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Saturday, June 10, 2006

Intolerance

This has certainly been a week that, with rather broad brush strokes, helps define just how intellectually moronic many of us have become. This is focus group-encouraged, media-driven devolution, I suppose, but it is reg'lar folks who have to take their share of the blame for falling for it, because we're the ones who have to deal with it. The focus group minions and talk show whores are all schmoozing it up and patting each other on the back, congratulating themselves on pulling yet another fast one.

Ann Coulter's latest spew of choleric nonsense has done exactly what it was supposed to do, which is sell books that no one with any sense would actually read. What they buy is the hateful she-beast with the long legs and long blonde hair (though rapidly looking more and more ridden hard and put away wet, meaning her fifteen minutes are just about up in wankerland), who for some reason is granted passage on suppsedly respectable media.

Here is cognitive dissonance: A quarter-second (literally) of a side shot of a boobie at the Super Bowl, Congress rants for six weeks straight and levels six-figure fines at broadcasters; Ann Coulter rakes 9/11 widows over the coals on a morning show, and the media spend the rest of the week examining each other's navels over whether she was out of line or not. Jesus H. Christ, people, would you grow a pair for once and just call an entrenching implement a spade?

So the discussion has naturally turned to the "intolerance" of the "left", and how they simply cannot "handle" an "opposing" viewpoint. It is a discussion scarcely worth having; for one, Coulter is not and has never been the least bit interested in debating anything. It is merely obnoxious rhetoric, carefully calculated to incite and provoke. That would be fine, if she had anything worthwhile to say, but she merely vocalizes the projected anxieties of what can only be described as emotionally stunted people.

What sort of person attacks the widows and families of 9/11 on a personal level, as Coulter most assuredly did, for expressing their opinions politically? Rather than point out where they were supposedly wrong or in error about something factual, Coulter merely trots out the same old schtick we've come to expect -- ugly, catty remarks about their looks and whether or not they loved their husbands; cheap speculation as to their being motivated financially, as if she herself does what she does for free; nothing remotely factual, just emotionally-charged rhetoric that apparently revolves around which political segment of a polarized, fragmented populace "owns" 9/11.

And what sort of person in their right mind whinges about the insidious power of the political "left"? What "left" would that be? Bloggers? Barbara Boxer? What exactly of the Cheney junta's manifold failures have this "left" been a part of either enacting or obstructing? Coulter and her fellow troglodytes got exactly what they wanted -- their war, their tax cuts, their deficits, their wage stagnation, their Supreme Court justices.

This cheap foamy rhetoric Coulter trucks in is not unlike a Super Bowl champion team taking pains to talk shit about a team they beat in the pre-season that didn't make the playoffs. It's unnecessary and it's vulgar, in the sense of a sore winner going out of their way to shit on everyone and everything.

Well, fine. I and many others in the "fever swamp" have been saying for quite some time that these are and have been the rules of decorum, and the least we can do is start fighting fire with fire instead of straw. Gutless DLC cocksuckers like Joementum and Bullwinkle want none of it; they think that if we just keep playing nice and genuflect to the Hank Hill Democrats, talk about how we loves us some Jeebus enough for the red-state brain surgeons that inflicted the likes of Tom Coburn on the United States Senate, that the tide will eventually turn back our way.

Fuck that shit. Enough is enough.

So when a well-known Republican sock puppet like Mary Matalin sticks up for Coulter, implicitly endorsing and refusing to disavow Coulter's contentions that the 9/11 widows are "enjoying their husbands' deaths", among other vile things, I expect every member of the Democratic Party to step forward and ask why an aide of Dick Cheney is endorsing such views. I expect them to force someone's hand, and either Matalin retracts her defense and publicly disavows Coulter, or an actual party functionary can do it. Nothing less should be acceptable.

You want your wedge issue, there ya go. Tie Coulter's mangy ass around the necks of the Republicans, and make them either defend or refute what she said. She may be laughing all the way to the bank, but we have to decide that we've had enough of this vicious cunt, and make it known to the people who continue to do business with her. And that's where the intolerance debate gathers a bit of momentum.

Does Coulter have the right to say what she's saying? Of course. But a sensible, motivated citizenry, instead of just running like sheep to order her book because they heard this hag's latest sound bark on Hannity & Colmes, need to condemn this level of haughty, fact-free rhetoric which has no boundaries on whom to attack.

I would have assumed that the families of the 9/11 victims were way off-limits; I am aware that there are actually some politically organized widows and family members who support the Cheney junta, but I'll be damned if I've ever heard of Michael Moore (or anyone else) attacking them at all, much less on anywhere near such a personal level. The troglodytes would undoubtedly respond that that's because the librul media is suppressing that story. There's no winning with those loons.

7 comments:

Robert Ellman said...

I discovered your blog through the blogroll of Juriassic Pork. I enjoyed reading it and especially appreciated your most recent post about Ann Coulter. Your points about her fame reflecting poorly on our culture is quite true. She truly is the epidermis of our pop culture sensibilities.

I'm going to add a link of your site to my blogroll. I'm hoping that after reviewing my blog you'll consider doing the same. Click here to review it at your convenience.

Grant said...

"...would you grow a pair for once and just call an entrenching implement a spade?"

I always say, call a spade a spade, and call a ho a ho.

Anonymous said...

they think that if we just keep playing nice and genuflect...

You'd think that, after losing ground to the neanderthals for six years in the name of playing nice, at least some of these stupid Democrats should have realized that appeasement and detente don't work with the fascists, just as they don't work with North Korea. But no--instead, they've internalized the mantra of libruls being intolerant, and are now not only genuflecting to the wingnuts, but happily bending over, even in the knowledge that no vaseline will be used.

Me, I'm just waiting with dismay for some goddamn prominent Democrat to awake from this historical torpor and finally come out swinging his fucking fists for once--most likely, it'll be a woman; I don't see the sissy-boys in the Congress doing anything about that any time soon. But I'm really itching for some Dem to show some tolerance for opposing viewpoints and publicly ask the shemale if she'd prefer a million bucks to her dead mother, just to put things in perspective. I assume Coulter has some sort of mother, although she looks and sounds like the spawn of Alien vs Predator. By her own logic, she should be OK with that bargain.

And maybe some other spineless Dem will find the guts ('cause they've lost their balls in 2000) and tell that other shemale Matalin* how Dick Cheney's repubes were really happy about 9/11 for it helped them hide their corrupt incompetence from the American public for another five years. See how much tolerance she has for that sort of opposing point of view.

But I think you're onto something deeper here, Heywood. The Bugman and Turd Blossom's laughable dream of a 50-year Republican majority in the Congress has now been exposed for the delusion it's always been. But they've somehow achieved something equally long-lasting: they've created, in the popular imaginary of the ever-shrinking 'independent' voter, the expectation that repugs can get away with all sorts of vile fascist shit because they're supposedly tough-minded, tough-talkin' guys serious about them 'values'--and that, when the Left tries to do the same, it's just those crazy, intolerant libruls going at it again. I don't know how the Dems are gonna escape that trap. Maybe they need to bring back the era of Tammany Hall party operatives and their band of ruffian party activists or something.

--Marius

* Seriously, what's up with these women of uncertain gender and the GOP: Coulter, Matalin, Karen Hughes??? Where do they find these pre-op chix with dix?

Heywood J. said...

Rob:

Thanks, and I've enjoyed checking out your blog as well. I think it'll be an excellent addition to the blogroll.

Even though the left blogosphere is apparently larger in number than the right, it has been my experience that the righties are more disciplined about sticking together. That may be hive-mind at work, but still, it's great to see the lefties get more into the "we're all in this together" spirit.

From what I've been reading, it sounds like Yearly Kos was very successful not just at accumulating a huge roster of names and attendees for the event itself, but more importantly, demonstrating quite clearly to more institutional power brokers that we are a force to be reckoned with. There's money, of course, but also education, passion, talent -- all those things that the Democrats have been in such need of.

I don't care about the Democrats taking us seriously, so much as getting them to understand that we are a force to be tapped and utilized to start making the Republicans take them seriously for a change.

Re Coulter, her success is a mystery to me. There are scads of publicity whores, obviously; how she manages to get her horse face and braying voice on every political talk show is just bizarre.

But politics is no longer about policy, of course, but about affirming people's projected feelings about themselves and others, and Coulter has certainly mastered that scam. Still, as I said, we have to start taking our fellow Americans to task for falling for this shit over and over again.

It was about a year ago that I wrote this, but I still think it goes a long way toward explaining Coulter: in the Howard Stern movie Private Parts, there is a scene where an executive is surveying Stern's growing popularity, despite his outrageousness. The executive notes that Stern's fans listened for an average of 1½ hours per day, while the people who said they hated Stern listened for over 2 hours.

That may be the key to Coulter's ability to pull sales and ratings -- people love to hate her, and she laughs all the way to the bank as long as they spell the name right. It still doesn't excuse the fact that she has overstayed her welcome, has nothing insightful to say, and is indisputably a toxic presence on the political discussion circuit.

Heywood J. said...

Marius:

Good points, and of course it never fails to amaze me at how stupidly stubborn the Dems are about all this. As you say, they keep functioning as if they think appeasement is an option with cryptofascists who have no moral or ethical boundaries.

The logline I had from last year was something like, "Only the Republicans would have the gall to put up two draft dodgers and smear a war veteran, and only the Democrats would be so gutless as to let them get away with it." It still holds true. It's SOP for each party.

I would hope that "values" starts to initiate the visceral revulsion in others that it has in me the last few years. Again, it all starts with one side being craven and opportunistic enough to simply declare that their political wedge issues are actually the gold standard for moral "values", and the other side letting them. It would take too many election cycles to unpack all the lies and distortions of those argument. Best to simply cut the Gordian Knot with a forceful declaration of "Look, do you seriously want us fucking around with gay marriage nonsense, or do you want us to work on a health care system before the current one implodes under demographic pressure, do you want energy independence so we can start disengaging from the Middle East, etc., etc.?" Christ, there must be fifty things more important even to the sanctimonious moralists than shit like gay marriage and flag burning.

I dunno. Perhaps the Democrats can steal the mantle of the "Daddy Party" by simply stepping up and professing to hold We The People responsible for our decisions and their consequences. It might be political suicide in a climate whose faith in having it all is unshakable, but it's societal suicide to keep going down this road.

Heywood J. said...

Oh yeah, and regarding the conservaskanks, I remember when the wankosphere used to talk up the so-called stable of cuties the GOP supposedly had -- Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Kellyanne Conway, etc. And Faux News does have a stable of bodacious newsmilfs, starting with the babealicious Laurie Dhue. But all the aforementioned bleach-blonde talk shrews look like ten miles of bad road these days.

Matalin and Hughes, even by the conservatards' tacit admission, have always been the bearded ladies of the right, and thus not part of their hand-operated poon-train. But the other ones that they most certainly did extol the virtues of, have not aged well at all, right down to the toxic she-male who lives as godless a life as possible, yet has the goddamned nerve to point that finger at liberal strawmen.

I mean, that's the question I'd like asked, since Coulter really got her momentum during Clenisgate -- what about your personal life? You're 45 or so, depending on which driver's license we consult, Ann, so why no man? Do you have premarital sex, against the accords of Pope Dobson I? Are you a closet donut-bumper?

Coulter has never pulled a punch or shied from hitting well below the belt, and gee, how about we start by going through her garbage and ticking off everything that might be objectionable to the crazy aunts running the Republican Party? I bet she's got a strap-on collection that would make Rosie O'Donnell blush.

Just between the baggage carried by Coulter and Limbaugh, you'd monkey-wrench their little wingut-welfare propaganda system overnight.

Heywood J. said...

Grant:

I always say, call a spade a spade, and call a ho a ho.

Word. I still recall the Ice Cube lyric from No Vaseline, about his nasty split from NWA:

Tried to tell you a year ago,
But Willie D* told me to let a ho be a ho, so....


*I assume Cube is referring to Willie D from the Geto Boys