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Hate is the new black.

2008-03-24

Very partisan people can be pretty insane. I know I'm not exactly breaking any new ground by saying this, but it really is becoming more and truer.

I was rudely reintroduced to this on Friday when Donnie and I threw a party at his house to celebrate Emma's finishing her finals and by default being through with college. Anyway I ended up being confronted repeatedly by some leftwing guy who looked like an angrier version of Moby with more hair and wild eyes. This guy took upon himself to educate me on why I'm wrong on everything and as a result a de facto idiot.

‘Angry Moby' is one of those guys who really believe Bush is worse than Hitler, a war criminal and 9/11 was an inside job by the Federal government. Look I'm not a Bush fan, and I think his two terms have basically been disastrous...but I don't think he ordered the World Trade Center demolished and the immolation of all the people in so he could invade Iraq.

I couldn't escape ‘Angry Moby's' clutches, in fact he seemed to follow me around, just to prove how much an idiot I was, and he wasn't even polite about it, instead thinking it better to treat me as patronizingly as possible.

I used all my favorite leave me alone speeches like...

The mocking: ‘Oh look who it is_______ back for another rhetorical ass kicking.'

The civil: ‘See you seem under the misapprehension that that I wish to listen to what you have to say anymore. I don't. Leave.'

The lucid: ‘This is the polite version, fuck off.'

And the scornful: ‘O.K now I'm getting sick of this. You've told me what you think, and I've replied. I think you're an imbecile, so now you're work's done and you can leave.'

Eventually I had to resort to the downright threatening: ‘I'm getting sick of you referring to me as a simple-minded fool. I've at least had the decency to treat you with more respect than your opinions indicate you deserve. So I'll make it simple, if you don't now leave I'm going to kick your ass.'

That worked. Though I consider it a failure that I had to resort to that, and cheapened in some way.

But the question I found myself asking was this; when did we become so completely intolerant of others opinions anyway?

Whether it be Bill Cunningham being an outright bigot, and not having the balls to own up to it, or leftwing message boards (the O'Reilly Factor is on!) gleefully awaiting Nancy Reagan's death, or implied threats to piss on William F. Buckley's grave, it seems we're finally reaching a ground zero of partisan bile.                                                                                                   I take great offence at the Buckley comments because I had the pleasure of hearing him debate in college, and despite all his Wasp smugness and sense of superiority, and views I'd never share, he was actually in possession of the intellectual faculty to debate you.

Christopher Hitchens said on ‘Real Time' the week Buckley died that when he went on his old show that he may have disagreed with him, but it was a pleasure to do so.

That's what civil discussion should be about, respectful disagreement.

Of course Buckley eventually became a dinosaur in this regard when a new generation of loudmouths emerged. These type of pundits, be it a Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann, seem to only be able to debate out by metaphorically banging their shoes on their desks like Khrushchev at the U.N. and that's if they allow anyone on their programs that could potentially put up a fight.

For every Russert there seems to be ten O'Reilly's frothing at the mouth like ‘Angry Moby'. Call it trickledown McLaughlinism.

I've started to enjoy watching Bill Maher's show, which works because he uses a panel of experts from both sides of the political spectrum who know more than him and it's mostly civil conversation. Unfortunately the program is hampered by its inherent populism and its audience of hooting and hollering liberals who will only applaud if a guest agrees with them.

(Incidentally for those who go overboard on the Fox News hatred, I invite you to watch Brit Humes's program, which is both fair and forthright without the hyperbole of other programs).  Of  course the mere fact that I say anything remotely positive about Fox News, immediately makes me a neo-fascist Republican liar. Sigh, moving on.

It's a sign of the political rifts in this country that that we can't discuss anything without trading insults and calling each other fascists of one stripe or another. (Jonah Goldberg was right though; there are/were left wing fascists.) Basically the only avenue a lot of people have left to convince people of their opinions validity is to shout at them until they either back down or surrender.

Speaking of Jonah , who at least can debate in a amicable manner, and could be the next Buckley if anyone'd listen (he'd have to ditch those Star Trek references though) . When I saw him on ‘Red Eye' (of all places) he related the phenomenal amount of crap he'd had thrown at him since his new book ‘Liberal Fascism' was published. For example people commenting on his Amazon page that they wished the Goldberg's never escaped Nazi Germany.

I mean jesus.

Of course in accordance with a written statement released from the internet, most of these people wouldn't have the guts to say things like that to peoples' faces without the built in anonymity the net gives them.

(I'll give ‘Angry Moby' credit on that one. He's got the guts to be obnoxious face to face.)

Fine.  But isn't a bit disturbing that people have and are willing to articulate such feelings as all Republicans/Democrats should all be murdered and have their graves pissed on?

As an aside, and not to sound like O'Reilly again, but there is a staggering amount more venom and vitriol coming from the left side at the moment.                                                    Listen, as I said near the beginning of this post, I'm the first to say the Bush years have been a disaster, but I can articulate why without referring to him as being worse than Hitler, Stalin and Fu Manchu.

Let me spell it out for you , if you've got to the point where you wish everyone who disagrees with you should be dead or brutally murdered, you're not a valid political voice needing to be heard. You're a Batman villain or a character from a Jerry Bruckheimer film.

 

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