"But The Lefties are Just as Bad!"

[elfs]

"The lefties did it too!" is a terrible beginning, because there's no market on the left for that kind of rhetoric. Lefty verbal bomb-throwers do not get $400 million contracts (Rush Limbaugh), rent space on the national mall (Glenn Beck), get their own reality TV shows (Sarah Palin), or get elected to Congress (Michelle Bachman).

When you can point to a sustained, supported, widely praised, and idolized lefty who says the kind of nonsense that routinely comes out of Glenn Beck's mouth, then you'll have some equivalency.

But you can't have it both ways: You cannot claim consistently that the left is made up of a bunch of peace-loving nudnicks who want to take away our guns and leave America completely defenseless, that only the right has the strength and will and character and training to embrace America's martial destiny, and then claim that both sides have an equal receptivity to violent rhetoric.

If you believe in the free market, then believe this: since 2000, a right-wing noise machine has created a market in resentment and advertised violence as a potential solution. Karl Rove's formula, "Aim for civil war, then pull it back just a notch," seems to have worked.

The left seems to have no equivalent market at all: in 2006, at the height of Bush-bashing, a movie about the assassination of George Bush made little more than $400,000, but Rush Limbaugh made $50,000,000.

Saying "Left and Right are equally bad" is false equivalence, and deceit, and wrong. Right-wing resentment is a thriving market with a hundred times more economic power than left-wing frustration.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

There is a market in our frustration, but that market is not one revolt but evolutionary pressure. A recognition that the smarter people are, the better things get for all.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

*mumbles something about a Big Lie*

Is there a prize?

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

> When you can point to a sustained, supported, widely praised, and
> idolized lefty who says the kind of nonsense that routinely comes
> out of Glenn Beck's mouth, then you'll have some equivalency.

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hilary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Barbara Boxer... and I could continue for several more lines.

All nonsense, all the time.

Admittedly, none of these people openly preach hate for their political opponents, but of course they're part of the existing power structure. It isn't in their interest to promote fundamental change.

. png

Re: Is there a prize?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

"...none of these people openly preach hate for their political opponents."

Which is the point, you realize. There are those on the right, within the power structure, who do openly preach hate, resentment, and violence toward their opponents.

Re: Is there a prize?

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

Apropos, and humorously updated by the Wall Street Journal just recently:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/14/obama-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/

Violent rhetoric from the left is more conspicuous than that from the right because pretending to be the "nice" party is such a prominent part of liberal strategy. But let's not kid ourselves; any new law boils down to a new reason for government agents to point guns at people.

Which reminds me of P. J. O'Rourke's "gun to the head" test. Would you REALLY be willing to threaten strangers-- or, indeed, your friends and family-- with violent death if they smoke, or drive a low-mileage car, or won't buy health insurance?

I think the Democratic Party's proposals fail that test more often than the Republican Party's do, though of course I disapprove of many laws from that side of the aisle too.

. png

Re: Is there a prize?

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

Two more related pieces I just saw today:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/07/video-game-targets-tea-party-zombies-fox-news-personalities/

...in which a politically active videogame designer creates a first-person shooter that makes Tea Party politicians, various other Republicans, and Fox News personalities the targets, and in which James Hoffa's recent comments about how his supporters would "take out the son-of-a-bitches" in the Tea Party are quoted.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-ruler-of-law-7141

...which reviews Obama's history of support for anti-capitalist violence as a community organizer in Chicago and as President of the United States.

. png

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I'd also like to add "The Lefties Did It Too!" is the entire raison d'etre of Fox News, whose audience perceives the rest of the news media to be 100% liberal lies. That's what makes them "fair and balanced", don'tcha know.

So of course they're going to say "The Lefties Did It Too!" They feel persecuted by "The Liberal Media" to the point of overreacting enough to make an entire news channel about their persecution complex.

From the opposite end

[(Anonymous)]

I forwarded you entries on this to a conservative friend of mine; I have no idea if he actually read them but he did respond with this URL.

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/

Let the sparks begin.

Re: From the opposite end

[elfs.livejournal.com]

So, I'm completely underwhelmed. I did not see a single example of an economically viable left-wing sound machine reliably deploying violent rhetoric. I saw a few unhinged people doing unhinged things, but I'm not surprised by that. I don't expect everyone to be sane.

Malkin's example of pathetic idiots doing stupid shit is not in the same ballpark as as a man with a listening audience of 14.2 million people saying (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,163548,00.html):

I tell people don't kill all the liberals, leave enough around so we can have two on every campus; living fossils, so we will never forget what these people stood for.

I'll worry when Malkin can find someone who rented the National Mall for a day fantasizing about poisoning a member of Congress. I'll respect Malkin when she can find a lefty member of Congress saying things like, "I want my opponent to be afraid to leave his home," "I want every one of us to take a blood oath," or "I want people armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing."

Look, the right simply can't have it both ways: They cannot claim consistently that the left is made up of a bunch of peace-loving nudnicks who are too wimpy and emasculated to fight, want to take away our guns, and leave America completely defenseless, that only the right has the strength and will and character and training to embrace America's martial destiny, and then claim that both sides have an equal investment in and receptivity to violent rhetoric. Logic has never been their strong suit, but this level of cognitive dissonance has to be painful, no?

Re: From the opposite end

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

As kinda obliquely I point out at the end of my own blog entry on the topic, public figures "on the left" aren't regularly calling for violence against their political opponents … yet.

Now, I have seen quotes of statements from a few Democratic political operatives that are beyond the pale (*cough*cough*RomEmanuel*cough*cough*), but the offenders were all taken behind the proverbial woodshed and held accountable. Who's holding these faux-"Conservative" public figures accountable for the rather blatant and almost daily calls to violence against their political opponents?


But back to my point: as long as inciting violence against "the other guys" is supported, rewarded, and treated as a valid tactic for winning elections, how long before "the other guys" start doing it, too? What happens then?


Real Conservatives wouldn't be saying, "ButButBut … the left does it too!" No, real Conservatives would look at the examples of harsh rhetoric from the Democrats and think, "They're starting to use it too?! Oh $h1t! What've we unleashed?!?!?!"


Because, see, once both sides start calling for attacks against their political opponents, once they do so for long enough, it will happen. And then the U.S. will end up like Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast.