PZ Myers, in his Pharyngula Blog, has linked a blog " Perry Street Palace ", in which Iris Vander Pluym hits the nail on the head regarding how to fight back against the most outrageous lies perpetuated by the Right Wing Noise Machine.
PZ and 'Iris' like many of us, are tired of people saying that by calling out the wingnut wing of the wingnut party, that we will be seen as arrogant, snooty, and even worse: VEGETABLE-EATING!!!! (The horror! Think of all those poor dead carrots!)
We've been living for too long being told that "Fair and Balanced" means that the truth and blatant lies share equal and opposite footing in a debate. This meme is exemplified by this article at Salon.com , which set the author off on one of the best diatribes I've read since the days when Dennis Miller actually made some sense .
You must read the article in its entirety. There are too many quotes to pull without breaking fair-use rules.
In Defense of Mockery
I'll leave you with a few choice passages, just in case I have not convinced you to go there and read the whole thing.
If anything, what we need is far more mockery, relentlessly and consistently deployed in the general direction of anyone who says that the separation of church and state is unconstitutional, or that global warming is a hoax, or that the Earth is 10,000 years old, or that eliminating Social Security is a grand idea. We should always attack stupid ideas, regardless of how nice a suit the proponent is wearing at a press conference.
How more people skewering right-wing falsehoods would not lead to a better world escapes me.
Their behavior belies any belief in their so-called principles. No, right-wing conservatives are united by one thing, far more than anything else: they are anti-liberal, in the sense that “latte-sipping,” “Prius-driving,” and even “vegetable-eating” (?!) are epithets meant to express visceral disgust and contempt at those depraved, treasonous liberals who are illegitimately running their country. (Yes, I know. I wish.)
There is too much truth in this article to ignore it. We've been told for too long that speaking the truth makes us look like arrogant asses. The media has let the Right push the meme that 'intellectual' is a bad thing, that scientific evidence can be debunked by opinion polls, and that when liberals fight back they are being mean-spirited.
It's time to take my country reality back.
Peace