Equal Time

So, as promised -- or threatened -- Cesca's response to my Banter piece is now up.

I thought I made it pretty clear in my column that I wasn't drawing a one-to-one correlation between Michael Moore and Todd Akin and that, regardless, it was important to apply the same standard across the board, no matter the subject or person, when you're doling out criticism. That to me just makes sense. I also thought I made it clear that I'm not completely beholden to any one political party or slant, therefore, while I absolutely understand political reality and try to keep it in mind at all times, I don't beat myself up too harshly if I say something that's critical of liberals or the liberal mindset. Taking a shot in the direction of the left, when it's deserved, doesn't automatically mean that I'm doing something that benefits the right; thinking it does is the worst kind of crass reductionism and it tips a hand to the traditional, and insidious, liberal intelligentsia trait of paternalistically trying to protect the ignorant unwashed from jumping to the wrong conclusion. Apparently, though, Bob feels much differently about all of the above and more.

Anyway, while I know there are those expecting me to continue this little back-and-forth, I'm out. I spoke my piece and I see no need to say anything else about it. If you can't figure out the point I was making, or simply don't agree, then there's nothing else I can say to elucidate or convince you.

I will say this, though: While I went out of my way to temper my remarks, as I always do when I disagree with someone I consider a friend, Cesca, in my opinion, showed me no such courtesy. And yes, I'm a little pissed about it.

Keeping Us Honest

Today's admittedly late piece for the Daily Banter deals with some of the backlash I received to my comments on Michael Moore yesterday.

Here's a quick excerpt:

"The response to my little slam against Moore, Stone and Assange was swift and ferocious. Via Facebook and e-mail, I was raked over the coals pretty relentlessly for daring to specifically correlate Michael Moore to Todd Akin, the argument of my detractors being that I had set up the dreaded false-equivalence. A number of people, including my friend, podcast partner and fellow Banter-ite Bob Cesca, felt that I was being a liberal self-defeatist and that I failed to see how Moore, as a guy who’s not in a position to directly affect public policy, was a poor comparison to someone like Todd Akin, who is. Also, according to my critics, there’s the fact that Moore is an outlier who isn’t thoroughly representative of the overall opinion of the left, as Akin’s views are of the right. All of this is, of course, true — but that’s not really the point and it’s not why I felt it was important to call Moore out for his views while continuing to call out Akin for his."

Read the Rest Here

FYI: Cesca has already said that his column tomorrow will be a follow-up to mine, which means that the debate that went on for quite a while yesterday on Facebook will more than likely continue.

Fair Imbalance

In case you haven't been paying close attention during all the back and forth over the current state of our political discourse, the absurd "both sides" meme has returned with a vengeance over the past couple of days. The claim, of course -- generally heard from the side accused correctly of trafficking most in irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric -- is that, well, both sides are guilty of trafficking in irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric. It's bullshit -- but you hear it a lot.

Well, now there's this from CBS News, which conducted a poll to try to pin down just who's behind all the anger:

"The poll also shows that while three in four Americans say violence against the government is never justified, 16 percent say it can be justified -- the same percentage that said as much in April. Twenty-eight percent of Republicans said such violence can be justified, compared with 11 percent of Democrats and independents."

Anybody surprised? Anybody?

First of all, at this point, after what we now know about Jared Loughner, I'm not saying that he was some right-wing stooge who took the words of Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin to heart and acted on them. He's much more your garden variety whack-job whose ideology is, predictably, all over the place. But there remains the possibility that the overall climate of unfocused rage in Arizona may have fed his psychosis -- and the discussion about how far things have gone in this country when it comes to politically based outrage is one worth having, regardless.

What the above poll clearly shows, though, is that, no, both sides of the political spectrum aren't dispensing the same brand of dangerous invective; they don't subscribe to the same consistently stoked anti-government paranoia or, let's face it, possess the same fetishistic view of militarism -- that worship of gun culture or innate horseshit frontier mentality that still, in 2011, believes that it might only be a matter of time before they have to pull a John Wayne and grab their rifle to defend what's theirs, en masse. I'm damn well not saying that everyone on the right is like this, only that most who are like this are on the right; it's part of their ideological DNA.

And it's adopted as a cynical sales pitch by people like Sarah Palin, who plays the entirely fictional role of Caribou Barbie on her reality TV show -- hunting "wild game" while a make-up tent and craft services spread sits directly off-camera.


Or Glenn Beck, who strikes a Jack Bauer-esque pose -- complete with handgun -- on his website, despite the fact that if he were ever really put in a live-fire situation, he'd almost certainly cower in a corner and cry like a four-year-old.


(h/t Kevin)

Quote of the Day

"Jon, I told you so! I mean, I might disagree with you but I'd never think you were crazy or hateful... One side sticks to the facts, and the other side is close to playing with its poop."

-- Keith Olbermann, who Jon Stewart implied was as guilty of amping up the lunacy as his right-wing counterparts, chiding Stewart after Hutt-like Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes referred to him as "crazy" and called NPR managers "Nazis"

(By the way, yes I'm very much aware that Phil Griffin over at MSNBC once again suffered a brain aneurysm and suspended one of his hosts -- this time Joe Scarborough -- and I'll have something to say about it later this weekend. Although I could easily just re-rack the Olbermann piece from a couple of weeks ago.)