Sometimes I go over there and see what they are up to. I read a restate post and a dialog starts in my head.
Don't go read the rest of this.
Today’s RedState Lunacy
One of them writes a letter to a friend who is depressed about the way things are going here in America. He responds, and my asides are in ALL-CAPS. It is a rambling missive full of strange leaps, lack of critical thinking, and of course baseless attacks. I know I should not have done this, but I could not resist:
Dearest XXX,
I’ll be honest — it’s been hard here as well.
LET ME KNOW HOW YOU FEEL AFTER 8 YEARS. YOU HAVE BEEN OUT OF POWER FOR 6 MONTHS? WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALL SUCH WHINERS?
There really hasn’t been much reason for hope in the survival of freedom. It’s as if all of the dire prophecies of Atlas Shrugged are coming true.
COME ON, DUDE, IT WAS A VERY BAD BOOK WRITTEN FOR SOPHOMORES. YOU MIGHT AS WELL LIVE YOUR LIFE BY THE HARDY BOYS.
But it is the darkest before the dawn. In a way, I feel glad that we as a nation have the opportunity for choice.
AS OPPOSED TO A DICTATORSHIP? I SEEM TO RECALL BUSH SAYING SOMETHING ABOUT WANTING TO LIVE IN A DICTATORSHIP AS LONG AS HE IS THE DICATATOR. SO MAGNANIMOUS OF YOU TO OFFER US A CHOICE! BUT SERIOUSLY, WHEN PEOPLE VOTE YOU OUT, IT IS CALLED FREEDOM. PEOPLE FREELY CHOSE FOR YOU TO LOSE BECAUSE YOU SCREWED EVERYTHING UP FOR 8 YEARS. WE EXERCISED FREEDOM TO THROW YOUR ASSES OUT. DEAL WITH IT.
Until now, I believe that native-born Americans really have not had a reason to choose freedom. The hysteria from the Left about theocracy and Bushitler police states was mere froth at the mouth rhetoric. The average American, easily duped by the media
YOU GET YOUR NEWS BEAMED INTO YOUR HEAD FROM ALIENS OR SOMETHING?
and the PC police, went along with the talking heads, only to discover that card check is being pushed through, that the Feds have apparently discovered the power to run car companies, and that the government can in fact tell you what you can make at your job.
UHM. SURE.
Repression — however soft and kind yet nonetheless repression — is coming.
Americans, born into blessed freedom that they so take for granted, have no understanding of what it’s like to live in a society where one criticizes the government in whispers and only to the closest of confidants.
IS THIS HAPPENING IN AMERICA TODAY? I SEE NO SIGNS OF IT. YOU ARE CRITICIZING HE GOVERNMENT HERE. I CRITICIZE THE GOVERNMENT ON KOS. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHEN IS ALL THIS OPPRESSION HAPPENING? MORE IMPORTANTLY, YOU ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT "OPPRESSION, NO MATTER HOW SOFT." SO IN YOUR MIND, IF THERE ARE ANY LAWS, WE ARE BEING OPPRESSED? WHY DON'T YOU GO LIVE IN THE BEAUTIFUL NATION OF SOMALIA? NO LAWS THERE!
Americans have no idea what it’s like to live in a country where the Government chooses which company will succeed and which company will fail.
THE AUTO INDUSTRY FAILED ON ITS OWN. IF THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO KEEP THEM FROM GOING BANKRUPT, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT. DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T TAKE IT. WE’LL START ANOTHER CAR COMPANY AND YOU GUYS CAN PISS OFF.
Americans have no clue what social control really feels like, because they have always taken for granted the idea that no one can tell them how to live their lives.
PSSSST! DUMBASS, WE HAVE MORE LAWS ON OUR BOOKS THAN ANY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION IN THE WORLD. WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS. IT IS NOT LIKE WE WERE ALL RUNNING NAKED DOWN THE STREET EATING FREE SHRIMP COCKTAILS UNTIL OBAMA RUINED THE PARTY. WE HAVE A L W A Y S BEEN A NATION OF LAWS. YOU MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR MYOPIA.
I do, because Korea under Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan was just such a place, and even as a small child, I knew instinctively that I and my family were but subjects of the government elites.
Our generation — the Gen-X in particular — will need to make a choice. Either freedom is important to us, along with all of the ugliness, pain, and nastiness that freedom brings with it, or it is not and we will go along with the visions of the anointed and become well-cared-for sheep.
TAKE A LOGIC COURSE. LOOK UP THE FALSE DILEMMA. READ UP ABOUT IT, GET A CLUE, THEN APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD FOR BEING UNINFORMED. THANKS.
I know where I stand in that, and I’d like to think that more and more Americans are slowly — oh so slowly — but surely waking up to what it feels like not to be free men and women.
HOW ARE YOU NOT FREE EXACTLY? PLEASE GIVE DETAILS. I REMEMBER WHEN BUSH WOULD NOT LET ME PROTEST NEAR HIS SPEECHES. I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS CALLED A TRAITOR FOR ASKING THAT WE LET THE WEAPONS INSPECTORS DO THEIR JOBS. I REMEMBER WHEN A GOOD FRIEND WAS ARRESTED FOR PEACEFULLY PROTESTING. HAVE THOSE THINGS HAPPENED TO YOU IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS? NO? THEN STFU.
It’s hard to have faith. But if it were easy, would it be faith? It’s hard to hold on to freedom. But if it were easy, would we cherish it?
. . . .
But the average American, who just want to be left alone to raise their families, do those things the elites find so repugnant (like going to NASCAR and watching American Idol reruns), I think retains a deep streak of independence and common sense. Even in Obama’s America — maybe especially in Obama’s America — people don’t relax when they see a police car on the highway behind them; they silently want the cop to pass them by and leave them alone. I think most Americans remain silent, the proverbial Silent Majority, watching with growing unease with which the Left now in power is screwing them. It only takes a spark to light that fire.
WAIT, SO YOU ARE SAYING THAT THE DESIRE NOT TO GET A SPEEDING TICKET MEANS WE ARE ALL SECRETLY REPUBLICANS? NO WONDER YOU’RE OUT OF POWER. YOU HAVE ZERO CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS.
. . . .
The Left will overreach. They simply cannot help themselves. Since their goal is not happiness or peace or growing the economy or any such practical worldliness, but the actualization of a vision, of an ideal, of a dream... they cannot help but overreach.
WERE YOU PAYING ATTENTION WHEN THERE WAS TALK A SHORT 3 YEARS AGO OF A PERMANENT REPUBLICAN MAJORITY?
Plus, the Obama Administration is quite simply one of the least competent, least able, and least representative administrations in history, coupled to one of the most corrupt and most radical Democratic parties in history.
YOU MEAN LIKE INVADING THE WRONG COUNTRY AFTER WE GOT ATTACKED? CUTE!
...
AND THEN I JUST HAD TO GIVE UP.