Offering an opinion critical of the Israeli right wing is not anti-semitism; people who do so are about as anti-semitic as the majority of the American diaspora or the op-ed pages of Ha'aretz or the huge plurality of voters who tossed out right-wingers in the most recent Israeli election. The specious claim by sophist, talented chubsmacker, and suspected dog-violator JismSmoothie that a disapproving tone taken toward the policies of Israeli's Likud party is some sort of coded dog-whistle trigger for the hordes of secret Dachau-lovers among America's unionized public schoolteachers and green-voting Ashkenazi lesbians is just so much projection. Liberals and Democrats don't have to avail themselves of dog-whistle politics precisely because, on the whole, their policy proposals are not cause for instinctual revulsion among most Americans. The left doesn't have to come up with euphemisms for eradicating HeadStart or decimating environmental protections; they are for providing tots with educational opportunities and keeping our water potable.
Dog whistle politics and, for that matter, anti-semitism are almost wholly right-wing phenomena. Being anti- any group is a defining aspect of American conservatism: racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-atheism, nativism -- oh, hell, anti-Hinduism and Francophobia, too. That's why such a huge part of the debate on illegal immigration isn't about Germans or Afrikaaners with dodgy paperwork, but about Mexicans. That's why the Republicans' problem with Cynthia McKinney wasn't that she physically tangled with a Capitol officer, but that she's a trashy, uppity jiggaboo. That's why a pro-lifer would have no interest in rescuing a petri dish full of blastocysts from a burning fertility clinic; the movement is far more about relegating women to second-class citizenship. And this is how the right wing consolidates power, by playing on one group's fear of others, by exploiting perceived differences to keep various people at odds with each other so they won't lift their heads in unison and by virtue of their number achieve any sort of political parity with the ruling classes.
It's this very aspect of divisiveness and knee-jerk hatred of others that makes me a patriot and people like Jeff Goldstein or Chaz Johnson or Michelle Malkin jingoists. I simply love my country; for the latter, it is not enough: they must hate others'. That, along with those sweet, sweet think-tank connections are what make them who they are.
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Comments for This Is Getting Ridiculous
Wingnut insecurity is directly proportional to the lack of attention they received as a child.
Hug and kiss you children, or they will become a bigoted wingnut.
Hug and kiss you children, or they will become a bigoted wingnut.
elmo: could be. tho' IIRC sociopathy often manifests itself without outside influence...
ap: thankee. furthermore i'm grateful to you for not pointing out my mucked-up parenthetical in the last paragraph that made it look like I had a pronoun/verb disagreement, and that I am right now too lazy to fix.
indy: [bows]
mr: you know, i'm almost as intellectually attractive as I am physically irresistable. woof!
ap: thankee. furthermore i'm grateful to you for not pointing out my mucked-up parenthetical in the last paragraph that made it look like I had a pronoun/verb disagreement, and that I am right now too lazy to fix.
indy: [bows]
mr: you know, i'm almost as intellectually attractive as I am physically irresistable. woof!
I think it is impossible for any human to be as physically attractive as I am intellectually attractive.
For some, like MM and etc, it is pretty easy to equally physically attractive as...you get where I am going with this.
For some, like MM and etc, it is pretty easy to equally physically attractive as...you get where I am going with this.
Nice job, Teh.
(See. I'm still around. I just don't feel particularly clever at the moment.)
(See. I'm still around. I just don't feel particularly clever at the moment.)
- Posted at 1:49 PM | By
Smartypants
I like how teh, teh flirts with MR over such a serious post!
- Posted at 6:11 PM | By
Quite right teh . . wingnuttery is easy. Imagining and working for a better world, that's hard.
- Posted at 9:23 PM | By Ron Mexico
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