"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

[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.