White Right + GOP = AZ
Today is Monday, 10 January 2010.
I.
Read the YouTube … submissions … of Jared Loughner. Either he is severely mentally ill, or he has perfected the finest ever performance art project imitating mental illness. I doubt it’s the latter.
The USA/USE is the wealthiest society in the history of humanity, and refuses to create a medical system which can consistently identify and help people such as Loughner. And, thanks to the White Right and the GOP, mentally ill people are allowed access to handguns, nay, encouraged to “pack”, for a well-armed society is, of course, a happy society.
II.
What’s happened to the Right in the wake of the Arizona shootings? At the risk of seeming vulgar: the Right and the GOP were always waving in our face that they only had the Big, Swingin’ Dicks, and the liberals and Democrats were the Party of Pussies.
And now the Right and GOP tell us they were misunderstood (like a gaggle of troubled adolescents, I suppose, or, perhaps even, horror of horror, girls), and that the Left is the party of violence and violent language, and that when the Right says “re-load”, it is with crosshairs that are actually “surveyor’s symbols”?
Why have the Right and GOP suddenly gone so limp in the wrist, so flaccid in the crotch?
III.
As a matter of principle, the White Right and the GOP have always venerated violence. Thus, for example, it’s hardly surprising that so many of them love to be photographed, filmed, and taped fondling weapons of every description. Nor is it surprising that their language is filled with symbols of violence and death.
It’s very possible that Jared Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic, and imagines himself beset on every side by dangerous enemies, and that, as do a minority of those who suffer this calamity, he struck out in what in his mind was “self-defense”.
I’m uncertain of the degree to which demagogues such as Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, etc. mean to arouse their dupes to acts of physical violence. However, the former are entirely responsible for arousing in their dupes immense paranoid lust for rhetorical, metaphorical, and symbolic violence, which latter, in the minds of some unfortunates, become translated into the impetus for physical violence.
Demagogues such as these didn’t physically pull the trigger in Arizona, but they certainly loaded the Glock and provided the motivation and justification.
I.
Read the YouTube … submissions … of Jared Loughner. Either he is severely mentally ill, or he has perfected the finest ever performance art project imitating mental illness. I doubt it’s the latter.
The USA/USE is the wealthiest society in the history of humanity, and refuses to create a medical system which can consistently identify and help people such as Loughner. And, thanks to the White Right and the GOP, mentally ill people are allowed access to handguns, nay, encouraged to “pack”, for a well-armed society is, of course, a happy society.
II.
What’s happened to the Right in the wake of the Arizona shootings? At the risk of seeming vulgar: the Right and the GOP were always waving in our face that they only had the Big, Swingin’ Dicks, and the liberals and Democrats were the Party of Pussies.
And now the Right and GOP tell us they were misunderstood (like a gaggle of troubled adolescents, I suppose, or, perhaps even, horror of horror, girls), and that the Left is the party of violence and violent language, and that when the Right says “re-load”, it is with crosshairs that are actually “surveyor’s symbols”?
Why have the Right and GOP suddenly gone so limp in the wrist, so flaccid in the crotch?
III.
As a matter of principle, the White Right and the GOP have always venerated violence. Thus, for example, it’s hardly surprising that so many of them love to be photographed, filmed, and taped fondling weapons of every description. Nor is it surprising that their language is filled with symbols of violence and death.
It’s very possible that Jared Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic, and imagines himself beset on every side by dangerous enemies, and that, as do a minority of those who suffer this calamity, he struck out in what in his mind was “self-defense”.
I’m uncertain of the degree to which demagogues such as Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, etc. mean to arouse their dupes to acts of physical violence. However, the former are entirely responsible for arousing in their dupes immense paranoid lust for rhetorical, metaphorical, and symbolic violence, which latter, in the minds of some unfortunates, become translated into the impetus for physical violence.
Demagogues such as these didn’t physically pull the trigger in Arizona, but they certainly loaded the Glock and provided the motivation and justification.
posted by HH at 9:45 AM
6 Comments:
It’s hard to know what to say. Sadly, it’s a feeling that this country has experienced all too often. It seems that the crazy people are always going to find a way to be crazy - to obey the “belly whispers” or the “voices in their head” telling them to maim and destroy others. It seems, though, that the violent rhetoric, on both sides, bears some responsibility for urging the mentally ill, the weak-minded, demented, homicidal crazies to act on their crazy thoughts. It is as predictable as it is dispiriting. Did the toxic political environment cause this? I don’t know and, notwithstanding HH’s claims that the “demagogues such as these … certainly loaded the Glock and provided the motivation and justification“, I daresay that no one knows. But it appears clear to me that the violent rhetoric, vitriolic name-calling, hyperbole, and demagoguery into which our political discourse has devolved certainly is responsible in some way for making us all less “civil.” The sort of name-calling prevalent in this blog alone (nazis, racists, anti-Semites, facists, thugs, sewer-dwellers, terrorist-justices, etc.) merely serves to make those with whom we disagree less human, ultimately expendable, and, perhaps a target for those who believe that they are so evil that they should be eliminated.
Sadly, there’s no straight line that can be drawn from any one action to the events of this weekend in Arizona. If there were, we could convince ourselves that, if we were to stop the impetus, the cause, then the horror would stop. That would provide the luxury of feeling that, if only we could find the “cause” and stop it, this type of tragedy could be prevented. But it’s impossible to predict what a crazy mind will get caught on, what some troubled maniac will “hang his hat on.” Crazy people will always find a reason, a motive and a way to be crazy. That’s the “crazy” part. The people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, et al., live with snipers, car bombs, IEDs, suicide bombers, etc., every day. It remains for us to separate ourselves from the demented, and those that implicitly, and explicitly, encourage violence (Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and their ilk), so that the mentally ill, the crazies, the maniacs can appear glaringly so, and obvious to everyone. And, as one of your readers previously noted “(i)n the meantime, it seems that name-calling and hyperbole do little to advance a reasoned argument respecting the real issues.” Try to justify it as you will, it is simply counter-productive and, ultimately, dangerous.
"At the risk of seeming vulgar"... No risk there - what follows is vulgar, and more of the name-calling, provocative, pejorative bullshit that passes for political discussion and/or analysis these days. This is precisely the same type of rhetoric that dominates the airwaves - the pundits on either side each pointing fingers and blaming the other for recent tragic events. So very, very tiresome and pointless.
I find that it's usually helpful to wait for a cogent thought or idea worth sharing before spewing jabber or babble. Although the latter may appeal to the less-informed, more reactionary audience, it remains just so vapid and ultimately useless in any real discussion of political thought or viewpoints. The Right and the GOP has "suddenly gone so limp in the wrist, so flaccid in the crotch"... Comments such as those evidence an alarming lack of insight, perception and yes, even dignity.
To "just thinking" -- Well said. HH might do well to read, become familiar with and consider the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His writing did not require a preface of "at the risk of seeming vulgar" - and never did.
"At the risk of seeming vulgar"... No risk there - what follows is vulgar, and more of the name-calling, provocative, pejorative bullshit that passes for political discussion and/or analysis these days. This is precisely the same type of rhetoric that dominates the airwaves - the pundits on either side each pointing fingers and blaming the other for recent tragic events. So very, very tiresome and pointless.
I find that it's usually helpful to wait for a cogent thought or idea worth sharing before spewing jabber or babble. Although the latter may appeal to the less-informed, more reactionary audience, it remains just so vapid and ultimately useless in any real discussion of political thought or viewpoints. The Right and the GOP has "suddenly gone so limp in the wrist, so flaccid in the crotch"... Comments such as those evidence an alarming lack of insight, perception and yes, even dignity.
To "just thinking" -- Well said. HH might do well to read, become familiar with and consider the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His writing did not require a preface of "at the risk of seeming vulgar" - and never did.
To Horrified and Saddened:
Agreed. Thank you.
The shooter is not political. The shooter is nuts. HH, everything is not political nor ideological. Some things are just because humans are humans.
To "Another Reader" - well put and absolutely right.
Should there be tighter gun control, less access to firearms? Absolutely. Should there be affordable health services for the mentally ill? No doubt. Will tighter gun control and widespread health care prevent tragedies such as this? No way. Troubled, crazy, misguided, demented, mentally ill, homicidal maniacs will find a way to wreak havoc and destruction for their own demented "reasons." The 9/11 hijacker didn't use firearms aboard the planes; Timothy McVeigh didn't employ guns to complete his destruction in Oklahoma City; Jim Jones exhorted and convinced his followers to drink poison.
Whatever the means, there will always and ever be those delusional souls who believe that they must act - either in "self-defense" or in defense of a higher purpose, which typically hinges on religious or political beliefs. Why religious or political? Because it's BIG, it's grandiose, and it's obviously important. (Of course, we're not speaking here of those who commit domestic violence against their partners, children, etc., or those who abuse animals. That behavior - the physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse of women and children - is an "illness" of an altogether different stripe.)
To paint with such a broad brush, and to lay the blame for unpredictable craziness at the door of the "White Right and the GOP" is absurd. The "White Right and the GOP have always venerated violence"? Really?? I have any number of friends, family members, colleagues, etc., who consider themselves "Republicans", and they are as shocked and troubled by recent events as I and the rest of the country. Claiming that a political party, or "white people", or any particular individual, is responsible for this tragedy is just too easy.
And what's with all the sexual references to the size of other men's genitalia that appear with regularity in this blog? Is there a problem, HH?
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