Culture Warriors category archive
The Right To Rude 0
In my local rag, Phil Terrana explains in detail what has been mentioned here from time to time: Those who complain of “political correctness” demand the privilege to offend others without penalty. A nugget:
For these people, becoming better people has a ring of phoniness to it, a sense of dishonesty. Because they can’t change their ways, they can’t understand how others can. They’ve began calling this civility by a new name — political correctness — and attached a stigma to it.
Read the rest.
The American Taliban’s Sagebrush Sharia 0
Y’all Qaeda institutes Sagebrush Sharia in Oregon.
Afterthought:
No self-awareness. No self-awareness whatsoever.
“Frontier Town” 0
Frontier Town was an Western-themed amusement park near that far west resort town, Ocean City, Maryland, in the era when every little boy wanted a cowboy suit and a Mattel Fanner Fifty. (It seems to live on as a campground.)
Like Hollywood’s versions of the Wild Wild West, it was not then and has never been a real place.
Paradise Lost 0
It seems that all is not well in the Bundy Bund’s Shangri-La-La-Land.
Chartering a Course for Disaster 0
Today’s assignment, class, is to write a three-page essay on the topic, “What else can they do to make the scam more obvious?”
Facebook Frolics 0
“I don’t understand how Facebook works” is not an excuse for stupid. It’s an admission of stupid.
Really, now, if you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s sort of an indication that maybe you shouldn’t do it.
A Desperate Cry for Attention? 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr, asks, “What if you throw a tantrum and no one seems to care?“
“In the Good Old Mummertime . . . .” 0
I lived in the Greater Philadelphia Co-Prosperity Sphere for over two decades.
Philadelphia is one of the nation’s great cities and I do miss it, for all that it has faults; having lived there, I know that my current location of residence, for all that it is legally a city, is no city; it is a resort town surrounded by endless suburbs with delusions of city, Rehobeth Beach with dreams of grandeur, if you will.
During the time I lived in the Philly area, I was never moved to watch the Mummers parade. I didn’t have a position on it, one way or the other; I just couldn’t be bothered to get up at five and shiver my way through the day on Broad Street.
The Mummers are very much a Philly thing, for good or ill. In the most recent parade, though, the ill seems to have triumphed in a series of incidents of hate-full and bigoted actions on the part of the paraders.
Philly is moving, however fitfully, into the 21st Century.
The Mummers look back wistfully to the 19th.
Welfare Cowboys, Reprise 0
Regarding the government’s apparent decision to wait out this situation, the Bangor Daily News’s David Farmer has this to say:
When the siege ends, and hopefully it ends soon and without injury, these men who broke the law should be held accountable and face significant criminal charges for their actions.
Just as law enforcement learned from Ruby Ridge and Waco, it’s time we learn from Tamir Rice. Armed extremists bent on overthrowing the federal government should have more to fear from the police than a 12-year-old black boy.
Video via Raw Story.
Afterthought:
One of the more puzzling accomplishments of the right-wing echo chamber is enabling the Bundy Bund and others of their ilk to convince themselves that there is a simmering mass of the populace poised to join their cause.
They are their own little simmering mass, all by themselves alone.
Trump’s Chumps 2
In an excellent editorial yesterday, the Roanoke Times editorial board tried to understand the appeal of Donald Trump, in particular, why some persons think that he’s a “strong” leader.* Here’s a bit:
It’s always hard to separate style from substance when it comes to people’s political views, but is it possible that there is something about Trump’s mere style that conveys strength?
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*In my view, he’s seen as “strong” for the same reasons that A Christmas Story’s Scut Farkus was seen as strong.
Welfare Cowboys 0
In related news, Elie Mystal has some thoughts on how to react to what Josh Marshall calls “white privilege performance art.” Here’s a nugget:
White people occupying federal land has been met with less resistance from the police than black people occupying a CVS. I think race is playing a factor here.
The National Guard has been federalized and deployed to Oregon. As no civilians have been taken hostage, authorities are contemplating missile strikes against the compound. President Obama will address the nation tonight… oh wait, no he won’t. No troops have been deployed. No news helicopters are circling. Did I mention that the malcontents are white?Meanwhile, PoliticalProf tries to explain the intellectual (I use the term very loosely) underpinnings of the Bundy Bund.
Image via Balloon Juice.