Easter has become the Evangelical winter solstice.
It’s that date on which professions of faith and the actual practice of that faith are the farthest apart.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) March 29, 2018
.
All vernal equinox festivals tend to celebrate the new, the young, and the throwing off of outworn properties to make way for fresh growth — things bound to raise hives on conservative hides at the best of times. But to those rightwingers raised in the Christian tradition, where Easter is (believe it or not!) the most sacred Holy Day, it’s gotta be especially irksome. Scripture preaches that the literal embodiment of the One True Father God allowed himself to be captured, manhandled, and murdered by the government. Bad enough that the totally-within-their-rights civil authorities and their licensed security thugs should be cast as being on the wrong side… however can they reconcile this “Prince of Peace” pussified Jesus with the Flaming Sword Wrongness Punisher of their hearts’ desire?
(Of course, my own understanding here was strongly influenced by parochial school nuns who put a lot of stress on the deliberate pacifism of Easter Week, for reasons. In 1968/72, explaining to a bunch of sullen teenagers who considered their NORAID donor buttons the height of political correctness that St. Peter deserved to be rebuked for whipping out his sword at Gethsemane can’t have been easy.)
Modern pop culture isn’t easy for our ‘conservative’ opposites to enjoy, either — every time they think they’ve found a good violent shoot-em-up to applaud, mouthy Lie-brals start pointing out how ‘oppressed young special-needs minority types’ are shown more sympathetically than ‘the duly appointed legal authorities’. But ya gotta give them points for trying!…
"It’s worth remembering that Hogwarts, as an entity, was armed to the freaking teeth." https://t.co/S3rPXyt0MK via @HeatherWilhelm pic.twitter.com/Bmna8i3fvQ
— National Review (@NRO) March 29, 2018
Legalize magic. Ok, sure. https://t.co/i8lRsx5Mtf
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 31, 2018
but like, they didn't win because they were armed? They won because the main guy literally let the evil wizard kill him?
I'm not sure you guys have thought this through.
— ROU Do Not Congratulate (@braak) March 30, 2018
It's also worth remembering that the kids spend seven years learning how to use the wands responsibly. Furthermore are prohibited from using them outside of school.
— George Offley (@georgeoffley) March 30, 2018
However, if we've fallen into this dystopian fantasy where we need to train child soldiers we've got other problems.
— George Offley (@georgeoffley) March 30, 2018
Also worth remembering:
Its fiction. https://t.co/7pK941VOgW
— Kragar (@Kragar_LGF) March 30, 2018
Ya know what’s fun?
Watching the right wing folks learn the hard way that they were never good at social media.
It was just the pre-election army of bots and trolls that made it seem that way.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) March 30, 2018
Corner Stone
Do they care for roundball?
Corner Stone
Plenty of Good Guys with wands got dead by Bad Guys with wands in HP. Also too, magic.
Corner Stone
Has NRO ever had a good take? On anything?
NotMax
Sessions as house-elf. Me likey.
Corner Stone
@NotMax: Trump keeps trying to give him a sock hidden in a book but Sessions doesn’t read and refuses to be set free.
Baud
That fact is, in fact, not worth remembering. It is not useful to understanding the story or any of the real world social issues we are facing.
Another Scott
Water is wet.
In other news, Happy Cesar Chavez Day. TeamPelosi:
Sounds good to me.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
Sigh. I remember the good old days when Evangelical dopes wanted to ban the Harry Potter novels because they were un Christian.
And these dopes just can’t learn. The only thing dumber than going after the Parkland activists is going after Harry Potter. This will only rile up a generation who have grown up with the novels and films and know their Canon.
But what the fuck, these right wing dopes might as well go on about the Jedi right to bear light sabers, and insult somebody’s momma using Klingon.
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: I’m sorry. I can accept magic being real, but Trump just giving something away? No way that could possibly happen.
NotMax
@Another Scott
It’s also World Backup Day.
Redshift
I also liked the responses pointing out that wands are necessary for doing all kinds of magic, including purely defensive spells, whereas guns can only be defensive by shooting it threatening to shoot the other guy. And also that spells that cause death are strictly regulated, and in most cases using them will get you put away for life.
Matt McIrvin
Hogwarts was an incredibly dangerous place to go to school, and was the site of an enormous battle at the climax of the narrative that left a whole bunch of students and faculty dead. And most of the violent fascists who were responsible for that came out of Hogwarts itself.
Redshift
@dmsilev: Giving away reading material? In order to fire someone without doing it face to face? Yeah, I can believe that.
Mnemosyne
If you end up spending Easter with Catholic relatives who start bitching about the Parkland kids, ask them why they oppose Pope Francis’s teachings about youth leaders on Palm Sunday. Pope Francis specifically addressed the March for Our Lives from the day before and praised the teen organizers as continuing Jesus’s work.
You may need to duck to avoid the exploding heads.
lamh36
Is it that time again…my yearly live-watch of the #TenCommandments…why yes…yes it is! Ya know its been YEARS since I’ve watched the movie from the beginning…it’s kinda a slow drag until BBAE Yul Brynner steps in as Ramses…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not a huge Kathy Griffin fan, but I would pay for this tweet. I hope Sylvester’s Brother sees it
pretty sure he also said somebody should “sucker punch” Hogg
Just One More Canuck
@NotMax: he’s too small – more like a pixie
scav
The far right in England are up in arms in a high panic over chocolate eggs — those sine qua non icons of jebus based perfection — being denied them. Easter egg truthers: the annual religious row over chocolate Worse, chocolate is halal!!! And the supply may be threatened by Brexit!!!! Chocolate meltdown.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Good tweet. She got much worse than she deserved.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: I haven’t heard my fundie Catholic aunts, or only slightly less devout cousins, weigh in on Francis, but one of my father’s old friends (died a year or so ago at 90) said early on that he missed Benedict.
Scalia once said, in so many words, that the Pope is only infallible when he agrees with me.
NotMax
@lamh36
Will wait for the musical version, directed by Baz Luhrmann.
/early April Fool’s
MomSense
This is as bad as when Republicans talk about how much they love Springsteen. Then there was the time Cruz read Green Eggs and Ham somehow missing the point of the story. They are lacking in comprehension skills.
Baud
@scav:
The left in UK isn’t doing so hot right now.
BBC
Josie
@lamh36: Yeah, I never could understand how that woman could prefer Charlton Heston to Yul Brynner.
RSA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, Scalia was a cafeteria Catholic, at least when it came to capital punishment.
Baud
@Josie:
She liked his staff.
Duane
It seems republicans really like the Harry Potter series. Trey Gowdy does a great Draco Malfoy impersonation. Having wrote that, I’m sorry for insulting a fictional character.
Gvg
The HP thought that occurred to me is that Voldemort lost against the government on his first try to take over, so on his second, he snuck into controlling the government first. Civil rights era to Trump/Sessions. Yuck.
Jeffro
I saw in our local paper that one of the local wing nuts (one of the few remaining in NoVA, one would assume) took the time to write to the editor tying the Parkland kids to…wait for it, waaaait for it…that dastardly Valerie Jarrett!! YES!!
It’s important to ‘work the refs’ and bombard the folks who think they are doing good by publishing ‘alternate viewpoints’. Publishing something pro-gun, whatever the hell that is, is one thing; publishing conspiracy theories is another.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
“conservative Catholics” have no problem ignoring the Pope or Church doctrine, and yet, still claiming they are Catholics.
Josie
@Baud: Lol. And I really did laugh out loud. I am still laughing.
Jay Noble
@Mnemosyne: I know several fairly devout Catholics who truly don’t like Pope Francis. They want a proper Pope like they had in the 60’s.
Hungry Joe
Going to a food-only Seder tomorrow: traditional eats, no ceremony. When I was a kid our family Seders lasted fifteen minutes before dinner and ten (tops) afterwards. About 20 years ago I went to one that lasted two hours before dinner and 90 minutes after. Every passage was discussed and argued over, every song was sung. It was endless; sometimes I feel like I’m still there. The kicker: THE BRISKET WAS DRY. Haven’t attended the real thing since. I figure that with the time I put in that one evening, my peeps can now make it out of Egypt every year without me.
efgoldman
This is weird. A 72 year old Jewish atheist rooting for a 98 year old nun
NotMax
@Just One More Canuck
No idea what size they’re supposed to be. Never read the books, never saw the films. The entire mythos holds zero attraction for me.
However, the Dixie Pixie works, too.
Jeffro
Btw not sure if folks talked about this earlier today, but OK teachers are not just underpaid and ready to walk out (even though they just – technically – got a raise)…
…some of them are also, shall we say, a little shortsighted?
Then maybe you’d better transcend right the fuck over to the Democratic column, Bohn my man. Figure it out or shut the hell up.
scav
@Baud: England is rather comforting in demonstrating we’re not alone in this, although it does rather raise troublesome thoughts about being an anglophone.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
: : confused-dog-face emoticon : :
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know who Sylvester’s Brother is, but I’m still shaking my head over Ted Nugent’s declaration that the Parkland students are “soulless.”
Citizen Alan
@Corner Stone:
The very first editorial published in the very first issue of National Review was a pro-Jim Crow piece by Buckley himself. So no, they’ve always been like this.
Jager
@Hungry Joe: An entire family of lawyers?
Jay
@Jeffro:
LMFAO, being “compared to” or “linked to” a highly sucessful WOC is considered “dastardly” by the deplorables?
They really are moron’s.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Since it was brought up with the tweet above:
Would Voldemort, if he had won at Hogwarts, have been able to take over the Muggle world?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: “recording artist” Frank Stallone.
John Revolta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @RSA: I never heard the comment, and I don’t know the context, and I still hate Scalia’s guts, but…………..as far as the law of the land goes, he was right.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ah, Fredo the Lesser.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And yet those exact same people sneer that any Catholics who disagree with them are “cafeteria Catholics” because they pick and choose which teachings to follow.
Le sigh.
Joe Miller
@debbie: My view on sewer rat/rapist/child molester/draft dodger/gutless coward Nugent:
http://jamillerrampant.blogspot.com/2007/07/ted-nugent-talentless-right-wing-liar.html
Jim Parish
@Jay Noble: Early ’60s, or late ’60s? John, or Paul?
scav
@scav: Oh, and I in no way find Eddie Izzard a sign of any problem with the English left. The situation that led to Shawcroft’s quitting is far far more problematic and they don’t seem to be doing themselves any favors or winning points by grace, style or smoothness of execution.
Mnemosyne
@Jay Noble:
A new John XXIII to re-liberalize the RCC with Vatican III? I would be on board with that.
But I suspect that’s not what they mean. ?
Jay
“It’s not clear if Manjoo is a compulsive tweeter, a compulsive liar, or just another example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. I laughed and awaited the New York Times’ mea culpa. Which, astonishingly, never came.
According to CJR, a Times spokesperson said, “The paper doesn’t view his assertion as a falsehood, and won’t be issuing a correction.”
That kind of journalism, in a nutshell, is why I dumped my New York Times subscription more than a year ago. And why so many newspapers enjoy such a bad reputation. They are frequently, as Stephen Colbert would say, truthy.”
https://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2018/03/27/How-Times-Shrugged-Falsehood/
Eric S.
@efgoldman: This 46 year old always atheist is right there with you.
'Niques (lurker; occasional commenter)
@Jay: Look how many “Christians” ignore the teachings of Christ. It’s how they do things .
. . pick a name or title that polls well and use it for cover.
John Revolta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Izzard’s been a very strong Labor supporter for many years and very pro-EU. It’s a good choice.
(Unless of course there’s a photo of him pretending to grope a lady’s breasts 20 years ago lurking around somewhere /s)
Jeffro
@Jay: I really hate to even think about what goes on in their minds, but it’s something like
1) No way could some white male teen be anti-gun…or be part of organizing something this big this fast…or be eating our lunch like this…
2) Jarrett is a major fixation on the Right…Obama’s puppeteer…basically Lex Luthor with hair and melanin and without, oh, a you-know…
It’d be funnier if these folks weren’t so absolutely nuts.
Jeffro
@Joe Miller: Someone should set off a few loud firecrackers in Ted’s vicinity, and then please also get video of the wet stain spreading on his pants…such a bold specimen of American masculinity!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Jay:
I disagree with this. David Brooks writes reasonably well. Doesn’t mean he isn’t full of shit or has anything useful to say.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
That would be worth the time and any effort necessary.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
That may be the on the low end on the list of their problems.
Jay
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I don’t read Brooks, or Noonan, or Sully, or any of those clowns. I read driftglass, NoMoreMisterNiceBlog and The Rectification of Names, so I don’t have to concern my beautiful mind with the FTFNYT Opinion Page, and I get my Krugman elsewhere.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Jay:
I was criticising the author of the piece you linked to. Should have made that clear.
RSA
@John Revolta: @John Revolta:
I meant this:
I agree that a Justice shouldn’t be beholden to the views of foreign leaders (to put the situation in secular terms) but I also think that this was special pleading on Scalia’s part. It’s pretty clear that the Catholic Church, from the Pope at least down to the U.S. Bishops, opposes capital punishment. Most Catholics are cafeteria Catholics (if we were to take a survey on, say, premarital sex, contraception, divorce, gay marriage…) which is fine, but Scalia was pretty self-righteous.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Short sighted?
Can you say blinded by stupidity?
I know cause and effect is a anti conservative doctrine but still…..
WereBear
Eh. He takes one idea and repeats it endlessly. He makes stuff up. He’s inconsistent and a whiner.
Understands grammar. That’s all I will give him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also part of a political movement that maintains that if the secular law doesn’t conform to their religious beliefs (on abortion and marriage), that they are the victims of religious discrimination.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
IIRC, what Jarratt is known for is being a political connector — she has a huge Rolodex that she uses to connect people to others who are on the same side of an issue but don’t know each other.
That’s why having her get involved scares the shit out of the right wing. She can put all of the disparate gun control groups in touch with each other and create a juggernaut. It’s what she does.
NotMax
Because it is Passover, time for the annual link to the Rube Goldberg seder.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Er, thanks, I think.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I gave out a Rube Goldberg award when someone would find the most difficult and/or least safe way to do anything in the shop. It was not often an appreciated award. But several times it was richly deserved.
raven
Cheer up Sister Jean!!!
NMgal
@NotMax: thanks for that, much fun and shared
schrodingers_cat
FDR : Fear nothing but fear itself
DJT: Fear everything and crap your pants
What happened, America?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro:
That’s terribly un-civil…(fans self)…calls for fainting couch.
BillinGlendaleCA
@scav:
I use Android.
Jay Noble
@Jim Parish: John
BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim Parish: Ringo.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Did you make that one up? Excellent!
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Yes, I did. Thanks!
Schlemazel
When do Harry and his chums shout, “WOLVERINES” ?
Jeffro
@Mnemosyne: I think maybe 10% of wing nuts fear her for that reason and the other 90% fear her because she is a powerful black woman
Another Scott
In other, other news… OrenDorell:
(Face-Palm)
I hope Mueller is keeping track. Grrr…
(via LOLGOP on Twitter)
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: Valerie Jarrett is a genius then. Rightwingers haven’t been able to argue against sensible gun control so they vigorously throw mud at the Parkland students and their supporters. It’s not working out so well for them. Sad.
patrick II
That struck home for me. I was listening to Rush’s vacation replacement (some RWNJ) who was talking about how clear and important it was that “Red Sparrow” (Jennifer Lawrence’s new movie) showed how terrible and ruthless communist russia was.
Confusing fiction with reality seems to be an important RW quality.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Stable genius that Trump fella.
(Wiiilllbbbeeer…)
Patricia Kayden
@Another Scott: Wow! Putin’s Puppet, indeed. There is no way that Putin doesn’t have dirt on Trump.
raven
@Schlemazel: Fuck Michigan!!
NMgal
@schrodingers_cat: QFT. I don’t get what happened. Since 2001 when the pants-pissing took off in spades (to mix some metaphors), I’ve felt marginalized in my own country in this arena. Who are these pansies? Apparently a solid plurality, if not more.
SiubhanDuinne
A propos of nothing much, I am currently locking horns (so to speak) in a PM group with one of the gloomiest, most negative Eeyores I’ve ever known. I love him as a friend/ former colleague, but Jesus Christ is he depressing. Finally called him on it a few minutes ago.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Come on raven, the trees are the right height there.
BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Does he know about your side job as a Mob Enforcer?
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t like Pac-!2 teams, I fucking HATE Michigan. Always have and always will.
Schlemazel
@Jay:
And refuse communion to gays and pro-choice folks.
It is so damned convenient that God believes everything I believe!
MomSense
@NMgal:
Republicans are using fear to manipulate the population. No one makes good decisions when they are fearful. Bush and the GOP used fear of terrorism to justify all kinds of horrible policies.
Joyce Harmon
Hey, who’s keeping the betting books on whether Trump’s handlers can keep him off the golf course on Easter Sunday? I’m betting No.
Another Scott
@MomSense: +1
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
People are going to feel whatever they feel. Some people are naturally like the deeply bitter and cynical Jacques in “As You Like It.”
I don’t know. Maybe you can find common ground in matters of analysis or details, if not conclusions.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Joyce Harmon: Are there books for him showing up at a church on Easter Sunday?
Mandalay
@scav:
Without remotely excusing the doofus who posted about the Holocaust being a hoax, the situation with regard to anti-semitism in Britain is very different. Israel is widely seen as “the good guy” in the US, and many politicians on both sides are fiercely supportive of Israel. Support for the Palestinians in the US is negligible, and seeing anyone on TV supporting the Palestinian cause is a very rare event.
Not so in Britain (and Europe in general). There is much stronger support for Palestinians, and the policies of the Israeli government are frequently criticized and deplored. The obvious peril with that position, which is frequently exploited by those of doubtful character in Britain, is to meld opposition to Israel’s government with anti-Semitism. (In contrast, it’s worth noting that I have never seen those who opposed the Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe being tagged as racist, or those who oppose the Iranian government being tagged as anti-Muslim.)
The same situation does not arise here because hardly anyone in politics or the media dares to openly criticize Israel.
The Lodger
@raven: What does it mean…
Schlemazel
@raven:
Apparently you missed my jibe
In a fictional world were a handful of kids can defeat the entire Soviet Army, Harry and his chums can all conceal carry and this proves the wingnuts correct.
Aleta
@NMgal: White upper class guys have always used fear as a way to control non-whites, most women, queers, and the physically/mentally/economically vulnerable.
The Lodger
@The Lodger: to a daydream believer or a homecoming queen?
Brachiator
@Joyce Harmon:
Are they doing a White House Easter Egg hunt this year?
Another Scott
@Joyce Harmon: Reports are he’s spending “the long weekend” at Xanadu. He spent 7 hours playing golf today, at least some of it with Hannity. I guess we’ll be hearing that Hannity is going to be appointed to the head ATF or something within a couple of weeks.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@The Lodger: Here she be. . .
Another Scott
@Brachiator: Yup. On Monday.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Patricia Kayden: Right. They know the kids are untouchable and are totally owning them on social media…so of COURSE the kids must be in thrall to us evil progressive older folks, Jarrett most especially.
I guess the kids get SorosMicroChecks? Or maybe they just get paid in ‘likes’ on SnapBook and InstaWhatever?
Amir Khalid
@Corner Stone:
Whatever else he may be, Donald Trump is no Harry Potter.
Schlemazel
@raven:
Did you see my reply about your misunderstanding the wolverine comment?
I was unaware they are still playing squeekball this late in the year.
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: They also get Obamophones and lifetime supplies of T-bone steaks and caviar paid for by welfare checks.
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: Harry Potter is fiction, but more to the point, it’s fiction that does not at all support or advocate any right-wing ideas, and in fact is steadfastly opposed to most of them. The bad guys are specifically a movement of bigots devoted to wizard supremacy with a hierarchy of blood purity, and their rule is fascism. Rowling is not remotely subtle about this.
Amir Khalid
The March For Our Lives kids aren’t merely cosplaying Harry Potter. They’ve taken its ideals to heart and its story as a blueprint for organisation and action. They’ve learned from Harry’s many mistakes along the way, like Harry himself had to. It sounds facile to say that Harry is their Jesus, but I think that it is arguably true.
Shana
@Jeffro: link please
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
And she won’t be subtle when she tweets back about how they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about and how they should shove a wand up their asses and spun on it.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: The house elf has to be given a piece of clothing by his master. Not HP.
Amir Khalid
@Corner Stone:
Point conceded.
ChristianPinko
Morgan Guyton at Patheos had a good blog post where he said that the important day for white American evangelicals now is Good Friday — the day when Jesus supposedly paid for our sins with his blood. In this theology, Easter becomes (to use Guyton’s phrase) the confirmation e-mail that the payment went through. It’s actually caused me to rethink the idea of how Jesus saves us.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Would this make Neville Longbottom Saint Peter?
catclub
@Jay Noble:
John 23????
catclub
@ChristianPinko: Some might say that both the crucifixion and the resurrection are necessary. Rating which is most important is silly.
catclub
@Jeffro:
Is the mascot of SnapFace a crocodile?
Jeffro
@Shana: Here you go…but…it looks like they’re posting letters to the editor/op-eds online about two weeks after they are in the print version, so you won’t see the one I was referencing upthread.
When you do see it online, it’ll be a letter to the editor written by a “C. W. Trauernicht” from McLean, entitled “Student Pawns In a Dangerous Game of Chess”. It makes references to kids being used by Mao Zedong and Adolf Hiter, as you might imagine. And goes looking for a “king and queen on the chessboard”
Here’s the last paragraph – see if you can guess who the ‘king and queen’ are:
Jeffro
@Jeffro: whoops, sorry Shana, here’s the link
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
I don’t really know enough about the New Testament to answer that, but it seems at least partly applicable as a comparison.
Ladyraxterinok
William Lindsey at his blog bilgrimage.blogspot.com incorporates Union Theological Seminary’ tweets stating that you can’t understand Easter if you do not see the similarity between the crucified body of Jesus and the bullet-riddled bodies of young black men. In each case, they were killed by govermental agencies wanting to remove a perceived threat and send a warning to other ‘trouble-makers’.
This view perhaps makes tomorrow’s NBC live production of Jesus Christ Superstar (8-10pmET) with John Legend in the title role particularly intriging.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ladyraxterinok: I am going to say no. Per Christian thought: Jesus was called into being to be sacrificed and he went through great personal pain accepting this, but he did. Trayvon Martin went to a convenience store to get some candy and a drink. Then some racist killed him.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
I should add that social activism has been a prominent part of Harry Potter fandom for at least the past decade.
Ian R
@Amir Khalid: He reminds me a lot of a less brave Peter Pettigrew, though.
Lyrebird
@Jeffro:
Well at least it’s not the NoVa of a few decades ago, when that kind of view got you elected to represent the area in congress. Okay I read that page and found out that Stan Parris actually did several useful things for country and community. But racist as all get-out? check. Conspiracist regarding “those people”? check.
Original Lee
Today has been a frustrating day for me. I’ve seen the Hogg-as-Hitler photo and the “Hitler banned guns to protect the children, too” articles appear on the extreme right wing of my FB page and gradually spread over to the little old ladies who go to church twice on Sundays. An aunt who actually lived in Germany under Hitler who remarked that Orange Spanky reminded her of Hitler got sandbagged by aggressive wingnut cousins. And then there’s a bunch of high school classmates who have spent the last THREE days complaining about what a rude entitled brat young Mr. Hogg is. I’m seriously considering unfriending almost everybody, because I’m having trouble dealing with folk who suddenly think it’s perfectly OK to Godwin every single discussion about gun control.
Ohio Mom
@Omnes Omnibus: IANAA but it seems to me that all African Americans spend their lives grappling with being, for lack of a better word, terrorized, even as they know they are innocent, and even as they know that to allow themselves be consumed with hate and fear over this will only diminish their own lives.
They live knowing they very well might be sacrificed. Okay, it won’t be for a noble reason, as Christianity teaches about Jesus’s death, but it will be a sacrifice on the altar of white racism.
Isn’t that part of Christianity, to identify with Jesus? To try to live your life as well as he did, to use him as an example as you cope with your “crosses to bear”?
Mnemosyne
@Original Lee:
I was saying in one of the other threads (or maybe this one) that some adults are really pissed off that the Parkland kids are not sticking to their proper place in the hierarchy. It’s supposed to be Adults Over Kids, Men Over Women, Whites Over Everyone Else. And those darn kids just refuse to get with the program!
Or, to put it even more simply: their (moral) authority is being questioned, and they’re pissed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ohio Mom: Knowing sacrifice v. getting killed for just being there. Yeah, it’s the same thing. Right.
Citizen Alan
@Schlemazel:
I’m still waiting on a remake of Red Dawn in which plucky latte drinking liberals on the east and west coasts have to take back the country after it has been betrayed by gun humping rednecks in the flyover states who welcomed to our new Soviet overlords because they promised to put the blacks, the gays, and the uppity women back in their place.
Citizen Alan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh for fucks sake, it’s a metaphor.
matt
@Jeffro: Facebook being crap is now complemented by the dead sure knowledge that Facebook is evil.
Spaniel
Years ago, someone on the conservative side of the blogosphere compared the need to stop weapons of mass destruction because of what was seen on the television show “24”. It has been so many years ago that I cannot remember or find on the internet that flub article (strikingly similar to this). This article written was written during the GWB administration.
Xenos
@Citizen Alan: they would not liberate the country with guns, but with ieds
Enhanced Voting Techniques
NRO, those are the guys who think Fallout 3, a game were America was reduced to a radioactive wasteland filled with monsters and roving bands of cannibals, is the perfect Libertarian game because you can open carry and use drugs.
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@Spaniel: There was the late and contemptible Scalia who was arguing for torture based on the show 24.
All these serious REAL Americans (as in white, Republican male) I’ve meet have the common characteristic they think with a TV.
Matt
I dunno why they’d even want to bring up Harry Potter, given that the most obviously conservative character (Umbrage) was literally colluding with the enemy and imposing conservative policies specifically to help him…
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@Matt: Yes, but knowing the NRO they would argue Umbrage is really a liberal. While I doubt even that pack of Glideratians are so far gone as to argue Voldermort was some kind of Libertarian ubermesch creator oppressed by gimmie parasites like Poter (since for one thing Voldermort is bald, and that’s a key point in Libertarianism), Conservatism can only be failed and all that.