The Empty Argument of Bush Supporters.

[Jester_11218]

Inferior Right Angles
The Empty Argument of Bush Supporters.

TvNewsLies.org - 03-Nov-2003http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/inferior_right_angles.html


Listen to the argument from the right. Listen closely. Listen carefully. Do you hear anything? Probably not. There are sounds, there are words, and there are even complete sentences. But there is also something similar about all their proclamations: There is no logic. There is no substance. There is no reasoning. There is never a coherent defense of the madness that is this administration. To paraphrase the bard, the debating angles of the radical right are, “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

In an attempt to bring contrasting viewpoints to TVNL Radio Live, I ventured into the nether world of conservative and right wing political Internet forums. As a relative newcomer to the battleground between the left and the right, I tried to have an open mind and vowed to listen to what Bush supporters had to say. I really tried. I really, really did. Simple as that.



What I encountered, however, was a wall. It was not a clearly defined wall, - not a palpable wall that shut me out as a member of any forum. I posted, people responded, - but there was no debate. I posted, people responded, but there was no discourse. I posted, and people responded with the same, almost identical methods: labeling, name calling, generalizing, and being in a stark state of denial. The wall that went up excluded any rational exchange of views. Any criticism of the Bush administration was discredited without explanation. It wasn’t true. I was wrong. They were right. Simple as that.

As I wandered from forum to forum, the methods were frighteningly similar. Opinions were posted with no supporting evidence and were totally devoid of details. The primary exchange among the regular members consisted of liberal bashing, pronouncements of right wing patriotism, and mutual admiration for supporting the President. Requests for clarity went unheeded, - documented facts were discredited as left wing propaganda, and the large majority of the posters were there to reinforce one another’s views. Most minds were made up and closed. Simple as that.

I am not suggesting that this means that the left is correct and the right is wrong about any issue under discussion. What I am suggesting is that there seems to be no foundation on which the right can build a case for supporting the President’s policies. The people on the right seem to be at a loss for any concrete reasons for their opinions. They cannot seem to point out the weakness or fallacy of a criticism presented by the left. Rather, one after another, across the board, and across the nation, responded to documented challenges of this administration with dismissive insults. A favorite was the “liberal rag” accusation against any news source to the left of FOX. Nothing, absolutely nothing critical of the Bush administration had any credibility. Simple as that.



Even more interesting were the GOP mantras that popped up almost everywhere. The US was in this war to “liberate the Iraqis,” and we had to go after Saddam “before he came after us.” The terrorists all “hated freedom” and were all “evil” people who had to be wiped out. Liberals just wanted more government handouts, and all Democrats had a deep rooted hatred for George Bush. They had it all down to a science, and they believed everything they said to one another.

All but a small handful of posts were rather unsophisticated and uncomplicated. There was no breaking of the ranks. They all agreed. They had no questions. Simple as that.

Recently I wrote a number of articles regarding the lack of support from the Bush administration and the Congress for our military and veterans. These articles were posted or linked on a number of forums, including military bulletin boards. When reading the threads posted in response to my documented criticisms, I found myself laughing at the sheer idiocy of some of the right wing responders. The content of the articles were never commented upon. There was absolutely NO allegation that anything I had written was inaccurate or misleading. I had to smile at the typical responses by the right, - the insults, the labels, the denial. There they were, - the same old posts: "Go away you @#$$ liberal!” “Some of us are tired of you Bush bashers!" “More partisan garbage!” The usual. The responders almost never made an attempt to engage in a discussion. They never disputed the facts. They never attempted to offer additional or contradictory information. They were unable to offer an opposing argument. They had nothing relevant to say. So they attacked. Simple as that.

It’s pretty sad. A democratic society so desperately in trouble should be engaged in open and intelligent debate about the vital issues in contention. That isn’t happening, - not on the Internet and not in the mainstream media. The right sells its policies to the public, and the media disseminates its message. The left grumbles among itself – and so, there never is the need for the right to justify, explain, defend, or offer evidence to support its policies.

I am beginning to believe that there is no argument on the right that would actually stand up. I am beginning to wonder whether anyone on the right can really explain why ANY of the Bush/PNAC policies are in the best interests of the American people. If someone out there, on the right, wants to prove me wrong, let me know. You’ll be heard. The contact information is on my web site: call me, email me, AIM me. You’ll be my guest on the air. Simple as that.

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. And the deeper they dig

The more severe the psycosis. I'm quite convinced that what we are seeing is a mass delusion. Intense pride & insecurity make it impossible to re-evaluate ones position. Sad really, a most stubborn form of mental illness.

[onebigbadwulf]

2. well

Never underestimate the power of denial

[BlueEyedSon]

3. "Nothing is more important in the face of a war...."

"...than cutting taxes."
- Tom DeLay

[Sticky]

4. What I've noticed about freeper boards.....

"Requests for clarity went unheeded, - documented facts were discredited as left wing propaganda, and the large majority of the posters were there to reinforce one another’s views. Most minds were made up and closed. Simple as that."

Requests for clarity usually result in having your patriotism questioned and/or having insults and accusations hurled at you. It's amazing what the freepers will do to keep everyone either agreeing or silent.

Funny, yet sad.

[belle]

5. What it boils down to...

...is that there was and may be still a point of contact with an old-school Republican. Even a Reagan supporter. Or someone who was pro-Bush way back in the innocent days of 2000. Even up until the Iraq war. maybe. just. But not now. There really is no defense for this administration's actions. Not now. Not if you've been paying attention. The war apologists--and sadly, I know a few who weren't even Republicans, but had a sudden conversion on 9/11 and have been raving armchair generals ever since*--are a miserable lot. If they're *not* as dumb as a box of rocks, they're basically using all their strength to block out the knowledge of how utterly, horribly wrong they were--and what a pact with the devil we're all signed onto.
The closest you get to any sign that you've gotten through at all is the person looking at the floor (or the text equivalent) and mumbling something like "Well, how were we supposed to know...I mean, 9/11, terror, blah blah, anyway, we're in it now, and do YOU have any better ideas? No? Then stop criticizing and making everyone feel even worse than they already do..." mumble, scuff, glower.

*What's interesting to me is that said radical converts all had certain things in common; they were sort of PJ O' Rourke/Dennis Miller types: hung out with lefties, lived (and still live) your basic secular humanist urban lifestyle, and had some fundamentally conservative leanings; but essentially were cynics. Nihilists, really, I suppose, although they were cheerful enough. Above the madding crowd, don't you know: the main problem with lefties, according to them, was how terribly earnest and hiveminded and (shudder) *emotional* they all were. Life's a game. Be cool. Be independent. Be rational. Then, 9/11 happened, and suddenly they were operating right out of the lizard brain. And talk about "emotional and earnest!" You've never seen so much sappy bathos in your life. I don't mean just mourning the victims, I mean suddenly these nothing-is-sacred types were waxing lyrical about the flag, the amber waves of grain, the proud majesty of the towers and how they'd rise again, by God...well, you get the idea.

It interests me. It suggests to me that the flip side of cynicism and nihilism is *always* this kind of mawkish, knee-jerk patriotism (I'm being kind and not calling it outright fascism). And vice-versa, perhaps. It makes me think, again, that even though we still keep saying to ourselves that it's incredible just how fast we slid into these scary times...in a way, it was sort of inevitable. I don't mean 9/11 itself, obviously; I mean that sooner or later, *something* was going to happen. Or, I don't know, something *felt* like it was going to happen, or wanted to happen. Something bad. Because frankly, there was something really nasty about the 90's. And before that, clearly. There's been a nasty undercurrent in America for a long time. It wasn't just in the surge of right-wing fanatics; it was in the vast sea of "whatever" too many of us were swimming in for too many years. And here we still are.

I don't know. Was this enough? I mean, even assuming we manage to dump Dubya's sorry ass and straighten out the worst of his misadministration's excesses. Have we woken up? Do we want to?