Dave Neiwert (Orcinus) accuses me of demonstrating the moral vacuity of the conservative movement for bringing up a popular ‘meme,’ that of the NAACP’s James Byrd dragging commercial:
The hate-crimes debate in 1999, inspired in part by James Byrd’s horrifying murder, included yet another effort to pass an effective law in Texas. The key player: George W. Bush.
Texas already had a hate-crimes law, passed in 1993 — which was in fact the source of the problem. Passed amid a rancorous debate over the inclusion of sexual orientation as a bias category, it was watered down so that law defined a hate crime by referring to the selection of victims “because of the defendant
Francis W. Porretto
“Morally vacuous,” eh? It sounds as if the Left has finally realized that all the tread has worn off its standard vocabulary of denunciation.
The commercial, be it said frankly, was hideous, a shining example of the worst traits of American Leftists: their moral superciliousness; their inability to believe that others with divergent positions might have good reasons for them, or be good and decent people; their concentration on intentions over actions; their fanatic hatred of Republicans and conservatives. But it went beyond all that; it was stupid. It insulted the intelligence of its putative audience. It spent money to embarrass its makers and sponsors, without picking up a vote from even one person who wasn’t already aligned with it.
Ann Coulter did a lovely evisceration of the commercial in Slander: “It isn’t enough that Byrd’s killers were sentenced to death. They have to be found guilty of ‘hate’ and sentenced to anger management classes.”
And I find myself wondering: Should we tell them all this? At this point, they’re disassembling themselves faster than we could ever have hoped. Why not simply watch and enjoy? Or perhaps use a little intellectual judo and help them along in their pell-mell charge toward their own demise?
Decisions, decisions…
Dean
Francis,
For the hardcore Left, I’d agree w/ you—let them stew in their own juices.
But too many people who are NOT hard-core Lefties are exposed to this BS all the time. Friends of mine who are fairly apolitical (and that, of course, is the vast majority of Americans, thank God), BELIEVE this sort of tripe.
Worse, there are many who’ve never seen the ad, but simply hear about it, and then repeat the meme. For many of them, the NAACP is, indeed, non-partisan, apolitical, simply representing a downtrodden, discriminated-against class. Repeat a lie enough times, and all that….
If it really is better to light a single candle rather than curse the darkness, surely it’s better to correct some of these Left-memes than to decry the Left when it wins (and it will, eventually) elections?
blaster
Of course, Texas sentenced those guys to death.
A position the NAACP opposes.
They would have preferred a hate crimes law with a lesser punishment than the perpetrators actually received.
Figure that.
Francis W. Porretto
You have a good point, Dean. My facetiousness gland just kicked in toward the end of the comment. It’s a condition caused by either too much sherry, or not enough. Further experiments, carefully calibrated and recorded for the edification of medical science, are clearly indicated