I'm fairly new to the world of political opinion. I grew up in DC in a politically active household, but it didn't hold much appeal to me. I only really started paying attention when I began to see things in our country that sounded a lot like the stories refugees I work with told me about their own countries--the ones that were involved in civil war and genocide. I saw:
**Propaganda rather than news and being spread by fewer and fewer media sources [uh oh. O'Reilly.]
**Collective guilt of a particular group, along with dehumanization [Ann Coulter and those rag heads!]
**With us or against us declarations. [if you don't support the war, you're a terrrrerist]
**The start of a secret police force [NSA]
**The suppression of human rights. . . little by little, tiny step by tiny step. "NO big deal if this is kept secret." Or "that law is just a technicality." Suppression of rights done the way you cook a crab. As someone said. Put him in cold water, and he won't notice the heat until it's too late.
It all scared the bejeezus out of me. "You people say it can't happen here. That's what we said," a friend from Sarajevo told me. "I heard newscasters on television going on about Muslims. I thought no one would ever believe that crap. I was wrong."
So I figure I'd concentrate on the propaganda message stuff. I can manage that since it seems so important.
ANYWAY. I've started looking around the boards at the debates. Just back from Huffpo and red state, and I'm somewhat relieved. There is plenty of hatred out there -- on both sides. But the debate seems to dissolve into these subject areas:
- the subject of the flame is too ugly to fuck
- the subject of the flame is gay and is longing for the flamer's touch. Ew.
- the flamer is wasting his/her time listening to this nonsense.
- the flamee's penis is way too small.
and if there's some kind of less personalized hatred from the right, it's directed at
- Ted Kennedy
- Cindy Sheehan
who are able to take care of themselves. It's not directed at the Sikh taxi driver (who has once again been mistaken for a Muslim)
I'm sure there are plenty of raghead comments but most of the conservatives I've read seem less racist and more just generally anti-liberal with a dash of homophobia. Phew. Business as usual.
Still, the frightening signs are there. The one thing I've learned is that it's a bad idea to keep one's outrage and mockery quiet when the idiots show up to make noise. I know she looks like a buffoon but it's important to make sure Ann Coulter doesn't get away with those rag head comments without pointing out she's an idiot. I no longer think ignoring her and people like her is the way to go.
I still am not sure of the right way to do it. Screaming? Polite letters to the editor? Flaming? All of the above? I haven't had a lot of practice with the flaming (I write romance novels for god's sake.) and I'll never get particularly good at the dickhead mode of address. But I'm trying to channel the annticoulter http://blondesense.blogspot.com/ when I have to.
And hey . . don't forget you can buy socks from people who've survived the nightmare of hatred, okay? http://www.katerothwell.com/...