support his own arguments!
Glenn Greenwald has gone absolutely insane over an email. Round up here. Check out Jules on the issue. Pretty bizarre. In one paragraph admits to not being able to support his analysis, then he goes on to link to emails, disregarding that fact. ~ Dan Riehl
Now Dan claims that Glenn admits to not being able to support his own analysis. Funny how Dan didn’t quote that admission, isn’t it? You’d think Glenn Greenwald admitting defeat would be trumpeted from the highest walls of Fort Wingnuttia.
But poor Dan, having no such quote, links instead to Memeorandum and lets his readers try to find this admission all on their own.
But for them, that settles it. Glenn has admitted defeat, he can’t support his own arguments, and victory is once again theirs, Greenwald having been exposed as the most dishonest person on the web.
Ah, sweet victory.
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/10/in-case-you-mis.html
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A twofer!
This, in the Malkin comments;
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a stunt document to equate, or at least “muddy” the authenticity of the Beauchamp transcripts. In essence, a phony talking point for the nutroots to run with.
Be still my hilarious heart.
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Re: What else besides abject stupidity can explain this?
Glenn,
I am an American citizen, raised in the Chicago area. I identify myself with respect to Politics as an "independent." Anyhow, I would like to venture an answer to your serious question about the abject stupidity of the right wing blogosphere. And I have not read Orwell's 1984, but from your recent update on the post in question, I think my explanation of right wing behavior is along the same lines as the one you cited. Whereas Orwell seems to be saying that hate is the motivating factor for this kind of behavior, I want to cut a little deeper and perhaps illuminate the motivating factor of the hate.
Although abject stupidity is certainly a part of any valid explanation concerning the activities of the right wing blogosphere (and makes for a great post headline), is mass delusion. From my perspective, all right-wing hysterics stand on one first principle (whether they know it or not, and most do not seem to be cognizant of this) that they would argue to the grave:
"America is Good." Where "America" = the United States Government and the instruments under its control, and "Good" = benevolent, democratic, fair, honest, loyal, patriotic, and True.
You have noted this many times in previous posts, how right-wing pundits and media figures seem to give a pass to certain blatant lawbreaking because they simply do not believe that Bush administration officials would behave in any way that could possibly run counter to the interests of the American people. That means always being honest, always "supporting the troops," "defending the Constitution," "spreading ""Freedom,"" etc.
Needless to say, the right-wing blogosphere and its Beltway pundits are "deluded" because Bush administration officials are, objectively, NOT forming and implementing policy with the interests of "the American People" in mind. It has been sometime since the "National Interest" actually referred to American citizens. I think even a passing familiarity with the work of Chomsky will attest to this fact.
These right wing bloggers and pundits are high on a mix of Patriotism, vague-Nationalism, and Power Worship. They live vicariously through the potent lives of their revered leaders, and delight in expressions of that power and especially delight in the prospect of that power, and thereby their own associated power, increasing. They believe they are the subjects of the highest possible (mortal) authority and I daresay they just wish the RNC would issue them badges to this effect. Their self-perceptions of their own identity, and largely their ability to continue to function as something more than a human vegetable, are contingent on the maintenance of their Leaders' Power.
Running in parallel with the Power theme is the Humiliation theme. John Yoo's torture memos are a perfect expression of the underlying pathology of the power-worshipping "entitled" mindset. Humiliation is also at the root of the ad-hominem attacks and baseless insults employed by these people. I think Col. Boylan's e-mails belie the same pathology. Repression and shame are components that give rise to this pathology, and you have seen examples of this with Mark Foley, Larry Craig, David Vitter, etc. All three are senators living the most blatant hypocrisy imaginable, and this is an outgrowth of their own internal self-denial.
In short, the reaction of right-wing bloggers to your Boylan post can be explained partly by stupidity, but more completely by the pathology of mass delusion, based on a closely held fallacy that "America is Good." These are the principles that compose the matrix of their perception of reality. When they impose this matrix on events in reality in order to judge them, like your Boylan exchange, and things do not line up, they are unconsciously ignored and neatly separated from their perception of reality. They did not acknowledge that you were freely providing Boylan's e-mail because you are an "extreme leftist," perhaps even a "propagandist" on George Soros' payroll. And you're gay. They already "know" this, so when they read the words in your post linking them to the complete e-mail and thus invalidating their criticisms that you were cherrypicking, it simply does not register because it does not fall in line with what they "know" to be "Reality." Mass political delusion...fast becoming scarier than the original, and STILL the best, form of mass delusion: Religion.
Keep fighting this fight, Glenn...or should I say "Lucifer?"
Funny to me, "Lucifer" actually means "bringer of light." To the mouthbreathing hordes of religiously motivated right-wing fanatics, they probably refer to you and your "far-left" compatriots as "devils" or "Lucifers" daily. If only they could be properly shown how literally fitting of a name that is for you and what you do.
Regards,
James R. Walker
Chicago, IL