Thursday, May 13, 2004
Wingnut Anguish
I've wondered for a while if we'd ever reach a tipping point when the wingnuts go so far that Mr. and Mrs. America finally start to realize how loony they are. I'm not saying we're there, but I'm beginning to believe we're far closer than we've ever been before. MoveOn.Org's Daily Misleader has a good post today summarizing the White House's refusal to repudiate Rush Limbaugh and his comparison of prisoner abuse to college pranks. Oliver North said the same thing the other night--which makes you wonder just what the hell these guys did in college. The only way this leaky barge continues to hold water is if people ignore the evidence of their own eyes, because you can't look at the pictures and still think they're innocent unless you are deceiving yourself. (Alas, self-deception is a talent conservatives possess in spades--witness Sean Hannity's claim the other night that all mainstream media, even the world of talk radio, is irredeemably liberal. If he stops believing that, he loses his bunker mentality, and what's he got left without it?)
It's by no means an original thought of mine that these conservative opinion-makers are not that far removed, emotionally, from Islamic fanatics. Both believe firmly in their own righteousness without reservation or recourse to evidence, and they'll go to any length to hang onto what they believe, because they can't fathom the idea that they might be wrong. It's said that the only sure cure for bad ideas is better ideas. Trouble is, half of the American people can't seem to tell the difference.
I've wondered for a while if we'd ever reach a tipping point when the wingnuts go so far that Mr. and Mrs. America finally start to realize how loony they are. I'm not saying we're there, but I'm beginning to believe we're far closer than we've ever been before. MoveOn.Org's Daily Misleader has a good post today summarizing the White House's refusal to repudiate Rush Limbaugh and his comparison of prisoner abuse to college pranks. Oliver North said the same thing the other night--which makes you wonder just what the hell these guys did in college. The only way this leaky barge continues to hold water is if people ignore the evidence of their own eyes, because you can't look at the pictures and still think they're innocent unless you are deceiving yourself. (Alas, self-deception is a talent conservatives possess in spades--witness Sean Hannity's claim the other night that all mainstream media, even the world of talk radio, is irredeemably liberal. If he stops believing that, he loses his bunker mentality, and what's he got left without it?)
It's by no means an original thought of mine that these conservative opinion-makers are not that far removed, emotionally, from Islamic fanatics. Both believe firmly in their own righteousness without reservation or recourse to evidence, and they'll go to any length to hang onto what they believe, because they can't fathom the idea that they might be wrong. It's said that the only sure cure for bad ideas is better ideas. Trouble is, half of the American people can't seem to tell the difference.
