Meet the Stupids
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 12:38 pm
Meet The Stupids
by Ed Naha | September 4, 2009 -
A portly man outside a Town Hall meeting carries a sign reading "Abolish federal government." A middle-aged banshee screams "Nazi" at a pro-health care reform Israeli emigre. Tap dancing Tom DeLay, caught up in the thrall of his own voice on national TV, demands that Obama show the world his "gift certificate." Rep. Michele Bachmann says that prayer and fasting will defeat health care reform.
Meet the Stupids circa 2009, folks, a familiar perfect storm of the flimflammers and the flimflammed, united as one to make nonsensical noise. I say "familiar" because, no matter how aberrated the recent spate of AstroTurf antics may seem, they are as American as apple pie. In fact, they are based on two of this country's founding principals: paranoia and righteous stupidity.
Our foundation in a nutshell using the above precepts: "We've arrived in a new land. Look! People with red skin! Let's kill them before they kill us!" and "It's okay because God is on our side."
Seen through such a prism, it's no wonder, then, that you have someone like Bachman whining that Obama is "reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom" or that someone is protesting health care reform with a sign reading: "Stop the Trojan horse of Islam."
America has always had sort of a schizoid nature in terms of dealing with truth and intellect - not exactly a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde set-up as much as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Shithead scenario. When faced with truth that can't be ignored, shout it down. When confronted by change, shout louder. When shown that you're in error, kill the messenger.
A large swath of this country has always defined itself as white Christians who are opposed to anything that doesn't seem white or Christian enough. That same swath is also paranoid about some secular ruler telling them what to do, perhaps owing to their ancestors fleeing the monarch of choice to get over here. (Ironically, from "manifest destiny" to "spreading democracy," these are pretty much the same people who want to duplicate the Empires of old by taking over and subjugating countries and peoples who aren't white and/or Christian, handing them an American flag, a crucifix and a Coke.)
Once patriots of old found out they could subjugate red folks, they turned their attention to black folks, yellow folks and brown folks before moving onto white ethnic or religious groups that didn't fit in with their concept of what America should be. "No Irish Need Apply" was one step away from "Back of the Bus." Defining Jews as "money-grubbing power mongers" later evolved into Arabs as "money-grubbing power mongers" in the 1980s and, of course, our current "Muslims as heathen war-mongers" motif. We're equal opportunity paranoids.
Even the much-lauded Protestant Work Ethic was once used to justify being rich. If you were rich, God was giving you a thumb's up. If you were poor, God didn't really care for you and was giving you the celestial equivalent of the Bronx cheer. So, when you add the "greed is good" axiom to the fear and stupidity mix, there's no reason to be shocked at the current anti-health care reform sideshow.
It has nothing to do with health care reform.
It has everything to do with fear of change, fear of a Black president and the perceived loss of power. The fact that most of the people protesting are powerless doesn't matter. They are being bankrolled and directed by those who have power, members of the GOP and big business.
Let's concentrate on the protestors for a moment. Most of them wouldn't know Socialism from Botulism. Their worldview is in Braille. Yet, there they are carrying signs decrying "Obama's Nazi health care plan" and offering "Send Obama Home To Kenya" and "Black National Socialism Is Not Utopia."
(Note: Normally, I would shield the names of these folks and refer to them by the generically nonjudgmental term "fucktard A" or "fucktard B." However, these idiots have worked so long and hard for their fifteen minutes of fame; let's ridicule them by name.)
William Kostrick showed up with a pistol strapped to his leg at a New Hampshire Obama speech and a sign referring to the quote "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots." When asked if the gun was loaded, he replied that only an idiot would carry an unloaded one. D'oh.
Chris Broughton, who brought an assault rifle to an Obama rally in Arizona, said, "I don't want to be Joe-the-Plumber. I'm hoping my fifteen minutes of fame are over." He said that in an interview that was recorded BEFORE he showed up to the event armed to the teeth.
(He's also a member of a group called "We the People" which pledges to restore "Freedom and Constitutional Order through the exercise of popular sovereignty by all possible non-violent means." Rest assured, folks, guns don't kill people. Non-violent dickwads with guns kill people.)
At the event, he declared, "We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."
Whut?
(Note: a lot of the gun-toters and their defenders state that they're exercising their Second Amendment rights to protect their First Amendment rights. Here's hoping they combine the two and just shoot their mouths off.)
Before he attended the event, Broughton attended a service conducted by pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church who, in a sermon, entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama," said he wished Obama would die and go to Hell. He later said that he wasn't advocating assassination. "I don't want him to be a martyr," Anderson clarified, "we don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer."
When Broughton was asked if he favored violence he said, "I'm not going to answer that question directly. I don't care how God does it, I'm not going into further detail than that."
Welcome to Fox Nation.
***
More at The Smirking Chimp
by Ed Naha | September 4, 2009 -
A portly man outside a Town Hall meeting carries a sign reading "Abolish federal government." A middle-aged banshee screams "Nazi" at a pro-health care reform Israeli emigre. Tap dancing Tom DeLay, caught up in the thrall of his own voice on national TV, demands that Obama show the world his "gift certificate." Rep. Michele Bachmann says that prayer and fasting will defeat health care reform.
Meet the Stupids circa 2009, folks, a familiar perfect storm of the flimflammers and the flimflammed, united as one to make nonsensical noise. I say "familiar" because, no matter how aberrated the recent spate of AstroTurf antics may seem, they are as American as apple pie. In fact, they are based on two of this country's founding principals: paranoia and righteous stupidity.
Our foundation in a nutshell using the above precepts: "We've arrived in a new land. Look! People with red skin! Let's kill them before they kill us!" and "It's okay because God is on our side."
Seen through such a prism, it's no wonder, then, that you have someone like Bachman whining that Obama is "reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom" or that someone is protesting health care reform with a sign reading: "Stop the Trojan horse of Islam."
America has always had sort of a schizoid nature in terms of dealing with truth and intellect - not exactly a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde set-up as much as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Shithead scenario. When faced with truth that can't be ignored, shout it down. When confronted by change, shout louder. When shown that you're in error, kill the messenger.
A large swath of this country has always defined itself as white Christians who are opposed to anything that doesn't seem white or Christian enough. That same swath is also paranoid about some secular ruler telling them what to do, perhaps owing to their ancestors fleeing the monarch of choice to get over here. (Ironically, from "manifest destiny" to "spreading democracy," these are pretty much the same people who want to duplicate the Empires of old by taking over and subjugating countries and peoples who aren't white and/or Christian, handing them an American flag, a crucifix and a Coke.)
Once patriots of old found out they could subjugate red folks, they turned their attention to black folks, yellow folks and brown folks before moving onto white ethnic or religious groups that didn't fit in with their concept of what America should be. "No Irish Need Apply" was one step away from "Back of the Bus." Defining Jews as "money-grubbing power mongers" later evolved into Arabs as "money-grubbing power mongers" in the 1980s and, of course, our current "Muslims as heathen war-mongers" motif. We're equal opportunity paranoids.
Even the much-lauded Protestant Work Ethic was once used to justify being rich. If you were rich, God was giving you a thumb's up. If you were poor, God didn't really care for you and was giving you the celestial equivalent of the Bronx cheer. So, when you add the "greed is good" axiom to the fear and stupidity mix, there's no reason to be shocked at the current anti-health care reform sideshow.
It has nothing to do with health care reform.
It has everything to do with fear of change, fear of a Black president and the perceived loss of power. The fact that most of the people protesting are powerless doesn't matter. They are being bankrolled and directed by those who have power, members of the GOP and big business.
Let's concentrate on the protestors for a moment. Most of them wouldn't know Socialism from Botulism. Their worldview is in Braille. Yet, there they are carrying signs decrying "Obama's Nazi health care plan" and offering "Send Obama Home To Kenya" and "Black National Socialism Is Not Utopia."
(Note: Normally, I would shield the names of these folks and refer to them by the generically nonjudgmental term "fucktard A" or "fucktard B." However, these idiots have worked so long and hard for their fifteen minutes of fame; let's ridicule them by name.)
William Kostrick showed up with a pistol strapped to his leg at a New Hampshire Obama speech and a sign referring to the quote "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of tyrants and patriots." When asked if the gun was loaded, he replied that only an idiot would carry an unloaded one. D'oh.
Chris Broughton, who brought an assault rifle to an Obama rally in Arizona, said, "I don't want to be Joe-the-Plumber. I'm hoping my fifteen minutes of fame are over." He said that in an interview that was recorded BEFORE he showed up to the event armed to the teeth.
(He's also a member of a group called "We the People" which pledges to restore "Freedom and Constitutional Order through the exercise of popular sovereignty by all possible non-violent means." Rest assured, folks, guns don't kill people. Non-violent dickwads with guns kill people.)
At the event, he declared, "We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."
Whut?
(Note: a lot of the gun-toters and their defenders state that they're exercising their Second Amendment rights to protect their First Amendment rights. Here's hoping they combine the two and just shoot their mouths off.)
Before he attended the event, Broughton attended a service conducted by pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church who, in a sermon, entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama," said he wished Obama would die and go to Hell. He later said that he wasn't advocating assassination. "I don't want him to be a martyr," Anderson clarified, "we don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer."
When Broughton was asked if he favored violence he said, "I'm not going to answer that question directly. I don't care how God does it, I'm not going into further detail than that."
Welcome to Fox Nation.
***
More at The Smirking Chimp
