Saturday, June 18, 2011

Fightin' words I tells ya!

You haven't heard too much from me over the past two months- and for good reason. I solidified my cocoon, and had an extended time of introspection; yes, Lauren put me in timeout to think about what I had done. Alas, I am back, pouring what little I have to offer into the Blogosphere. Let us begin.

If you don't have the time to read this, just go get a bit of foil and chew on it- this will essential produce the same sensation. 

Our topic of the day:  Scare Words!

Think back to grade school, circa October 29th. You are ten years old and just got back from your fifteenth recess of the day. You are sipping high fructose grape drink when the teacher assigns you your last bit of work before the three day Halloween weekend. You must write a scaaary story, and the key is to use descriptive words, or "scare words", to captivate your 4th grade audience.

  Bam! 

The corn sugar rushes through your veins; pupils dilated, you shake as you formulate a plan to produce the most bitchin' Halloween story any Fourth grader has ever written. You look over at your classmates; ghosts, headless horsemen, zombies. Your immature sebaceous glands make pathetic attempts to sweat. You glance up at your teacher, Mr. Flynn, casually reading World Magazine, when it hits you. It is obvious what you must do- and that is start off with a bang.

You bring the tip of your refillable pencil to the paper. 

The full moon lit the entire graveyard- but in the shadows lurked a...

You shake with frenzy and anticipation, knowing Mr. Flynn will be scared shitless.

h...

Your mind is racing but you focus on bringing it home.

om...

You lean over and whisper in your best friends ear, she replies with the information you need.

osexual. 

That's right a gay man, and he is talking to a secularist about abortion rights!

Ok, so I jest. Obviously not all people reading a conservative Christian publication will get spooked over queers and godless liberals, but many do. In fact, so much so that since Joseph McCarthy screamed "Communists!", Republicans have built a campaign model around fear. 

Guess what? It works. The Pew Research center has data that supports the notion that if you are an atheist you are still unelectable. Tough news if you are gay as well. Brown? Things are looking up, but you're still fucked. This is what rhetoric does. It strips a significant portion of people from their ability to think critically about who runs their country.

I cannot understand the rationality that goes into supporting a party of bigots. If you are a woman, poor, Hispanic, Hindu, gay, or any other minority, I hate to say it, but you are stigmatized by the Right. If you are a minority you are not viewed as an equal and your life is intrinsically less valuable. But the Republicans are able to manipulate and scare and create tension within minorities. The Mexicans are worried about the Muslims who are worried about the queers- and we are all competing while the GOP laughs and spews more propaganda, further continuing this cycle. 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich labeled Obama a "national secular European socialist."
You read correctly; this is how bad it has become- they are trying to scare their base by using words that are not scary. Our government is secular. Deal with it. Socialism has been in practice in the United States since the first rail road tracks were regulated and made public. Deal with it.

Newt "The Fucking cancer of society" Gingrich is unjustified with his scare tactic. He negatively marks secularity as if that isn't a Constitutional cornerstone that separates us from being a theocracy of any kind. Honestly, why even throw 'European' in there? Most of them are doing better than us, so his point just becomes muddy. But what really irks me is that he, along with many others, still conflate socialism with communo-fascism. And that is wrong.

That is all for the night. At this point I am just rambling. Good night, y'all.


2 comments:

  1. it's funny how the UK is much more secular in practice than the USA even though you guys have separation of church and state in your constitution and we have a monarch who is also head of the church of england...

    one thing i looked for years ago and couldn't be bothered researching and setting up myself was a website dedicated to telling people how to take advantage of religious special legalities - e.g. i think you can register for free with the universal life church and then declare your house is a place of worship and get out of paying some taxes.
    you wanna set this up!?

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  2. It is a strange phenomena that the US is more enmeshed with religion, politically. However, I think you guys may have just had more time to rid yourself of it.

    As far as tax laws go, I would like to do that... BUT, I am living in a rental. I think the applicable laws are property laws, and that would really only affect my landlord.

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