Contributors

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Sarah Palin Comment

Next time you are at a party, try this.

Make a negative comment about Sarah Palin (as I did recently) and watch America in 2010 unfold in all its vomitous glory. Several people will chime in agreeing with you and others will go further and make incredibly awful comments. Wherever negative comments about Sarah Palin occur, you can make damn sure that, however bad they are, like water to one of Spielberg's Gremlins, supporters will sprout up everywhere. This is the genius of how the Right operates. They know of this "gremlin" effect well and use it at every turn.

Whatever the truth is doesn't really matter. For someone like me this is an extremely nauseating and highly frustrating extension of discussions regarding George W. Bush or racism. These also sprout gremlins. It doesn't matter that Bush was an awful president who created the majority of problems we have today (which Obama is blamed for, of course) because Bush bashing is like so gauche and awful and stuff! Enough already with it, right? Call someone a racist and you'll get the stock line "Accusing someone of racism destroys the argument and unfairly labels someone to the point of no return" or something like that. Worse, you'll get claims of counter racism and howls of wise Latinas. Gremlins...gremlins everywhere!

Never mind the fact that the person was probably, in fact, a racist. They have built in armor now to protect them against the race mongers. And it's courtesy of the douche bags who continually seek to perpetuate a culture of no responsibility and never, under any circumstances, self actualization. The gremlin assembly line is always live!

Yet, throwing out the Sarah Palin comment is something everyone should do at least once. It's important to do so because it lets you know how far down the drain our country has swirled. People that try to make our country better (Obama, Pelosi, Reid, anyone named Kennedy) want to kill our grandmothers. People who, as Matt Taibbi recently described LeBron James, "are landmarks in self involvement" and "attention craving narcissistic monsters who simultaneously despise and need the slithering insect mortals by the millions to lick their toes" (Sarah Palin) are actually fighting to save our country and restore it to what our founding fathers envisioned. After all, only Palin knows what the Constitution really means, right?

Her competence, intelligence, and intellectual capacity DO NOT MATTER. After all, President Obama is no different in our Alice-in-Wonderland perception of reality, those pesky gremlins insist. There's an argument to made for anything these days in our wonderful Idiocracy.

In looking at the evolution from Bush to Palin, the depths to which we will sink seem never ending. The gremlins grow more and more powerful indeed.

32 comments:

Haplo9 said...

Translation of the word gremlin as Mark uses it: people who don't think like me, and don't like the people I like as much as I think they should.

It just cracks me up when you dump on Palin, because you always try to state that it is objectively true that Obama/Pelosi/Reid are better, more worthy people. Um yeah, if you're a partisan Democrat. Still don't understand the notion of other people having different priors than you, do you..

Damn Teabaggers said...

Short version:

Dissent isn't patriotic when it's you doing it.

GuardDuck said...

Sucks to be a bitter clinger when those around you start to speak truth to power doesn't it Mark?

6Kings said...

People that try to make our country better (Obama, Pelosi, Reid, anyone named Kennedy)..

Wow, anything else in this post that could have been valuable (there isn't) is overshadowed by this laughable and completely out of touch comment. You really need to get off the KOS/HuffPo koolaid.

Now only that, your world is screwed up enough that you think of Obama/Pelosi/Reid when you think competence. Huh?! Maybe winning elections is competence?

I really don't understand this infatuation with Palin from you or anyone else. She has been successful in sports, family, politics and business and yet you question her competence? She has accomplished more than most and you question her intelligence?! She is exactly what the left have been supposedly championing as their reason for existence...to help people succeed. She does and yet all we hear is negativity. You may not like her positions but you aren't challenging those, you continue to attack her.

Great job hypocrites!

We always knew the left's mantra of being for the little guy was a sham just to get votes.

juris imprudent said...

Never mind the fact that the person was probably, in fact, a racist.

Like for sure, factually and all. Yes, you unquestionably know this, without even asking. For a fact.

M what exactly is a fact in your reality?

I know why you obsess with Palin though. You hope that if you wish it enough she will be the Republican nominee in '12. That is Obama's best shot at re-election.

juris imprudent said...

Leave it to Riley to truly put this in perspective.

Palin

juris imprudent said...

By the way, Matt Taibbi is one of the biggest self involved attention whores the planet has ever known.

It is irony approaching black-hole density in citing him as some kind of moral authority.

-just dave said...

So your party conversation starter is to lambast someone’s political views? And that your remarks don’t go over particularly well, is attributable to racism or a narrow world view? Hmm…everyone must want you at their parties.

Last in line said...

It's their religion.

GuardDuck said...

Well, there ya go.

You don't discuss sex, politics or religion in polite company.

Mark goes and does all three with the same topic....

Damn Teabaggers said...

It's more of the usual.

"Freedom" only means "freedom to agree with my views, and to pay extra for the privilege of agreeing with them". Anything short of that is "censorship".

Don't take my word for it, ask the Dixie Chicks.

last in line said...

Yep, Pelosi is constantly thinking about how to make the country better on those cross country military flights. Better hurry up and pass more bills so the people can find out what is in them.

You folks aren't dealing with your ass kicking very well.

juris imprudent said...

You folks aren't dealing with your ass kicking very well.

In fairness, neither did the Repubs. They ALL get that hurt puppy attitude.

brendan said...

As usual, you rubes missed the point of this post. Let's see if I can explain it to you. Probably not.

Mark was lamenting the fact that one cannot make a negative comment about Sarah Palin without causing her to gain more support. This is extra frustrating because she is even more of a fucking moron than George Bush. The Right keeps getting worse and worse and somehow manages to get stronger.

This was a similar phenomenon with Bush. Make a critical comment and people throw up their arms in disgust at how tired they are of hearing about it. Same thing with racism. It's great armor to get to be an asshole or a moron--in Palin's case both--and get away with it.

Damn Teabaggers said...

Which is just a coward's way of claiming that anyone who disagrees with your opinions on Bush, Palin or racism is a moron. For both you and Mark.

No facts required. Nor justified, since we "rubes" wouldn't understand them.

Whatever keeps you warm at night, dude.

GuardDuck said...

Well golly gee,

It shure sux to be an ignorant rube and not all smart and stuff like you.

If I was smart like you I'd notice that you put forth the premise that making a negative comment about Palin gains her more support. You then followed by actually making a negative comment about her.

Gosh, that sure would lead one to believe that either you are intentionally trying to increase support for her, or your critical thinking skills would be minimal enough to qualify you as, to quote, even more of a fucking moron that George Bush.

Last in line said...

Call enough people racists to their face and some may get upset...who woulda thunk that? Those critical thinking skills pay dividends.

Mark Ward said...

Hap, it's not a matter of different priors--it's a matter of competence. But that really wasn't the point of the post. One cannot make a critical comment about Palin without...well...getting a list of comments like the ones above.

In fact, I should've waited and thought this post through a little more. Apparently making a critical comment about the likely 2010 nominee for the GOP means that I am also OBSESSED. It's an interesting correlation and, much like the rest of the way you folks argue, is clever albeit adolescent boyish. Tie the idea of a critical comment to obsession and then people won't believe the comment. Tie a criminal to Social Security and people will think the government is deceiving them. It really is quite ingenuous when you consider how gullible people are today. I'm surprised that I forget about this little tactic because it was used quite a bit during the Bush years (Bush Derangement syndrome and all).

Last-rather than getting upset perhaps they should sit back and reflect...deciding if they are racist or not...and then moving on. It's been my experience that the people that take the most umbridge are probably in denial. And I'd be a pretty rich dude if I had a dollar for every time Sotomayor's name came up during discrimination conversations.

Angela said...

just dave, I don't go out of my way to make negative comments about Sarah Palin at parties but if the topic comes up, I will speak my mind. Nearly every time I do, what Mark details here happens. I say "nearly" because if I am at a party full of liberals it doesn't happen. It's the equivalent of putting your hands over your ears and shouting, "You are talking-I am not listening." I guess what I'm wondering from all of you is, if she is the nominee, will you vote for her?

Haplo9 said...

>Hap, it's not a matter of different priors--it's a matter of competence.

No. Competence is not an objective measure, like you are trying to make it out to be. That's why our priors are different - competence means something completely different to me than to you. Near as I can tell, someone displays competence to you if they say all the right pretty sounding words to stroke your ego. Competence, to me, is simply demonstrating that a person is able to honestly assess what they know and what they don't know - in other words, they can accurately assess their skill level in relation to other people. This, in turn, allows them to increase their skills by recognizing othere people who are more skillful than them. It requires humility, and Obama is sorely lacking in such, and so are you - both of you are arrogant in not knowing, which does lead to numerous moments of comedy when your arrogant ignorance runs up against reality - I'll grant you that.

I don't see Palin as being terribly competent though. In a vote between the two, I'd vote based entirely on political calculation - in 2012, if the R's were looking likely to take the Senate and keep the House, I'd definitely vote Obama to try to avoid a sweep, and vice versa.

>One cannot make a critical comment about Palin without...well...getting a list of comments like the ones above.

What, the comments pointing out how idiotic you are? There really ought to be a word to describe people like me - I find myself defending Palin, not because I like her, but because the criticisms of her are so vacuous and unfair as to require a response.

Damn Teabaggers said...

One cannot make a critical comment about Palin without...well...getting a list of comments like the ones above.

In a group of liberals, one cannot make a negative comment about Obama without being called

racist
nazi
un-American
stupid
hateful
greedy
violent

...and those are just the ones you can count on pretty much every time, there's another set that size that you'll get every now and then, like 'fascist' and 'advocating theocracy'. Similar things happen if you say anything negative about Nancy Pelosi or anything positive about Sarah Palin, George Bush or Dick Cheney. Similar things happen in a group of conservatives if you say supportive things of Obama/Pelosi as well. Surely this isn't news to you, were you on hard drugs during the "Bush is Hitler" years?

So why is it only significant now?

juris imprudent said...

I guess what I'm wondering from all of you is, if she is the nominee, will you vote for her?

Not a fucking chance. But I didn't vote for Obama either. So as you can imagine, I actually have standards.

-just dave said...

Angela,

I’m generally of the opinion that discussion in this forum is a lost cause. Civility is rarely present and nobody will change anyone else’s mind…plus it’s frequently just more fun to ridicule the opposition.

But since you asked so nicely…and without a single curse word in your remarks (you must not be one of Mark’s regulars…)…

Would I vote for her? That depends on who she’s running against and if it’s the primary or general election. In the primary, I’d vote for practically any other viable candidates over her for a variety of reasons. In the general election I could think of only one or two Democrats that I’d vote for over any (ANY) Republican as she, like most any other Republicans that I can think of will simply hold closer overall values and priorities to my own. (i.e., I’m not a one-issue voter...and 3rd parties don't really count.)

The only reason I posted was the party thing struck a chord. Who’d bash someone else’s views at a party? And who calls someone a racist at a party? How could you not expect a defensive reaction. I live in blue Minnesota and most people would have little idea I cared a lick about politics because I’m just…nice. You’d ask my opinion of Obama and I’d cordially say that he’s just not my cup of tea. If you pressed on his merits, I’d think you were obviously hitting on me and counter with, ‘well, I would have preferred he did this or that but I at least liked that he did this and that’. If you asked about Palin, I’d just say that she’s not really my cup of tea either, though I like her ‘down-home-ness’. You see? Nice. So sorely lacking from the liberal debate. (However, please keep posting, you may start a trend toward civil discourse and, heaven-forbid, common ground.)

Damn Teabaggers said...

Her competence, intelligence, and intellectual capacity DO NOT MATTER.

To the Democrats, they certainly don't. Every single Republican who has run for the Presidency from Eisenhower onward has been derided as an incompetent idiot by the Democrats.

Every. Single. One. No exceptions.

So I may have my own assessment of X Republican candidate's intelligence and competence, but nearly 50 years of history tells me I absolutely cannot take the Democrats' assessment of X's intelligence and competence as even remotely factually based.

-just dave said...

Wonderful!...I'd once read a blurb on that exact topic. Ironically, in stark contrast, the Democrat (whomever it should be) is almost universally promoted as the intellectually superior candidate. The revelation on the comparison between President Bush’s GPA against Senator Kerry’s was just too sweet.

Mark Ward said...

Nixon, Goldwater, and Reagan were not idiots in my opinion. In fact, they were all qualified to be president. Bush Elder was qualified as well. I suppose you could say Ford was qualified to be president just not walk down steps:) I disagreed with many of their views but they were all intelligent. The left's views on Reagan's intellectual capability were way off...he was much more intelligent than people largely know.

George W. Bush, however, was completely incompetent and not very smart at all. This was NOT because he had trouble public speaking. It was only towards the end of his second term that it came out that he had dyslexia. This would not be something to make fun of at all. The substance of what he said clearly betrayed a child like view of the world (regardless of his GPA) and it really dragged the office down with him. Personally, I want a president who thinks...not one who "thinks with his guts."

Dave, someone asked me at a party what I thought of Palin. I told them that she was completely incompetent and things went from there. I didn't offer the comment and answered honestly. I realized that the right has quite an excellent defense mechanism against morons--the fervent anger of its base to invest emotionally in any candidate that is being picked on. When Newt Gingrich says that Obama is an "anti colonial Kenyan," one would think that an accusation of bias is in order. Not today, though. The most excellent defense will certainly arise.

juris imprudent said...

Dave, someone asked me at a party what I thought of Palin. I told them that she was completely incompetent and things went from there.

Yeah, I can just imagine if I gave the same response to a party in your house if I was asked what I thought of Obama.

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