And with this thought, happy weekend
“[S]omething is wrong when a black man can be arrested for disorderly conduct because he yelled at a cop on his own porch, but a mob of white, teabagging sheeple can disrupt town hall meetings with heckling, violence and threats, and THAT is considered protected free speech. Black professor = threat to the public. White mob = 1st Amendment heroes. People who think that’s perfectly fine = idiots.” -Tim Wise
Honey boo! You ain’t eva lied! This is SO extremely disturbing on SO many levels – I can’t friggin take it! HUMPH!
WHITE mob? THAT seems racist.
MAYBELLINE, why is that racist? He is describing the crowd in the context of a comparison that is wholly centered on race. If all the people in the crowd were wearing red shirts, would you have a problem with using that as a descriptor? You are being obstinate in cherry-picking Wise’s comment for something to complain about, rather than looking at the whole of it. He makes a stunning point that is worth serious consideration and not knee-jerk, Glen-Beck-style reaction. But you have your ideology and you’re sticking to it, dammit!
Incidentally, in his book, Portraits of White Racism, David Wellman clearly describes the difference between prejudice and racism, defining the latter as a “system of advantage based on race.” The race that has the advantage in America certainly isn’t the black race, which is why mobs of white people can get away with what they’re doing while a black man can be arrested IN HIS OWN HOME simply for speaking back to a cop. If the hecklers in these scenarios were groups of black Americans employing the very same tactics, the National Guard would be there throwing tear gas and making arrests before the first FOX News truck showed up to beam it around the nation.
Did you know one of these mob freaks dropped a gun on the floor last week in Arizona during one of the meetings? How would you feel if you were at that meeting in a sincere quest for information—say you brought your kid because you couldn’t get a sitter—and someone dropped a loaded weapon on the floor during what was supposed to be a civil conversation and instead was disrupted by a manufactured exchange in which anger was escalating? Pretty scary, huh?
Indeed. Setting race aside, if I went to a town hall meeting to hear what my elected representative had to say on ANY issue, and to have an opportunity to speak my mind, as well—regardless of my party affiliation—I would be furious at any group of people who purposefully prevented that conversation from happening. It wouldn’t matter if they were white or black or wearing red t-shirts or whatever. What these people are doing is akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater. In essence, they are inciting a riot. They are anti-American. And once the violence begins—and it will—then they are terrorists. I’ll let you look up that definition on your own.
We have a double-standard in this country and you either stand up firmly against it or you aid and abet it.
Amen and Amen Aaryn. Im not gonna go ALL the way there with all the ‘racism’ I incur on any given day – stating someone is white is so NOT but that’s beside the point! Thank you for breaking it down so nicely – I shutter to think what people would call it if it were a group of ‘Negras’ Im sure noone would say anything b/c riot control would be there bashing the ‘disorderlys’ in the head with billy sticks and toting everyone off in the meat wagon (maybe they wouldn’t get out the fire hoses) SHEESH!!!
Mob freaks. Intense description. I do believe that guns are legal in Arizona; but I’ll need to look that up. Thanks for giving me the homework assignment to look up “terrorists”. People are truly concerned about their freedom. Being arrogant and belittling only fuels the fire. Showing that this plan is better is a challenge.
Regardless of whether guns are legal in Arizona—which they are—you did not answer the question. How would you feel if, under the circumstances, someone dropped a loaded weapon on the floor in front of you and your child while you were at a town hall meeting with your representative? I’m not being either belittling or arrogant. I’m calling things as they are and am asking a legitimate question. And how would you feel if these ever-out-of-control mobs, whose behavior you seem to endorse, were comprised of all black people? I want to know, Maybelline. Because this discussion began about race, I’d like you to actually address it instead of coming here to say people are afraid of losing freedom. Please. That is such a crock.
Which freedom are they so afraid of losing, exactly? The freedom to have health insurance that isn’t government run? Funny, isn’t it, that so many of these hecklers are either vets receiving benefits from, oh, THE GOVERNMENT and/or seniors on Medicaid which is GOVERNMENT RUN. Or are they afraid of losing their freedom to meet with their elected representatives? Because what they are doing is preventing other AMERICANS from meeting with their elected representatives. You think this is okay? Pretend for a second that congress could draft legislation to make abortion illegal and these townhall meetings were being held to discuss it. How would you feel if people on the Left were doing what people on your team are doing? If you dare to say you wouldn’t be outraged, then I will dare to call you a liar.
If these extremist sheeple who cannot think for themselves, who drink the death-panel-Obama-wants-to-kill-my-gramma Kool-Aid being spoon fed to them, who pretend it’s health care reform and not the Black Man In The White House that scares them, if these MOB FREAKS want to protect this so called “freedom”, don’t you think engaging in civil conversation is more appropriate than shouting down fellow citizens and threatening death to anyone who shows up to voice an opposite opinion?
If you decide to take your blinders off long enough to learn the truth behind all the lies, you can go here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=text
Or you can continue to believe as you will and not address my questions and the deeper truths beind THEM.
And as long as you’re doing homework, here’s one more link for you: http://pol.moveon.org/truth/lies.html?rc=fb
aaryn b. I submitted answers to the questions you posed; but they aren’t appearing on your post. I’ll give it some time. If they don’t show up, I’ll try again. Please, remain calm.
I am completely calm.
And right.
I’ll take another crack at answering:
1. “How would you feel if, under the circumstances, someone dropped a loaded weapon on the floor in front of you and your child while you were at a town hall meeting with your representative?” I’m gun dumb. I would feel scared.
2. “And how would you feel if these ever-out-of-control mobs, whose behavior you seem to endorse, were comprised of all black people?” I haven’t endorsed anyone or anything. How do you know my race from the few words I have provided? (Sorry for asking a question to answer a question.)
3. “Which freedom are they so afraid of losing, exactly?” Choice. (Pretty ironic.)
4. “The freedom to have health insurance that isn’t government run?” Yes.
5. “Or are they afraid of losing their freedom to meet with their elected representatives?” No.
6. “You think this is okay?” No.
7. “How would you feel if people on the Left were doing what people on your team are doing?” I really don’t have a team; but I did follow the Dodgers in the late 70s/early 80s.
8. “don’t you think engaging in civil conversation is more appropriate than shouting down fellow citizens and threatening death to anyone who shows up to voice an opposite opinion?” Yes. Calling people names and categorizing them into groups isn’t very productive but it can be entertaining.
moveon.org?!?! You’re funny.
“Calling people names and categorizing them into groups isn’t very productive but it can be entertaining.” I’ve done neither of these things but it’s a convenient smoke screen for you to say this. And can you possibly be more patronizing? Wait. That’s a question you can evade as much as you want, since I already know the answer.
Why, exactly, do you even visit here? I’m curious. You keep calling me funny as a backhanded insult. Which in itself is funny given your comedic answers above.
Maybelline, you came here slinging around your opinions and your attitude but you are utterly unwilling to have a substantial conversation with me. I tell you my stance and you offer one-word answers and snarky condescension. I ask you completely reasonable questions and all you do is patronize me with “you’re funny!” and “you’re arrogant!” and “remain calm!” and “I don’t have a team other than the Dodgers!” all typical tactics from conservatives who don’t want to discuss the issues because—gasp!—you just might learn something.
And regarding your question posed as response to my question itemized as #2—which you also didn’t answer, probably because you cannot admit the truth lest your “Ozzie and Harriett” world crumble beneath you—I had visited your blog and saw pictures of you as a little girl on the fourth of July. Pretty cute. All American. (I do like how you pretended for a second that you could possibly be something other than what you are.)
I would wager to say, Maybelline (I do love that name), that you could experience an awakening if you allowed yourself to have it and your perfect white-bread world could peacefully coexist with the one that is emerging around it. And everyone could have health insurance, too! Nobody wants to take your abundance of choice away, honey. All those amazing, wonderful choices.
And P.S. We have this white fuzz all over the leaves of our tomato plants. It’s not on the fruit, just on the leaves. Do you happen to know what this might be? Maybe it’s just some liberal poison that we’re cultivating to kill off all the seniors once a health plan is finalized?
Wow. Aaryn, you read so much more into the few words I type. Truly, you are wound up tight. Probably any response I offer wouldn’t be acceptable. You have me pegged as something you believe me to be.
As for the 4th of July picture – certainly you can understand that photos of children don’t define their parents.
What a convenient out: To blame me for your lack of response to the questions I’ve posed because your answers to them “wouldn’t be acceptable” to me. Again, why did you even bring it up, then, if you don’t intend to back up your stance? I think it’s because you only wish to antagonize and then force your pious ideology on everyone else. But again, that’s just an assumption from out of left field.
And talk about assumptions: It’s a two way street, girl. If you wrote more than a few backhanded, superior remarks, I’d have more to go on. But you’ve done nothing to dissuade me from the perception that you’re a right-wing troll pretending that you can’t be pigeonholed.
Here’s my take on you, Maybelline: you’re a Bakersfield conservative who thinks people who take public assistance—largely brown folks who are “illegal aliens” (as you probably call them in private) or lazy drug addicts—are at the root of California’s financial morass. You think it’s racism to describe an angry mob of white people as an angry mob of white people; you think that angry mob of white people is just exercising first amendment rights. If I were to go out on a limb, I’d say you listen to AM talk radio, sorta dig Ann Coulter, feel unwed parents are yet another bane of our society, and “illegal aliens” should be rounded up and systematically deported. You’re thrilled about the passage of Prop 8 which denies a group of your fellow citizens their freedom, but as long as it’s not you who’s being discriminated against, as long as YOUR freedoms are protected, you’re a-okay with it. But hey! You’re afraid of guns! Though I bet you’re down with amendment #2. You’re a spectacular gardener, enjoy digging in the dirt and growing food and didn’t anser my question (shocker!) about that damned fuzz on my tomato plants.
I’m way off, huh? Maybe that’s cuz I’m “wound up tight.”
Finally—and this is the last of any conversation I’ll engage in with you until you decide to stop playing the one-upsmanship game and elevate this discussion by telling me *why* you believe what you do—I didn’t know those were your children on your website. Given that you referred to the early ’90s, I thought they were photos of you. My bad. I bet they don’t look anything like you.
Aaryn: My responses to your questions were not meant in any way to antagonize you. Rather, I was trying to be as brief as possible to avoid rambling or worse – appear as though I’m shouting at you. Debate seems to be something you enjoy whether or not a blog commenter is looking for debate. Of all the items you listed to try to pigeonhole me you are correct in the fact that I am a pretty damned spectacular gardener.
The white fuzz on your tomatoes may be fungus. They enjoy sun all day long and plenty of air circulation.
PS One of my favorite radio stations is KVPR (NPR). Now, excuse me while I listen to “Talk of the Nation”.
Good Day.