Recent Sign of the Lolpocalypse

These are all people who exist. People pay them for the ideas they have. I do my shit for free. And I even read stuff. You want to know why I think conservatism is some bullshit? This. Exactly this. However, if they all merged into a singularity called a "darkweb hole" and got spaghettied into nothingness, that would be kind of cool. Because the chaps therein assembled aren't the greatest at staying platformed. Mostly because of so much sucking.

This isn't about the Left hating on conservatives--this is about normal people looking at weirdo haters and figuring out that these are basically fascists and people who make shit up. You don't have to be explicitly Antifa or IWW to figure out that Mark Levin has guano for brains and makes actual conservatives flinch, or that Glenn Beck is a bottom-feeding grifter. (And that Gavin McInnes quitting Proud Boys is mostly so he can go back to yanking it, I think. Also Matt Kibbe needs to learn that there is no political ideology solely based on interesting facial hair. That is not a thing. ) And there is negative value in that. We would also suggest that conservatives consider if they also are tired of fascism and making up shit.

This would settle a lot of our private bets. But if Ben Shapiro wants to be a part of that human centipede of crap-sucking, at least he is fully qualified to play the world's smallest violin when it craps it's own bed. Or exists for a thousand years like FreeRepublic or Drudge seem to have but still needs a little night music.

I'm just saying it looks to me like a match made in hell that will be super the worst. That's all.

Ben Carson's Rise and Epistemic Closure

It is very reasonable to try and look at why soft-spoken political neophyte Dr. Ben Carson has risen above very loud-spoken political neophyte Donald Trump in the Iowa polling. I think his rise in the polling is fascinating particularly because even while he is mild-mannered, he says things that are way weirder than The Donald's output. It turns out that Iowans like Carson because the things he says are ridiculous. They like their candidates fringy. You take some random fringy thing he has said, like Obamacare is worse than slavery, and instead of going "Hey, slavery was not cool, and besides, covering our fellow-American's health care is basically decent", they love him because they were thinking that thing!

I wish this surprised me more, but it's kind of in line with the whole "Obama was responsible for the Katrina response" polling, where people actually agreed with a completely non-factual statement. It's almost impossible to plumb whether the respondents agree with this untrue thing on the basis of sheer ignorance of facts, which should be impossible given how recently it occurred, or whether they have partisan impulses so overwhelming that facts simply do not matter.

In part, and no surprise, I blame FOX Mushroom Farm a lot for this state of affairs by purporting to be a news organization that somehow leaves people entirely less well-informed. I also in part blame Glenn Beck, because Ben Carson sounds like a guy who learned everything he ever knew about public policy from Glenn Beck rallies. Take the Cleon Skousen connection. Where in the world does one find this weirdo Bircher guy that would probably be shunned by the upright Yale or Harvard National Review types of the 1950's?

Profiles in Theocracy--now With Birtherism!

Here's Senator Ted Cruz's father:




Wow, right? Co-blogger Bette Noir at Rumproast did a bang-up job covering his obnoxious brand of Christian Dominionism, which might explain how Cruz the younger got so...le's call it dedicatedly destructive, hmm?  That "send Obama back to Kenya" line, while I see how it can be construed as more of a "America, love (my particular conservative version of it) or leave it", sure sounds to me like he's appealing to just the kind of people who seem to "believe" that Obama is not a legitimate president because he's not "American" enough for them., and no evidence will convince them that he is, not a birth certificate, not the fact that millions of people voted for him in two presidential elections.

I find the whole "Christian Nation" canard basically eliminationist. It excludes not just non-Christians, but people who aren't the "right kind of Christian". It's been promoted by grifters like Glenn Beck because it supports an attitude of gullible, bunker-hunkering conspiracy-mindedness (check out this Alamo fearmongering from the folks who worry about a UN takeover), and David Barton, who is possibly running for US Senate and who is not a real historian, but a pusher of pablum to people who just can't believe their narrow view of the world wasn't the Founders' ideal.

It genuinely bothers me when people like this are given credibility.

Glenn Beck--a stupendously ignorant, misogynistic little man who just called a whole lot of women "prostitutes".

Listening to Glenn Beck is difficult for me, because I have this tendency to think about things that I hear. Also, I don't regularly watch Beck's tv show or listen to his radio show because, for the most part, why do something I find really unpleasant? So I usually only catch snippets of him at his act, and the head-spinning changes in tone that make me just look at him as a basically crapulent fake probably stand out more for me because I don't see any "in-between". You know, the way stop-motion footage speeds up action, the gaps between Beck's tragedy and comedy masks makes it seem like he's just not for real.  There's his teary-eyed, faux-noble, swellingly patriotic and religious routine--and then there's his total chuckle-headed Morning Zoo crass offensiveness.

I found this clip of Glenn Beck at his crassest regarding Planned Parenthood pretty interesting, though:

Glenn Beck Speculates that Following the 10 Commandments Might Prevent Earthquakes, I think.

Now, I post these because I sort of collect them--the bone-headed speculations of blatherers about why some group of people deserve whatever the current disaster of the day is, usually for some version of "Now you've done it--you've pissed me God off."  I guess I'm fascinated with the examples of mindless (and usually, heartless) blather, because they seem to exemplify some really dreadful streak in the human spirit, at once small and spiteful, and yet, on the other hand, so accessible and understandable. Victim-blaming is cruel, unhelpful nonsense, but I think it stems from a need to try and make sense of enormous evil in a way compatible with justice, without really comprehending that justice is a human notion. It doesn't apply to natural events, and natural events occur for physical reasons that are not demonstrative of any apparent will of some higher sentient being.  Some people may take comfort in the idea that an angry god can be negotiated with or propitiated--as for me, I don't know if I would want to bargain with a celestial terrorist, and speculate that in a past life (if I really believed in those) I must have been a virgin tossed down a volcano.  I take these speculations as if personally-directed. Also, I think people who actually say these things aloud probably are using the importance of a tragedy to lend weight to whatever b.s. they feel like pushing.

"The Backlash:Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters--

And Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama

Imagine (or maybe you don't have to) that you were curious about the tea-people. You've been wondering why they have beliefs that differ from yours to such a degree, why they hold opinions that seem out of step with reality, and are too easy to label as "uninformed" or "racist". Then, imagine that a journalist with whom you are familiar, Will Bunch, who wrote a well-researched book detailing the successes and the short-comings of the somewhat sainted president Ronald Reagan, had written a book about just that very subject. He managed to be fair in that other book, even-handed, and long on research, so you thought, "Maybe I'll order Backlash."

The book is written in second-person, which is occasionally awkward, but other than that, the book is a well-researched look at what is motivating the people who oppose President Obama, his policies, and the "liberals" in general, labeling the first, "a Muslim, Kenyan, communist" the second, "fascism" or "Communism", depending upon how the mood strikes, and as for liberals? Either "fascists", "useful idiots", or "elites", also depending upon how the mood strikes.

Bunch analyzes the relationship between what these people are hearing through talk radio and cable news to try and relate how some folks have been stirred, shaken, folded, spindled, and mutilated out of tune with objective reality. One main culprit in all this is, naturally Glenn Beck.

He doesn't make Beck out to be a villain, so much as recognizes that Beck is more of a self-seeking personality, a self-described "rodeo clown" who shills for Goldline.com just as easily as he he shills for his vision of God and country--

And then the real picture of "hucksterism" unfolds: who benefits from all this rhetoric that paints a nightmare where everything has changed (when, honestly, very little has--with the exception of the economy starting to gain jobs and the passing of legislation that has strengthened the social safety net) and that the president is not to be trusted? Well, it's the people who try to profit from disaster in general, in some cases, like the aforementioned Goldline and Solutions from Science and are perfectly willing to take a huge profit from their alarmed and misinformed customers while they're at it.

When these people are curling up with radical books like W.Cleon Skousen's The 5,000 Year Leap, or listening to the likes of David Barton's history revisionism (ably contradicted by people like Chris Rodda)--what else might they be soaking up from Glenn Beck University? A pitch! To buy gold, or seeds, or to buy into an idea that America is chaging into something dark and weird. Beck talks about faith, hope, and charity, but he's telling people to put their faith in the idea things will get worse, offers no hope, and, to be charitable, might tithe a little bit while he's raking in Huge Wads of Money but he's making more money for fellow grifters.

I think this is a smart, well-done book. Bunch talked with a number of the people who participate in these Tea Party rallies and affiliated groups, and tried to show how these are just regular folks that have acquired some irregular ideas that they are very, very vocal about. His treatment of them is fair, at times sympathetic but not condescending.

I think this book is pretty good; it's well-written and timely. I recommend it.

Soy un Perdidor....Sarah Tweets.

So, I'm directing you to Immoral Minority because they caught a nugget of pure Sarah Palin.

Silly media reports“maybe thousands”@Beck’s "irrelevant" event;insinuating MSM sheeple mustn't believe their own eyes&ears re: event's truth
about 8 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

So she linked to the musical icon and not the multi-media menace. Anyone who is a careless person who simply has to Tweet whatever she Tweets right-freaking-now! could make that kind of error--but here's the thing--she actually does think she has to Tweet "right-freaking-now!" Also, she uses the very pejoritive term "sheeple" to describe the folks who get their information from the MSM (wow, she totally forgot her tagline: "Lamestream media", there). Well, the "sheeple" watched Beckstock on C-SPAN from their homes, if they didn't actually go. And I was one of those "sheeple"; I saw a reasonably-sized crowd that could have been as many as a hundred thousand folks. And I thought they looked very bored, and the ones dressed like the Founding Fathers looked very warm. Sweaty, even. And at times, I thought even the Beck-faithful were wondering what the yammerers were on about. Not because the lamestream media told me so. But because the C-SPAN cameras panned the audience from time to time.

Anyway, I think "Loser" was a great song. I remember that song being on the radio when I was driven home from a college party at West Chester by a straight-laced high school friend who became my first husband.(Yes, that's a piece of personal narrative--I married a HS sweetheart--once, for awhile). It brings back edgy Gen-X memories. Glenn Beck does not compare well with the musical Beck. Oh, one's a Mormon and one's a Scientologist. Whatev'.

"Forces of evil in a bozo nightmare
Banned all the music with a phony gas chamber
'Cause one's got a weasel and the other's got a flag
One's got on the pole shove the other in a bag
With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose job
The daytime crap of a folksinger slob
He hung himself with a guitar string."

One's got a weasel and the other's got a flag----Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin! They represented with the flag, the troops, and anything else that could make them look super-patriotic. The crowd--a bozo-nightmare. Maybe Beck the musician was prophetic. Rerun shows and cocaine nose job--Sarah tweets and Glenn Beck has a tv show, both of them represent the entertainment news, one has the polls and the people in the bag for a folksy chick who represents the moral sklav.

And their time is like a piece of wax that's dripping on the sheeple, who are choking on teh stupid.

Or something like that. Anyway, did you know Sarah Palin Tweets? Yes, short staccato burts of whatever she is thinking at any given minute. What unprecedented access! What hilarity? What?

Hilarity!

Somewhat anticlimactic Beckstock.

I couldn't resist watching this on C-SPAN at my parents' house. Actually, the worst thing about it was the way it was overhyped. It was very religious-y and a little on the trite side. The gist of what Beck was on about seemed to be, "Good things are good, bad things are bad, true things are true, pray in front of people, and worship at the church of your choice." Also, America is at a crossroads, although the intersection of what and what else aren't really clear. Oh, and he is not either a fearmonger. Very bad things are gonna happen, is all! Like icebergs!

There was something of an old-time tent revival vibe. The theme was overtly about "America Returning to God." It was inclusive--white people of faith, African American people of faith, Asian people of faith....

You get the idea. Those were the people on stage, of course; the crowd itself was rather of the white and middle-aged variety. And of course there was Alveda King, who is even related to Martin Luther King, Jr, don't you know?

My family was openly snarky by the time the bagpipes started playing "Amazing Grace". It was too much. Just....too much. There was some channel-flicking and conversation, so I didn't catch everything. But I thought it was a little anticlimactic.

Glenn Beck is Not MLK: Brave New Films

I really like these Robert Greenwald shorts--they usually say what needs to be said quickly and effectively. I don't really have the vocabulary to say all I want to say about Glenn "Obama Hates White Culture" Beck, who will be hosting Sarah "Dr. Laura should be able to say the N-word without shackles" Palin and Ted "what a lovely white audience I've got" Nugent at his "Restoring Honor" shindig (Restoring whose honor? Beck never had any!) on the anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Here's the piece:



A civil rights hero is something to be, but it's also something Beck just isn't. I'll be waiting for whatever grandly silly thing he'll announce, tho', since he has talked this business up as comparable to Woodstock and a lot of other silly claims. Also, he has said that he is just going to let God speak through him.



And is it just me, or is Glenn Beck aiming at being a cult leader? He seems to use God talk all the time, and has this association with David Barton, the history revisionist behind the Texas schoolbook massacre, who he's dedicated his Overton Window novel to, which generally points towards that "Christian Nation" business. But with the demonization of others, the way he paints detractors as enemies, and they way he hoovers up supporters and their dough:

Maybe. (Is The Nuge bailing? Sadness, when you are too weird for the Motor City Madman.) (Also--I really am kind of perversely looking forward to this being a disappointing showing with fail frosting on top. I can dream, right?)