Our buddy DD posted a video, made yesterday, of the Wisconsin protest that he seems to think makes the protesters look bad. The little bit of narrative at the beginning reveals that the person making the video is hostile to the protest (he refers to the protesters as “sheep” at one point).
But I watched the whole thing, and it was inspiring. These are patriotic citizens peacefully assembling to express their grievances of government. This is what America and the Bill of Rights are all about. You watch it and see what you think; maybe I missed something.
Now, my question is — on what planet does this video make the protesters seem bad or corrupt? Or, put another way, how twisted do you have to be to watch this video and interpret it as being anti-protest?
This illustrates brilliantly why it is Right and Left talk past each other. Even when we look at the same thing, what we see is radically different.
At the very beginning of the video, the narrator is baffled by a sign that says “Ethics Trumps ‘Values’ in a Civil Society.” Next to the word “Values,” someone has written in “whose?” Eerily, the video itself makes the same point. The filmmaker’s “values” are that he hates the people he is filming and cannot see them as anything but wrongdoers who don’t deserve to be allowed into the state capitol. And for this reason, he thinks the state is justified in treating the assembled protesters as second-class citizens whose right to be inside the capitol building can be denied. In other words, his subjective “values” trump ethics.
But a democracy, never mind a civil society, cannot operate that way. When people in power can demand their so-called “values” can override ethics and even the law, that’s totalitarianism.
Note that these same righties march around in their pro-liberty T-shirts claiming that they are for “freedom,” but when push comes to shove they run into the waiting arms of the dictator, every time.
Update: Althouse has the same video, and the, um, quadrupedal, ruminant mammals (Ovis aries) that flock to her site are dutifully sneering at the “libtards.”
Well, of course the poor guy was confused – the sign was spelled correctly, and wasn’t derogatory.
And yes, those were sheep he saw. Unlike the people driven to Teabagger rallies on corporate buses, given corporate made signs, listen to paid speakers, and told where the camera’s are for maximum exposure.
Now those people, they aren’t sheep, they’re independent patriots.
Spielberg Jr. missed his chance. Dude, the correct procedure is: 1) Drop camera on ground; 2) Grunt in feigned agony, and cry out, “Ow! Stop beating me you liberal union goons!” 3) Pick up camera as shakily as possible; 4) Point at own head, now swathed in bandages and ketchup; 5) Shout, “Look what those liberal union goons did to me!”
Well… that’s something I tried to bring up earlier, and did so poorly. Here’s a better take on it:
http://jdrhoades.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-can-they-believe-all-that-crap.html
It’s something I recognize well because I was the victim of bullies most of my childhood. The video is proof that the protesters and liberals in general are horrible, awful people, because, well, *look at them*! Just like the unpopular kid in class is ugly, bad smelling, and stupid, because, hey, look at him!
Spielberg Jr. is none other that Althouse’s own little Meade( Runny-meade). He’s the same guy who was so upset with the protesters for desecrating the Veteran’s Memorial in the Wisconsin state house. His feigned affections for Wisconsin’s veterans got me wondering whether his love of country stirred him enough to cause him to don a uniform in service to his country. But after remembering the particulars of his online courtship with Ann the alpha female who loudly proclaimed that no man could tame her and no man was worthy of her affections or her superior intellect, I realized that Meade through docile temperament and complete submission managed to burrow his way into her heart and her bed.
So whether he served or not is not important. He has shown that he can take more shit than any recruit ever took from any drill sergeant. Yes, Mam! What color and how high?
“A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea party activist and says, ‘Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.”
–Found on the web.
I won’t spend the next hour writing the reasons why, but too many modern Americans only see what they want to see. Think about Richard Pryor’s famous line “are you going to believe your lying eyes or are you going to believe me?”