Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:44:00
The online political radical is a sickness…
...and it’s the internet that has shown a light on what was formerly kept in dark basements and dank coffee houses.
this particular example of the disease of extreme political radicalism comes from the left side of the political aisle. Don’t get too cocky, righties. The right has its fair share of extremist nutbags too. For this week, though, the glory falls to the far left and fans of AirAmerica. (can you believe that network is still on the air? I think the in-house radio at any grocery store gets more listeners in a given week.)
Read the whole article for the backstory if you don’t know what happened to AirAmerica host Randi Rhodes. The shorthand is, she probably tangoed with some vodka martinis and tripped over her dog leash. This was initially reported as an attack (a hate crime!) by operatives of the right trying to silence her. Then she tripped, then she was attacked but not in a hate crime. But maybe she wasn’t. No one seems to know, or have the sense to ask her.
Anyway, among other things, Shawn Macomber has this to say:
There is, however, something bigger going on here, encapsulated in the determination of Rhodes’ fans, against all facts to the contrary, to hold-tight to the pipe dream of right-wing fanatics hiring Blackwater agents to beat her as she walked her dog: They so wish it were true. As with global warming alarmism, these sorts of messianic martyr fantasies about neo-Nazi conspirators aligned against liberals’ salvation program for the masses are delusions designed to assure people clearly desperate for meaning in their lives that they are historically significant figures living in historically significant times. History, sadly, is not made within the virtual walls of online echo chambers.
Ouch. By the way, please take not that Shawn Macomber is not comparing these idiots to global warming alarmists because he’s saying global warming doesn’t exist; he’s saying that the alarmism is hyped to the heavens, just like the ice age alarmism from 30-odd years ago, and the hole in the ozone from hairspray alarmism from a couple decades back, the DDT issue, and any other of a long list of “the sky is falling RIGHT NOW!” alarmist issues from the last 30 or 40 years.
Some people need crisis in order to feel alive. If crisis doesn’t exist, they will create it, and then declare themselves protest warriors who will fight the crisis until it has been “solved.” And then they will create a new crisis that can give them a sense of purpose. And so on, and so on. It’s not the exclusive purview of the far left. There are plenty of far right radicals too. This week, however, it’s the other side’s turn to be a bunch of Chicken Littles.
Posted by JimK at 03:44 PM on October 18, 2007
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Categories: News, Politics, The Fourth Estate
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Comments:
#2 Posted by chrisbg99 
on 10/18 at 10:41 PM -
Yeah this was one of those jaw droppers. And then you have the people defending it as if those who called her (or whomever started the whole thing) out as being hate-filled.
It is mind-boggling.
#3 Posted by artmonkey on 10/20 at 12:02 AM -
Now I have just one silly question, here…
Even if the rabid delusions of these little
baby Kuciniches (what’s the plural, Kucini?)
were correct, and Rhodes had been attacked by
some Halliburton-funded, Blackwater-trained GOP super-ninja, who knocked her teeth out in a calculated attempt to silence a lefty voice from continuing to be heard by damn near a dozen people every day…
...could someone puh-leez explain to me exactly how this would be categorized as a “hate crime”?
Hey, I’m no fancy ACLU lawyer or anything, but isn’t a hate crime defined as an act of violence or terror committed against a minority (as defined either racially or by sexual orientation) with the underlying motive being related to hatred or strong bias against that minority?
... because if it is, then what, exactly, are the lefty tinfoil hat group implying about Rhodes? That she’s secretly gay, or that she’s secretly ethnic?
Sorry, I’m just not totally clear on that one.
Ah, well… I guess it doesn’t matter.
In any event, I truly hope they arrest the perpetrator and throw away the key.
...of course, since Rhodes most likely pulled a drunken header into the concrete all by her lonesome, then I guess that would make her the perp, wouldn’t it?
(In which case, I stand by my hopes, even more strongly...)
#4 Posted by Rann Aridorn on 10/20 at 11:02 AM -
I believe, artmonkey, that they’re attempting to say that Democrats are a persecuted minority. (Not that there are less of them than Republicans.) And that they thus need to be protected from being hurt. (Not that they’re not strong.)
Remember, minority status is the Holy Grail of almost all Democrats. (And some rightists.) I’ve seen them say (in newspaper articles, no less) that the only thing they enjoyed about living in Republican-heavy areas (because how can you enjoy your life living around people that DISAGREE with you?) was that they felt like a righteous minority. They think stuff like that gives them “persecution cred”, so they totally know what it’s like for actual minorities to be beaten to death for being born as they are.
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#1 Posted by Noblebrown
on 10/18 at 05:26 PM -
People like that have enormous inferiority complexes and are trying desperately to make themselves feel important somehow. They need to see a fucking shrink.