Teabagger Violence and Getting Pushed to the Wall

Amanda:

But of course, in order for the obvious to sink in, you need some cold, hard numbers.  And those have been produced---teabaggers mostly identify as Republicans, or they’re those assholes who call themselves something like “libertarian” but always vote for Republicans. I’d probably put money on the possibility that the few who identified as Democrats are also Republicans; they’re just nursing the youstabee grievance, where they pretend they want to vote for Democrats, but Democrats just make is so hard because they insist on being Democrats.

On that subject, it’s worth pointing out that the original sin of the Democrats that created legions of youstabees was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

I was having this conversation with Mr. A this week, about something going in meatspace, whereby people respond to arguments they've lost with disproportionate rage and claims they aren't being listened to. I've been getting this a lot, usually when someone's denied something he wants, and while it's the attitude we usually ascribe to Those Entitled Kids Today Whose Moms Never Tell Them No, it's primarily from people of Generation Teabag I've been noticing it. Which brings me to what Amanda's saying above.

All the justification rhetoric used around the incidents of violence and intimidating that happened around the country has centered on the idea that old, racist assholes simply aren't being heard in this country. That they've been deprived, overlooked, shut out, and they have no choice but to ram people's cars and throw bricks through people's windows and generally act like total assholes outside the law.

We heard this shit from McMeghan after the Tiller murder, we heard this from Beckian morons before, and it's the same flavor of bullshit now, that other people are responsible for making them be dicks by imposing their irritating viewpoints and drowning out other voices.

We hear you, though. You're being listened to just fine. You just LOST THE ARGUMENT. You lost the election, you lost the fight to kill the bill, you lost. We heard you loud and fucking clear, with your signs and your costumes and whatnot, but we just didn't agree. I sympathize, to a certain extent; I lose arguments all the time. I've been told for the past nine years that I and everything I represent and almost everyone I love betrays the foundations of America, yet somehow I've managed to shoot at exactly nobody.

And instead of telling these people they've lost, and should suck it up, and remember how much this hurts so that next time they can be more effective in their tactics and actions (as many leading liberals did after the 2004 presidential election) and more committed and more willing to work, these fuckers are encouraging their followers to tune in, drop out and smoke conservative dope some more. Because the problem wasn't that their ideas sucked, it was that they weren't given a hearing.

A.

Comments

[Hecate Demetersdatter, Runnymead Conspirator]

I love you.

[PoliShifter]

They're acting like spoiled brats who not getting their way are turning to violence in order to force their views which are in the minority on the majority. It's getting pretty bizarre. Hope it cools off but it appears Republicans and tea bagger leadership have no interest in calming things down.

[virgotex]

while it's the attitude we usually ascribe to Those Entitled Kids Today Whose Moms Never Tell Them No, it's primarily from people of Generation Teabag I've been noticing it.

As a country, mainstream America has traditionally been Those Entitled Kids Today Whose Moms Never Tell Them No. We are a brat nation that has been bending reality — to suit its justification for immediate gratification as well as to validate anything we believe in, right or wrong — from Manifest Destiny to The Big Shitpile. The ones who've profited the most from that (and I don't just mean money) are the most threatened when the ground crumbles underneath them. It's inconceivable to them they could be wrong, so logically the problem is obviously that they haven't been given a chance to be heard.

Beautiful post, A.

[Ray]

I still don't understand why we can't just put these people in camps already. They declared a culture war, they lost, now it's time for Reconstruction II, bitches.

[pansypoo]

reaganism wasn't supposed to be like this whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

[joejoejoe]

Ray - It's funny that you mention camps. The GOP took it's first big step from the party of Lincoln to the party of the Confederacy in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 when under then Emergency Czar Herbert Hoover free blacks (for 62 years!) were rounded up into labor camps under the force of arms. That was kind of when Black America gave up on Reconstruction full stop.

[MapleStreet]

joejoejoe - hadn't heard about that. Interesting!

I wonder if a lot of the "never been heard" angst doesn't come from believing TV (Hey , it is original to blame TV ;-)

You have advertisements constantly bombarding you telling how the IRS will settle for pennies on the dollar; you can discharge your credit card debt for pennies on the dollar; I put up one stupid web page and am a multimillionaire on 10 hours a week.

In short, everyone else is getting theirs. Why am I not getting mine ?

[joejoejoe]

MapleStreet - I read that story about labor camps in Rising Tide by John M. Barry, a fantastic book.