Letters to the Editor
-
An intractible problem for you
How does one parody the right wing commentariat without making one's self stupider for having done so. It's the epitome of an intractable problem. I would imagine if you made Albert Einstein pen pasquinades of the inane right wing junk our media cranks out, (as by such anthropological exhibits like the Weekly Standard), for one year, you'd have Elmer Fudd. Another year, a non segmented worm. A decade, George W Bush.
So it is with great reluctance and resignation over the brain cells that I am about to sacrifice on the altar of pointing out right wing braindeadedness that mention the following: You will not find the reciprocal of this column anywhere in the mainstream left. You will not hear, for example, that "conservatives think that everyone gets what they deserves. A child born in the roughest ghetto in Calcutta has the same opportunities in life as their universally lily white children born into wealth in the United States does. A black man has as much chance of getting elected as governor in the Deep South as a White Man. And even if he didn't the consequence is meaningless and, as an aside, (in hushed tones) probably the black man's fault. By extension, whatever wealth and stature a conservative may have attained- say by inheritance of a gig at a weekly magazine/insane asylum- was earned. Why? By definition of course. We are what we make of ourselves so sayeth the self serving axiom. Some people just can't hack it, even if that means we have to take the hacking instrument out of their hands to demonstrate it. And if they require a little bit of discouragement to fail, that's fine too because we know that if they were going to succeed, they would've overcome that adversity. We've got that definition to fall back on.
That type of derision doesn't appear on the left, because the left has remained something of a bastion of sanity while this country has gone off the rails to the right. And it is quite a commentary on the state of affairs that with all of the problems on the left, all of its character flaws, it looks like a beacon of purity and light by comparison with the mainstream right.
Somebody promise me I won't have to read any more Weekly Standard drivel, and that if I do I won't be stupid enough to address it. Please.
-
paulpsd7
Show me the merest scintilla of evidence anywhere that I supported any Republican, ever.
-
He lost me on...
"It is a truism..."
It is a truism that Bill Kristol is the last person who should explain to anybody how and what "liberals" think. What a putz.
-
Hillary is W in a pantsuit
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and I'll keep saying it until she changes her wardrobe or her policies.
-
@Electrorobot
I'm not saying paulpsd7 is right or wrong about you, but he had two obvious bits of circumstantial evidence in support of his assumption:
Exhibit A: You love to play with straw men.
Exhibit B: Your arguments are nonsense.
Again, I'm not saying you're a Republican or not. But it was a relatively safe bet on paulpsd7's part to assume you are, and my question is, even if you're not, what's the difference? You spend more than a fair amount of time at Salon.com posting letters and behaving just like one. You shout and scream and whine and never convince anyone of anything. Why do you bother?
-
it's a gray world folks
you'd think we the progressives would know that there's a wide scale here, not just Good or Evil. And that it's multidimensional, so that Good/Evil isn't even right as a single axis of comparison.
-
So?
This is a function of the Weekly Standard knowing that Hillary will be easier for McCain to beat in November. When a fake Republican runs agains a real Republican the Republican wins every time. Harry Truman said that in 1948. It hasn't really changed, has it?
-
@Electro Robot
Show me the merest scintilla of evidence anywhere that I supported any Republican, ever.
How about each and every one of your posts? More than a scintilla, given your posting volume, I'm sure you'll agree.
For example, please tell us how you feel to hear that our military allegedly tortured someone who is now seeking justice?
ELECTRO ROBOT: "Prisoners in the US pull this stuff too...But they're Americans and therefore unworthy of Salon's screechy naynaying."
How do you feel about refugees?
ELECTRO ROBOT: "Refugees? really. I am a refugee. Interesting. Well why don't the liberals love me, I'm a victim. Why don't the liberals fight to re establish my rights in Poland? Why don't the liberals fight to reestablish Jewish rights in Arab countries?"
How do you feel about Jews and Muslims?
ELECTRO ROBOT: "You could have a column about cook books and the crazies would crawl out of the slime screaming it's the Jew's fault. And if only those fucking Jews would go away and become Muslims all the cookbooks in the world would welcome in an era of peace of good food.
How do you feel about the environment and cheap gas?
ELECTRO ROBOT: "Because at $7/gal people will talk openly of insurrection. At $10/gal there will indeed be civil uprising and it will take all the troops in Iraq to come home and guard the gas stations. And then I will personally put an oil drilling bit through a polar bear if the alternative is Mad Max. And so will you."
What do you think about liberals protesting against hawkish Zionish policies of the Israeli government?
ELECTRO ROBOT: "I didn't waste any time pointing out typical 'liberal' progressive antisemitic bigotry. Did you know that Hamas TV is running a commentary that states categorically that Jews secretly plotted the Holocaust? I can't wait for the Saloniks to chirp in to quietly agree with that one."
These are just a small sampling, of course.
To summarize:
- Callous disregard for those on the receiving end of gross injustice through American foreign policy: check
- Strawman arguments castigating any liberal-oriented criticism of Israel as an antisemetic progrom: check
- Premature declaration that it will soon be time to completely abandon all concern over the environment in favor of economic comfort: check
So, amidst all that, if you're NOT supporting Republicans, then you are very, very confused.