Decorum My Ass

John Pavlovitz - Stuff That Needs To Be Said

When they start bitching about your tone, you know your arguments are getting pretty close to top dead center.

This is the very height of irony: people who’ve spent eighteen months repeatedly glossing over or excusing or rationalizing away the most toxic, offensive, vulgar behavior and language—now greatly disturbed by a perceived lack of decorum.

It should be obvious, but to make sure we're good and clear on this: "Conservatives" have gotten all pissy because "Libruls" are being so Politically Incorrect.

This is how sideways it’s all gone here: that there are people apparently more concerned about the feelings of the bullies than about the very lives of those being bullied. I refuse to be one of those people.

If you’re waiting for me to apologize for emotionally wounding someone with the suggestion that they may not be all that keen on people of color, or that they’re likely afraid of gay people, or that their nationalism is showing because they defend what’s happening here—it’ll be a long wait.

I think the futures of dreamers and the welfare of sick people and the safety of LGBTQ teenagers and the stability of families of immigrants are worth the raising of my voice, and the forcefulness of my delivery, and the discomfort it causes anyone.

BTW: We all get to be mad all we want, but you're not justified in being mad at me just because I'm mad at you for something you've done; or for something you've failed to do.

Yikes

So - should we be afraid for ourselves?   Or is it that we should be afraid of ourselves?

Isn't that pretty much what it comes down to though?  Politicians in general (and Repubs mostly in particular) are eager to peddle the panic.  They know how to play on our fears to keep us divided, and to use that division to get what their big money donors are paying them to get.  

But over time, we become conditioned to the fear, which starts to drive a trend towards ideological purity, which always gets us out to the logical extreme in one big fuckin' hurry.  ie: Everybody's a traitor to the cause except you and me, and I'm beginning to have my doubts about you.

We can have some fun pointing and laughing, but this shit gets real if we don't smarten up and stand in its way before it has a chance to reach critical mass.

And BTW - in case it's not obvious enough, lemme state the obvious for you - smart guys working for John Kasich put this together using Trump's nutty-tude to make Kasich look like something other than the radical god-knobbing authoritarian freak that he actually is.  It's not like Kasich doesn't think very much along the same lines as Trump does, it's just that Kasich doesn't say that shit out loud.

And of course, that's kinda the problem - Trump gets a boatload of support for being "Anti-PC".  But here's the word on that one, guys.  It's Politically Incorrect to say certain things because they're shitty things to say. And since words comprise the expression of thought, PC becomes not much more than a general attempt to get you to stop thinking shitty thoughts about people.  

Putting it another way - if you can learn not to talk stoopid, it'll help you learn how not to be stoopid, and then we can stop calling you stoopid, and then you can stop bitchin' about how everybody's always callin' ya stoopid.  Deal?  

And BTW also too - Since the "voting" in Ohio appears to be nearly as honest and forthright as it was in Noriega's Panama, I'll go out on a limb and say this: Assuming Kasich's still in this thing next March - and even if he's polling behind by 20+ points - he'll somehow manage to eke out a landslide upset.   Just sayin' - again.  

I guess my main problem now is deciding how to defend myself from accusations of peddling a little fear my-own-bad-self.

Another'n

Pittsburgh's police chief McLay is catching some heat for this:

Coupla things:

First, are "conservatives" pissed off because they think they own the cops' political affiliations?  Are cops always and only supposed to be lined up perfectly with the Proto-Fascist wingnuts in the GOP?  And if that's the case, then doesn't that put up a perfect reflection of the Political Correctness that "conservatives" are always bitchin' about?

Second, this guy is - in absolutely no way at all - making any kind of blanket statement to say all cops in Pittsburgh are racists.  Sweeping generalizations are very much the hallmark of The Right; not so much for anybody anywhere else on the political spectrum.

So - really - if you're totally convinced this guy is calling you a racist asshole when he is so obviously not calling you a racist asshole, then you just might be on the verge of recognizing yourself as a racist asshole.

Dearest Dr Carson

This one's been making the rounds:



Just wanna home in on the PC Police bit.  First, there're good reasons for Godwin's Law, and even better reasons for the First Corollary (whoever mentions Nazis first loses).

But second, there're actually some pretty good reasons for what these jag-offs call "PC".  And I'll put the main reason to Dr Carson in the form of a question:  Dr Carson, if somebody walked up and called you a 'nigger', would you at least consider kicking him in the nuts for being the racist asshole he obviously is, or would you shake his hand and congratulate him for having the great courage to be such a stalwart Freedom Fighter?