Extremism in the Defense of Stupidity is a Roll of Quarters
Can you say "hook, line, and sinker"?
As I have previously mentioned, the voices of extremism are becoming more and more powerful. In the example linked above, there is an underlying assumption that if you're a Christian, you can only be a conservative (or, more accurately, a neo-conservative). This relates to a general polarization among the electorate that is merely accelerating.
So how do you combat it? Accelerate it still further by out-lefting the left (i.e. by claiming that Kerry's nomination and L.A. Observed are part of a FASCIST conspiracy) and out-righting the right (by claiming that the Constitution Party is abhorrently politically correct).
The left didn't blink an eye at my attempted humor. The right did:
Emperor, can you say “misconstrue", “utterly misrepresent", and “out of context"? Because, that’s exactly what you did.
You can always tell how weak a person’s position is by how much dishonesty he employs in his arguments.
Comment by Yosemite Sam — 11/15/2004 @ 22:04
And here's some more:
There could be a hint o' sarcasm in vadrgrrl's message, EH? If she hadn't done it, I might've.
posted by Anonymous : 21:37
Then again, maybe she wasn't, and I can be: You deserve the trustworthy souls with which you'll spend the rest of your life associating.
posted by Anonymous : 21:45
It's obvious that the secret is to make the post so outrageous that people will be convinced that it's just a guy who sets himself on fire or whatever. It turns out that my "Communist" post DID get through, and (as of now) has not resulted in a single published reply:
I can’t respect any group of politically correct Communists who insist on using the word “personhood” in their party platform, and who state that government officials should display “kindness…and compassion.” I guess they want police officers to give flowers to the people burning down the cities.
Comment by Ontario Emperor — 11/12/2004 @ 3:45 pm
There's the oft-repeated claim that conservatives don't have a sense of humor, which seems to be borne out by the example above. However, it turns out that liberals don't have a sense of humor either (and this is at Slipper Rock [OE UPDATE: that's SLIPPERY Rock], no less):
Student intended flyers to be viewed with sense of humor
Published: Friday, October 8, 2004
To the Editor:
The views and opinions in this letter only reflect me personally. They do not reflect the opinions of the College Republicans or any other Republicans for that matter.
There was a letter that was in The Rocket last week entitled "Republicans focus on smear ads, not important issues," by Ron Beitler. It was in response to the flyers that were put up that had Bush and Kerry catching a football, and making Kerry appear to not be athletic. First I would like to say that I was the one responsible for creating those flyers and posting them up.
In Beitler's letter responding to those flyers, it was said that the concept of the flyers was stupid, juvenile, and pointless. Honestly, I couldn't agree more, but he failed to mention that it was funny, like it was intended to be. Whatever happened to having a sense of humor? I didn't want people to take it seriously, I just wanted people to laugh at it and from my understanding, many people did. They were able to see that it was a ridiculous statement, and have a sense of humor by laughing at it.
It was also stated in that letter that the statement on the flyers was sexist. I find it interesting that all of the people that I asked, men, women, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, didn't seem to think that it was sexist, but instead, found it funny. So did I offend some people? I don't know, nor do I care. All I know is that the flyer was funny and I got people to laugh at it, and that is all I really wanted to do.
Also in the article, he said, "Republicans simply do not want to talk issues." Since when? Personally, I've never had a problem talking or debating over issues. As a matter of fact, I enjoy doing it. To my knowledge, Republicans don't try to avoid issues, they talk about them quite frequently. If they didn't, people like Rush Limbaugh, Jim Quinn and Sean Hannity would not have much of a radio show. They make their living from debating the issues.
Anyway, as I said before, the whole concept of why I put up these flyers was to make people laugh. I never thought that people would go as far as ripping down the flyers. I mean, don't Republicans have the right to freedom of speech? If the issue comes down to political correctness, then let me say that I am proud of what I did, and political correctness means always having to say that you're sorry. If this is the case, I am not going to apologize.
On a final note, I don't care how athletic Bush and Kerry may or may not be, and I hope that voters don't either. It should not be an issue. As long as people make it to the voting booth on Nov. 2, I am happy. So, if the people have a sense of humor, they will be able to understand that ads that are supposed to be humorous, like the one I put up, are humorous, and are not to be taken in a serious manner.
Jordan Zankey
SRU College Republicans
Young Conservatives of Pa.
Remember that this was happening at the same time that people were trying to figure out whether Kerry entered Cambodia, and whether Bush went AWOL, and whether Cheney's family was being used as political pawns. And THAT was supposed to be an intelligent level of discourse.
And any guy with a college radio show is obviously extremely enlightened.
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