I have this suspicion that the coming months and years with the right in electoral Siberia and irrelevance will bring out some of the most crazy, delusional, and intellectually vacuous ideas and attacks that we've yet seen. As the intellectuals of the right continue to distance themselves from the lunatic fringe, the inmates will take over the asylum and they will broadcast their tomes on the intercom system. Some of it will be loud enough to be heard outside of their own little bubble of irrationality, so we who value thinking and logic ought to be boning up on how to identify complete inanity and as digby below terms it "Intellectual Violence".

PLEASE TRY TO LIMIT THIS THREAD TO EXAMPLES OF RIGHT-WING TALKING POINTS AND ARGUMENTS THAT GO ABOVE AND BEYOND THE NORMAL DISINGENUOUS POLITICAL TALKING POINTS AND VENTURE INTO THE REALM OF THE PATHOLOGICAL.

These first two articles define the problem that we all are familiar with, but have perhaps never been able to quite put into words.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca ... 43398.html


Bob Cesca
Posted November 12, 2008 | 05:33 PM (EST)
What Doesn't Kill The Far-Right Only Makes Them Crazier

For the last eight years, we've observed Karl Rove's non-reality based universe in which logic was entirely abandoned in lieu of whatever reality the administration invented in order to serve its ridiculous policies and to mask its glaring nincompoopery. Intellectually dishonest at best -- destructive and criminal at worst.

This didn't end on Election Day.

Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration. If the last seven days have been any indication, the far-right is shaping up to make the 1990s seem quaint -- even erudite by comparison. That which used to be your basic, off-the-shelf intellectual dishonesty has grown into, as Digby pointed out recently, full-on intellectual violence. [digby's column reprinted below - PD]

Intellectual violence. While not a new term, it perfectly defines what we're seeing now: accusations and smears that so severely confound logic they literally attack -- violate -- reality and the human intellect. It's like a berzerker dervish of argumentative elbows and fists indiscriminately flailing around, thwacking anything in its orbit, so much so that constructing a counterpoint is literally painful, "Why the hell am I trying to debunk this?! Ow! My head. Aw hell, I need a drink."

The "Impeach Obama" Facebook groups, for example. No, I'm not making that up. They're real and there's a constant variety of disgruntled far-right Republicans joining up every day. And, to our total lack of surprise, they're not ashamed in the slightest to post comments like this one:



Apart from being a racist, this "Impeach Obama" Facebook member is clearly the most awesome pollster in the world if he was able to sample God. I tried to submit a friend request just so I could ask him if he perchance enlisted a room of undecided cherubim for a Frank Luntz dial group.

Shortly after discovering this, I was talking with a colleague and found myself instinctively trying to form a rational argument about why the Facebook members were wrong. It began with the obvious: "He's not even the president yet!" And then, after I segued into Article II and the constitutional grounds for impeachment, I stopped myself. What in name of Randall P. MacMurphy am I doing? Arguing against this crap is like explaining to a meth tweaker that the shadow people aren't real. That's when I decided that it'd be more fun to just infiltrate one of the groups and post comments like, "The moon landing was staged!" and, "Obama is a bionic -- just like his half-aunt! I have proof!"

Then on Monday, Michelle Malkin posted an item in which she referred to the president-elect as the "overlord-elect." And on Tuesday, Congressman Paul Broun told the AP, "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential." Uh-huh. On the scale of probability, "Obama is a fascist dictator" is about as likely as "Broun is a Jedi Master." But it doesn't matter. Reality is irrelevant.

The obvious intention here is to cobble together an abuse of power meme against President-elect Obama, despite President Bush and Vice President Cheney having, you know, spent the last eight years consolidating executive power, authorizing torture, suspending habeas corpus, illegally invading sovereign nations, ignoring congressional subpoenas and eavesdropping on American citizens.

Whoops. There I go again, talking about facts and treating the crazy like it's real.

But clearly the most egregious post-election trespass came to us from John Hinderaker of Powerline. Some back story: following the president-elect's lighthearted Nancy Reagan séance remark, Michelle Malkin referred to Obama as a "classless jerk" (unlike President George W. "Those Weapons Have to Be Around Here Somewhere" Bush, of course). And she treated the séance comment as if it were part of an on-going pattern of ridiculous Obama gaffes and bloopers.

Picking up on Malkin's lead, Hinderaker wrote this week:



No, seriously. I didn't make that up. A popular member of the far-right intertubes actually wrote that. On a public website. That people go to and read. Every day.

Come on now. Fess up, Hinderaker, you can't seriously believe all that. I mean, I didn't think it was possible, but you succeeded in making Malkin's "classless jerk" remarks appear respectable -- even reasonable -- by comparison. Fact: not only is the president-elect one of the finest orators in modern political history, but he far exceeds President Bush in terms of intellectualism and verbal discipline. In other words, a Bush gaffe reveals an inherent lack of intellectual curiosity and a general ineptitude when it comes to, well, talking. An Obama gaffe is an isolated incident, exclusive of his ability to speak, think and reason. Nothing more.

I can't believe I even have to write that down. But that's precisely what makes these arguments so violent. They literally crush logical reality, making it almost impossible to ignore.

In a perfect world, we probably shouldn't react or to take these things too seriously, and yet we'd be making a huge mistake to ignore them altogether -- or to underestimate their efficacy. After all, there's Drudge who somehow remains a bridge between the far-right's intellectual violence and the establishment press. As we've learned throughout the last ten years, it only takes some persistent badgering and a series of red "SHOCK!" headlines for the crazy to travel by osmosis into the mainstream.

So we're in for many more years of insanity from the far-right. They're not dead. They're not as irrelevant as they deserve to be. And they certainly don't suffer from writer's block when it comes to outlandish and illogical attacks and smears.

Put it this way, if President-elect Obama so much as takes a long weekend off this August, you can bet that the far-right will crap their cages about Obama being lazy and shiftless.


http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/ ... -that.html


Friday, October 31, 2008


Got Hypocrisy?

by digby

I often say that Republicans have retired the concept of hypocrisy and people titter politely, but I suspect they think it's a sort of glib slogan and not a serious observation. But I mean it literally.

Recently Michelle Malkin went ballistic over Joe the plumber's privacy being invaded. And many people pointed out that she was hardly the best messenger for such a complaint considering her own notorious history of stalking low income families to prove they weren't actually in need of government subsidized health care when they had the nerve to speak out politically.

One would have thought that would be enough for her to slither off in an embarrassed funk and let someone else carry the hypocritical wingnut banner personal privacy, but it apparently spurred her on to write a big op-ed in the mainstream media instead.




Now, as it happens, I think that public employees searching through Joe the plumber's governmental records is absolutely wrong and that people should lose their jobs if they did it. It creeped me out too. And I thought the press treatment was overkill as well --- right up until the moment that Joe started grandstanding for the cameras, got an agent and started talking to people about a recording contract.

But, again, Malkin is hardly the right person to complain considering the absolutely horrific invasion of privacy she perpetrated against the Frost family. It's mind-boggling that, of all people in the right wing blogosphere, she has appointed herself to be the one to lead this story. The sheer brass of it, the unreflective audacity, is simply breathtaking.

This is why I say that they have retired the concept of hypocrisy. It goes far beyond double standards or duplicity or bad faith. There's an aggression to it, a boldness, that dares people to bring up the bald and obvious fact that the person making the charge is herself a far worse perpetrator of the thing she is decrying. There's an intellectual violence in it.

In a world in which the conservatives weren't such post modern shape shifters, we could come to a consensus on certain issues in this country --- like privacy, for instance. We could agree that it's wrong for government employees to use private information for partisan purposes --- or for the media, including bloggers, to stalk and publish private information of anyone who dares speak out for a political cause. But we don't live in a world like that.

We live in a world where the right wing ruthlessly and without mercy degrades and attacks by any means necessary what they perceive as the enemy, and then uses the great principles of democracy and fair play when the same is done to them. They leave the rest of us standing on the sidelines looking like fools for ever caring about anything but winning.

it's not that I believe liberals are purely good and decent. We have many, many faults and are almost preternaturally talented at seizing defeat from the jaws of victory before we even get finished celebrating. But failing to truly grok just how pernicious this right wing rejection of hypocrisy really is and how much power it gives them is a foolish mistake.

I think we're about to get schooled. Again. The torture loving right is dusting off its completely hypocritical "government is full of jack-booted thugs" playbook --- and it's going to drive us all completely crazy.

It's a good thing Bob Cesca wasn't patrolling RM after the 2000/2004 elections like he's patrolling anti-Obama sites after the 08 election. You guys might be poster-children.

Oh, I'm sure you'll be a hot topic in this thread.

Come again?

Those articles pretty much sum up why LW is on my ignore list, and should be on yours too.

In defense of LW, LW is not racist or anything similar.

these people are far beyond hope

We got a two-fer.

It's funny too, because I can envision lots of reasons to be one somebody's "ignore" list... but those comments really don't come to mind.

Keep fishing though.

LittleWing is going to save the GOP

No, probly not. I don't like the religious right. And I want people to be educated.

You never cease to amuse - the religious right didn't sink the GOP. Try again.

Alright.

So if the religious don't sink the GOP.

And if I don't like the religious right.

Then how could I save the GOP?

I think you have a better time amusing yourself than anything.

I think this is a safe thread to say:

Spoiler: show

LittleWing crazy.

The GOP lost because they preached hatred and fear: we should fear immigrants, arabs, politically-involved blacks, gays, science, the poor, city-dwellers, etc etc etc. How does a party expect to win when their strategy is to alienate most citizens?

You can have hatemongers like Limbaugh and your shit idealism about rich white superhero businessmen.

Good luck winning an election for a while.

A guy at the grocery store the other day told me to hang on to my M-16 because the 50 million underprivileged who are expecting a pie in the sky will start an uprising and come after people like me. He said the liberals sold us a bill of goods and the shit will hit the fan. I just wanted to buy a soda.

The GOP lost because they had an inarticulate disfuctional candidate who couldn't intellectually combat ignorance such as yours. A sad time, yes. But it happened none the less and so far as I'm concerned, the GOP deserved it.

I won't pretend for a moment like the GOP isn't fraught with some...really horrible problems right now that are that antithesis of conservatism. But get real, your side is just as sad and pathetic as ours. It's basically nothing more than shamelessly buying votes with promises of handouts and demogouging rich people and corporations.

The right fear mongers against Islamic fundamentalism. You fear monger with global warming. At least the right has something tangible to point a finger at.

And anyhow, I'm not too concerned about winning or losing elections. I would rather lose elections with asshats like John McCain than win elections for the sake of winning them. I would rather watch this party permenantly go down the shitter than watch it turn into some morbidly grotesque version of the 1990's Democratic Party. I would rather watch the GOP burn in flames than coddle the religious right and people forwarding legislation that requires evolution be taught in a classroom.

I'm not like you people. I had no problem pulling the lever for Barr. I won't vote for someone just so that the other guy won't get elected.

I think it's cute and cuddly how you and everyone else here continually try and paint as a GOP supporter, or a McCain/Palin supporter. Like last Tuesday somehow hurt my feelings.

LW will be taking credit for this one

Barack Hussein Obama. Sounds like a terrorist to me!

Stop it! Your intellectualism is simply overwhelming!