This couldn't be funnier if it were in the Onion and were it not for its context, you'd probably take it as satire -- but, given where it is, I think we have to take it as symptom, with a soupçon of pathos added. See "An Open Letter to the White Right, On the Occasion of Your Recent, Successful Temper Tantrum" by tim wise (note the self-effacing lower-case) in Daily Dementia (or, more formally, Daily Kos: State of the Nation):
You’re like the bad guy in every horror movie ever made, who gets shot five times, or stabbed ten, or blown up twice, and who will eventually pass -- even if it takes four sequels to make it happen -- but who in the meantime keeps coming back around, grabbing at our ankles as we walk by, we having been mistakenly convinced that you were finally dead this time.
Fair enough, and have at it. But remember how this movie ends.
Our ankles survive.
You do not.
Michael Meyers, Freddie Kreuger, Jason, and that asshole husband in that movie with Julia Roberts who tracks her down after she runs away and changes her identity--they are all done. Even that crazy fucker in Saw is about to be finished off for good. Granted, he’s gonna be popping out in 3-D to scare the kiddies, so he isn’t going quietly. But he’s going, as all bad guys eventually do.
And in the pantheon of American history, conservative old white people have pretty much always been the bad guys, the keepers of the hegemonic and reactionary flame, the folks unwilling to share the category of American with others on equal terms.Think there might be a little, you know, bitter clinging in all that (and it goes on)? Well, but that's not really adequate, is it? More like deranged death-grip, if it's the outpouring of anyone past early adolescence. Which is maybe a point in timmy's favor -- no idea of his (and it's pretty likely a "he", right?) own skin tone or age, of course, but if you had to guess wouldn't you say white, male, and maybe about 14? Could be younger, but then a bit precocious, because I will say that if the level were just dialed back to maybe 10 or a little less, screeds like this would be a perfect candidate for Stuff White People Like.
Thanks to Instapundit (seems like I'm always sending him traffic)
As with most- d-Kos rants, Wise's quasi-gonzo writing might be a bit intense for those 'Mericans accustomed to Foxnews and Mama Grizzly, but he's not completely off the mark ( it's not juvenile, morfita, but...meant to entertain, instead of bore people, like Instapundit, Miss Oldhouse's cronies, etc)
ReplyDeleteThat said, I would probably modify his racist accusations, and say...some white conservatives played the race card and have for years--whether Nixonians, Reaganites, Birchers, crypto-klansmen, etc.--especially in the dirty South. But there are Tea Party people who make an attempt at a bit of inclusion (probably...hypocritical). It's not like Obama --or the Demos--have like created Beulahland in the last two years (and you again use one example as like "this is how those lefties" think, when it's just one d-Kos reg, not the voice of the Demos, or non-conservatives).
The Tea party doesn't symbolize victory for the Right--really, one might say it stands for the failure of the GOP (including your sort of neo-con libertarian crew) AND the Dems to address the concerns of many Americans living away from the urban areas: a backlash (some don't care for the GOP leadership either). Not saying they're correct--most of their ideas are just wrong--Reaganite BS-- and there are some...white nationalist types---but ....desperate times, desperate measures, etc. Your moralistic approach to politics doesn't quite capture it.
... he's not completely off the mark ( it's not juvenile, morfita, but...meant to entertain, instead of bore people, ...
ReplyDeleteOh, it is entertaining, certainly -- that's why I posted it. The image of those surviving ankles is just too good. I only doubt it's meant to entertain in quite the way it does (check out the comments). And in that sense I'd say it's definitely an example of how at least some of "those lefties" think -- as you illustrate yourself, J.
Oh -- he's not you, is he? Nah -- doesn't have your wind.
Re: your analysis of the Tea Party -- I'd say you're correct, surprisingly, about it being a product of the joint failure of both main parties to address concerns of people outside the urban areas. That's not inconsistent with it also symbolizing a victory for the right (in both senses), is all.
No, morfita, I actually read HS Thompson back in the day (unlike most Kossacks, or you ...), and wouldn't indulge in that sort of pathos, but...per content, Wise is not completely mistaken. I've run into some Teabaggers (at least online), and some are white nationalists, though most are careful not to sound like outright nazis.
ReplyDeleteNow, you want pathos and phony lefties, check out this turd from Sacto CA, by the name of "byronius", who hangs at this weird site "New Worlds. Pure hysteria, 24-7--and what's weirder, B-ron's an ex-gay turned mormon (or baptist, or some sheet)--with deviants such as B-ron, the leftism is just a schtick, like a pep rally speech, an attempt to win favor, or impress other delusional humans. B-ron doesn't know Chomsky from Red China. Yet hysteria-crats like B-ron (or Wise, most of the time) should not be mistaken for real progressives, m.
Yeah, I see what you mean about B-ron. And certainly you can find similarly unhinged types on the right, and not just Christian fundamentalists or white supremacists. By the same token, such types shouldn't be mistaken for real conservatives or classical liberals.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I read Gonzo-man Thompson myself, back in that day. Loved his stuff at the time, but, like a lot from that time, I find it doesn't age well.
ReplyDeleteHST's books entertained at times, but Gonzo probably did more harm than good--as with d-Kos--like 500 HST wannabes, or B-ron for that matter. Demos would have been better off with writers like Galbraith, or Bertrand Russell, etc (tho' in the case of B-ron, mormon-liberal-on-steroids, after struggling a few weeks with the first chapter of FAL In Vegas, he most likely tossed it aside, and then just made sh*t up. Gonzo, Raoul Duke, huh, WTF?).
ReplyDelete