A West Virginia man has been charged after police said he threw feces at the Red Hen Tuesday while others were standing outside the restaurant protesting.To al of those on the Right who are now, all of a sudden, bemoaning the lack of civility in political discourse, I say this:
Go look in the mirror.
The Right has been demonizing liberals for decades. Traitors, "libtards", you name it. Rush Limbaugh got rich doing that. Newt Gingrich made demonization of his opponents his calling card. Vice-President Cheney told Sen Leahy to "go fuck yourself." One pissant congressman heckled President Obama during a State of the Union Address.
Incivility of the Right has been a hallmark of the Right for a very long time. They have no trouble with Trump insulting people and generally acting like a kindergarten kid who has missed nap time.*
Businesses owned by Right-wingers have been putting up signs saying "no liberals" or "no Muslims" and do you see liberals out throwing horse manure at them? Do you see crowds of protesting liberals trying to shut down those businesses? You do not. Did anyone throw bull feces at the bakes and florists who deny services to gay couples? They did not.
The Right wants it both ways. They want to be able to scream demeaning insults, but as soon as they get called on it, they scream "you're not being civil."
So, to the Right, in the immortal words of Vice President Cheney:
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* I apologize to kindergarteners for comparing them to Donald Trump.
Cue up the "bothsiderism" response and play in 3....2....1.....
ReplyDeleteMy usual go-to on this subject is GOPAC's "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" in which specific invective was supplied for Republicans to employ against Democrats, but I see you have that covered, and I actually think there is something more germane to the situation at hand: The so-called "Tea Party" and their disruption of town hall meetings in 2009 and 2010 wherein they shouted down congresspeople in an organized assault on the civility that would have allowed any actual policy to be discussed.
ReplyDeleteHardly any town hall meetings even happen any more over it as a result, but more importantly, the Republicans won the 2010 midterms using that incivility as a tactic.
The group Indivisible is attempting to learn from those tactics and use the most effective of them to win the upcoming midterms by getting more and more ordinary citizens involved.
It seems to me that Democrats fall for their own trap almost every time. Political tactics that are ugly and less than fully ethical squick us out badly enough that we can't fight effectively enough to do what would have saved Roe v Wade, and now poor women are going to start dying again because of it.
It almost sounds wrong to blame the Democrats for something only the Republicans want to do, but it's not. We knew what they would do. They've been telling us for decades. We knew the choices were beat them or lose Roe, and we lost.
So I have a problem with accepting civility unilaterally while watching them hurt people. Perhaps the veracity should count more than the volume, or whether the word "fuck" appears in the paragraph.
-Doug in Oakland
Tell all that to Memories Pizza.
ReplyDeleteAll they did was respond to a question.
Hassled, death threats, etc.
Right on time...
ReplyDeleteLol. Good old lyin', racist B. Just couldn't resist the threat to his worldview.
ReplyDeleteThe appellation "Lyin'" referring, of course, to B's proven tendency to lie blatantly in order to make a point. "Racist" stemming from how B likes to defend his usage of racial slurs. In both cases these factual descriptors are provided simply to assist the reader in interpreting B's posts.
ReplyDeleteSource (for both): https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7924773307171301256&postID=8269752681808146697
The issue isn't which side is worse or who gets to point fingers. It's that the tattered remnants of the American Experiment is heading into the sort of escalating violence that is very hard to turn away from.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in a leadership role with a voice, the Executive, the Legislative, and the 4th Estate, needs to dial it back. let's see the issues of the day dealt with by a Congress that takes it's Oath seriously.
A President that believes he's the President of all the people (and when was the last one really, maybe not in my lifetime).
And a free press that reports facts without bias. (That would be never).
I think we are watching a coming storm.
Last President that believed he was President for all...I gotta go with Jimmy. We didn’t specify the quality of President, but Jimmy was, and is, a much better man than many other Presidents have been. That didn’t help.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it is 'both' sides. 'Borked' became a verb, Ted Kennedy tried to collude with the USSR against Reagan decades ago. Money has long ago exceeded votes in importance to the elected, and it is getting worse.
ReplyDeleteSince news became entertainment, we the people have been blinded and treated to circuses.
Rush Limbaugh has too much influence. He tells listeners he is an entertainer, if you listen, but he is taken far too seriously. But he became very popular, and listeners treated his entertainment as reality, pulling politicians from reality.
I recently read a bit of wheat among the chaff comments at Althouse's blog (where 'civility bullshit' has been a tag for a while), how the press gave Trump all the attention during the primaries, maybe wanting higher ratings, maybe hoping he'd be an easy opponent for Hillary. This is what we get.
3383, "both sides" is the biggest and most insidious piece of propaganda dog shit in the country. It's what Republican-paid shills trot out each time there's an outlier on the liberal side one tenth as bad as EACH AND EVERY GOP politician. And while the liberal outlier gets punished instantly by his own side, the GOP screams out its oath to continue doing the very same thing the liberal lost his career over.
ReplyDeleteTo think even for a moment that "both sides are the same" is to either support the traitors trying to destroy and loot the country, or to admit you're a brainless child, unable to recognize a lie that's designed to hurt you. You, personally.
Nangleator, if you believe any elected official who doesn't know you by name is working on your behalf and not their own, that makes me a little more sad.
ReplyDeleteYes, both sets of leaders are destroying and looting the country. One side is more down low about it.
3383: Democrats, working on my behalf, passed the ACA which enabled me to get cataract surgery when I was blind, which is the very opposite of sad.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the well being of real people who are not wealthy Republicans, which is to say more than 90% of the population, one party at least tries to help while the other party actively tries to harm.
Both sides don't.
-Doug in Oakland
din, the ACA was passed to get your vote by the same folks who monitor our phone calls (DiFi is your Senator, too, yes?). Your good fortune is a byproduct of politicians trying to stay in office.
ReplyDeleteI try to vote for who I think will do the least amount of damage.
3383, remind me who was president when the USA PATRIOT (the "spy on everyone") Act was signed into law.
ReplyDeleteFunny fact about that guy: He was born in CT, but he claims TX as his home. Both states are content to let him claim TX.
Comrade, not that I was for it but don't forget that it passed the house 357-66 and the senate 98-1
ReplyDelete