As I was scanning my morning emails today, I noticed that President Ahmadinejad of Iran made yet another in a series of comments that the Holocaust was a lie. "The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel "Qods (Jerusalem) Day" rally. We've heard this kind of talk before. It's outrageous, inhuman, offensive, and quite insane.
Essentially, it's the gold plated signature of the conservative base of this country.
Now I don't mean to imply that the right is anti Semitic. They aren't. Remember, suddenly they love Jewish people:) Of course, their reason for this (similar to a barbecue party admiring the fat hog about to be thrown on the spit) is due to their....ehm...belief...that the slaughter of many non-believing Jews will be the precursor to the Second Coming. Yea! I'm certain my friends in Israel can't wait...
What I am saying, though, is that the president of Iran seems to ALSO be a part of the tap into your inner rage and pass it off as fact crowd...Muslim version. He says something that is not true (death panels, Obama isn't a US citizen, immigrants are stealing our luggage and dinnerware) about an historical event (Vietnam was all fucked up because of the media, Iraq really had WMD's) and then spins it so his country is absolutely perfect, beyond reproach, and eternally above criticism.
Whenever he opens his mouth, I see Sarah Palin speaking...shouting about how America should never have to apologize for anything. And anyone who does isn't a real Muslim...ooops...I mean American. I hear her along with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh talk about the "evil" of Barack Obama's health care plan and can't help but think that if you just substituted the word "Zionists" in there, that those three aforementioned folks would make great hirabis.
I've been taken to the mat before on similar comparisons so before all of you on the right start going ape shit (yet another similarity:)) think about this in terms of degrees. While the conservative base in this country has not openly murdered homosexuals...yet anyway...they do, just like their Muslim counterparts, cite biblical precedent for being anti-gay. It happened here recently in comments (kudos to rld). In addition, I think we can all agree that the conservative base is not going to make their women folk dress up in burkas anytime soon. Yet they do believe that a woman's place is in the home...just like the Bible says...a book that was written by men....just like The Qu'ran.
So, the next time President A opens his yap, take note of the similarity between what he espouses and what the base in this country preaches. Equally as important is HOW they say it which is EXACTLY the same...filled with fear, rage, and paranoia.
Wouldn't it be great if all of them could find some part of the world to yell at each other and leave the rest of us out of it so we can perhaps...EVOLVE?