Quote:
Originally Posted by Cletus Miller
Here is Taibbi reflecting on his own part in amping up the rhetoric. And Packer doing something similar.
Is there any corresponding introspection on the Right, Hank?
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Taibbi: "Is it ever right to just wind up and let someone have it with all you've got?"
Not only is it right, but I'd say it's something sadly lacking in our culture. Something deeply lacking on the part of decent moderates, and rational, sensible people.
The allowances we make for outright bulllshit, lies and spin are part of what's driven us into a ditch. We've a nation filled with infants because we won't treat them as adults. We'll let the pathetic fucks believe they can have tax cuts, health care expansion, easy credit and the books will magically balance. We'll placate them with shit like reality television. Nobody calls out all the corrosive shit in our culture or blasts the charlatans. We're all afraid. Those who could don't because it would hurt our business connections... Because most of us earn some money from some of the most corrosive forces.
The population can't absorb well-though out, surgical, brutal critiques. They'd prefer slogans - tea party horseshit, DailyKos liberal bromides. They want narratives. They want to "believe," not think. And the smart of us, knowing these dumb wretches can't live in grey areas - see that as "moral relativism" - sell them one-sided news that appeals to their biases. And corporations gladly line up behind the media to fund the spoonfeeding.
Could a strident moderate get a following? Hell no. Taibbi even realized this himself. Years ago he was more Libertarian than Liberal. Then he realized, like any smart firebrand needs to in this Idiocracy, that he had to pick a side. He trended Liberal. Good for him. He's made a few bucks at it. But I've no doubt, based on what I know of him, it probably bugs the guy a little that he can't be more centrist. That to sell in America one has to pick a fucking tribe.
We get what we deserve. Frankly, given the level of political intellect in the mind of the average American, we deserve a lot worse than even this. The meanest irony here is this woman was a decent moderate, and from all I've read on her, among the independent thinkers we need more of in the Capitol... one of the few politicians who didn't contribute to the atmosphere that causes this type of shit.
