The Unreasonable Mob

[chasingtides]

This is unlocked because it's another one of my political things that I think everyone needs to see. It needs to be said that we aren't all like this and it needs to be seen that some of us are.

I got this video because of adjosso. This particular problem is close to my heart. I am, honestly, ashamed to admit that my own godfather is a part of this - a part of this problem. I can hope that I can be part of a solution, though I admit that, talking to him, I often despair of a solution.

Watch the video. Watch the whole thing. See what people are saying. See what people believe - about our country, about our president, about what fascism and socialism are, about their own religion.

The first thing I will say is that my heart breaks at the ignorance expressed by these people. They don't know the history of their own nation, even the parts they themselves have lived. They don't know their own religion, never mind someone else's. I can't imagine thinking that Obama's name is in the Bible. For their own sake - the so-called Antichrist isn't in the Bible! How could Obama be named as such in there? I can't bear to touch on the "czar" issue. Do these people have Google?

But - these people, with their racist, bigoted, anti-choice furor full of anger-laden ignorance, are being heard. They are making themselves known and making themselves a presence to be reckoned with. (Do not doubt, either, that homophobia and misogyny are not also in the arsenal of ignorant bigotry. Oh, trust me, I have experienced dinner table discussions about how the "lies of those French sodomites" [that is, theories from the French Enlightenment] are "ruining America" and that "damn Women's Lib." I have watch Fox News. There are such desperate depths to be plumbed in this movement.) These people - with their firm belief that Obama is Hitler incarnate and that this is a fascist regime and Glenn Beck should be president and who are getting their religion and their education from the mouths of people with bigoted, hate-filled agendas - are real.

It makes me sort of want to cry. But, more than that, I wish that they weren't so ignorant. I wish they knew the difference between Obama and fascism. I wish they understood the difference between actually reading the Bible and simply believing what the idiot next to them says is in the Bible. I wish they would stop spouting hate-filled, angry lies and just stop and examine things for a minute.

ETA: I just rewatched the video. Any activist group that believes that they are working in citizens' best interests and marches to the chant, "McCarthy was right," sorely needs education. McCarthyism is deeply not the way to go at all, ever.

Comments

[transversecity.livejournal.com]

I feel pretty precisely the same way.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I'm angry, but, even beyond my rage, I have such overwhelming sadness that so many people are so ill-informed, so uneducated, so willing to believe the foul lies of their neighbours, so full of hatred that those foul lies are sweeter than than the truths of reality.


I will put it another way. I have many personal clashes with my godfather. This is unsurprising given myself and given his firm belief in this movement. I have an uncle who often attempts to run some thing vaguely resembling interference at family gatherings when my limits are pushed and I'm this close to getting into someone's face for saying that, essentially, I don't deserve life. My uncle, however, has given this up when he was confronted with needing to explain the "liberal" policies of the Catholic Church. While I have had the fortune of encountering and being fostered by many good, liberal-minded Catholics - my godfather, who was at this rally, thinks that Pope Benedict XVI - Ratzinger - is liberal. Comprehend that. I can't.

[transversecity.livejournal.com]

And I wish I knew a good way to improve things.

I wish I knew why I live in a nation which honors actual lack of thought--no, strike that, I wish I didn't know, but could do something about it regardless.

Pope Benedict is...liberal? How does he get that?

[gallian.livejournal.com]

wow, that was hard to watch....

[gembat.livejournal.com]

This makes me so sad.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

It is sad. It's beyond heartbreaking. And if my godfather has found a community that only reinforces his beliefs - the ones espoused here among other Fox News-esque bigotry - here, in Massachusetts, where his relatives and coworkers and neighbors are flaming liberal queers (even out ones! *gasp*) then I can only imagine parts of the country where an ever larger part of the society is structured to reinforce this kind of xenophobic vitriol.

(On a lighter note, if I made one-dish microwave pumpkin/squash risotto this autumn, would people want the recipe?)

[kira-bouviea.livejournal.com]

I just want to say that I'm in total agreement with you. It's been so damn hard to watch the news or even talk to other people in my class that believe this...this... this complete trash about what Obama wants to do to america and.... I literally cannot... This is a really touchy issue for me and I get so sad when I see this sort of thing. I mean, yeah, I can understand if people were against the health care bill for reasons grounded in actual reality. I want to grab people by the shoulders and say "You're smarter than this. America is smarter than this." I mean, we are, aren't we?

*deep sigh*

Thank you for posting this. It's nice to see that there are other people who care about this sort of thing.

[violetlemon47.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the most disturbing thing I've seen in a long while.

[una--sola.livejournal.com]

Okay, re: McCarthyism.

I'm just going to put this out here. (Again.)

McCarthy represented my district back when he was a senator. In fact, he was born not 20 minutes away from where I live.

And his bust? It's no longer in the courthouse. He was born here and we don't want him. Just sayin'.