coup2k.com
gorewon2000.net
JOIN THE RESISTANCE
New Recruits Click-> HERE
WELCOME, MR. PRESIDENT
Al Gore Click -> HERE
BUSH FAN ESCAPE HATCH
Conservatives Click->HERE

   BUSH BROTHERS BANANA REPUBLIC RESISTANCE, NEWS, HUMOR AND COMMENTARY

RESISTANCE DISPATCHES
MONDAY - MAY 28, 2001

REACHING THE IRRATIONAL RIGHT
Beth on Connecting with the Reality-Challenged

SITE NAVIGATOR

LONG BEACH (coup2k.com) May 28, 2001 - Is there something to be gained by engaging conservatives in substantive discussion?  Should we try?

FROM THE FILM, Defending Your Life
Bob Diamond
: For example, I use forty-eight percent of my brain.
Do you know how much you use?
Daniel Miller: Forty... seven?
Bob Diamond: [laughs] Three.

BETH ANSWERS E-MAIL FROM RIGHTWINGNUT

NUTJOB: you're right, i dont care, he [Langston Hughes] obviously is a communist, and you're a communist sympathizer.

BETH TO RESISTANCE FIGHTERS:
I have a question. What world (or decade) are they living in? Communist? Communist sympathizer? Next he'll be complaining about those darn beat poets and hippies, and heading down to his corner drugstore for a malted.

NUTJOB: i am and will always be your intellectual superior, obviously you lack a proper education and you're a product of poor parenting.

BETH TO RESISTANCE FIGHTERS:
I think a proper education would likely involve both a mention of Langston Hughes and basic lessons in capitalization... not to mention basic lessons in logic. "She's quoting a guy I've never heard of -- and that guy's got hopes for America! COMMUNISTS! COMMUNISTS!" 

Where the "poor parenting" thing comes from, I have no idea.

Conservatism: paranoia good, logic bad.

BETH ON ENGAGING RIGHTWINGNUTS

I think sarcasm is one of my defense mechanisms against [rightwing] irrationality. I mean, after a certain point, you can't even engage someone in conversation, because their mental framework has such serious flaws. I mean, where do you start? Langston Hughes was not a communist? Langston Hughes was commenting on the flaws America has in exploiting blacks and Native Americans and women and the poor, that doesn't mean he's even remotely interested in promoting an alternate economic system? I'm not a communist? We like to be called progressives, thank you? Communism is a red herring? I wouldn't even know where to begin arguing with a guy like that. It's why I'm not really good at engaging the other side. I become flabbergasted at the stupidity, so that I can only gibber angrily... It's like the girl in my dorm who calmly and confidently said, "No they don't," when I mentioned that the Republican Party has a weak record on civil rights. If I'd been coherent after being cold-cocked with that Bat of Ignorance, I would have said, "of course they do!"

Even W. admitted it!

"...before we get to the future, we must acknowledge our past. In the darkest days of the Civil War, President Lincoln pleaded to our divided nation to remember that "We cannot escape history...[that] we will be remembered in spite of ourselves." One hundred and forty years later, that is still true. For our nation, there is no denying the truth that slavery is a blight on our history. And that racism, despite all our progress, still exists. For my party, there's no escaping the reality that the Party of Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln. Recognizing and confronting our history is important. Transcending our history is essential."-W. At The NAACP Annual Convention Baltimore, MD 7/10/2000

Instead I just gaped. 

I swear, sometimes I think conservatives take a look at reality, decide it doesn't meet their needs, and head in the other direction without looking back. Don't get me wrong, fantasy is great, but it's not a sound basis for public policy.

It's true, what I've read, that mockery can work as well or better than refutation when dealing with the terminally ridiculous.

I recently told my brother that if I were somehow a multi-millionaire, what I'd do is start (or heavily promote and build up) a liberal press. He asked me if I wouldn't rather have something that was truly balanced, so that it had more credibility. I said, "no." I had no interest in that. I pointed out that most media outlets claim to be balanced, but aren't, and are pulled right because they're afraid of being pegged as left. But on a deeper level, I think we're just
right. As Bartcop noted, "it's like our logic is superior or something."

I wouldn't mind having various viewpoints, but I would have no interest in giving space to conservatives -- because most of the time, they're just
wrong. They kill programs that do demonstrable good, they promote bills that do demonstrable harm, they prey on liberals' propensity for self-questioning by launching hypocritical attacks. They want religion in our lives and the government in our bedrooms, but don't think the government should act stop pollution or discrimination or price gouging because that would be interfering. Conservative policies have effects that are racist, sexist, classist, and anti-gay.

A couple months ago, Sander Hicks, the founder of
Soft Skull Press (which published Fortunate Son), came to talk at my dorm. One of the things he said was that we progressives need to get over our poststructuralist, relativist attitudes. For too long we've let conservatives claim the moral high ground, be the moral authority, because we don't like fighting
on moral grounds. But if we won't fight on those grounds, then we let the right hold them. He told us, it's time the left was willing to say that certain things are wrong. It's time we said that a regressive tax structure, a tax cut for the rich, are not just bad finance, but morally wrong.

I think we've begun to reach that point now. I have.

SITE SEARCH
 
powered by FreeFind

JOIN E-MAIL LIST

powered by ListBot

SUPPORT THIS SITE

powered by PayPal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
JUNE, 2001 

1  2  3  4  5  6
8  9-11  14
15  16  18  19

ARCHIVES
MAY 2001      APRIL 2001
FEBRUARY - MARCH 2001 
precoup2k - JANUARY 2001

GENERAL ISSUE:
Shop The Coup Couture Mall

Shirts, Mugs & Mousepads
Buttons1  Buttons2 
Video

Freebies & Do-It-Yourself:

FREE PC WALLPAPER!
MORE FREE WALLPAPER!
BBBR Web Banners
KillCoup Label Art   
Flip Bush Label Art
Bumpersticker Art 
Mastheads 1   Mastheads 2

NEW RECRUITS

Site F.A.Q.
Resistance Fighter F.A.Q.
Greatest Hits of the BBBR
Mandatory Minimums

COMMUNICATIONS

Mail  The Diva, WebMistress
Get Low-Volume Newsletter
Visit     Newsletter Archives
eGroup      Radio Free BBBR
Failsafe eGroup BBBR Lives
Search         Search The Site

BBBR MARCHING ORDERS! 

CHECK LEGITGOV.ORG
VISIT THE ACTIVISM HQ

Actions/Marches/Protests:

NOW! RYOB Retrospective!
6-21 Bush Birmingham Info
6-22 Jeb in Daytona Beach
6-23
Freepers, Harris in SC
NEWS*NEWS*NEWS  HELP!
6-25 Bush in Detroit
6-27 Bush in NY? More Info
6-29/7-1 Phil. Convention
July 4th Bush in Philly
July 4th CA Energy Events
7-7 Bananas for a Monkey
7-7 Testicular B-Day Event!

HUMOR:  TROOP MORALE

Laugh at the Coup
How the Dunce Stole...
GOP Election Victory Guide
Dear Diva: Jokes Mail War!!   
The Hymnal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The Quotable GW Bush

ALLIED FORCES:

Graphic Links   Text Links
BBBR Web Banners

COUP2K INTELLIGENCE:

FL & TX Election Laws
Votes Not Counted
Racial Demographics
Global Perspectives

ENEMY DISINFORMATION:

Rove's Forgery
The Nixon Lie  GOP Lies
Commie Flag Supreme?
Bush Christian Testimony?
Gore Biblically Illiterate?
Gore Invented Internet?
No GOP Florida Recounts?
Contesting Results?

The BBBR 'Aide de Camp'

Internet Radio:  RADIOLEFT
Solidarity:        FRINGEFOLK
Web Links: LINK CRUSADER
Rants:            THE BARDGAL
Party:       DEMOCRATS.COM
Bush Recon:    BUSHWATCH
Media Recon:     BUZZFLASH
News: ONLINE J.,AM-PO-JO
Commentary:        BARTCOP
Think Tank: CM Helwig Inst
Activism:  ACT FOR CHANGE
Protests:             LEGIT GOV
March-East:   VOTERMARCH
March-West:     VOTERWEST
Reform:               FAIR VOTE
Music Parody:   BOOT NEWT
Greeting Cards:  TRUCARDS
Postcards:         SHRUBBISH
Dubya Diary:        MADKANE

RATE
The BBBR Resistance
as a Political Site

NEXT: CoupCat Coco Behind Enemy Lines

SUPPORT
Liberal Radio on the Net

SHOP Buttons T-Shirts, Mugs, Mousepads Videos

The ActivismHQ

E-Mail The Diva

TAKE
The Democrats.com
Voter Pledge

© 2000-2001 gorewon2000.net and coup2k.com. All rights reserved. Permission is given for individuals and non-profit web sites to copy and distribute articles provided herein in their original and unaltered form, provided attribution to this site is included. For-profit or print media seeking rights to publish or reprint content should send inquiries to thediva@coup2k.com
Fair Use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, the material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.  See:  http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

SURF
The Anti-Dubya WebRing
A Proud Member of
The Anti-Dubya Webring
Site Owned and Authored by
"The Diva"
List | Stats | Join | Rand
Prev | Skip Prev | Prev 5
Next | Skip Next | Next 5
Powered by RingSurf!