Who Is IOZ?: Gerbils

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Gerbils

Frank Rich is a propagandist. Secret paymasters and heady insinuations about shadowy Arabs? Give us a break. I'm sure it will approvingly cited by Digby tomorrow. This shit makes me crazy. Look, people feel legitimate anger toward their government. They sense that the vague democratic ideals they have held since childhood have been traduced and betrayed. And they have. Now, I would argue that the betrayal was inevitable and embedded from the start in the America project, which was dreamed up by a gaggle of wealthy Romaphiles. And of course, I think they are as deluded in thinking that Barack Obama is America's first space-Muslim president as liberals were in thinking that George Bush was our first American Mussolini. And sure, their commitment to "small government" or whatever similar catch phrase is just cultural signalling; it ends at the rocky cliffs of the Department of Defense budget. But you gotta respect that they are pissed off, and even if their radicalism is an inch deep and their revolutionary sentiments mostly window dressing for what are some pretty conventional convictions, at least their response is something more legit than, what, making YouTube raps about some Harvard smarty-pants getting a bureaucratic sinecure.

45 comments:

ajw said...: Except the link in that post was to a Bob Herbert column.; 11:44 AM
Frederick said...: I don't gotta respect shit. They're pissed off that the playing field isn't completely shifted towards them as they've become accustom to over these past centuries. Fuck Glenn Beck, fuck Sarah Palin, and fuck the whiny ass Tea Party and all their sympathizers.

P.S. Fuck whitey too.; 11:58 AM
Anonymous said...: Why do they deserve any more respect than, say, Code Pink or the puppet brigade?

Serious question.

I'm with you most of the time, but how does eating at the Olive Garden salad bar bestow any more Real American Honesty than living in Berkeley?; 12:11 PM
Anonymous said...: simulacrum. Politics as pastiche performance art (was it ever anything else?).

The Bush years and their latest rebranding efforts as the "tea party" are worthy of respect not because they are "pissed off" but because they are making post structuralism and deconstruction (more)marketable to the American masses. Bread and Puppet from the right so of course the strings and puppeteers are even more visible.

This is just cheap hyper-capitalism at work marketing and selling some t-shirts and merchandise to the mindless. Maybe it's a sign of capitalism's death throes, grass roots political opposition turned into a game show. Where do you go from here? Why one would find it worthy of "respect" is a bit baffling and the word "respect" loses some respect when ascribed to such banal bullshit.

This shit will die down (again) once football season starts and they have something shiny on tv to make them forget their misery.; 12:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, bullshit. The idea that rage at the machine and disgust with Obama means attaboying the sort of people who would show up to a Glenn Beck rally is totally ludicrous.

This month's winner in the "oppositional-defiant post" category.; 12:38 PM
JRB said...: I don't have any confidence in what our political left makes of post-manufacturing communities that identify right.

A class approach would reach out to these people, acknowledging what has happened to them, and simply make better arguments than Glenn Beck. Sure: there are a variety of reasons why this is not easy -- but that doesn't obviate the necessity of pursuing this approach.

People who ridicule Tea Partiers, et al., have ceded the ground to morons. If you can't make a better argument about what is going on in this country than Beck or Palin, then either you aren't trying hard enough, or you aren't interested in doing anything to undermine their appeal -- in which case you are likely contributing to it.

The trope that these people are self-evidently too stupid to understand the world presumes that they have heard better arguments and rejected them. I don't see any evidence for this, particularly when our own attitudes prevent us from even entertaining a dialogue.; 12:45 PM
Dan said...: Here's a quote from one of my favorite bloggers pointing out precisely why I don't have to respect their anger:

"...they are as deluded in thinking that Barack Obama is America's first space-Muslim president as liberals were in thinking that George Bush was our first American Mussolini. And sure, their commitment to "small government" or whatever similar catch phrase is just cultural signalling; it ends at the rocky cliffs of the Department of Defense budget."; 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...: "A class approach would reach out to these people, acknowledging what has happened to them"

Umm, Tea baggers are richer than the median... So "what happened to them" is... what exactly? Not enough torturin' on the brown people? Om-bama is tryin'!

I agree completely with your other commenters calling dumbass on you IOZ. Crispin's rhetorical technique is:

1. Postulate the existence of bonehead douchebags on the left[1].

2. Assign equivalence to the entire Tea Baggin' Douchebag Rich Fucker Army.

3. Nananananana!

It's just stupid. I paid good money for my subscription to this blog and I expect a lot better than this sort of post.

[1] I had no idea giant puppets excited such antagonism. I infer: creativity == stupid. What?; 12:57 PM
Michael Dawson said...: Being angry at the government earns automatic praise from left libertarians like IOZ. That's why he expresses some sympathy here.

Meanwhile, seems to me the main point of the Beckapalooza was actually an effort to convert Know Nothing anger into more "religious" terms.

Beck is merely a political entrepreneur. By his own admission, he spent months trying to decide how to exploit this event, deciding on the Christianity angle only when the moment was at hand.

Tells you something: The Republican Party, always unable to mount actual coherent arguments, plans to try to recapture the Bubbas by leaning hard on the Clash of Civilizations frame.

Damned dangerous stuff, or would be if it weren't all aimed at and carried by Couch Potato Nation.

P.S. Olive Garden ain't got no salad bar. It has Never Ending Salad Bowls. They bring em to your table! If we're going to "reach out," we'd better learn the culture...; 1:05 PM
Michael Dawson said...: P.P.S. These people aren't angry at the erosion of civil rights or the expansion of government wiretapping or even the government. They're angry that they are losing their Story of America the Perfect. They are losing the culture wars, and are irked about it. To them, the entire edifice of "America" springs forth from their story. Hence, the Story must be restored.; 1:09 PM
Anonymous said...: JRB,

Good points but better arguments are made by many however those voices are silenced and drowned out. This is what the Beck puppet show is for, to consume as much time and oxygen as possible so that the solutions don't get any airtime or talked about. Mass distraction.; 1:13 PM
Anonymous said...: ps. and if you can sell a billion t shirts and chocolate jesus candy bars the all the better.; 1:17 PM
Leonard said...: their commitment to "small government" or whatever similar catch phrase is just cultural signalling; it ends at the rocky cliffs of the Department of Defense budget.

Not to mention the Social Security budget, the Medicare/Medicaid, Interest, and Other Mandatory. And most of Other Discretionary, too. But other than those few things, they're for radically reducing the size of the government.; 1:20 PM
Leonard said...: I wish that Crispin Sartwell, or "Captain Capitulation", or whoever he is, would capitalize like an adult. Otherwise, though, he is quite cogent.; 1:28 PM
Frederick said...: http://www.new-video.de/pic09/elmergantry.jpg; 1:34 PM
davidly said...: http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Elmer-Fudd.jpg; 1:39 PM
ts said...: You got the middle part wrong. Obama is our first black muslim spaceman jesus President.; 2:38 PM
David Chappell said...: Romaphiles - gypsy lovers?; 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...: "Being angry at the government earns automatic praise from left libertarians like IOZ. That's why he expresses some sympathy here."

Except he didn't when it was angry proggies during the Bush admin. Not that they should have earned his sympathy then; he was right then, wrong now. They deserve as much ridicule now as the proggies did then.

As for "better arguments," oh please. It's not that the tea partiers are necessarily particularly immune to same, but when have "better arguments" EVER won a political battle? Espcially in this case, where to all intents and purposes it's the most disgusting aspects of the tea party movement which gain the most traction. I mean, if we really could make the better arguments, they would STILL follow Beck and company. "Wait, you're telling me that Beck, Limbaugh, and the movement conservative elite are just cynically using me to support their hegemonic aims? Sign me up!"

Oh, yeah, and what Leonard said at 1:20.; 2:57 PM
JRB said...: Isn't it organization that wins political battles? Then on what basis do people become organized if not through a perception of what is in their own best interest?

After all, isn't this the basis on which Beck, et al., appeal to their movement -- by bothering to appeal to them in the first place? Nobody else seems to want to!

Propaganda is certainly hard when we are at a disadvantage with regard to resources, etc., but it's not inherently difficult to counter theirs. Yes, you have to be patient, and expend some effort. Making a persuasive case isn't something that happens by saying something once and then throwing up your hands when people don't get it. It's something that has be sustained over a long period -- you have to keep trying. And you have to be interested enough to learn the concerns of your audience, not just holler about your own.

Any number of you may have no interest in this. But others may. How do I know? So: I make argument in the hopes of appealing to you.; 4:08 PM
IOZ said...: Linkz fixt.

By the way, if you go back through the archives, you will see, especially around the early years of the Iraq invasion and occupation, that I often defended the college kids and anarchists and puppet-makers from the Nice Liberal Progressive consternation at and dismissal of their unseriousness, immaturity, etc. etc.; 5:07 PM
Charles F. Oxtrot said...: I love how pwoggies and libwools can know the whole entire complex of human thoughts and ideas, emotions and urges, motives and drivers, of the "Tea Partiers."

Here's the pwog-lib method of Political Mathematics:

(one Glenn Beck opinion)

times

(number of people identified as Glenn Beck listeners)

PLUS

(one Sarah Palin opinion)

times

(number of people identified as voting Republican at some point in their lives)

EQUALS

OHMYGODSOMANYPEOPLEAGREEWITHGLENNBECKANDSARAHPALINTHATIMGETTINGAMIGRAINE; 5:13 PM
Anonymous said...: I, for one, welcome our new Kochtopus overlords.; 5:56 PM
rowan said...: This post definitely makes more sense with the correct link.; 6:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Point taken that people are genuinely angry at the government, for various reasons. And Frank Rich's article is self-serving and also completely ignores corporatist influences on the Democratic Party.

But at the same time, this also needs to be said: http://doghouseriley.blogspot.com/2010/08/fish-barrel.html

DUNNO why it occurred to me to quantify this just now, but among much, much else, on August 28, 1963, participants in the March on Washington:

• Had seen nine-plus years of the Brown decision systematically opposed and legally circumvented across the South, including, at Little Rock, militarily. Two-and-a-half months earlier, George Corley Wallace, elected purely as a racist, had mugged for the cameras in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama; in a month he'd be back trying to prevent African-American children from enrolling in white elementary schools.
...; 7:49 PM
DBake said...: Isn't it organization that wins political battles? Then on what basis do people become organized if not through a perception of what is in their own best interest?

Attempts to deceive oneself about one's mortality. Tribalism. Vanity. A need to belong to something. Boredom, and a tendency to see war and politics as a form of entertainment. Fear of not fitting in. Having been brought up in that group. Happening to have friends who belong to that group.

Seriously, you think people become Red Socks fans because of self-interest?; 8:57 PM
rowan said...: Red Socks? Clearly, you're not a golfer.; 9:06 PM
IOZ said...: Personally I like the Yanky's.; 9:27 PM
DBake said...: No, I actually don't care about sports at all. I've just seen people get really excited about the Red... ahem... Sox. It seemed like a good example of a group organized around anything but self-interest.; 11:38 PM
Enron said...: "Yeah, he appear to be fair
The cracker over there
He try to keep it yesteryear
The good ol' days
The same ol' ways
That kept us dyin'
Yes, you me myself and I'ndeed
What he need is a nosebleed
Read between the lines
Then you see the lie
Politically planned
But understand that's all she wrote
When we see the real side
That hide behind the vote"; 11:47 PM
Michael said...: Perhaps a bit off topic, but it's funny how someone in the comments on Sartwell's blog conflates the Koch brothers with "Wall Street". People seem to have this odd idea that all big businesses have the same interests.

I-bankers in general are about as far from right wing or libertarian as you can get in polite society, seeing as how they are fundamentally allied with the government regarding monetary policy. Not to mention that a huge private company such as Koch Industries flies in the face of everything they do.

Anyone who stays at a big bank past the VP level does so to gain political influence with both parties, but especially the Dems. It sure as hell isn't to make money. You can earn literally, Joe Biden, twenty times as much (hundreds of millions a year) by going to a private equity firm or hedge fund as an MD or partner.; 12:30 AM
Anonymous said...: I love how pwoggies and libwools can know the whole entire complex of human thoughts and ideas, emotions and urges, motives and drivers, of the "Tea Partiers."

I love how internet anarchists and incoherent libertarians can know the entire complex of human thoughts and ideas, emotions and urges, motives and drivers, of the "pwoggies."

Oxyclean, you truly are the retarded gift that keeps on giving. By the way, if you'd like to stop by my neck of the woods sometime, I'll introduce you to however many teabagging jackholes you need to establish a sufficient sample to convince you that yes, they really are as fucking stupid and racist as advertised, despite whatever lonely exceptions you care to dredge up.; 8:15 AM
Anonymous said...: IOZ 5:07: Fair enough. But for me, anyway, the fact that the tea partiers are enthusiastic supporters of our war on Terra is reason enough to lack even a shred of sympathy for them. At least the "college kids and anarchists and puppet-makers" were against the war, however ineffectually.; 9:07 AM
Anonymous said...: And I would argue that the better anology is tea partiers ---> Kossites (with whom you've never expressed any sympathy), as opposed to the "college kids and anarchists and puppet-makers." I think it's pretty clear that, despite some success in defeating establishment Republican candidates in the primaries (heck, the Kossites tried to do the same in Dem primaries a couple years ago, with some but less effect), the tea partiers are essentially suppporters of business as usual movement conservatism. The only Bush era policy they seem to have a problem with is the financial bailout. And more power to them on THAT issue. But ultimately it's a pretty samll crumb.; 9:14 AM
mds said...: "The only Bush era policy they seem to have a problem with is the financial bailout."

Only because they blame Obama for it. Just another way in which they earn my grudging respect with their sincerity.

"the tea partiers are essentially suppporters of business as usual movement conservatism."

Yup. Grouchiness over losing political power again, combined with the usual hunger for theocracy. The last time I heard so many people shrieking "Jesus," there was an orgy going on.; 9:21 AM
Keifus said...: People seem to have this odd idea that all big businesses have the same interests.

Oh, I think they form a consensus on some things, such as keeping their taxes low and their labor cheap, which seems to be the steadiest push on policy.; 12:17 PM
Anonymous said...: But you gotta respect that Pamela Geller is pissed off enough at Muzzlims and nigras to make common cause with actual neo-Nazis like the English Defense League. Now that's a legit response.; 1:21 PM
visibly agitated said...: legitimate? most of their stuff isn't even legible.; 1:50 PM
Charles F. Oxtrot said...: I wish I was an 8:15 Anonymous, really I do. I could prattle on about how Oxtrot knows nothing of Tea Partiers, while personally knowing absolutely nothing about Oxtrot's life. I would pretend that made me superior --my unprescient guesses at Oxtrot's actual knowledge would actually be a benefit to my arguments, not a detriment-- and I would utter derision toward Oxtrot.

Yes, that type of Anonymity would be a boon to all who care to read at IOZistan. Clearly.

Because really, this is about pwoggies and lib-wools being superior to Tea Partiers. Just ask Anonymous 8:15.

In the new Pwog-Lib Bible, there is a current draft for The Book of Anonymous, chapter 8, verse 15. It runs like this:

"If I cannot know the experiences of another, I am best served by making them up whole-cloth from the ether, and then operating on that fabricated assumption. When challenged, I resort to name-calling and personal insult. I never yield. I am always correct. I am... ANONYMOUS!"; 3:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Can we retire pwog, pwoggle, and variations in the comments section? It's like a whole gang of frat boys in the 300 section wearing rubber Brian Scalabrine masks.; 7:00 PM
Anonymous said...: shorter IOZ; "I'm with the cracker jacks..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPG5_1TtG08&feature=related; 11:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Jesus Christ, Oxtrot, take a fucking walk. Every single comment of yours reads like a guy who screams at the microwave because it isn't cooking his Healthy Choice dinner fast enough.; 4:35 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Can we retire pwog, pwoggle, and variations in the comments section? It's like a whole gang of frat boys in the 300 section wearing rubber Brian Scalabrine masks.

HAHAHA

SHUT UP; 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: making YouTube raps about some Harvard smarty-pants getting a bureaucratic sinecure.

What in God's name are you blathering about?; 12:53 PM
Charles F. Oxtrot said...: Join me as I walk to the grave of Anonymous, dance on it, pee on it, and laugh.; 2:09 PM

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Gerbils

45 comments:

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