Monday, July 13, 2009

Complete Moral Authority! (BUMPED)

I'm watching Sen. Amy Klobuchar singing paeans to the authentic experience of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. One notes that liberals never seemed particularly impressed with the authenticity of the World War II experience of, inter alia, Strom Thurmond or Joe McCarthy.

Authentic experience only matters when it leads someone to endorse the regnant liberal consensus.

UPDATE 6:50: Never has a blogger been named with less irony than Instaputz, which gives me "Quote of the Day" status, links a 2002 Atrios post quoting League of the South founder Michael Hill and then misattributes Hill's quote to me, all of which is cited as proof that I am "an unrepentant white supremacist."

As to the matter of whether defending Trent Lott makes Michell Hill a "white supremacist" (unrepentant or otherwise) I'm content to let Hill speak for himself. The related question of Theodor Adorno, the Frankfurt School and cultural Marxism is something else entirely. Instputz apparently believes that his own confusion justifies dragging me into a seven-year-old controversy in which I was not a participant, so that he can accuse me of being "unrepentant" of an ideology I never espoused.

What infuriates me is that idiots who can't even get their facts straight, who play mix-and-match quotes in the process of assembling their "Ransom Note" smears, nevertheless consider themselves so much my moral superior as to authoritatively condemn me based on their own ignorant misconceptions, and then act astonished that others don't do the same.

FWIW, in referencing Klobuchar's paeans to Sotomayor, I chose the examples of Thurmond and McCarthy -- prominent figures in the liberal demonology -- specifically to highlight how liberals use "heroic" narratives to justify their own allies, as if a heroic biography proves political virtue. At age 38, Thurmond volunteered with the 82nd Airborne and participated in the Normandy invasion, yet none of the liberals who enthusiastically praised the Vietnam service of John Kerry ever counted Thurmond's service as evidence of virtue. Perhaps if Strom had thrown away his medals . . .

By what weird manner of Rorshach association this reference caused Instaputz to invoke Michael Hill and Trent Lott, I can only speculate. But given the universe of wild-assed things I've actually said -- hey, I'm a four-time Malkin Award nominee! -- this misguided attempt to indict me for something I never said shows the bizarre lengths to which liberals will go in their permanent campaign to convince themselves of their own moral superiority.

UPDATE: Linked by that unrepentant green supremacist, Instapundit. Y'know, I feel kind of guilty not jumping on board the green-for-Iranian-democracy blog bandwagon. But my failure to color coordinate my blog doesn't mean I hate either Iranians or democracy. It shouldn't be necessary to say that, but silence sometimes leads to bizarre interpretations, so I figure I'll get ahead of any rumors accusing me of fearmongering the Persian Menace.

Also, while I'm at it, I'm OK with women wearing trousers, but am willing to extend multicultural tolerance to Sudanese who feel otherwise. However, this should not be interpreted as an endorsement of flogging.

When did it get so complicated to be a bien-pensant?

12 comments:

  1. "[T]his misguided attempt to indict me for something I never said shows the bizarre lengths to which liberals will go in their permanent campaign to convince themselves of their own moral superiority."

    Well, duh, Stacy!!!!

    I've never known liberals to operate on any other level ...

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  2. Your celebrity makes you a target. Heh.

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  3. Just left a comment over there about him getting his facts right.

    If a comment is written on a blog that apparently no one (really) reads, does it make a sound?

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  4. There may be some good Democrats out there but the older I get, the tireder I get, and I've acquired more sympathy for the Church Legate who said, "Kill them all. God will know his own."

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  5. "Perhaps if Strom had thrown away his medals . . ."

    Perhaps if he had thrown away someone else's medals. That's what John Kerry did.

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  6. Dude, he's just trying to Rule 4 you. Most of the lefty C-Listers will take a slap at the Other Side every so often, in the hopes that doing it enough times will elevate them to the B-List.

    It doesn't really work, but then being a B-List lefty blogger is no bed of roses either, thanks to the way that dKos sucks up all the oxygen in that particular room.

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  7. I'm pretty sure Thurmond never claimed to have a "Magic Hat" and I'm absolutely sure he didn't have 98% of the men who served in his unit out him as a giant douchebag.

    Maybe that makes a difference.

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  8. Dear Mr. Other McC: No one else will say it, so I will: your choice of Joseph McCarthy as an exemplar of military authenticity was a mistake worthy of Al Gore and His Global Warming Baloney. If, like me, you think John Kerry is a pompous self-promoting blowhard who stretched his record for political advantage---well, here's a fry pan, scramble those eggs that are dripping off your face.

    With men of the caliber of Jeremiah Denton or even the disdained Bob Dole or your namesake available for comparison, you chose---McCarthy. Good God. Historical illiteracy is no better for being on the Right.

    Sincerely yours,
    Gregory Koster

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  9. The funny part is, after all that, the Left doesn't really believe in the things the lecture the rest of us about.

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  10. Our failure to note and promote the Iranian protests against theocratic despotism as a result of a inexplicable devotion to the Church of Michael shows that we're a dying nation.

    What's next?

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  11. hmmm, Mr. Koster, d'ya think he picked McCarthy because he was an entirely extreme choice? hmm, maybe?

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  12. Gregory Koster:

    You have, I think, missed the point. I don't believe Mr. McCain is endorsing either McCarthy or Thurmond's positions on anything. He's merely saying that the two men served in the war, and their service is discounted because of what they said and did once in government. Kerry, by contrast, was lionized for his service. Clinton was almost a hero for *not* serving, while the elder Bush was at times hinted at as a coward (he bailed out of his burning plane to quickly) and the younger one a draft-dodger and lazy bastard for getting out of his service in favor of the National Guard. The media twists everything to the advantage of the Democratic candidate, and the detriment of the Republican. The point is that heroism in military service isn't necessarily an indicator of greatness or competence as a national leader. Hell, even *Hitler* was a war hero...and no, that doesn't mean I'm a Nazi, because I pointed that out. It's a fact (you can look it up, if you're ignorant enough you don't already know it) and denouncing people who say it doesn't change its factual nature. It also doesn't make him a worthwhile or exemplary individual. He was a genocidal monster, but still...as a young man, he was a war hero.

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