Posted on 06/11/2003 2:08:37 PM PDT by ummark
Hate Speech Now is not the time for quiet, well-thought rhetoric
by Alan Bisbort - June 5, 2003
PETER MORLOCK ILLUSTRATION
Problem! The problem is you, Peggy Noonan.
"Let them hate me, if they only fear me."-- Caligula
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you." -- Matthew, Chap. 5, Verses 44
In the best of times, I would agree with John Goggin, who wrote a letter to my editor last week about my habit of "labeling" a select cadre of right-wingers "hatemongers." I had in mind, when I chose that unfortunate epithet, people like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge and Peggy Noonan. Mr. Goggin's well-meaning appeal to civility caused me to rethink my words. I was forced to ask myself if I had, indeed, overstated my case.
Then I did a little poking around. It's not hard. All you have to do is switch on any talk radio show and eventually one of these self-righteous "conservatives" will be found holding court, or simply flick through the hundreds of channels on cable TV where the more telegenic are regularly featured. Or those with a stronger cast of mind can check out the bestseller list where you'll find their words immortalized between covers, or comb the editorial pages of even "moderate" newspapers and you'll find them. Of course, the quickest way is via the Internet where, like insects and centipedes under an overturned rock, their rawest opinions are on display.
Here, for example, are some random thoughts I found on the popular Free Republic, "an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web." Free Republic posted an article about legislation proposed for a Slave Memorial in Washington, D.C. Among the barrage of nasty comments were: "Paradoxically, it's why slavery was RIGHT, in some weird sense. It's a condition of our existence, and in particular, a condition of black Americans' existence." Another: "Hell, what would it look like, a body swinging from a rope!" This is just the tip of their daily iceberg.
Michael Savage is a clear-cut "hater," and his book Savage Nation has floated through the bestseller list for months, held aloft by his lighter-than-air nativism, ignorance and intolerance. Like Rush Limbaugh, Savage hides behind his pseudonymous persona (his real last name is Wiener), and his radio show is one of the most popular in the country right now. His shtick is to regularly refer to the world's poor nations as the "Turd World," and a typical retort to those who complain about his rhetoric is: "I'm more powerful than you are you little hateful nothings ... you represent nobody but the perverts that you hang around with and I'm warning you if you try to damage me any further with lies, be aware of something: that which you stoke shall come to burn you, the ashes of the fireplace will come and burn your own house down." He believes the U.S. is "being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives."
Ann Coulter, Fairfield County's Own Femme Fatale, is a best-selling author and regular talking head on TV. She says:
"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
Rush Limbaugh is always reliable for one hate-bomb an hour. How about these recent tidbits? "There's only one way to get rid of nuclear weapons. Use them." Or "Why should blacks be heard? They're 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?" And so on, day in and day out, three hours a day.
Finally, I agree that including Peggy Noonan on the list was wrong. She's not a hatemonger. She's merely insane. But her loopy pronouncements are given a veneer of respectability by originating at the Wall Street Journal. And, her nonsense -- she regularly "channels" Ronald Reagan in her columns -- is used to prop up hateful policies (e.g., slashing social programs for poor kids in order to reward fat cat CEOs). If the measure of a civilized society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, Noonan's priorities (among which is pulling the plug on public education) are the sort that inspired Charles Dickens to write novels.
See how hard it is to keep from falling into their traps and habits of mind? The sad truth is that NOBODY LISTENS TO PEOPLE WHO SPEAK QUIETLY AND RATIONALLY. The dominant discourse in this nation right now is hateful, loud and relentless. You can not, and will not, be heard if you whisper into the teeth of this idiot wind.
I dearly wish it were possible to speak quietly and carry a big rhetorical stick, Mr. Goggin. I hope we can return to such a time in our nation's life. Now is not that time.
For a guy going off about "hate", I'm just not feeling the love in that paragraph.
Pretty funny reading though. The more I read stuff like this, the happier it makes me. It just goes to show how little they understand us, and just how terrified they are of our growing influence and power.
I'm tickled...
I'm sorry. I wasn't listening. What'd you say?
Somebody should tell him that the guy who said that tree thing is an American who happens to have dark skin.
Black conservative ping
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He probably read it on stormfront.org and miscredited it to FR.
Stormfront, National Alliance, Free Republic --we are all the same to these people.
http://www.apj.us/20030508Bisbort.html
Money statements from this open-minded, compassionate, non-hating liberal:
Pardon my French, but compassionate conservatism is a f$@#ing cancer.
Yes, Republican compassionate conservatism is a cancer. Like a cancer, compassionate conservative cells divide continuously and out of control, bubbling up into tumors created from their own sanctimoniousness, hypocrisy and unpleasantness (check out Cheney's and Ashcroft's facial expressions some time... but not after a good meal; these are two fine specimens of cancerous tumors taking the shape of human beings). Compassionate conservative cells, once they've established themselves in the body politic, metastasize and invade surrounding tissues and other parts of the body by -- according to my old biology textbook -- "actively secreting digestive enzymes to 'eat' their way toward a blood vessel... then some enter either the bloodstream or the lymphatic system..."
Yup. Those who advocate limited government and less taxes are a cancer, unlike saints such as Bisbort, who thinks compassion=advocacy for government programs. I seriously doubt this ninny even really understands any political issues to any depth at all, number of bylines credited to him notwithstanding. He just knows that socialism is good and since conservatives oppose it, they must be bad.
Funny. About 50% of the country is conservative, so this compassionate human being hates 140+ million people in the United States alone.
What a friggin' hero.
I am just SOOOOOO glad that this honorable man didn't participate in that deplorable hatefulness. /sarcasm
In 1984, the official language of the state was "duckspeak", a babbling nonsense form generated at the larynx instead of the brain. The idea was if the thought process could be taken out of speech, then the masses would have no words to voice rebellion in.
This guy's almost got it down, 'cause there sure isn't any intelligent thought going on in this bleat.
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