This and That
Electric Fetus said:
OH COME ON! there is no chance in hell this is going to go anywhere, stop talking about it will make it go away faster!
Yes, and also no. That is, we can chuckle at petitions from Vermont and Oregon all we want. In Oregon, even more than Washington, if the east wanted out, the west has even less reason to encourage them to stay. But Oregon isn't going anywhere, and some of these folks are simply venting. It's the kind of thing they'll be embarrassed about in five years. You know, down at the pub, everyone will give Bob shit about it:
Remember that time you signed a secession petition? That's on par with the time he fell in love with the fat hooker on his twenty-first birthday.
But in other places, simply dusting these folks off will only piss them off more. Texas is a great example. It's like telling a teenager how cute his angst-driven outrage is. It's patronizing to them in a way that won't go over well. If people tell them they're full of shit, they'll only be more determined to push the cause. If people shrug and say, “Go ahead, leave,” they will.
The biggest argument against Michigan leaving, for instance, is that the Wolverines will never again win the BCS National Championship. The biggest argument against Texas leaving is that within fifty years it will be part of Mexico. In other words, sure, some people are pissed off in Michigan, but give them time and they'll come around to be reasonable. That's something of a gamble with Texas, though. Let it fester, and the disease will demand some sort of treatment.
With Texas, it's like the petty argument with a girlfriend that ends up with someone going to jail for domestic violence. Escalation is easy enough an accident.
• • •
Joepistole said:
Oh I don't know about pride.
Well, yeah, but what president wants to be known for letting the Union fracture? What congressman is going to vote for it? I really am of the opinion that if certain states left, the Union would not simply do fine, but actually do better for not having to carry their larded asses.
On a more serious note, this is just more of what Republican Governor Jindal has called dumbed down conservatism.
There is a certain amount of ignorance inherent to conservatism, just as there is a certain degree of petulance about liberalism.
True, conservatism needs to do something about its incredibly inflated stupid coefficient, but it can never trim that factor down to one. This is demonstrable in the nature of the political rhetoric. The best of liberalism is often complicated compared to its period in history. To wit, trying to explain to a white Southerner how the liberation of slaves would make the society stronger must have been quite the exercise in head versus wall. On the conservative side, though, the response is easy enough because it is simplistic:
They're coming for your wallet! They're coming for your children! They're coming for your Bible! They're coming for your guns!
When fear dependent on ignorance is so powerful a rally cry, it is hard to extinguish the appeal to stupidity.
For instance, as Pam Stenzel explained to her fellow conservative Christians in 2003,
it doesn't matter if it works or not:
At Reclaiming America for Christ, Stenzel told her audience about a conversation she'd had with a skeptical businessman on an airplane. The man had asked about abstinence education's success rate, a question she regarded as risible.
"What he's asking," she said, "is 'does it work?' You know what? Doesn't matter. 'Cause guess what? My job is not to keep teenagers from having sex. The public school's job should not be to keep teens from having sex."
Then her voice rose and turned angry as she shouted, "Our job should be to tell kids the truth!" And I should say that up 'til then, I agreed with her. But here's what she means by the truth:
"People of God," she cried, "can I beg you to commit yourself to truth? Not what works, to truth! I don't care if it works, because at the end of the day, I'm not answering to you. I'm answering to God.
"Let me tell you something, People of God, that is radical, and I can only say it here," she said. "AIDS is not the enemy. HPV and a hysterectomy at twenty is not the enemy. An unplanned pregnancy is not the enemy. My child believing that they can shake their fist in the face of a holy God and sin without consequence, and my child spending eternity separated from God, is the enemy! I will not teach my child that they can sin safely!"
And Stenzel was part of the Bush administration's abstinence education task force at HHS. Her company makes money pushing abstinence education to teenagers;
of course she doesn't care if it works or not. But think of the effect. Condoms in schools? That will lead to teenagers (
gasp!) having sex! Birth control pills through school health facilities? That will lead to teenagers (
gasp!) having sex! Sex education? That will lead to teenagers (
gasp!) having sex! Sure, it doesn't
work, but the fear-based argument is very potent. I mean, to take the Republican primary seriously, protecting young women against viral infection that leads to cervical cancer will lead to teenagers (
gasp!) having sex! The fear relies on ignorance. Ignorance is presently, and has been for generations, integral to the conservative argument.
Liberal appeals to fear are just confusing. I mean, sure, it wasn't just liberals who saw the financial collapse coming; many libertarians and even some conservative economists could see it coming, too. But shouting about American decadence just never made sense to anyone who wasn't a liberal. And, really, appeals to fear don't work if the outcome is that you don't get to kick someone's ass. It was, after all, the liberal “terrorist sympathizers” who correctly suggested that our wars in the Middle East would be problematic quagmires. And what did it take for conservatives to agree? A Democrat in the White House.
The conservative argument presently
requires an excessive stupid coefficient. This is not a quandary I envy of my Republican neighbors. And as we're all in it together, I can only wish them luck. Perhaps I might even think of a few suggestions along the way, but I doubt they'll listen. This one is theirs to figure out. If you are the praying type, then pray for them.
Let the Conservative/Republican drama games begin!
Actually, let them end as quickly as possible. This is, to a certain degree, a predictable flurry of outrage and recrimination; losing parties always go through this eventually if they keep losing long enough. And they do have something to learn about the epistemic closure of the conservative information industry, to be certain. The sooner they figure it out, the better.
. You gotta love it.