You have to pause and ask yourself what has happened to American political debate when people can say crap like this and others can welcome it and agreeingly nod their heads, wanting more.
FOOTNOTE: Yours truly does not agree with many of the blogs that want an immediate pullout from Iraq. But the comment linked above is beyond inaccurate. It is truly worthy of utter contempt. Meanwhile, I just heard a talk show host on the left an hour ago claim that people in the Bush administration could easily cut people’s heads off. THAT was also truly worthy of contempt. So, you see, the guy linked to on the right has a mirror image on the left.
So you never realized that part of the blogosphere has been happy that two young Americans were unspeakably butchered in Iraq? You didn’t?
Well, neither has the blogosophere. We ALL learn something new every day.
It’s hate radio folks (on the right and left). Part of an overall hate politics. And, yes, sometimes it spills over into the blogsophere — but not in the way the link above says. The assertion in the link above is — shall we be highly charitable? — a luncheon meat made by Oscar Meyer. And we don’t mean ham. There are other words, but we don’t write about bovine excretory functions here.
This issue is not “accuracy.” It’s the growing, festering, unchecked partisan hatred that has become so profound in this country that the goal is no longer to debate issues and to convince but to destroy, discredit and even take out opponents (a popular new technique is to expose the identities of anonymous bloggers with whom you disagree).
American political debate has become poisoned and it shows no sign of getting better.
If the linked statement above, the recent Ann Coulter comments about 911 widows being oh so happy that their husbands are dead so they can get a lot of attention and money, and the comments of that liberal talk show host are considered acceptable and not demanding instant repudiation on the part of patriots of ALL parties, then where will this country be in 10 years in terms of political debate?
You’ve heard of road rage?
Welcome to 21st Century America: the age of Political Rage.
PS: Mr. L. So just what are all these leftist sites that WELCOME the butchering of American soldiers?
For your information, patriots come in ALL religions, belong to ALL political parties.
Democrats and independents were outraged today when we heard the news as well.
Did only Republicans die in our country’s many wars?
Or were there — and are there — Democrats’ and independents’ names among the military dead, too?
Did these leftist blogs you read have names?
And back to those leftist websites you read. Were they tiny ones or ones with lots of hits? How many leftist blogs are there? And out of those, how many of them “welcome” the brutal deaths of these two young men? Specifically what are the URLs of those sites that “welcome” the deaths of these brave American young people who are serving in a capacity that YOU never served in (and I never served in)?
You’ll get your audience, Mr. L, because you, like Coulter and that guy on the left, realize that the culture of outrageousness and demonization is what “sells” and connects. Balance? How 19th (not even 20th) century.
You and that guy on the left will get lots of listeners. But we know of one who neither of you will get.
Just look at how our political debate has declined by reading that link above. It’s irrelevant whether you like leftist blogs or not. You KNOW that leftist blogs are NOT “welcoming” the mutilation, likely decapitation and reported eye-gouging of those young men.
Now project where we are now. Project where we’ll be in 10 years from now if this continues.
Scary isn’t it?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.