Ku Klux Klan rally, Gainesville, Florida, December 31, 1922
Dear J,
"The Bible Belt" is a weapon used buckle end first.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/bible-belt-is-weapon-used-buckle-end.html
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/bible-belt-is-weapon-used-buckle-end.html
Dear J,
Yesterday, I registered voters outside a BP Mini-Mart in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
I held my clipboard so people could see "Voter Registration" writ large, and, off to the side, a photo of President Obama.
When I asked a woman driving a red pickup truck if she was already registered to vote, she looked at me with eyes as dead as a mugshot and said, "I'll tell you this. I'm not voting for Obama. My girlfriend committed suicide because she couldn't get health insurance. I hope they crucify that sonofabitch."
How does one engage people whose cerebral cortices lack folds?
Even conservative politicians admit that "the problem" with Obamacare is that it covers too many people.
The official view of the GOP is that "the nation can't afford the additional expense of so much coverage." (The true view is that American conservatives would rather "the undeserving poor" die off - a macabre twist in which "moral rectitude" based on merit becomes justification for murder-by-neglect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yva0VSN1_T4)
Even conservative politicians admit that "the problem" with Obamacare is that it covers too many people.
The official view of the GOP is that "the nation can't afford the additional expense of so much coverage." (The true view is that American conservatives would rather "the undeserving poor" die off - a macabre twist in which "moral rectitude" based on merit becomes justification for murder-by-neglect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yva0VSN1_T4)
For now, let's accept my BP interlocutor at face value: She "hopes they crucify the sonofabitch because her friend couldn't get medical coverage."
But if her allegation is true -- and if a single synapse is still sparking -- "shouldn't" she make common cause with liberals to advance-and-extend Obamacare?
Nope.
"Crucify the sonofabitch."
Then, elect Paul Ryan!
"Crucify the sonofabitch."
Then, elect Paul Ryan!
***
Many Americans are misinformed.
"The new thing under the sun" is that American conservatives want to be misinformed, are determined to be misinformed, develop elaborate strategies to misinform themselves; in short, have made themselves "Minions of Mendacity" - Prince of Darkness concubines.
My conservative friend, George, forwards every delusional email that circulates within his sizeable right-wing circle.
After years of diligently fact-checking his bilge (often with the help of Snopes and FactCheck.org) George recently summarized his position: "I like to be partially right."
After years of diligently fact-checking his bilge (often with the help of Snopes and FactCheck.org) George recently summarized his position: "I like to be partially right."
When citizens are "partially right" -- but egregiously wrong -- they fray the fabric of civil society.
It is true that this pathogenic combination of "right" and "wrong" also manifests on the left side of the aisle. But contemporary "conservatives" have normalized the practice, propagate the practice, represent falsehood as a newly emerged demi-god.
Consider:
Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim socialist, anti-American, job-killing quisling, whose Anti-Christ goal is to strip Americans of their guns as prelude to surrendering the United States to a One World Government headed by Arab sheiks.
75 years ago, Swiss historian Denis de Rougemont wrote: "There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: "It's a pound." Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating." http://www.amazon.com/Love-Western-World-Denis-Rougemont/dp/0691013934
***
Recently, while pondering America's Celebration of Hatred, I wondered if there were any "left-wing" hate groups in America.
As it happens, there are.
Here are the statistics:
The SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) reported that 926 hate groups were active in the United States in 2008, up from 888 in 2007. These included:
- 186 separate Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups with 52 websites
- 196 neo-Nazi groups with 89 websites
- 111 White nationalist groups with 190 websites
- 98 White power skinhead groups with 25 websites
- 39 Christian Identity groups with 37 websites
- 93 neo-Confederate groups with 25 websites
- 113 black separatist groups with 40 websites
- 159 Patriot movement groups
- 90 general hate groups subdivided into anti-gay, anti-immigrant,
Holocaust denial, racist music, radical traditionalist Catholic groups, and other groups espousing a variety of hateful doctrines,[86][87] which maintained another 172 hate websites.[88] Only organizations active in 2008 were counted, excluding those that appear to exist only on the Internet. In addition, SPLC reported there were 159 Patriot movement groups active in the United States in 2008, up from 131 in 2007, with at least one such groupin every state. They maintain 141 websites.[89] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center
***
The SPLC also reports a few Native American hate groups, although the FBI contextualizes this fact by observing that Native Americans are victimized by hate crimes more than any other American ethnicity or social grouping. http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=193
It is understandable that systematic, sustained violence-and-oppression would incline blacks and Native Americans toward vengeance. (Also keep in mind that American whites - particularly white males found in most hate groups -- have been born with "silver spoons" in their mouths for nearly four centuries
Blessedly, there is considerable evidence that "tides turn" most favorably in response to "strategic" martyrdom and not in response to hateful victimization, or the retaliation such victimization provokes. Hatred is a sickness and, almost always, belligerence abates when people get sick of being sick.
Note that the most epochal event in modern times -- indeed, the event that lauched modern times -- was the pacifistic conquest of Rome by nascent Christendom.
Note that the most epochal event in modern times -- indeed, the event that lauched modern times -- was the pacifistic conquest of Rome by nascent Christendom.
"Semen est sanguis ecclesiae." "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."
"The ultimate weakness of
violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of
diminishing evil, it multiplies it..." Martin Luther King Jr.
Pax vobiscum
Alan
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