Thursday, October 28, 2010

Quickly

I don't even remotely disagree with the substance of the post in general--of course the guy who stomped on that lady's head is reprehensible (it's not acceptable to do that to anyone for any reason, even MoveOn people), but jesus christ Melissa McEwan what?!?!
Yeah, see, except the police don't arrest people who haven't done anything wrong
You are insane.

14 comments:

¯\(°_0)/¯ said...

What post?

Regardless, this attitude is fairly common among affluent, white liberals, which I am only assuming this woman. They can decry the horrors of racial profiling by police, and the racist application of the death penalty, but cannot understand that these are not aberrations but natural extensions of the criminal justice system.

Ethan said...

Oops, updated to include link. Thanks.

And yeah--it's weird, because those are things McEwan writes about a lot and is reasonably conscious of, and then she busts this out. It reminds me of when Digby said that it was too bad that cops kept abusing tasers, because they really should have them.

¯\(°_0)/¯ said...

I think that Digby example cuts to the heart of it: These people are fascists/statists/whatever term for a group of people that think people need to be told what to do and put into place, they just think we should be doing it more efficiently. Republicans want the people that live underground (in Baltimore? I can't remember) in A Boy and His Dog, Democrats want something more like Logan's Run, or maybe Minority Report.

Anonymous said...

Shakey is an idiot. The only reason to read her is to again, because you are giving her the benefit of the doubt, you must really see the the evidence of her idiocy.

Idiocy combined with smugness and a need to lead cults as a cocktail of traits definitely reveals some screwed up psychological things going on -- unless she's a sock puppet of someone with a still-forming sense of humor, someone who's doing a stereotype but is a little stuck in a big rut.

She reminds me of a "progressive" Charles Krauthammer.

Jack Crow said...

I'm sure I hold any number of mutually exclusive thoughts and beliefs.

But, damn. How do you spend all your time jousting with the ghosts of male dominated power structures - and *then* claim that the most machismo, violent, hierarchical domestic male fight club in the country acts rationally and with restraint?

Rachel said...

The most charitable possible reading of that statement is that the police never arrest wealthy white people unless there is no possible way to avoid it.

But that's a little too charitable for me. I think she had a little authoritarian hiccup. After all, the police are always nice to HER, right?

Anonymous said...

One sees this throughout "progressive" land. They don't mind jack-booted thugs--as long as they are arresting those they disagree with politically. Progressive land was ecstatic when Obama's DOJ put a few domestic right-wing groups on a terrorism watch list.

Rachel said...

Speaking of which, do you guys read the Daily Howler at all? Bob Somersby has been getting really good lately - I am not terribly surprised that the good liberals on Sadly No etc. are saying he's clearly gone insane and writes gibberish. It must make them squirm like crazy.

Randal Graves said...

Maybe she was being snarky. I kid, I kid.

Word verification: dozing. Must have ran out of fake words.

Ethan said...

Squigglylines--I think I'd actually prefer A Boy and His Dog. And not just because Don Johnson was actually really hot in it.

Charles--I originally read that as "sockpuppet of something" which cracked me up--some sort of mysterious, ineffable, yet rock-dumb entity.

Jack--an excellent point.

anonymous--yeah, McEwan was one of them--she suddenly was enamored of the word "terrorist" as soon as there was a D in office. It's just so strange to me.

Rachel--I always wonder if I'm being unfair in reading so much into these sorts of little asides, but I think you're right--they reveal the fundamental authoritarianism that they spend so much time denying. It's creepy as all hell. And no, I don't keep tabs on the Daily Howler--are you saying I should? Sounds intriguing at least.

Randal--I actually assumed she was, at first (being snarky, that is). But then I went back and tried to figure out what that would mean in the context of the post and realized to my dawning horror etc. Dozing, wonderful.

Rachel said...

You totally should - he's a longtime NPR listenin', Dem votin' old fart (my dad used to read him) who over the last couple of years seems to have woken up to the fact that our supposed "liberals" care more about their own high opinion of themselves than the issues they say they support, as well as the massive, staggeringly clueless contempt they hold for almost everyone.

Which reminds me - I got in a nasty fight on Pandagon last week after they, en masse, condemned ballot measures and direct democracy as basically letting those icky stupid poor people decide things. They actually accused me of hypocrisy in saying that 1. humans are really bad at rationality and 2. I favor direct democracy. I got a dead silence after asking what species, exactly, they thought their representatives were a part of. It's...so depressing.

Ethan said...

Well, I'll definitely check him out on your recommendation.

On the Pandagon fight--if you don't mind, could you link me? That sounds hilarious, and I still have fond memories of a blawgfight you got into at IOZ's place a while back, so it'd be nice to see you in action again.

Rachel said...

You're a doll, but I can't remember what thread it was, and it was nothing like the epic thread of epicness unfortunately as I gave up not too many comments in to go off and drink away the horror.

Ethan said...

Ah well, probably for the best.