Eugene Slaven wrote a piece at the American Thinker that set me off, big time. I ranted about it on Facebook a few days ago, and intended to cross-post it here, but never got around to it. Better late than never.
The piece, “Since when does the American left believe America is great?” incited this rant from me, that, in hindsight, wasn’t even harsh enough.
This. This is the kind of shit that makes me so angry. Rush Limbaugh and his kin like to talk about angry liberals…if he’s talking about people like me, we’re only angry because of bullshit like this.
This kind of simple-minded thinking is the basis of false dichotomies. It’s all-or-nothing, you’re with us or against us, you love us or you hate us, we’re perfect or we’re evil…it’s all bullshit. The world doesn’t divide that way. To answer Slaven’s questions: YES, the country can have flaws that we should address and still be great. Yes, the country can (and does) have racism and still be great. He asks if a country with ubiquitous racism and bigotry can be great…well I reject the premise of the question completely. Racism and bigotry are NOT ubiquitous. They exist, and people like him legitimize them and give excuses that allow people to feel OK about their racism and bigotry, but of course the country can still be great in spite of those imperfections.
“If we are to believe the things the left has historically said about America and says about America today, it’s impossible to see America as a great nation.” Bullshit. It’s not impossible at all, unless you create a false dichotomy that says we’re either perfect or we’re shit. Those kinds of false dichotomies are simple-minded, and sad.
“Obama and the left did not think America was great in 2008.” This is only a believable statement if you never actually listened to anything he said. His 2004 speech was all about his story being so American. Was he saying that was a bad thing? Of course not. There’s a difference between feeling like the country has gone in the wrong direction (for a period of time) and feeling like the country is bad. Again, it takes a special kind of simple-mindedness to only see the world through these false dichotomies.
So yes, I’m an angry liberal, but only because of idiots like this poisoning everybody’s sensibility. Please shut up now Mr. Slaven. We’ve had more than enough out of you for one lifetime.
Hitting Bregma 