Right Should Avoid "Slash and Burn" Leftist Tactics

Published on August 17, 2005 By Gideon MacLeish In Politics

As most of you know, my internet access is part time.

As most of you also know I have ideas stewing in my head, sometimes for as long as three or four days, before I can find time between my two jobs to head to the library and get on the computer. So, it is quite possible that some of my articles are a little less than topical.

Given those two facts, it also goes without saying that I don't have the time to peruse every forum article that has been posted in my absence. I don't even have time to peruse all of the RECENT articles.

And so, it was with all of those factors weighing on me that I logged on and began an article on a news story that had aired last night on the Amarillo News regarding the destruction of Cindy Sheehan's makeshift memorial by an asshat (can we agree the man was an asshat?) that I had the misfortune to refer to as a "redneck" (given the place of the offense and the fact that this asshat [I really hope we've conceded this term; I refuse to give this man any semblance of respect here], I think "redneck" is a safe stereotype, even if it IS a stereotype...I suppose I should have said "alleged redneck"). My point was, and is, that the same individuals who have rallied for us to honor our troops, respect the flag and the cross, remain remarkably silent when all three tenets are wiped out with one turn of the steering wheel. And, to that end, I thought it was a good point.

But in JU, there ARE no good points. Only good flames. And so, the necessary fallout came in the form of a "slash and burn" attack against my admittedly glib terminology (the other: apparently, I had offended four wheel drives by referring to the vehicle as a 4x4 without such prerequisite information). What surprised me, though, was that this ridiculously pointless diatribe came, not from the left, but from the RIGHT, who have spent a good deal of time on this site decrying the same tactics from the left.

I said all that to say this: Your point is nullified when your own responses are as venomous, ugly, and as missing the point as those to come from the left. The presence or absence of swear words does not make your reply any more noble or any less stinging. We've been over and over this when it has come from certain members of the left on this site...it might be a good time to look at it when it comes from the right.

You nullified a good article by splitting hairs. Poor form.

Comments

Dr Guy

on Aug 17, 2005

You took a lesson from Champas, and DrMiler bit. True you did not call the driver a redneck, but you waved the red flag in front of the bulls eyes when you included the term in your headline (I had not read it, but since went back and did).

DrMiler was taking you to task for some over simplifications. Not splitting hairs. Not everyone for a flag burning amendment is a redneck, and not every redneck is against flag burning.

But you really went overboard, in my case, when you took a statement of mine out of context to call it a communist conspiracy. I advanced no such theory, but was point out to thatoneguy the same fallacy you made in generallizing about a part of Americana and assigning them co-responsibility for the actions of not even a few, but of one.

How do you know it has not reached a big brouhaha? From what I have been reading, many would like to duct tape Cindy Shaheen's mouth shut ARE decrying that act. Yet you ignore them with your broad brush.

I am really shocked at the assumptions and mis-assumptions you made in both of these articles. Neither are up to the Gideon MacLeish standards of past articles.

Myrrander

on Aug 17, 2005

yeah, Gid, i'm sure I'm one of the horrid lefties you're talking about...but to say that this sort of thing has only happened recently from the right? geez, you got a short memory, my friend...every regular poster on the politics board has engaged in it at one point or another...it's not a phenomenon geared toward left or right, it's a phenomenon brought about by the extremism that seems inevitable among political bloggers -- even you and especially me.

having said that, I don't mind calling the asshat a redneck, as a hillbilly, I'm superior to rednecks both in attitude AND altitude

Texas Wahine

on Aug 17, 2005

having said that, I don't mind calling the asshat a redneck, as a hillbilly, I'm superior to rednecks both in attitude AND altitude

Hey, we've had this discussion before, and you dirty hillbillies ain't got nothin' on the rednecks.

Gideon: I get so sick of the way things are done around here sometimes. I can't say word one without being discounted as a "bleeding heart liberal" or "you liberals" (as if I speak for some huge collective).

In case anyone doesn't realize it, I don't read any liberal propaganda or check with any liberals before I make up my mind about something. I don't represent anyone but myself, and I don't need input from any organization in order to have an opinion. I might rarely be right (as in correct) but I'm always sincere.

Many times it seems easier (for the right and left alike) to simply dismiss the person rather than tackle the offending argument set before them. Nit-picking someone to death might be a valid debate technique (dunno, ask Bakerstreet), but it comes across as very petty and childish.

("Pot calling kettle," I know. I'm guilty too.)

Myrrander

on Aug 17, 2005

Yeah, or the inevitable cut and past of a whole article just to type something like "See *there* YOU liberal *idiot!"

It happens on both sides -- blogging is not a true cross-section of people, although we like to delude ourselves into thinking we're some kind of "voice of the people." It always cracks me up to hang out on here for a few days and then go into the "real world" and find out pretty quick that everybody here is much too upset about everything and that most of us, compared to the population at large, are extreme assholes (me included).

Slanderer

on Aug 18, 2005

So what you are saying is the criticism directed in the political forums needs to be more constructive than destructive?

Ohmygosh!!

Dr Guy

on Aug 18, 2005

Actually, you do a lot of that yourself. Take on what others say personally. Often when I speak of the far left or the loony left, I am definitely not talking about you (as I did describe in one blog I wrote). But you take offense at it as if I was.

Trust me, while you consider yourself very liberal, I see you as more a moderate liberal (is that an oxymoron?). You are left, but not far left and not a 'bleeding heart liberal'. At least not from what you have written.

Texas Wahine

on Aug 18, 2005

Dr.Guy:

OK, I'll bite. I'm overly sensitive. I've no trouble admitting that. But that doesn't make dismissing my views under the "bleeding heart liberal" label OK. (BTW, this is not something that you do, in case you're thinking that my first comment was directed at you)

No, I'm not extraordinarily liberal. It's primarily social issues where my left side is strongest. On military issues and crime I tend to be more moderate. And it changes with time and new understanding. But that's where I am today.

cactoblasta

on Aug 19, 2005

I'm surprised this is the first time you've seen it, Gid. I don't think DrMiler ever says anything without first assessing it for comic potential in the "crazy old redneck" style of humour so popular in socialist circles.

I usually try to just take his messages in the same joking spirit they're handed out. The asterisks are particularly charming.

But speaking in generalities, I think, like Myrrander, that everyone does it, and to be honest here I think it's especially the right who does it. Why? Because there's more right-wingers here. Most of the threads here are usually massively sidetracked into irrelevencies within three posts. It's always interesting to read the initial article, the last post and then try and figure out a rational way for discussion to have mutated so significantly.

Or at least it passes the time...

Gideon MacLeish

on Aug 20, 2005

yeah, Gid, i'm sure I'm one of the horrid lefties you're talking about

Actually, I don't consider you to be as much "slash and burn" as others...while you've done your share of splitting hairs, you usually categorically address the article. And the "slash and burn" tactics that I'm speaking of go into real life experiences with liberals, not just internet communities.

The best example I can muster is of my sister in law who hijacked a discussion of our view of the perfect afterlife thusly: when I said I'd like to be surrounded with every written work known to man, she lectured me for the next 30 minutes on my "sexist" attitude.

The "redneck" hairsplitting is no different.

Dr Guy

on Aug 20, 2005

I guess I differentiate the rational liberal (what I call liberal) from the irrational one (the loony liberal). I dont use the term 'bleeding heart liberal" because for the most part, I dont see them, but you may qualify as a genuine one. And if you do, that is a compliment, not a throw away term for the clowns that pretend to be.

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