}

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Not today

I’m not going to do it. Despite all the ample opportunities—provocation if you like—I’m not commenting further on the full frothing meltdown the USA’s radical right is currently performing because a rightwing preacher decided, wisely, not to deliver a prayer at the upcoming presidential inauguration ceremony. I already wrote about that.

See, I know it’s all an act, a fauxrage, one they’re using for their PR—and financial—benefit. They do this all the time, and they count on mainstream people talking about them and drawing even more attention to them. Well, not this time.

I have no time or patience for these charlatans, these mongers of fear, these merchants of hate. They are, at the very best, the adversaries of anyone who cares about freedom and justice; at worst, they are actual enemies who must be opposed at all times, and in all places.

But not today. I’m tired of having to descend into their world of negativity just to debunk them. Their hatred is just too ugly.

It’s time for a change—for me, anyway—and I’m going to do what makes the most sense for me: Speaking truth and facts. Sometimes, unfortunately, I’ll need to talk about our adversaries in order to present the truth, but I’d much rather just present the truth and let you connect the dots yourself.

This is actually what I’ve been doing most of the time, especially when talking about marriage equality, but sometimes the dark ooze of our adversaries sucks me in until, as I’m pulled down toward a drowning doom, I realise what’s happening and I struggle back to the surface, to the light and the fresh air.

I’m not criticising what others do; I think it’s hard to know when we’re being played by our adversaries, activists who are trying to provoke an over-reaction. The problem is that sometimes they really are presenting a clear and present danger that must be challenged. I don’t always get it right when deciding which it is, so I won’t criticise others for how they choose to respond.

I wrote a different blog post earlier today, complete with links and everything, and then I changed my mind about publishing it. That change of mind inspired this post instead. I know that in the future I’ll make the wrong choice, and descend once again into that dark ooze of negativity. All bets are off for the future, but that wrong choice won’t be made this time. Not today.

2 comments:

Roger Owen Green said...

Yes, you should save your rage for the Newtown, CT truthers, who claim that the shootings were all an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the federal government to get our guns, like they did in Nazi Germany.

Bastards they are.

Arthur Schenck said...

People who claim the Newtown massacre was a hoax need to be confined to a mental institution, because they are clearly too insane to be among normal people. If they're not insane, they're promoting a criminal hoax and should be prosecuted. Either way, we should be rid of them.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for people who spread such poisonous bullshit—especially because a sane person knows that's all it is. I make no apology for demanding that these people be imprisoned or hospitalised, as may be appropriate, because in my opinion, it a far more gentle punishment than they deserve. I have nothing but utter contempt for them. If I hated any human—and I don't—these people would be top of the list.

I did see that Anderson Cooper takled these utter loonies. Not harshly enough, in my opinion.