Around the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, I saw this cartoon from the immediate shooting aftermath on Twitter:
It's a reminder of the gun community's specific tunnel vision, but it's also a reminder of the overarching narcissism of the American right. Within days of the Sandy Hook deaths, we were expected to put aside our concerns for the victims (and future victims) and start worrying about whether we'd bruised the tender feelings of right-wing gun owners by daring to recommend a few speed bumps on their road to obtaining more and more guns. By means of threats, recall elections, scored votes, and the usual arsenal of hardball tactics, the gunners not only won the political battle but made it clear that Sandy Hook was all about them. It was about their desire to acquire weapons, not everyone else's safety. It was about keeping them safe from a strongly worded statement by Piers Morgan on CNN. All that needed to be the nation's #1 priority, not working to prevent the deaths of more schoolchildren.
And now we have a TV star who's equated homosexuality and bestiality, asserted that black people got along fine with whites in America before there was welfare, and blamed the Japanese involvement in World War II on the fact that the Japanese aren't Christian -- and who are the real victims? Right-wingers again. Phil Robertson, as I keep telling you, hasn't been fired, and Entertainment Weekly now confirms that A&E very much wants to keep him on the air:
A source close to the situation confirmed that when the network resumes airing new episodes of Duck Dynasty starting Jan. 15, footage featuring the Robertson patriarch will indeed remain intact. The network also hopes the media and fan furor will cool down over the holidays and that tensions over shooting future episodes can then be resolved.And yet we're talking about the threat to Phil Robertson, not the crude attack on gays, blacks, Japanese people, and other non-Christians. The right has made this all about the victimization of right-wingers -- again.
The right does this all the time. A vigilante cop-wannabe shoots an unarmed black youth in Florida, and the real victims are right-wingers who cry "reverse racism" when they're criticozed for defending the shooter. Right-wingers are victimized by a Congress in which Democrats approve nominees using the majority they've earned in legitimate elections. Right-wingers tell us their goal is to "take our country back" -- as if the country belongs only to them, not to the duly registered voters who outvoted them. The word "our" in that phrase is like the shout of a bratty kid grabbing every toy in sight: "Mine!"
No interest outweighs the interests of the right. The right's interests dominate in all things. Ignore the right, and tantrums will be thrown.
9 comments:
That's because they're the party of the Id.
NBB IMHO The Krell without the smarts. Or maybe the Scientologist are right (both meanings) the degeneration of transplanted Krell.
Is there a seminal SF movie in that perhaps? ( "forbidden planet #2" working title "WTF went wrong")
Right-Wing Victimhood never howls so loud as when people point out their intolerant, hateful bigotry.
Really great point about the Right's sense of victimhood. I would have qualified the Right's use of "take our country back" a little though. Howard Dean popularized that phrase in recent history, though I know he didn't mean it the same way the Right uses it.
I'd like to take my country back from these Right Wingers. I lay my own strong claim to the flag and what it means to be an American . . .and sure as hell isn't the Ayn Randian utopia that conservatives mean when they use the phrase.
Did he fire anybody? Did he try to destroy somebody's career for speaking his mind, when asked? No, that was you.
Modern Conservatisms cornerstone principles:
Victimization, and projection.
Philo,
Have a cup of coffee, and see if perhaps that might make you want to rewrite what you wrote.
Plenty of people's careers are destroyed for speaking their minds, when asked.
It's the GOVERNMENT that can't sensor you, not that your boss and/or your company can't fire you if you do them some significant PR damage, by saying something hateful and/or offensive.
The problem here, imo, is that A&E probably knows that every victimized racist, homophobe, and Christianista in American, will now make it a point to tune in to DD, and drive the rating of the show up, dramatically - at least until some other shiny victimization bauble draws their attention.
You may remember, Sarah Palin had her own show, with high ratings the first few weeks.
And then what happened?
That show got cancelled when the novelty wore off.
I suspect A&E will enjoy a spike in DD viewers in the short term, but there are people like me who won't ever tune to that once-pretty-good network, again.
Again - the GOVERNMENT can't sensor you.
You parents can send you to your room, and your bosses can fire you.
I'm not saying that's always right, but sometimes it is.
Note the irony of Philo's comment which yet again tries to play the victim card.
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