Therefore it is our duty to fire the Republican middle class, put them in the hospital with huge medical bills, and foreclose on their homes.
ADDED: McArdle frets about aid organizations in Africa. A commenter dismisses her concern for Africans:
Aid is desperately evil. It salves the conscience of the White Liberal at the expense of those "in need". See The War On Poverty, giving money to homeless people, immortal charities for diseases that have already been cured...
The best aid for a developing country is to buy products from a sweatshop or unsustainable farm in that country. That is what drives development, not some hippy commune focused on keeping villagers authentically poor and famished so that they have someplace to go and visit the "real" country.
NGOs are also responsible for discouraging DDT use, killing Africans to save their aesthetic preferences and ensure that they have a luxe, high status job distributing ineffective malaria remedies.
At some point we have to let ourselves take a good look at our fellow tribe members. If they can't support civil rights for Muslims or gays, if they steal every dime they can get their hands on, if they support starvation in the name of ideology, then it's time to start a new tribe.
11 comments:
Well,one thing about Repubs is that they're all for rigid application of conservative ideas,until they get bitten in the ass by them...
For example: they were all for rough, tough, red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism, right up until the time their own incompetence caused them to crash the economy.
Then, instead of taking their failure like a man(or woman)--which would have been in accordance with their "free market" doctrine--they rushed off to that evil,evil Federal government for a great big handout....
The statement about NGOs is ONE GUY'S OPINION, presented third-hand. Of course, if you follow the links to the original post, the guy is actually thoughtful and nuanced, NOT against aid but unwise and short-sighted aid, and views the current tax-deductible charity scheme as basically subsidies for the rich. Quel surprise Megan doesn't link him directly but through the simplifying filter of another blog.
As for the odious commenter, I notice he included not one link or citation for his worthless opinions and transparent wishful thinking, and his one hard claim is debunked bullshit.
About our tribe ...
Though there has always been a certain amount of ... misinformation bandied about, I think we've pretty much reached critical mass as a nation: we have an entire political party whose followers are perpetually worked up to a frenzy of inchoate rage & fear thanks to the lies advanced by folks like Beck and Bachmann & Palin & so many others.
When Father Coughlin did his vitriolic spewings of lies in the 1930s, he over-reached & became marginalized. Now there is no over-reach. People on the right seem to welcome the rage & fear that the lies bring them. Perhaps it reminds them of what they felt the morning of 9/11 or something, I have no idea. (Personally, I think they were pretty far gone already, but that 9/11 pushed them into a whole new level of crazy.)
Most people in this country are actually sane, but you'd never ever know it from watching the news. But they're not paying close enough attn to what is happening around them, because they're too busy with their own lives. It's Democracy on Autopilot and one day we will irrevocably crash.
And then whatever passes for civilization will lament that a once-great nation failed to live up to its promise, a promise that could have been easily fulfilled ... if only we hadn't spent so much time catering to the crazies.
zhak
"..But they're not paying close enough attn to what is happening around them, because they're too busy with their own lives..."
They aren't getting the factual information they need to make sensible judgements and decisions. We have NO Free Press, just a corporate media that employes thousands of people just like Meghan.
Unemployment insurance is probably what is keeping Americans from rioting, marching, and voting all incumbents OUT. Throw the pesants a few pennies and they'll keep quiet.
Thing is, KWillow, the truth is out there, but you have to work at it.
If you read, say, the Boston Herald, you might be excused for thinking that Obama is a Socialist, because, HELL IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE PAPER! They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true, would they?
Etc etc ...
Most folks don't dissect what they read, they take it for granted. & that's assuming they read anything at all.
When the Brown Coakley thing was going on, I was shocked at the number of people -- intelligent people too -- simply had no idea that there was a special election. This despite wall to wall coverage everywhere in New England & a fair amount of national coverage as well.
I think we're taking Democracy for granted. After all, we've been told we're the best of the best, and apparently the majority of Americans feel that comes without any sort of real effort.
It REALLY upsets me that we've got stuff like "a majority of those polled are against Obamacare ..." when, sakes alive, if they believe a tiny percentage of what they've been spoonfed, they expect to kiss their granma goodbye as a result of it.
You know? It all comes down to you can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts.
& I'm really ashamed that all this is happening under my watch, though I'm just one insignificant person.
Oooh! If we're making a new tribe, we need a cool name!
I'd suggest
WOOOOOOOOLLLLLLVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRIIIIIIINNNNEEESSSSSSS!!!!
...but I hear it's taken.
We could call it "Death to the ruling class!" but that wouldn't fit on the back of a jacket as well as Wolverines!
It would be pretty sexy, though! Haha, Part of a modernized sans-culotte outfit, maybe...
PUTRIC: PUt The Rulers In Chains
I've seen that DDT thing before; it's a low-level wingnut talking point. I always figure some chemical company is behind it, because it would be more profitable for them to start manufacturing DDT again than it would if DDT remained banned and mosquito control was done with mosquito netting.
Also, I think you must be right about McMegan's unemployment causing empathy on this issue.
People on the right seem to welcome the rage & fear that the lies bring them. Perhaps it reminds them of what they felt the morning of 9/11 or something, I have no idea.
They feel more alive. Literally. And righteous. But it's more fun and exciting to be righteous in the mode of outrage and indignation, than just to sit around in an inert state of virtue.
Limbaugh's fans know that listening to him will energize them and rile them up. That's what he's selling and a lot of people want it.
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