Open letter to rightie blogger Curt of Flopping Aces: What makes you think the guy who made the video was a “leftist”? Making fun of New Yorkers fleeing the collapse of the WTC Towers strikes me as something a rightie would do. It fits into a long-standing pattern of dissing New York City.
Or, if you have proof he is a “leftist,” why would you assume that he is in any way representative of any group other than juvenile assholes?
And before you answer, be advised that I was in lower Manhattan that day, as were some other lefties of my acquaintance. This was, after all, New York City. There are more lefties than righties here.
One of your commenters said, “The political pathology these people represent must be defeated at the ballot box if we are to have any hope of unifying the country and winning the war on terror.” I agree. Americans across the political spectrum need to be able to work together in mutual respect to secure our nation from terrorism. And as soon as you and your readers find the moral courage to face up to your own political pathologies, maybe that process can begin.
But as long as you persist in this kind of hysterical, brainless demonization — you can kiss my ass.
This comes back to where we were a few weeks ago in the discussion of Lakoff. What is happening is the very meaning and definition of “9-11” is being co-opted by one particular partisan agenda.
The easiest explanation has no baggage: it was a coordinated terrorist attack against America’s financial and political capitals, with thousands of dead civilians, and tens of thousands who managed to save themselves, no thanks to their government. But it must be understood that even I (who, like Barbara, was in lower Manhattan that day, in my case around 100 yards north of the WTC as of the plane hits) am “framing” that perspective, although, from the perspective of one of the tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of New Yorkers who calmly, and mostly quietly, evacuated ourselves from lower Manhattan, went home, and tried to figure out WTF happened.
So, our friends on the right are also framing… “9-11” to them means a resolute President (we’ll ignore the buffoon crapping in his pants as he readsd “My Pet Goat” and disappears on a joyride on Air Force One instead of heading to a military base and, you know, RUNNING THE FUCKING COUNTRY IN A TIME OF CRISIS) showing up AFTER THE FACT with a God damned bullhorn. (And then, of course, pretending that a lucky shot by some well-financed terrorists (whose leader has longstanding financial ties to the President’s family and friends) was World War II, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War and Gulf War I rolled into one, and that we could support the war effort by paying less taxes and shopping.) But more to the point, co-opting 9-11 with a phony sanctimony largely borne of people who weren’t there and are venued in places where they are unlikely ever to be terrorist targets.
And here we are. We won’t talk about (Connecticut-raised) Ann Coulter mocking 9-11 widows (or New Yorkers in general)… no, we’ll come up with some straw men, and naturally, accuse “the left” of being sacrilegious… you see, THAT is how they want this framed. The principal Holy Event in the Church of Bush… we have the walking on water, burning bush, loaves and fishes… and “Soon they’ll be hearing from all of us.”
It’s a game– a sinister, vicious, fuck…I’ll call it what it is: an EVIL… game… a game being played right in front of us, or more importantly, subconsciously under us, and until we realize that, we have no chance of winning it. At least I can safely say… I realize it.
Oh, I doubt that Curt will actually answer the points you have in your open letter—-that site is an echo chamber, not a bunch of thinkers.
Solid rebuttal, maha. The post that you critique operates from a grade-school level mental process. Here’s further insight from one of the commenters: “Wonder if the maker of this video thinks it’s so damn funny when that music is played while a bunch of real Americans kick his punk ass?†That sums it up, folks. This is all part of the tough guy rightie fantasy of working through their sand-kicked-in-face childhood traumas by bombing and beating up people who aren’t “real Americans.â€
“…the tough-guy rightie fantasy…”
In my own experience, the loudest tough-talking RW asshole in the group is always the first to freak out and flee (or try to) when the shooting starts…
The first couple of times I witnessed this phenomenon, I thought it was just a coincidence…But it held up through several repetitions…
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Yeah, Donna, because it’s certainly not an echo chamber in here…
Where was the outrage from said ASSHOLE righties when Ann coulter was disrespecting the 911 widows????Don’t get me started , I think our next civil war is overdue.
Justme,
Now you’re seeing why so many of us think that Liberals and Conservatives are nothing but hypocrital assholes who can’t see their own hypocrisy. For goodness sakes, just read the comments of the robots here who get in a tizzy when criticized yet do the same damn thing to the right-wingers all the time, using the same twisted logic.
Nothing but a bunch of ignorant sheep.
I’m sure Todd has an example of liberals acting like hypocrites. He wouldn’t just make a baseless allegation like that without one. Can’t wait to hear it.
Now you’re seeing why so many of us think that Liberals and Conservatives are nothing but hypocrital assholes who can’t see their own hypocrisy.
Am I missing something here?
No problem Cody. How about 2 examples for you, just off the top of my head. I’m sure if I spent even just a little bit of time, I could come up many, many more.
What about the “outrage” toward Rumsfeld over his WW2 “appeasement” comments? Liberals were OUTRAGED, the same group that throws Hitler and Nazi comparisons around like they’re going out of style.
What about the “outrage” over Rice’s comparison of Iraq war critics to slavery supporters? Liberals were OUTRAGED, the same group that doesn’t make a peep when Hillary compares the House of Representatives to a group of plantation owners.
Yep, liberals acting like hypocrites. Conservatives and Liberals have shown time and time again that they can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
Swami,
You probably are.
I haven’t seen any of the videos, so I may just be making stuff up. I think they’re in poor taste, probably. I think the righties are missing the point in more ways than one, though. You’ll note that in all the posts on the subject, the righties in question are not upset because the video(s) trivialize the memory of the victims, or because they make light of tragedy, but because the righties are extrapolating that the videos imply that “leftists” aren’t scared enough. DANGER! FEAR! AAHH! Floppy Curt says,
My thinking that the videos are in bad taste has not a damn thing to do with Bush. I’d be upset that the videos made fun of people who died, who now suffer from health problems, who were seriously traumatized, etc. Hi, I live in New York. I know there’s a damn war on terrorism. There was a parade in my neighborhood yesterday and the police presence was ridiculous. I know we’re in very real danger because Bush continues to bumble the situation in the Middle East, creating more people who would very much like to do some serious destruction to the city I live in. So, thanks, Curt, for being completely wrong.
Todd’s “both sides are just as bad” opinion is common among sheep who consider themselves to be above partisan politics and who are ignorant of what’s going on. They don’t like politics because it’s so confusing and they can’t tell who’s full of crap and who isn’t.
Todd literally cannot tell shit from Shinola.
Yeah, whatever maha. Perhaps we’re just a bit more intelligent than you are and you feel threatened because we don’t buy what you’re trying to peddle. Perhaps we don’t have such a blind allegience to a “party” that we’re able to see faults where they exist.
And I can tell pretty easily who’s full of crap. You, for example. You’re so blinded by your allegiance to a party you literally can’t see how full of shit you really are.
What a sad, pathetic existence you live. It’s the sheep, like yourself, that are bringing this country down into the gutter.
So tell me, Todd, just what do YOU think, since you’re neither a Conservative (coulda fooled me) nor a Liberal? I eagerly await your pearls of wisdom.
I’m not sure what party Todd thinks I have blind allegience to, considering how much I badmouth Democrats. However, it’s clear he has nothing to contribute to the consversation.
Bye, Todd.
[Note: I “unspammed” Todd’s parting shot because it is too funny. He’s still blocked. — maha]
Canadian parrot,
I think Coulter, Limbaugh, LGF, ABP and all the rest of the right-wing nutjobs are just that, nutjobs. I think that Dean, Kos, DU, Maha and all the rest of the left-wing nutjobs are just that, nutjobs. Was this 9/11 trash the makings of some left-wing lunatic? Possibly, but who really cares. People like this, right or left, are best ignored, because they bring nothing to the conversation but bitter, angry rhetoric.
Maha,
And just what, exactly, do YOU bring to the conversation? A bunch of incoherent, “progressive” ramblings with zero basis in reality, that’s what.
Bye Maha. Don’t let the door hit you in your pathetic ass on the way out.
[Did he not notice it’s my blog? I’m not going anywhere. — maha]
Todd, your comparison fails on a key point.
The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State, respectively, were calling me (as someone who disagrees with their tactics) a Nazi symp and a supporter of slavery. These two people work for the United States of America, and so when they insult a significant portion of the people for whom they obstensibly work, that is pretty outrageous. On the other hand, I am not a member of Congress, nor, I suspect, are you. Hillary wasn’t calling me names, she was calling her fellow congresscritters names. They are big boys, and have a big podium from which to strike back.
The two are not comparable; your analogy fails.
The video in question, known only as “tribute.avi,” was produced by a member of the SomethingAwful.com forums (of which I am also a member). It didn’t have any political purpose at all. It was produced as the ultimate test of a theory that the Benny Hill music is capable of making ANYTHING funny.
The thing is, it was produced YEARS ago. I’m amazed people are just now noticing it.
What I find remarkable here is that from the video and from the website, there is no real evidence that it was produced by a “leftist”. Yet all of the readers who commented on Curt’s page were instantly convinced that this was spewed straight from the ugly maw of the liberal culture of death. One was even ready to give loud-mouthed liberals a manly dose of “intolerance in action”.
Some quick-witted Flopping Aces drone will surely respond that they know the video was made by a liberal because liberals like to celebrate death. Does anyone *honestly* conclude that the left’s resistance to an unnecessary war and its resulting casualties constitutes a culture of death???
This reminds me of a right-wing asshole from Colorado I ran into on vacation in the Carribean. Upon learning that I lived in Manhattan, he asked me whether I was near the WTC on 9/11. When I responded in the affirmative, he asked whether I had heard the noise the bodies made when they crashed into the ground as people threw themselves out of windows.
I am not making this up. It really happened.
A few months after 9/11, I was already hearing disparaging comments from Midwestern types about the amount of money that was going to the 9/11 families and the downtown businesses which were wiped out after 9/11, and how much of their precious tax dollars was going to clean up downtown Manhattan.
So, you are correct, Maha. This total lack of humanity is not only typical of right – wingers, it also reflects a visceral hatred of New York City and its inhabitants. To which I say, as a good New Yorker, Fuck you! After all, New York State returns to Washington $1.65 of taxdollars for every $1.00 it receives. Those pathetic red states would not survive without the New York dollars that sunsidize them.
sheep who consider themselves to be above partisan politics and who are ignorant of what’s going on. They don’t like politics because it’s so confusing and they can’t tell who’s full of crap and who isn’t.
What do you mean?
What if a person picks the “side” he thinks is the lesser of two evils at the given time, but has no long term commitment?
What do you mean?
What if a person picks the “side†he thinks is the lesser of two evils at the given time, but has no long term commitment?
That’s fine, but there’s a common conceit that all political parties are bad, just because, and they’re all equally bad, and anybody who works through a party to effect political change is a dupe. People who think this way like to see themselves as “free thinkers,” but they are, inevitably, ignorant both of parties and how stuff gets done in Washington. They are more “no thinkers” than “free thinkers.”
In my experience, the more one understands issues and politics, the more likely one is to lean toward one party or another. This doesn’t have to be blind allegiance.
well, I rest my case…..there were no righties who answered the specifics of Maha’s original post, so there were no thinkers responding/ The pathetic Todd echoed the non-thought ‘talking points’ by throwing the echoes into a wider scatter-shot of slime.