At the Corner, one John J. Jingleheimer Miller is thoroughly biscuit-steamed at Eugene Ronbinson's suggestion that "The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly
from one direction — the right, not the left." Miller is not having it! He. Is. Not. Having. It. For it is the Musselman, not the Micheganman, that we must fear!
This is wrong. The primary danger of political violence in this country
comes from the likes Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused killer of 13 people
at Fort Hood—a danger, by the way, that many on the Left would prefer to
ignore.
Now, now, kids, let's not squabble. Daddy hates all extremist religious anti-government crazy ideologues exactly the same. It's not a contest! They're all scumbags!
Ha ha ha I do so enjoy my little jokes.
Ahem. As a sensible commentator, I of course have my issues with the idea that the American Left is as pure as the driven snow; shit, there are assholes everywhere, as David Broder has so often sagely observed, though far less pithily, that demented fossil.
But it is nevertheless interesting in a clinical-diagnostic sense that Miller doesn't pay much attention to the fact that Robinson is talking about domestic terrorism, a point the wily Robinson cleverly attempts to disguise by writing things like "For decades now, the most serious threat of domestic terrorism has come
from the growing ranks of paranoid, anti-government hate groups that
draw their inspiration, vocabulary and anger from the far right."
And, come on. Like Robinson says, this is just The Facts. There simply is no left-wing home-grown American equivalent to the militias like the Christian Humvees what just got busted (or whatever the fuck stupid name they called themselves). Miller just flails in response to this point, citing not only Muslim fundamentalists -- hardly a home-grown hothouse American phenomenon -- but also, pathetically, this:
As for the Left's dreams of domestic tranquility, I will await Eugene
Robinson's condemnation of the Bush-assassination fantasy film, Death
of a President.
Gracious. This is embarrassing not merely because a "movie" is not quite the physical equivalent of "a conspiracy to actually murder actual police officers." Nor is it dumb because it's not at all clear that the film in question actually was, as it is alleged, calling for Bush to be assassinated (in the sense that it wasn't). No, the more serious problem is that the picture was not made by American but by British filmmakers, which means as a rebuttal to the point that Robinson makes, as opposed to the one Miller pretends he makes, it's a load of shit.
So, Miller is a dick. This much is established.
But we must maintain perspective. The Humvee Christian Militias are not really the problem when it comes to the True Perils of American Right Wingnuttery. Don't get me wrong; the threat of absurdly well-armed anti-government paranoid idiots is not to be sniffed at, as McVeigh and these more recent shits have demonstrated. Innocent people have been (and probably will in the future) get killed.
Still, though, in and of themselves, the militia types don't pose an existential threat to the United States. Neither does Al Qaeda, for that matter, the fuckers.
No, the real problem with Right Wingnuttery as we know it is that it completely rejects the chore of attempting to perceive empirical reality, replacing it with a bugshit loony but far easier to comprehend and immensely self-gratifying identity narrative involving Stirring Defiance against Evil, a narrative that has proven immensely profitable for certain self-interested actors -- Fox News, most egregiously -- to maintain and promote. And
The Tea Party "Movement" baggers, like the Freepers before them, behave like the teen geeks in Galaxy Quest; deep down they believe the heroic fiction is real, that one day they will be called on to Perform Great Deeds in a Noble Cause, and more than anything else are terrified of having to one day have to give up the dream even though deep down they know it's so much sordid knockoff shyster bullshit. The key difference is that Galaxy Quest is a nice fun movie, and wingnuts get their rocks off fantasizing that if we get stuff like civilized heath care and action on climate change, the wicked space aliens win.
This is a trivial example of what I mean, but it's entertaining if you like this shit, Lord help you:
I got the original from the Left Coast Rebel web site, which seems to consider itself humorous. (I added the LOL-Cat commentary because it's the sort of thing Oscar Wilde would have done if he had Cheezburger-class technology, and if his hands were not too sore from the oakum-picking.)
Anyhow the foregoing Photo-shop is the comical punchline, or perhaps decoration, or is anyway a related emanation to this:
Frankly, I can see the Obamanation waxing fondly over the 'Imperialists'
(Democrat-socialists) and holding nothing but scorn for the 'Rebellion'
(true conservatives, libertarians, independents, 60% of the nation that
didn't want the health care takeover). Yes, Star Wars is the Democrat-socialist
subversion of the United States. Think about it, you have the Debt Star
that threatens to crush all free planets (societies, states, businesses
and future generations) within distance....
May the force be with us (and save America).
Uh, sure.
Like, it all sounds very well, but did the dastardly plot of the wicked Senator Palpatangerine really hinge upon the need for government spending as an inevitable consequence of the previous good-guy administration's astonishing fiscal recklessness, incompetence, and warmongering?
The plots of Episodes 1-3 are sufficiently incomprehensible that this might just be the case, but that's not really the point, which is to do with how even the two Star Wars movies that make sense don't especially help anyone make a coherent argument for or against Keynesian economic principles. Or about health insurance reform, either.
It's this sort of mentality that makes imbeciles crow with delight that media outlets of the sort that hire cretins like Erick Erickson, presumably in order to "push alarming climate stories," are "losing favor" while Fox News is SURGING! Zap phreeow zap! Take THAT, Vader!
