Because it plays right into Rush Limbaugh et als' hands.
Here you've got these so-called 'compassionate liberals' making fun, singing 'Chaney's Got a Gun,' and revelling in a 78 year old man getting shot in the face. And it's so typical of the way these people operate. They want to claim the moral high ground, cry about lazy people on welfare, but all that compassion ends with old men and fetuses.
I turned on Rush for 30 seconds this morning, and that's a paraphrase. And he's right. I hate anything that makes that man right.
Getting enjoyment out of this situation, as so many people are doing, is tasteless, heartless, and representative of the worst traits of humanity, at the same time as it belittles all the real crimes and tragedies these evil bastards are perpetuating every day.
OK - well, I do agree with you there in part, but I think that "enjoyment" extends well beyond making fun of the situation. Still, I think there are very few situations in which there isn't room for humor and (for me) this isn't one of them.
Is it morally tenable to make fun of a man getting shot in the face? Of course not. Is it morally tenable to satire and ridicule the second-in-command of an administration that promised to restore integrity to the White House, who then shoots a man in the face accidentally and doesn't disclose it to the media? Absolutely.
Even the joke Limbaugh cites is one which ridicules Cheney, not the victim and the argument that liberals are reveling in the situation is exactly the same one conservatives made when liberals (and moderates and libertarians) lambasted the administration for its failure to respond adequately to Katrina. Their (conservatives) anti-politicization is just as reprehensible if not moreso.
So, while I agree that there is something morally upsetting about making fun of the gunshot victim (whose name I cannot remember), to say that it plays right into Rush Limbaugh's hands is perhaps too critical: his stance is one the conservative spin machine cooked up a long time ago and gets trotted out regardless of the situation and the gravity of the response.
There are two separate threads to my dislike of this, and they're worth parsing out...the first is the pragmatic one -- I want as many FauxNews dittoheads to wake up as possible, and this just isn't helping. I know they'd try to spin it anyway, but by singing "Chaney's Got a Gun" they don't even have to TRY.
At the office where I work, I saw a lot of people being told about this for the first time, and their faces just lit up, they thought it was so great. And that just didn't sit well with me...I don't know, it just makes it all seem so partisan, where it shouldn't be about political sides at all, it should be about truth. It reminds me of an article I saw in the Nation of a few weeks ago, about this guy who went to watch the State of the Union with a room full of liberals, and was talking about the emotion response there. Politics is not a football game, where you root for your team...and more and more I'm seeing people on my side of the isle that treat it like one.
Yeah, I agree that the politicization of the issue (or any serious one) particularly combined with that glee is really distasteful. And I am unaware, really, of the major broadcast news' coverage of the issue as I've read the newsbits related to it online only. Still, I wonder if it isn't unlike the whole Christ in Christmas "issue" that became the news in December. Were there really that many people/corporations who insisted on PC holiday expressions, or did the FauxNews/White House conglomerate choose that as its story to overshadow other serious things that were going on? I don't know, honestly. But yeah--glee? That's some messed up junk.
You know, it wasn't only liberals cracking the jokes. Even the White House (and other conservatives such as Trent Lott) got into it before news broke about the man's worsening condition.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 08:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 11:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 11:22 pm (UTC)Here you've got these so-called 'compassionate liberals' making fun, singing 'Chaney's Got a Gun,' and revelling in a 78 year old man getting shot in the face. And it's so typical of the way these people operate. They want to claim the moral high ground, cry about lazy people on welfare, but all that compassion ends with old men and fetuses.
I turned on Rush for 30 seconds this morning, and that's a paraphrase. And he's right. I hate anything that makes that man right.
Getting enjoyment out of this situation, as so many people are doing, is tasteless, heartless, and representative of the worst traits of humanity, at the same time as it belittles all the real crimes and tragedies these evil bastards are perpetuating every day.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 11:34 pm (UTC)Is it morally tenable to make fun of a man getting shot in the face? Of course not. Is it morally tenable to satire and ridicule the second-in-command of an administration that promised to restore integrity to the White House, who then shoots a man in the face accidentally and doesn't disclose it to the media? Absolutely.
Even the joke Limbaugh cites is one which ridicules Cheney, not the victim and the argument that liberals are reveling in the situation is exactly the same one conservatives made when liberals (and moderates and libertarians) lambasted the administration for its failure to respond adequately to Katrina. Their (conservatives) anti-politicization is just as reprehensible if not moreso.
So, while I agree that there is something morally upsetting about making fun of the gunshot victim (whose name I cannot remember), to say that it plays right into Rush Limbaugh's hands is perhaps too critical: his stance is one the conservative spin machine cooked up a long time ago and gets trotted out regardless of the situation and the gravity of the response.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 11:40 pm (UTC)At the office where I work, I saw a lot of people being told about this for the first time, and their faces just lit up, they thought it was so great. And that just didn't sit well with me...I don't know, it just makes it all seem so partisan, where it shouldn't be about political sides at all, it should be about truth. It reminds me of an article I saw in the Nation of a few weeks ago, about this guy who went to watch the State of the Union with a room full of liberals, and was talking about the emotion response there. Politics is not a football game, where you root for your team...and more and more I'm seeing people on my side of the isle that treat it like one.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-14 11:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-15 03:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-15 08:19 pm (UTC)