Carpetbagger, pseudonymously posting as "Steve Benen" at TPM, showcases an exchange between Naomi Wolf and an insane person in which the insane person rebutted Wolf's valid points by saying "Keep attacking, keep attacking Naomi, because you're going to look great in a burka. You're going to look super in a burka."
Carpetbagger responds to this by saying: This description may sound hyperbolic, but a surprising number of high-profile conservative voices actually believe that we're this close to an invasion and the replacement of our constitutional system with a radical Muslim theocracy.
But this simply isn't true. Conservatives don't really believe that we're about to be invaded. They're just bullshitting again. In fact, this is one of the primary points about referring to conservatives as "Chickenhawks". Because if they really believed civilization's survival was dependent on our victory, they most assuredly would make a point of having as many rightwingers join the military as possible. This wouldn't be about having Naomi Wolf shut-up with Ann Coulterish punchlines. They'd actually be serious.
And only an insane person would argue against reinstituting the draft, if this was as serious as they're pretending it is. The draft is only a bad idea when the underlying war is bad. But people won't mind being forced into fighting if their survival is really at stake. The Bushies most certainly know this, which is why the draft is definitely off the table. They know that people really aren't that serious about this war.
And even the very idea of this is entirely absurd. The strongest military in the world is having trouble subduing a second-world country the size of California, and we're supposed to believe that a non-army could possibly conquer all of America? The very thought of this is so entirely absurd that it's not even worthy of even half-hearted consideration.
But they don't really believe this. They don't truly believe this is the war of all wars. It's just empty rhetoric. They're just saying whatever they need to to make their point. They don't give a damn, and they assume we don't either. That crazy woman wasn't really making a point she found valid. She was just trying to score a cheap debate point against someone who had bested her. But you shouldn't think for a second that they really believe this stuff. They don't. And all they deserve for their troubles is open mockery and scorn.
And that's what Naomi's follow-up line should have been. I don't know what she actually said. But what she should have done was simply to laugh in the crazy person's face, given a sarcastic "Really?" and then laughed again before giving an "Alrightie then" and a few more laughs. The crazy person deserved no better. We really can't take this stuff seriously. Bullshit should never be treated as if it's rational or requires rebuttal. If the person saying something doesn't care what they're saying, we shouldn't either. They deserve nothing but mockery.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I think you don't give conservatives enough credit for being entitled nutjobs. I think a lot of conservatives really do believe we're at risk of being taken over by some crazy horde, whether Mexican or Islamofacist. They KNOW these awful, crazy invaders are getting ready to take over and they KNOW the U.S. has to do some serious pounding on these bad people or we'll all be wearing burkas and speaking Spanish in a week or two.
They know what's at stake, but they don't want to be bothered to do anything about it. That's where their sense of entitlement comes in. They want somebody else to do the work.
Remember how Kennedy said we'd "bear any burden, pay any price" to fight communism's spread? Well, that's almost how these conservatives feel about the Islamomexifacist threat. Only their slogan would be, "Let somebody else bear any burden, pay any price."
And a lot of them think they're too important to risk their lives going to war or something. Remember that video the guy made about a month ago where he went to the college Republican meeting and asked why they weren't off fighting in the war they thought was so vital? A lot of them ran off lists of their ailments and claimed that they wanted to join but weren't eligible since their hemmerhoids kept them from sitting in tanks or something. But a lot of them claimed that they were doing important--vital, even--work here on the home front, writing blogs, organizing for the Republican party, and such weighty work. Sure, some of them might have been just making excuses, but I don't discount the likelihood that a lot of them believe that they're defending their country, just as the soldiers in Iraq are.
It's a combination of zealotry, cowardice, entitlement and narcissism, and it's ugly as hell to see, but it's real.
By the way, I can't spell "hemorrhoids". I might have goofed it up this time, too. It would have been funnier if I'd a-spelt it right...
I don't know, Mumph. I just know too much about these people to believe anything they say and think that they're serial liars who will say whatever they need to say in any given circumstance.
And in this case, they'll grossly overstate the threat they believe we're facing while also inventing dumb excuses for why they don't need to do what it takes to fight that threat. When it makes more sense to believe that they're just lying about both. They may be delusional, but they're not entirely dumb. I'm sure that most of them would enlist in the military if they truly felt they were threatened.
Overall, I think they feel threatened enough to insist that something must be done, but not threatened enough for them to actually do something about it. Hell, they're not even willing to pay higher taxes to fight the Brown Menace. Oh wait, we're supposed to believe that they're waiting for supply-side economics to increase tax revenues. I forgot. Sometimes it's hard to keep-up with their delusions.
Hate to disagree with you, but I don't think one in a hundred of these sorry losers would enlist if the hordes were hitting our beaches as I write this. For conservatives, sacrifice and duty and obligation are always for somebody else. Maybe that's why they love Bush so much: thta's his way of thinking, too. He oozes entitlement.
Post a Comment