By MARC MCDONALD
"Anyone care to bet the protagonist is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party (aka nutroot) who is frustrated that Hillary hasn't personally defunded the War in Iraq yet? Might even be a member over at Daily Kos?"
---Rotarymunkey, commenter at MichelleMalkin.com
I have to admit, I never really understood the right-wing sense of humor.
Like when Ronald Reagan joked in 1964 about the 17 million people who then went to bed hungry every night in America, saying that "they were all on a diet."
Or when Rush Limbaugh called 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton a "dog."
Or when George W. Bush yucked it up over the issue of the non-existent WMDs in Iraq during a "comedy" skit in the Oval Office.
I don't know---maybe I just don't have much of a sense of humor, because I saw nothing funny about yesterday's hostage crisis, in which a distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into the campaign office of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.
However, plenty of right-wing folks thought the whole episode was real funny. Take (please) the wingnuts who hang out at the blog of right-wing nutcase Michelle Malkin.
As of Friday night, Malkin's comments section was full of posters who were joking about the crisis and speculating about how the "liberal" media and the Democrats would conspire to spin the episode to Hillary's advantage.
A poster by the name of "Fodder Jack" seemed to find humor in the crisis, writing, "Maybe it is a last ditch effort by the press to get an interview with Hillary."
Another writer called "Reppac122" was (like many across the right-wing blogosphere) already using the occasion to attack the Clintons. "My cynical political thinking here is that the Clintons (yes, both of them) will use this horrible situation for their political benefit."
Another writer, using the handle, "RetFireman," raised the issue of conspiracy: "Now be honest...with all that has come out lately, and I am not saying it is staged, but how many people would be that surprised to find out at some later date that it was? Be honest with yourself, and consider who we are talking about."
Commenter "Eric CharlotteNC" sarcastically mocked Liberals in his post. "If our troops weren't in Iraq this never would have happened! Or maybe global warming got this guy very hot!"
"Blacktygrrrr" added his own two cents: "The bottom line is if the hostage taker is a liberal, he will be dismissed as deranged, since many liberals are deranged anyway."
"Rotarymunkey" had this to say: "Anyone care to bet the protagonist is a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party (aka nutroot) who is frustrated that Hillary hasn't personally defunded the War in Iraq yet? Might even be a member over at Daily Kos?"
And so it goes, on and on.
Of course, none of this comes as much of a surprise to those of us who are at all familiar with the vicious hatemongering in the right-wing blogosphere.
The scary thing is Malkin's blog supposedly has a policy of screening out "offensive" remarks. If the above comments weren't screened out, one can only wonder what truly deranged nutcase comments were deleted. The mind boggles.
I'm sure there are those who would argue that Malkin isn't responsible for the deranged posters who comment on her blog. But anyone familiar with Malkin's own writings knows that she herself is a truly psychotic nutcase whose babblings over the years have been far scarier than any of the comments above.
As prominent Malkin critic Glenn Greenwald pointed out, Malkin once wrote a book "defending the ethnicity-based imprisonment of innocent American citizens in internment camps."
As media watchdog site Media Matters pointed out, the mainstream media has given, on numerous occasions in the past, significant coverage to episodes in which controversial comments appeared on progressive blogs.
How much do you want to bet that the MSM ignores the right-wing hatemongering that appeared in the aftermath of the Clinton office hostage crisis?
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6 comments:
Speaking of Bush's comedy skit on the non-existent WMD, I recall that the mainstream corporate media that was present at the time yukked it up and thought it was a real hoot.
These are the same people, who, a year later sat silent through Stephen Colbert's truly brilliant comedy skit and barely even bothered to mention in their coverage of the event the next day.
I remember there was an episode recently in which there were controversial remarks posted on the Huffington Post blog. The media gave this lots of attention. Will they pay any attention to this latest case, in which the wingnuts have been making light of the Hillary Clinton office hostage story?
Now I remember why I avoid neocon blogs, and Fox Noise, and that Glen Beck creature, and Limbaugh, and Coulter and Malkin.
This is a very angry country these days...angrier than I've ever seen it. I remember the day Kennedy was killed, hearing about a high school class in Dallas where the kids stood up and cheered when they heard that Kennedy was dead, and I was nearly as shocked at that as I was at the actual assassination. Now people are laughing about the terror that those hostages went through in New Hampshire yesterday and I'm no longer shocked...only disgusted and heartsick.
I've read comments on liberal blogs that are shameful...and I suppose because Huffington Post is so popular, it draws in the trolls. If you read much of the comments on Huff-Po, it's like a bunch of immature brats trying to out-gross each other. I've read (and think it's very possibly true) that some of these people are being paid to keep stirring the pot.
There's a lot of ugliness in this world, and it isn't all about politics. There's been a story on the news for several days now...I haven't caught the whole thing, but it's about some teenage girl who killed herself because of things that some "boy" said to her online. And that "boy" turned out to be the MOTHER of some kid. How sick is that?
I don't think this anger and hatred is going to go away for a very long time, if ever, and I feel so sad for my country.
Your quote about me (reppac122) was out of context and disingenuous. I am not a "right wing" nutjob as you claim. I am a conservative, but I am very interested in the free and open exchange of ideas among people of differing political persuasions. There were people making comments about how the Clintons staged the hostage taking. I don't think any sane person believes that anyone would arrange such a horrible thing. However, you must concede all politics is spin, no matter what happens. I don't like seeing cynical politics, but it has become very common in today's political climate. You can take my comments for what they are worth, but you are doing a real disservice to your readers by partially copying and pasting my comments. Cynical politics will destroy both the left and right.
This was my full quote in fairness:
"He wants to talk to Hillary? Well, that’s not going to happen. My cynical political thinking here is that the Clintons (yes, both of them) will use this horrible situation for their political benefit. I know…it sounds completely horrible, and I hate even mentioning it especially when people’s lives are in danger. I am sure the Clintons are horrified as well, but in the dark recesses of their “war room”, people are plotting already how to make this benefit Mrs. Bill Clinton."
Hi, Cranky Daze, thanks for your comments. Yes, we live in polarized times. It seems like the current wave of polarization started during the Clinton era. I remember talking to right-wingers in the 90s and it was unbelievable, their depth of hatred. And unlike those of us who hate Bush for very real reasons, the right-wingers' hatred of Clinton was based on phony, non-existent reasons. (I mean, does anyone out there---even the right-wing nutcases STILL believe that Clinton murdered Vince Foster?).
Actually, if there are any lurking right-wingers out there---don't answer that. I'm sure that there are plenty of right-wing nutcases who still believe this.
Hello, Steve, thanks for stopping by.
Well, I'll grant you, I excerpted part of your quote, not the whole thing....but I would dispute that it was taken "out of context."
The part I excerpted still means the same thing (whether or not one reads the entire quote).
Also, you mention that you don't like "cynical politics"---well, I certainly hope that you aren't believing anything that you read on the blog of that crazy Nazi nutcase, Michelle Malkin.
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