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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.change.org/petition" target="_blank">Petition</a></span></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044js_/http://www.change.org/widgets/content/petition_scroller_js?width=160&causes=all&color=412a22&partner=355-69"></script> <br/> <div class="adboxes"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://web.blogads.com/advertise/the_liberal_prose"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.blogads.com/advertise/the_liberal_prose/logo" border="0"></a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://web.blogads.com/advertise/liberal_blog_advertising_network"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.thickbook.com/images/misc/advertise_liberally.gif" border="0"></a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.gaypoliticsblogads.com/"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.gaypoliticsblogads.com/beliricogpb.jpg"/></div> <div class="sideads3"> <script type="text/javascript"> GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_160"); </script></a></noscript></div> <div class="sidecredit"></div> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.pmachine.com/expressionengine/">ExpressionEngine</a><br/><br/> </p> </div></div> <div id="main"> <div id="blog"> <div id="headnav"><a href="/web/20110116045044/http://www.pandagon.net/"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.pandagon.net/images/title.gif"></a></div> <div id="features">  <script type="text/javascript"> GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_728_ATF"); </script> </div> <div id="content"> <div id="header"><h1></h1></div> <div class="date"> Friday, January 14, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/surprising/">Surprising!</a></h2> <div class="category"> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>I’m sort of burned out tonight, but <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-13/zeitgeist-the-documentary-that-may-have-shaped-jared-loughners-worldview/?cid=blogunit" title="here's a link that I think is incredibly important to read">here’s a link that I think is incredibly important to read</a>, especially as the wingnutteria is trying to claim Loughner’s obsessions were “leftist”.  Not really.  Not even slightly---just because some fringe right stuff starts to bleed over into fringe leftist stuff doesn’t mean it’s not primarily on the right.  More importantly, the fringe is <b>embraced</b> by the right.  Even if the wacky conspiracy theories that are mainstream on the right---such as “death panels” and Birtherism---aren’t the exact same ones that Loughner obsessed over 100% of the time, the air of conspiracy theories that is cultivated by the right matters.  We’re in a political situation where one side is waging war on reality itself, on facts themselves.  It’s not surprising, then, that someone who likely has mental illness and definitely was obsessed with waging war on reality (as well as waging war on federal power) fixated on a Democratic politician. </p> <p> A sample: </p> <blockquote><p>Both Zeitgeist and Alex Jones promote the idea that world events are controlled by a secretive banking cabal that is using debt to enslave us all. Zeitgeist echoes Alex Jones in warning that the United States is about to be merged with Canada and Mexico into a “North American Union” that will use a new currency, the “Amero.” “When the time is right,” Zeitgeist informs us, “the North American Union, The European Union, the African Union and the Asian Union will be merged together, forming the final stages of the plan these men have been working on for over 60 years: a one world government.” This government will implant microchips in all of our arms. “In the end, everybody will be locked into a monitored control grid, where every single action you perform is documented,” it says.</p></blockquote> <p> These are all right wing beliefs, with the currency obsession in particular being one that’s mainstreamed by prominent politicians like Michele Bachmann. </p> <blockquote><p>Zeitgeist, which came out in 2007 and has since spawned two sequels, is an Internet phenomenon. The two-hour documentary is available for free online, and according to its creators, it has been viewed tens of millions of times. Its claims are heatedly debated on Ron Paul forums and anarchist websites; excerpts appear on numerous Tea Party pages.</p></blockquote> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 06:20 PM • (33) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/surprising/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/surprising/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_genius_ten_they_think_their_people_are_really_dumb_edition/">Friday Genius Ten “They Think Their People Are Really Dumb” Edition</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C20/">Illicit Sex, Friday Random Ten, and Cat Pictures</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>House Republicans have decided to name a bill the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.  It’s hard not to assume their base are a bunch of half-literate imbeciles who will believe any propaganda coming from the “right” people, when Republicans themselves clearly believe this is exactly what their base is like.  </p> <p> I thought this song title by the Gorillaz is the perfect description of modern Republicans, even if the lyrics may not be quite so applicable.  So I’m using it to kick off the Friday Genius Ten.  Leave your own---or comments on whatever you like---in comments.  <br/> Original song: “Kids With Guns” by the Gorillaz </p> <p> <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NxziFMyRwDg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://www.youtube.com/v/NxziFMyRwDg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> </p> <p> 1) “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead <br/> 2) “Gold Lion” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs <br/> 3) “Fell In Love With A Girl” by the White Stripes <br/> 4) “So Here We Are” by Bloc Party <br/> 5) “Staring at the Sun” by TV on the Radio <br/> 6) “Girls & Boys” by Blur <br/> 7) “Missed the Boat” by Modest Mouse <br/> 8) “The Fallen” by Franz Ferdinand <br/> 9) “Wildcat” by Ratatat <br/> 10) “Think I’m In Love” by Beck </p> <p> Instead of playing videos off this list of songs, I thought I’d pair up songs with future House bills.  Play along in comments.  Remember, to work as a bill title, it has to be both moronic and dishonest. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_genius_ten_they_think_their_people_are_really_dumb_edition/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:47 AM • (17) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_genius_ten_they_think_their_people_are_really_dumb_edition/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/friday_genius_ten_they_think_their_people_are_really_dumb_edition/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Thursday, January 13, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/teabagger_exploits_shooting_to_demand_we_move_toward_becoming_a_banana_repu/">Teabagger exploits shooting to demand we move toward becoming a banana republic</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sjjv59RX2Cw?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://www.youtube.com/v/sjjv59RX2Cw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> </p> <p> The latest in the game of conservatives pretending it’s they, and not the people who got shot, who are the real victims of the Arizona shooting <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/tucson-tea-party-founder-says-giffords-blame" title="is Trent Humphries">is Trent Humphries</a>, the leader of the Tucson Tea Party.  After rolling out the usual whine about how being told not to be a paranoid, violent nutbar is oppression beyond any suffered in human history, he then blamed Giffords herself for what happened to her: </p> <blockquote><p>“It’s political gamesmanship,” he told the Guardian. “The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?”</p></blockquote> <p> This is such a telling comment, beyond the usual wankery, responsibility evasion, and willingness to do whatever it takes to keep escalating the paranoid crankery.  For all the skreeing about “political gamemanship”, Humphries is all too willing to use this to demand further dismantling of our peaceful democracy.  After all, he’s basically asking to live in a country where our politicians have to hire <s>mercenaries</s> private security firms in order to go around. </p> <p> This is the height of authoritarian wankery, and anti-democratic.  Joe Miller hired private security, like the tyrannical “libertarian” wanker he is, and the result was that they <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/18/joe-miller-security-guard_n_766010.html" title="manhandled a journalist who had done nothing wrong">manhandled a journalist who had done nothing wrong</a>.  Having a bunch of thugs that work outside the law hanging out at what are supposed to be political events sends a signal of intimidation and censorship, and it also undermines the rule of law, because as the Miller incident shows, these guys work outside the law.  Often, they make it up as they go along, in direct violation of existing laws. </p> <p> One of the reasons I’m still proud of America is we’re not a country (yet) where our elected representatives carry on like they’re minor dictators, but instead have to deal with the public as actual public servants.  I’m not surprised, however, to find that teabaggers are exploiting this situation to move us into a more authoritarian, less free, less democratic direction.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 05:00 PM • (58) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/teabagger_exploits_shooting_to_demand_we_move_toward_becoming_a_banana_repu/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/teabagger_exploits_shooting_to_demand_we_move_toward_becoming_a_banana_repu/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/submission_is_the_wrong_lesson/">Submission is the wrong lesson</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C63/">Body Issues</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><center><img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border="0" width="0" height="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyOTQ5MzA5MTQ1MTImcHQ9MTI5NDkzMDkxNzg3NiZwPTEyNTg*MTEmZD1BQkNOZXdzX1NGUF9Mb2NrZV9FbWJlZCZn/PTImbz1kYjE5ODMwZjY2NWQ*ZTAyODUwOTk3M2RiNmI*ZDZjNiZvZj*w.gif"/><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,124,0" width="344" height="278" id="ABCESNWID"><param name="movie" value="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="flashvars" value="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=12597819&showId=12590728&gig_lt=1294930914512&gig_pt=1294930917876&gig_g=2"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="344" height="278" flashvars="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=12597819&showId=12590728&gig_lt=1294930914512&gig_pt=1294930917876&gig_g=2" name="ABCESNWID"></embed></object></center> </p> <p> I put <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/plastic-surgery-teens-combat-bullying/story?id=12590728" title="this link up on Facebook">this link up on Facebook</a>, just because <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://feministing.com/2011/01/12/what-we-missed-329/" title="I saw it on Feministing">I saw it on Feministing</a>, and my take was similar to Courtney’s.  (Her response: “This, my friends, is so not how we should be conceiving of effective anti-bullying work.") I decided to post on it because it got a lot of Facebook comments, but it was also interesting what shape they took.  Even we feminists and feminist allies sometimes fall into the trap of dropping a discussion about women’s behavior and responses to oppression (and what works and what doesn’t) when the topic of women’s bodies and what is permissible to alter about them is at hand.  So, even though the original topic was “responses to bullying”, the discussion quickly became “when is it okay to get a nose job?” </p> <p> Barring an absolutist “no cosmetic surgery” position, I think it’s going to end up being subjective.  There just isn’t going to be a bright line between when a cosmetic procedure is a reasonable response to a physical flaw and when it’s an overreaction to oppressive beauty standards.  Or when it’s in-between---an understandable but sad survival response to patriarchal oppression.  But I want to post on this here to talk not about this incident recounted to discuss bullying and what works and doesn’t work in response. </p> <p> The story at hand: </p> <blockquote><p>High school senior Erica Morgo says she likes what she sees when she looks in the mirror, but that was not always the case. Erica was bullied horribly by her classmates in middle school. </p> <p> “In sixth grade I was in the bus, and a lot of boys made fun of me for having a big nose,” Erica said. “They would call me Pinocchio. And in school, in class, people would point it out. I felt helpless. I felt like a loser.” </p> <p> The situation grew so severe that Erica grew depressed and started missing school. She estimates she missed a total of month’s worth of classes to avoid the taunts of classmates. Finally, one night she says she couldn’t take the teasing any longer, and decided to take matters into her own hands. </p> <p> “ I tried breaking my nose once. I was so fed up with the bullying that I tried banging my face against the door,” she said. </p> <p> After the incident, her mother, Dana Manzella, said she knew that she had to do something. She decided to allow her then 15-year-old daughter to undergo cosmetic surgery to shape her nose to her liking. </p> <p> “I think that was definitely a good decision, because it brought her back—her self-esteem back up to be able to do activities that she did before, with comfort,” Manzella said. </p></blockquote> <p> I’m going to point out that it does seem the bullying declined, but correlation isn’t causation.  Right at her age, the bullying against me declined as well, and I didn’t change anything about myself.  Kids actually start to grow up in their later years of high school, and thus bullying loses a lot of its appeal.  Especially appearance-related bullying, though it’s often replaced with sexual harassment, especially for female victims.  </p> <p> I just want to set aside questions of whether or not women should ever get cosmetic surgery, or whether or not minors should, and focus on cosmetic surgery as a response to bullying.  This has human psychology exactly backwards.  If you want a behavior to stop, the very last thing you should do is reward it.  A dramatic show of submission to bullying may stave off the bullying for a time, just as feeding a hungry animal will make it stop begging.  But if you feed an animal, you know what happens, right?  It comes back for food when it’s hungry again, and every time it’s louder and more entitled.  Bullies are demanding, pretty openly, shows of submission that shore up their own self esteem.  When the hunger strikes again, they know who to go for if you put on a rather dramatic show of submission, such as altering your nose to fit their demands. </p> <p> One of my friends on Facebook told this story as an example: </p> <blockquote><p>Back in grade school there was a kid with big ears that stuck out and like any child with any trait that was out of the ordinary, he was mocked. I don’t think it was particularly horrible mocking, but then I wasn’t experiencing it. It was bad enough though that he got his ears tucked one Summer. Then people starting calling him “Tucker.” Kids are such assholes.</p></blockquote> <p> Beyond the ineffectiveness, I worry about teaching young girls that any random dude who has an opinion about your appearance should be taken seriously.  And let’s be clear, every example in this story was a girl, and I imagine that the plastic surgery rates for minors reflect those overall, which is that women get plastic surgery more often than men.  As any woman here can likely tell you, there are a lot of men who feel entitled to dictate the beauty and fashion choices of any random woman they see, no matter how little they know her.  I’ve had men whose names I don’t even know suggest I wear too much make-up and too little of it, that my hair should be shorter and that it should be longer, that I need to lose weight and that I need to gain it.  There’s a whole culture that teaches a huge percentage of men that women aren’t subject to the rule that says you should keep your opinions to yourself on these matters.  (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://annalsofonlinedating.tumblr.com/post/2640506578/i-was-going-to-say-the-same-thing-about-your-dick" title="Fun examples at this blog">Fun examples at this blog</a>.  The best way to hit on a lady is surely to, before even introducing yourself, suggest that she alter her appearance to suit your arbitrary tastes!) </p> <p> Young women should be equipped with an early and frequent understanding that this noise from dudes should be laughed at, not taken seriously.  This is for two reasons, the first being that since no two dudes agree, you can drive yourself insane trying to meet all the conflicting demands.  The second is more in the WTF category: there is no reason to push girls into internalizing the misogynist message that they are subject to male authority on all matters, just because men are men, and that their own desires and wishes are irrelevant.  A lifetime of anxious worrying that you’re meeting arbitrary, ever-changing standards imposed by random dudes is not something you should reinforce.  There’s already enough pressure on women to put up with that. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:48 AM • (104) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/submission_is_the_wrong_lesson/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/submission_is_the_wrong_lesson/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Wednesday, January 12, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/environment_has_a_role/">Environment has a role</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/12/us/12giffords_337/12giffords_337-popup.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Conservatives are deep into denying that environment could play a role in pushing someone suffering from mental illness towards violence (except, of course, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201101120022" title="if they're suggesting that someone mentally ill might be just really angry about health care reform">if they’re suggesting that someone mentally ill might be just really angry about health care reform</a>), at least insofar as they need to in order to deny that someone with a mental illness who has an obsessive hatred of a politician could be egged on by living in a community where harassment and violent speech towards that politician had become commonplace.  (I can’t stop marveling at the fact that preserving that steady stream of harassment, lies, and violent speech is the hill they’re willing to die on.) So, I thought it would be useful to look at issues that fall somewhat out of the usual partisan brackets and ask if Loughner really lived in a bubble that had no relationship to the real world, or was he influenced by it? </p> <p> The knee-jerk wingnut defensiveness at this point is such that there was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/01/11/feminist-left-blames-masculinity-misogyny-christine-odonnell-for-az-shooting/" title="knee-jerk anger at my suggestion">knee-jerk anger at my suggestion</a> that misogyny might play a role in the choice of a young man to shoot a powerful woman in the head after nursing a grudge because she was unimpressed with what he thought were brilliant ramblings.  I’m not sure what causes the knee-jerk reaction, since it seems that either you feel a defensiveness towards a man who killed six people, or a defensiveness of misogyny.  I’m going to give said jerker of the knee the benefit of the doubt and assume that it’s just a defensiveness of misogyny, and a desire to protect misogyny from accusations that it might play a role in violence against women.  </p> <p> Sadly, I fear that this hope that Loughner would not turn out to sully the name of woman-haters everywhere by being a woman-hater <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110112/ts_yblog_thelookout/loughner-being-alone-will-inevitably-lead-you-to-rape" title="has been dashed">has been dashed</a>. On the contrary, one of the things his internet postings make clear is he was burning up with a lot of resentment towards women, which is the least surprising news quite possibly of all time (unless you just have a knee-jerk unwillingness to take seriously any feminist suggestion that misogyny is real).  Most disturbingly, Loughner wrote a forum item justifying rape, and in language that isn’t all that indistinguishable from what you see on many of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.manboobz.com/" title="your finer anti-feminist forums">your finer anti-feminist forums</a>. </p> <blockquote><p>The same day, he titled another post “Why Rape.” According to the Journal, it said women in college enjoyed being raped. “There are Rape victims that are under the influence of a substance. The drinking is leading them to rape. The loneliness will bring you to depression. Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape.”</p></blockquote> <p> Now, you could try---I’m sure some will---to say such things have no relationship to messages in the world outside of Loughner’s head. If you do, you are so full of shit that you probably won’t be able to believe yourself long enough to get the words out.  And this isn’t a partisan issue, since rape apologism is engaged in by people on the left.  After all, we recently had a situation where people on both sides of the aisle, with regards to the Assange rape, basically said there are situations where men get to rape.  (Though the argument is more that we shouldn’t call forcing sex on women “rape” in some circumstances---which is to say, we shouldn’t call rape “rape” in cases where we think the guy had a right, or the woman had it coming.) What I’m seeing here is that Loughner, mental illness or no, completely absorbed society’s teachings about male entitlement and female sinfulness, that men have a right to have needs filled at women’s expense, and that women give up their rights to bodily autonomy if they do things deemed unladylike, like have sex or drink alcohol.  The influence of his likely mental illness is in that he was so blunt about it. </p> <p> The other thing I want to point out about the guy that conservatives would have you believe is a bubble boy is that he was really well-versed in firearms.  Again, this is a somewhat non-partisan issue, because the NRA has both parties by the balls right now.  It’s not surprising that a young man from Arizona would be intimately familiar with gun culture, since it’s one of the gun-heaviest states in the union.  Loughner clearly absorbed a lot of gun knowledge, since he not only knew well enough how to upgrade from the standard magazine that comes with a Glock to one that has twice the capacity, but it sounds like he was, tragically, a really good shot.  I do believe his magazine had 30 bullets in it and he hit 20 people.  This isn’t the behavior of some savant with weaponry, but someone who, as a friend of his told the NY Times, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12loughner.html" title="was skilled with a gun">was skilled with a gun</a>. </p> <p> This all should be obvious, but with everyone bickering over whether something on a map looks like crosshairs or surveyor’s marks, or whatever other distraction is being offered up by wingnuts today, but just because someone has a mental illness rarely means that he’s completely unaware of the world around him.  Loughner’s ability with a gun or his thoughts on rape didn’t spring fully formed from his brain, but are the product of an individual interacting with a specific environment.  His paranoia about the federal government, like his skill with a gun, puts him pretty squarely into the culture of Arizona that he came from. It’s always possible that he was completely unaware of the over-the-top hostility that has been tossed by many in the community at Giffords for the past couple of years.  Still, I find it hard to believe that someone who, like Loughner, had an obsession with his target for over three years would be completely ignorant of messages being sent in the community that others shared his beliefs about Giffords.  I suppose we’ll see, but I wouldn’t really be so sure that someone who obsesses with hatred for a politician wouldn’t notice the gun imagery in the campaign against her, nor that someone who is paranoid about the federal government wouldn’t hear the paranoid rhetoric about health care reform being federal overreach, rhetoric that was tied back to Giffords. It’s possible he was completely oblivious.  It’s not a horse I would bet on. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 02:08 PM • (46) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/environment_has_a_role/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/environment_has_a_role/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/trust_in_soothing_fictions_to_stop_mass_murder/">Trust in soothing fictions to stop mass murder?</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C18/">Choads</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C74/">L-O-S-E-R-S</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C26/">Religion</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hell.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>In what may really win the award for tastelessness in the ongoing contest of conservatives to see who can deflect criticism of their lies and eliminationist rhetoric the hardest, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101110031" title="Erick Erickson may win">Erick Erickson may win</a> with using the occasion of the attempted murder of a Jewish congresswoman (and the deaths of six others) to launch a maudlin recruitment ad for Christianity.  (Though, it’s hard to be conservatives using the occasion of an attack on a Jewish woman to claim that criticizing them is “blood libel”.) This sort of thing is sadly inevitable; amongst fundamentalists, blaming atheism (and evolutionary theory) for murder and mayhem<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://matadornetwork.com/bnt//2009/06/01/bizarre-christian-billboard-compares-atheism-to-murder/" title=" is a favorite tactic"> is a favorite tactic</a>.  </p> <p> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://cdn1.matadornetwork.com/bravenewtraveler.com/docs/wp-content/images/posts/20090601-gun.jpg"/> </p> <p> Quoth our nimrod: </p> <blockquote><p>In all the discussions we’re having, let’s not forget that bad things have happened throughout history, but we are seeing more and more a pattern of violence from those who reject Christ and we are seeing the most extreme rhetoric from those who reject the only real truth while embracing every other historic fad and nonsense as variations of truth. The one true way has been shunned, ridiculed, bastardized, co-opted, and buried over in psycho-babble nonsense, “find your own spirtual self” crap, and haphazard soul damning assorted other garbage. </p> <p> For a taste of what I’m talking about, look at Timothy McVeigh. Raised a Catholic, McVeigh self-admitted that there was a god of some sorts, but that he was agnostic, had no belief in hell, and had drifted far from anything having to do with Jesus Christ. But the left routinely tries to portray McVeigh as some sort of Christian terrorist. They know not of what they speak. </p> <p> The topic of faith in Christ makes people cringe. But whether you believe it or not, here is the reality: beyond us is a world we cannot see with our eyes. It impacts us on a daily basis. It is a world of very real angels and very real demons. It is a world of a very real God and a very real Satan, a very real Heaven and a very real Hell.</p></blockquote> <p> My feeling is that I don’t really feel comfortable around people who claim the only thing standing between them and mass murder is their relationship with an imaginary friend.  He didn’t even try to generalize and suggest that <i>religion</i> was necessary for morality.  He went all in and said that only <i>Christianity</i> is responsible for morality.  If you poked him, I bet he’d offer some opinions on what kinds of Christianity are the only kinds that prevent people from shooting up public events at supermarkets or schools. </p> <p> Which leads me to his claim that non-Christianity is why there’s murder and chaos.  Most people in the world aren’t Christians, so by his measures, we all should have killed each other off by now in bloody rampages, due to that being the normal state of humans who are uncontrolled by Jesus.  Weirdly, that hasn’t happened, inclining me to think morality might have another source besides Christianity.  </p> <p> What is interesting to me is that this is a threat at its core.  Which makes sense; as Media Matters demonstrates, Erickson is a nasty piece of work who enjoys threatening rhetoric: </p> <blockquote><p>Erickson is right. Why, just this morning, I came across a quote from a loud-mouthed atheist who denounced former Supreme Court Justice David Souter as a “goat fucking child molester.” </p> <p> No, wait: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://mediamatters.org/research/201003160037" title="That was Erick Erickson">That was Erick Erickson</a>. And so was this: “At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?” And it was Erick Erickson who <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://mediamatters.org/blog/201004060044" title="said ">said </a>he’d pull a shotgun on any government employee who tried to make him fill out the American Community Survey, too. </p> <p> If Erickson’s well-advertised fondness for Christ doesn’t stop him from talking about beating people to a pulp, or pulling guns on them, or from referring to public servants as child molesters, or from presuming to know who God is angry with at any given moment, he should at least take a look at what the Bible has to say about hypocrisy before going on about the “extreme rhetoric” of non-believers.</p></blockquote> <p> And so this column is basically a threat: share my religion or there will be more mass murders.  Makes you long for the people who are more into speaking in tongues and self-help books sprinkled with Jesus, doesn’t it?  And the hell talk is just more threats.  As was his response to the anger his column provoked. </p> <p> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6540/ericksongodupset.jpg"/> </p> <p> Atheists don’t believe in hell, so this threat doesn’t sound nearly as scary as Erickson thinks it does.  It’s like telling someone that they have to do what you say, or you will launch your army of leprechauns on them.  This almost makes me feel bad for him; he has no idea how what he thinks is a tough guy act makes everyone who hears it cluck at what a simple-minded coward he seems to be.  </p> <p> This sort of thing is always tried by right wing Christians who’ve convinced themselves everything should be a recruiting opportunity.  And, in my experience, it’s not very sticky.  I don’t think most people think about Timothy McVeigh’s religious beliefs one way or another, but if you want to know, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=15532" title="he seems to have created">he seems to have created</a> a mish-mash of some Christian beliefs and some Christian Identity beliefs.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: since religion is made up, it’s endlessly malleable.  It’s really a poor predictor of moral behavior, because people can adjust their beliefs as they go to rationalize whatever they want.  Erickson is functionally trying to argue that religion is an effective form of mind control; ironically, he shares this belief with the Jared Loughner, though they obviously differ on the value of mind control, with Erickson in favor and Loughner against.  I don’t think it’s that simple.  I think religion is, at best, a weapon in the art of social control.  But Erickson is definitely saying Christianity works by getting inside someone and creating morality where none existed, which is definitely more akin to mind control.  </p> <p> For the record, it actually seems like <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.skepticfiles.org/american/prison.htm" title="atheists are underrepresented in prison populations">atheists are underrepresented in prison populations</a>. But I would caution against reading causation into what is almost surely just correlation; many of the factors that make it likelier someone will be an atheist also make it likelier that they won’t go to prison. I just don’t think there’s much of a relationship between criminality and religion one way or another.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:36 AM • (81) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/trust_in_soothing_fictions_to_stop_mass_murder/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/trust_in_soothing_fictions_to_stop_mass_murder/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Tuesday, January 11, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_the_lies_more_than_anything/">It’s the lies more than anything</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://www.qwilman.com/misc/350px-Profanity.svg.png" width="300" align="left"/>In the wake of this shooting and the admirable attempts to hold the right responsible for creating an environment where targeting of politicians for violence is bound to happen, some efforts have taken the form of policing metaphors for violence.  I’ve seen people go as far as to quarrel with using <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/01/10/toning-down-rhetoric-is-one-thing/" title="language of the battlefield that has been drained through repetition of all its impact.">language of the battlefield that has been drained through repetition of all its impact.</a> I promise you, saying things like “target” or even “set your sights” isn’t really contributing to the problem of political violence.  I do think that gun nuttery raises the temperature, but not just because it suggests violence as a legitimate response to losing elections, but it also raises the level of paranoia.  I do think there’s value in talking about the use of inciting language, like Sarah Palin is fond of doing, but I have to say that is probably less of a problem than paranoia. The violent rhetoric encourages people to see violence as a solution, but it’s the paranoia that gives them cause to get that wound up, or in the likely case of Loughner, to latch onto right wing paranoia as a delusion.  It’s therefore more important to target lies and paranoia when holding the right accountable than anything else.  They’d probably prefer it if we stuck to just talking about violent language, because that they can mostly give up without giving up too much.  But abandoning lies?  That’s definitely not something they want to put on the table.  But it’s way more critical.  </p> <p> I’m not the only person who is focusing on this aspect.  Jon Stewart, after doing that irritating thing where liberals pretend to be responsible by not holding the right responsible, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.salon.com/news/gabrielle_giffords/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/01/11/jon_stewart_arizona_shooting" title="did get a valuable point in">did get a valuable point in</a>.  </p> <p> <table style="font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="360" height="353"><tbody><tr style="background-color:#e5e5e5" valign="middle"><td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a target="_blank" style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.thedailyshow.com/">The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style="padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;">Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style="height:14px;" valign="middle"><td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;" colspan="2" <a target="_blank" style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction">Arizona Shootings Reaction<a></td></tr><tr style="height:14px; background-color:#353535" valign="middle"><td colspan="2" style="padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right"><a target="_blank" style="color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.thedailyshow.com/">www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign="middle"><td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2"><embed style="display:block" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:370499" width="360" height="301" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></td></tr><tr style="height:18px;" valign="middle"><td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2"><table style="margin:0px; text-align:center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" height="100%"><tr valign="middle"><td style="padding:3px; width:33%;"><a target="_blank" style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a></td><td style="padding:3px; width:33%;"><a target="_blank" style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a></td><td style="padding:3px; width:33%;"><a target="_blank" style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table> <br/> <br/> I disagree with him that hyperbole is a problem in and of itself; as a humorist, he has to know that hyperbole is a valuable satirical tool.  “The Daily Show” uses it all the fucking time.  But hyperbole is a problem when it’s not hyperbole, if that makes any sense---if it’s used to actually hoodwink an audience and make them believe things that are not true, as opposed to exaggerating to make a point through humor.  (Understatement works in a similar way---it’s not literally true, but it can reveal greater truths through humor.) But his larger point, that rhetoric should match reality, is the meat of this.  By far, the lies and paranoia that are increasingly becoming the majority of right wing rhetoric are the issue here. </p> <p> This is why it misses the point to quibble over the specifics of Loughner’s delusions and saying that if there’s not a direct link between stuff he said and stuff Sarah Palin said, that means we should cease all operations of holding the right accountable.  The problem is that if paranoid thinking gets mainstreamed, it creates an environment where paranoid people get even more paranoid and delusional, and it dramatically increases the odds that someone is going to snap.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.timwise.org/2011/01/paranoia-as-prelude-conspiracism-and-the-cost-of-political-rage/" title="Tim Wise wrote about this here">Tim Wise wrote about this here</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>For while Loughner would never have likely contemplated political assassination in a culture where the most pressing issue was, say, a simple philosophical disagreement over tax policy, or the proper balance between interest rates and full employment, or the percentage of GDP dedicated to debt service as opposed to long-term infrastructure investment, that is not the culture in which he (or any of us) lives. Rather, we live in a nation in which it is commonplace, and considered completely rational, for elected officials to believe the President is a foreign interloper. We live in a culture where the nation’s most powerful Republican, House Speaker John Boehner, cannot bring himself to condemn the maniacal derangement that is birtherism, but is reduced instead to a mere acknowledgement that since Hawaii says the President is a citizen, that’s “good enough for him.” </p> <p> We live in a culture in which it is utterly normal, to a degree that has sadly made it nearly banal, to hear multi-million dollar, best-selling authors and talk show hosts suggest that the nation is on the verge of total fascism, death panels for the elderly, door-to-door gun confiscation, and the reconquest of the American southwest by Latinos bent on ethnic war. In short, in a society where paranoia is the daily currency of mainstream commentators, and pseudo-schizophrenic ramblings are elevated to the level of persuasive argument, we ought not be surprised that such a tragedy as occurred on Saturday might happen.</p></blockquote> <p> What people in media and political leadership positions have a responsibility to do is to keep lies and paranoia in check, so they don’t flourish, and the right has completely abdicated this responsibility and has, in many cases, run in the other direction of promoting lies and paranoia.  Lies piled upon lies piled upon lies, and so reality becomes harder and harder for people swimming in this to find.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_the_lies_more_than_anything/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 02:53 PM • (77) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_the_lies_more_than_anything/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/its_the_lies_more_than_anything/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/never_assume_logic_when_it_comes_to_teabaggers/">Never assume logic when it comes to teabaggers</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C28/">Economy</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39972000/jpg/_39972234_wallofgold203.jpg" align="left"/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.salon.com/news/jared_loughner/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2011/01/10/jared_loughner_and_the_gold_standard" title="Andrew Leonard has a piece up at Salon">Andrew Leonard has a piece up at Salon</a> about the gold standard and the people who obsess over it. It’s amusing, but his read on why people obsess over the gold standard is, I believe, somewhat off. </p> <blockquote><p>Of course, to many advocates of the gold standard, restricting government freedom is precisely the point. This is a major reason why a return to the standard has always been popular with a subset of libertarians and is a staple of Tea Party discourse. If all currency was backed by gold, there would be physical limits on the amount of outstanding debt governments could carry. Big government wouldn’t be so big! We’d be forced to live within our means!</p></blockquote> <p> I honestly think this is giving them way too much credit.  Most people who have warm and fuzzy feelings when they hear the words “gold standard” get them for reasons that have no pragmatic or intellectual backing whatsoever.  I’d say there are two major appeals of this silly obsession: </p> <p> 1) Gold has an old timey feel, and teabaggers love that.  In fairy tales and the Bible, people use gold as currency.  As we all know, these kinds of fantasies and myths are more real to teabaggers than actual reality. </p> <p> 2) It satisfies their need to believe in a higher, absolute authority.  Just like the obsession with believing the Constitution and Bible are non-ambiguous documents that just so happen to agree with everything wingnuts do, and cannot be crossed by mere people, they like to believe that gold is a currency that has intrinsic value that puts it outside the scary world of social constructs and arbitrariness.  You get the same obsession, by the way, with English-only thinking.  The hope is that there is something solid and unchanging that has value and meaning outside of what humans imbue in it, a sort of final authority they can put their faith in. But just as the category “English” is actually not as rock solid as they think---language is ever-changing---and the Bible and Constitution are up for interpretation, so is it true that there’s no intrinsic value to gold.  It only has value for the same reason paper money as value, because we say so. </p> <p> The actual effect of having a gold standard has little or no bearing on this.  Gold is appealing to the teabagger masses on a strictly emotional level.  In fact, one of the major problems with teabaggery in general is that it doesn’t truck with logic or pragmatism, but instead is a bunch of easily manipulated emotional responses.  It’s about nostalgia, and pretending you’re “tough” because you automatically prefer other people to suffer, even if you have to pay for it.  Which is why, for instance, they oppose health care reform even if it saves money, even though they think of themselves as “fiscally conservative”.  They’ll spend more money to make sure some people don’t have health insurance.  They need that to shore up a self-image as a bunch of hard asses.  </p> <p> Never assume logic with teabaggers when the more available answer is a knee-jerk emotional response to nostalgia or sadism.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:24 AM • (131) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/never_assume_logic_when_it_comes_to_teabaggers/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/never_assume_logic_when_it_comes_to_teabaggers/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Monday, January 10, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">The mental illness gambit</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C37/">Health Care</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://imagineannie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/straight-jacket1.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Holding the right responsible for <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.salon.com/news/gabrielle_giffords/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/10/revolutionary_rhetoric" title="their paranoid, incendiary, violent rhetoric">their paranoid, incendiary, violent rhetoric</a> reminds me strongly of trying to put a cat in its carrier.  You know it has to be done, but you really don’t want to do it.  The cat is going to lash out.  She’s going to hide under the bed.  She’s going to hiss and scream.  She’s going to grab the sides of the carrier as you push her in, in a pathetic final bid not to go the carrier.  But you have the fight anyway, because you can’t just renege on your responsibilities the second they become a problem. </p> <p> Of course, the analogy doesn’t hold in all ways, mostly because holding right wingers responsible for cultivating a rhetoric of paranoia and violence that creates the environment where the Loughners of the world (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline" title="and Joe Stacks and Jim Adkissons and Richard Poplawskis and Joshua Cartwrigths and Scott Roeders.....">and Joe Stacks and Jim Adkissons and Richard Poplawskis and Joshua Cartwrigths and Scott Roeders.....</a>) is even more frustrating that putting a belligerent cat in a carrier ever could be.  That’s because you can forgive the cat for not knowing that it has to go to the vet, but right wingers know good and well what they should be doing (toning it down), but they don’t have the decency to do it. And when you’re stuffing your angry cat in the carrier, you rarely have to deal with a family member or friend standing over you saying, “Now, come on.  The cat has a point.  Have you proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely needs to get a rabies shot?” </p> <p> I get it. I get the emotional urge to let it go.  No one likes stuffing a cat in a carrier.  I get why the siren call to shove off this hard discussion about right wing rhetoric has its appeal.  I’ve seen one wingnut go so far in her attempts to deflect as to try to make this about <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://twitter.com/#!/darleenclick/status/24314075844452354" title="her resentments of me">her resentments of me</a> for seeming to have more fun than she thinks I should get to have.  (Taking potshots about someone’s harmless lifestyle choices while the bodies aren’t yet cold. Classy!) Right wingers are endlessly maddening and childish, and like cats, willing to do whatever it takes to make this hard.  But it still needs to be done. </p> <p> Which is why we shouldn’t let the allure of “crazy” wash over us.  Oh, I know it’s so tempting.  Just write Loughner off as “crazy”, and no having to ask hard questions about the mainstreaming of right wing extremism, or the heavy amount of violent rhetoric expressed towards Giffords in the community that Loughner, crazy or not, lived in and was privy to. We can say, “He was crazy,” and punt this hard discussion down the road to the next angry white man who tries to kill a bunch of people after being hopped up on some level of the extremist right wing rhetoric that is being mainstreamed more and more all the time, and therefore blessed with more and more legitimacy.  And next time, maybe the right will offer another tantalizing way to weasel out of shoving the cat in the carrier.  Maybe next time we’ll be faced with a different excuse to put off this discussion.  Maybe the next guy won’t seem as insane---Timothy McVeigh, for instance, was pretty lucid right until the end---but we’ll grab onto one of the other gambits offered every time.  Maybe next time we’ll procrastinate by accepting the “he read a liberal book once, thus this isn’t political!” gambit.  Or we’ll accept the “left wingers were out of control in the 60s, therefore the right can fan the flames of violence to win elections until the end of time!” </p> <p> I don’t think “crazy” is irrelevant exactly---I wrote about how Loughner appears to have fallen through the cracks <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/01/09/giffords-shooting-raises-questions-rhetoric-health-care" title="for RH Reality Check">for RH Reality Check</a>.  But “crazy” is only the beginning of the discussion.  It’s not the end.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/01/09/on-mental-illness-and-crime/" title="I think Jill put it best">I think Jill put it best</a>: </p> <blockquote><p>Certainly, some people with mental illnesses do commit crimes — but that shouldn’t really surprise us, since people with mental illnesses are people, and some people commit crimes. I’m worried, though, that “he’s crazy” will end up being the easy card to pull in the particular case of the Arizona shooting, without recognizing that, mentally ill or not, Jared Loughner participated in the same society as the rest of us, and was undoubtedly influenced by the culture in which he lived — mental illness does not typically put one on an island all their own, totally unswayed and oblivious to everything around. We need to take a good look at the culture and sub-cultures we’ve built in the United States; “he’s crazy” is a cop-out, and it’s irresponsible, and it doesn’t alleviate us of our responsibilities. </p></blockquote> <p> If Loughner does turn out to be psychotic, then the person whose moral culpability is reduced in that case is his.  It doesn’t reduce the moral culpability of people who pour out a steady stream of paranoid, violent rhetoric when they know full well some people out there are, for whatever reason, unhinged or unconnected enough to act on it.  This is why I come down on 9/11 Truthers and anti-vaccination nutters so hard, even though they’re often on the left “team”, because I believe in my heart of hearts that spreading irrationality and paranoia incites violence, along with other inexcusable social ills.  If a 9/11 Truther does something violent, those of us on the left who indulged them are morally culpable.  That isn’t less true if that person has a mental disorder.  If anything, it’s more true, because we knew all along that mentally ill people have diminished capacities to tell the difference between indulgent fantasies and alarming truths they have to act on.  </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 03:24 PM • (79) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/the_mental_illness_gambit/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Gender, power, and the Giffords shooting</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C23/">Crime</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AY966_LionTo_DV_20110109185629.jpg" align="left"/>One aspect of this whole discussion about violent language that’s going under-discussed is the role that anxious masculinity plays it.  Finally, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/09/giffords-shooting-palin-guns-gender" title="Jessica Valenti broke out and talked about it">Jessica Valenti broke out and talked about it</a>.  I think part of the reason people are afraid to say it out loud is because people on the left, especially men, are nearly as afraid of being called a girl as anyone else.  I have no idea why there’s so much castration anxiety in America, but no other factor fuels the ridiculous aspects of our political culture more.  As I’ve said before, the three biggest base-moving issues on the right all have to do with anxious masculinity: squelching reproductive rights and the female control over female bodies they represent, squelching gay rights because they subvert the tradition of sex and marriage being acts of male dominance over women, and gun nuttery, which can be summed up as wingnut fears that Democrats (feminized in their minds) are coming to take away their phallic symbols. </p> <p> Unfortunately, it also means that violence is promoted, because it’s soothingly masculine. (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/" title="See Tim Pawlenty's attempts">See Tim Pawlenty’s attempts</a> to win base voters over by taking passive aggressive potshots at his wife and claiming he loves to relax by enjoying violence.) Of course, it creates a self-defeating loop, because right wing masculinity antics---resenting women for having sexual allure, bragging about how much you’d totally beat someone up, squealing about the gross dudes having butt secks---are things grown-ups leave in middle school.  Acting childish is unmanly, but the only way they can think of to “man up” is to redouble the violent posturing, homophobia, and misogyny.  Vicious cycle.  It’s actually sad seeing people---and believe me, women do it too, and then think they’re going to taunt me with it in Twitter---act like such morons when there’s a calmer, more grown-up path of letting this obsession with cowboy masculinity go.  </p> <p> Gender is an issue with this specific shooting.  Just as you can’t claim that shooting a congressperson and a judge at a political event is a non-political event, you can’t really just pretend there aren’t gender implications to a young man shooting one of the sadly too few women in Congress.  Barring straight up schizophrenia (and since the word salad of the videos came from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/01/09/who-is-jared-lee-loughner/" title="a right wing nut that Loughner appears to have followed">a right wing nut that Loughner appears to have followed</a>, this may not have been a factor), I figured that gender would end up playing a role in why Loughner chose the victim he did.  </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://sadydoyle.tumblr.com/post/2676587654/that-interest-might-have-triggered-mr-loughners" title="Sady">Sady</a> nabbed <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071191163461466.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter" title="a detail from the WSJ">a detail from the WSJ</a> that chilled me to my bones, simply because this kind of story is a mundane part of my existence and probably the existence of pretty much every woman reading this who puts forth an intelligent, opinionated persona.  Maybe at least young woman?  I don’t know if this gets better as you age.  Some background: there are many kinds of mansplaining, and all are irritating.  But by far, my least favorite mansplaining is the “How do you know what you know?” mansplaining. </p> <p> In my experience, this is usually how the interaction with this stripe of mansplainer goes.  Woman says something pointed, intelligent, and for whatever reason, threatening to the mansplainer. But he fashions himself too cool and worldly a gentleman to merely lash out at her.  And he doesn’t want to give her insignificant thoughts the courtesy of direct engagement.  So, he decides to treat the woman---who is inevitably better-read, more thoughtful, and often actually has a sense of humor, unlike the mansplainer---to a faux Socratic question that he thinks sounds really profound and philosophical and will totally boggle her wee girl brain and shut her up, but <i>actually</i> sounds like half-baked wankery that would embarrass even stoned college C students having a pseudo-philosophical bullshit session at 3 in the morning.  I’ve been asked, “How do you know what you think you know?” And, “Aren’t politics just a bunch of noise that doesn’t really matter/couldn’t be influenced by your voice?” There’s about a dozen variations, but all of them basically boil down to, “I think I have the perfect way to question the assumption that you have every right to speak your mind/hold power, and I think it’s going to blow your mind and shut your bitch mouth up permanently, though I’ll swear to the end of time that I’m all for women’s equality.” Since it’s inevitably a silly, half-baked pseudo-question, it’s almost always easy to put down swiftly, and this generally annoys the mansplainer, wanker division.  This breed fails to understand a) smart women get this <i>all the time</i> and b) women have to go through a lot of internalized sexism that’s probably more solid than your bullshit to get the confidence they have, so you aren’t going to take them down that easily.  It’s generally a failure to understand they’re batting out of their league, and the reason they don’t understand that they’ve internalized the cultural lie that women are stupid and men are smart.  Often, they may not even realize they’re operating with that assumption, but their behavior belies this. </p> <p> Which is why my blood ran cold when I read about how Loughner may have gotten obsessed with Gabrielle Giffords. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 08:51 AM • (164) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/gender_power_and_the_giffords_shooting/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Sunday, January 09, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thoughts_on_the_inevitable_right_wing_deflection_campaign/">Thoughts on the inevitable right wing deflection campaign</a></h2> <div class="category"> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>A lot of words are flying in the wake of yesterday’s shooting, and a lot of things are unknown still about the shooter and his motivations.  There’s plenty of talk out there about all that, so I’m not going to add to the pile here. </p> <p> I just want to point out that the right swung into action immediately with a well-honed strategy of deflecting blame. Their strategies for defending violent, paranoid rhetoric have developed, one act of political violence at a time, into a routine defense that’s activated the second violence happens or almost happens.  </p> <p> *Minimize the effect that environment has on individuals, by implying that the person who acted basically lived in a vacuum.  Drop the word “crazy” as often as possible, exploiting people’s misbelief that crazy people don’t have a relationship to their political and rhetorical environment, as well as the erroneous belief that mentally ill people are more violent than average. </p> <p> *Try to characterize the terrorist/shooter as “liberal”, no matter how thin or ridiculous your “evidence” for this is.  </p> <p> *Equate calls for voluntary toning down of the paranoid, violent rhetoric with censorship that has government force behind it.  Remember, being criticized is the same thing as being thrown in jail for publishing a newspaper, but only if you’re conservative! </p> <p> *Deny that things that were said meant what they clearly meant.  </p> <p> *Play the “both sides” game, equating impassioned, fact-based rhetoric on the left with paranoid lies and inciting language on the right.  This one is good for guilting some liberals and centrists who’d rather appear fair than be truthful. </p> <p> *If the shooter/terrorist has undeniable political affiliations with the hard right, pretend that they’re completely separate from the mainstream right, all while defending the way the mainstream right is mainstreaming extremist rhetoric (see Whining: Free speech). </p> <p> *If you’re an anti-choice activist, don’t forget to slur the victim(s) of the violence as a bad person who probably had it coming.  To be fair, most right wingers outside of those circles are smart enough to avoid this one.  </p> <p> Yes, some of these contradict each other, but that’s never really mattered to the right wing noise machine.  The main thing is throwing as much shit as they can in order to see what sticks.  That there is a well-honed, well-practiced script that the right whips out in response to these events should give us pause.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.slate.com/id/2280616/pagenum/2" title="Contrary to what Jack Shafer says">Contrary to what Jack Shafer says</a>, the reason their response is so automatic, so well-honed is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline" title="they've had lots and lots of practice">they’ve had lots and lots of practice</a>. </p> <p> Consider also: Making sure there is no moral or social obstacle that might slow down the violent, paranoid, lying rhetoric on the right is the hill that the wingnut defense machine is willing to die on.  </p> <p> Probably because without lies and paranoia, they don’t have a fucking leg to stand on. </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 01:38 PM • (116) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thoughts_on_the_inevitable_right_wing_deflection_campaign/">Comments</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/thoughts_on_the_inevitable_right_wing_deflection_campaign/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Saturday, January 08, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/professional_homobigots_losing_their_spirit/">Professional homobigots losing their spirit</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C16/">LGBT</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t6rV3U9ZEHM/TCZL-8x1QcI/AAAAAAAA1Xw/MsyckVwshFs/s1600/tony-perkins.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>So, the State Department (under Hillary Clinton) has changed the passport application to make life easier for gay parents and other non-traditional families, by changing the terms “Mother” and “Father” to “Parent 1” and “Parent 2”.  This will make life a lot easier on gay parents, who currently have to carry like 15 kinds of proof of legal custody in order to travel over national borders with their children.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/07/passport-applications-soon-gender-neutral/" title="Fox News reported on it">Fox News reported on it</a>, and naturally, they had to give plenty of space for professional bigots to screech about the evils of a decision that quite literally has nothing to do with them, and is probably something they wouldn’t even notice if they weren’t trolling around looking for reasons to believe gays have too much freedom of movement.  </p> <p> But I must say I detect a note of malaise.  The professional bigots aren’t really bringing their A game anymore, but instead copying and pasting the same anti-gay screed they’ve trotted out a million times before. </p> <blockquote><p>“Only in the topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness could it be considered an ‘improvement’ for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins wrote in a statement to Fox News Radio. “This is clearly designed to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act.” </p> <p> Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, agreed. “It’s part of an overall attempt at political correctness to diminish the distinction between men and women and to somehow suggest you don’t need both a father and a mother to raise a child successfully,” said Jeffress. “(This decision) was made to make homosexual couples feel more comfortable in rearing children.” </p></blockquote> <p> These quotes could be about pretty much anything, if you think about it.  They’re totally phoning it in.  The heavy use of scare quotes where they’re inappropriate? Check. Suggesting that it’s pointless to have children for any other reason than to prove the virility of heterosexual men? Check.  Dropping the word “homosexual” a lot in hopes that people think about butt sex instead of two same-sex parents trying to corral a toddler through airline security, just like everyone else? Check.  Suggesting that the only acceptable response to homosexuality from the government is ghettoizing people, depriving them of their basic freedom of movement, and seeking ways to shake their finger at them for who they are? Check.  </p> <p> This bigotry is really weak sauce. They should take some notes <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/michele-bachmanns-conversion-fantasy" title="from Michele Bachmann">from Michele Bachmann</a>.  Why just push one wingnut resentment button when you can just be like a kid in an elevator hitting every floor?  I mean, this is about <i>passports</i>, which implies travel to <i>foreign</i> nations.  There are way more buttons you could be wacking with this one.  Let me rewrite it for them. </p> <blockquote><p>“Only in the topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness could it be considered an ‘improvement’ for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins wrote in a statement to Fox News Radio. “What kind of pansy, egg-headed world do these homosexuals live in that they need to be traveling with children anyway?  We have peer-reviewed research that indicates that homosexuals only want to travel with children so they can take them to countries that practice socialism.  What kind of nation allows two men to take a child to a place like Paris for a re-education camp in socialized medicine, homosexual marriage, and pacifism?” </p> <p> Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, agreed. “It’s part of an overall attempt at political correctness to allow homosexuals to cross over our borders, when we know they can’t be up to any good traveling around, no doubt drinking wine and eating cheese that doesn’t come presliced,” said Jeffress. “Passports are for Christians going on missions in foreign countries, not so some frou-frou art lovers can indoctrinate their fake children into leftist hedonism by taking them to Louvre.” </p></blockquote> <p> See what I mean?  Passports are a rich mine, where you can bash people for having intellectual curiosity, tolerance, and for not hating the French. Also, for seeing children as people who deserve adventure and fun, instead of tiny little Satanic rebels who need any spiritedness beat out of them. They could have totally linked gay rights with all these things, and failed miserably.  I think they’re losing steam.  The DADT repeal is driving home how the bigots are going to lose this battle, as they have in the past.  Tony Perkins spent the first half of his career trying <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.thenation.com/article/justice-sunday-preachers" title="to cover up his association with racist groups">to cover up his association with racist groups</a>.  Now he’s turning into the George Wallace figure of the gay rights movement, and that’s got to be demoralizing.  Of course, I couldn’t think of a better person for it to happen to.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:02 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/professional_homobigots_losing_their_spirit/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="date"> Friday, January 07, 2011</div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/orange_and_crocodile_is_it_john_boehner_or_a_hermes_handbag/">Orange and crocodile: Is it John Boehner or a Hermes handbag?</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>Grit TV asked me to come on to make fun of John Boehner for dropping more crocodile tears in a single day than there are crocodiles living in America. </p> <p> <embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044oe_/http://blip.tv/play/gdElgpqWaQI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.grittv.org/">More GRITtv</a> </p> <p> See also, one of my favorite new websites: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.isjohnboehnerstillcrying.com/" title="Is John Boehner Still Crying">Is John Boehner Still Crying</a>? </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 04:41 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/orange_and_crocodile_is_it_john_boehner_or_a_hermes_handbag/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/reading_the_constitution_might_be_important_to_reading_the_constitution/">Reading The Constitution Might Be Important To Reading The Constitution</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C35/">Conservatives</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C57/">Congress</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C43/">Legal Issues</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p>Yesterday, House Republicans led a reading of most of the Constitution.  You see, they decided to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/06/constitutional-reading-sparks-debate-omitted-parts/">leave out portions of it</a> that had been amended.  The ongoing rationale for the omission is that you don’t read parts of the Constitution that are superceded, because <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028085.php">they’re no longer applicable</a>. </p> <blockquote><p>But if the purpose of the reading was to remind people of the contents of our fundamental law and to symbolize Congress’ commitment to adhering to that law, then it makes no sense to read portions of document that no longer apply. The reading Jackson and others wanted would make sense only if this were a history lesson. But it was not. History lessons are for speeches by individual members, each of whom has his or her own view about which aspects of history to emphasize. What all members of Congress have in common is their oath to uphold the Constitution as it <i>stands today</i>.</p></blockquote> <p> The predominant conservative view of constitutional interpretation is based on strict textualism and original intent.  The short version of this is that we look at the words in the Constitution and we look at the historical background when the words were written to determine the full meaning of the language.  The problem with originalism is that it’s both incredibly lazy and remarkably fungible.  It allows you to hitch a ride on whatever version of history you find most appealing and declare any competing interpretations apostate.  But the core of it, at least, is that every single thing in the Constitution means something, and that it all means exactly what it says and what it meant when it was written. </p> <p> Originalism and original intent, however, become incoherent when you no longer interpret the Constitution based on the words it still contains. The Three-Fifths Compromise is inoperative, but it still shows a fundamental calculation that went into the construction of the Constitution and the Union.  The same thing goes for appointment of Senators by state legislatures.  The 21st Amendment needs the 18th Amendment in order to be fully understood.  The amendment process is not a deletion process; it’s an override process.  If you’re going to tell me that the Founders’ intent is the guiding light for our country, you can’t pretend they didn’t mean part of what they said because it was changed by later acts. </p> <p> The beauty of America is that we neither forget our history nor find ourselves overly bound by it.  But if you contend that we are bound by the understanding of men at the end of 18th Century in all that we do, then you can’t say that a later alteration of the Constitution changes their intent.  It’s a self-nullifying argument, and it makes any attempt to interpret or enforce the Constitution through that lens a complete joke.  </p> <p></p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/114/">Jesse Taylor</a> at 01:30 PM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/reading_the_constitution_might_be_important_to_reading_the_constitution/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <h2 class="title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/yes_scalia_there_was_feminism_in_the_19th_century/">Yes, Scalia, there was feminism in the 19th century</a></h2> <div class="category"> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C8/">Feminism</a> • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/C22/">History</a> </div> <div class="entry"> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044im_/http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/WoodhullCongress1.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Scalia <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=01&year=2011&base_name=scalias_selective_refusal_to_e" title="has conclusively demonstrated">has conclusively demonstrated</a> that “originalism” just means “projecting my desires onto the original writers of the Constitution, so I can blame them instead of myself for my bigotry”.  Here’s the quote in question, where he dismissed the idea that the 14th amendment prevents gender discrimination: </p> <blockquote><p>The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws.</p></blockquote> <p> I like his sarcasm there, which really adds to the sense that Scalia’s implying that this women’s equality thing is just a fad that will pass soon enough.  At the link above, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/now-thats-restraint" title="and at this one">and at this one</a>, Scott Lemieux conclusively demonstrates that Scalia’s ability to read the minds of the Constitution authors only comes into play when what he’s channeling from them is what he already believes.  “Originalism” is functionally a religion, where the Constitution is a holy document and the interpretation is done by priest-judges who get to <i>make shit up</i> as they go along, instead of thoughtful jurisprudence.  </p> <p> Instead of reading the Constitution out loud in the House, the Republicans should do it in Scalia’s office, because he seems to have no idea what the actual text of the 14th amendment is. </p> <blockquote><p>Section 1. <b>All persons</b> born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the <b>equal protection of the laws</b>. </p></blockquote> <p> Emphasis mine.  Instead of trying to rule by holding seances to ascertain what the folks who wrote this meant by it, Scalia should be reading the text and asking some straightforward questions, especilly about who he considers a “person”.  Are women considered “persons” nowadays under the law?  I’d say yes, even though there’s constant assault on female personhood by the anti-choice movement, and the justice system fails to provide equal protection all the time by not enforcing laws against rape and domestic violence as much as they should.  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/01/women-the-14th-amendment-and-the-ambiguity-of-intent/" title="Matt Yglesias has more on this">Matt Yglesias has more on this</a>. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/yes_scalia_there_was_feminism_in_the_19th_century/">Read All...</a> </p> </div> <div class="posted"> Posted by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/member/3/">Amanda Marcotte</a> at 09:56 AM • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/yes_scalia_there_was_feminism_in_the_19th_century/">Permalink</a> </div> <div align="center">  <script type="text/javascript"> if( postIndex == 0 ) { GA_googleFillSlot("Pandagon_300"); if(postIndex < POST_OFFSET) {postIndex++;} else { postIndex = 0; } } </script> <p> </div> <div class="paginate"> <span class="pagecount">Page 1 of 280 pages</span>  <b>1</b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P15/">2</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P30/">3</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P15/">></a>  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044/http://pandagon.net/index.php/P4185/">Last »</a> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> </div> <br class="spacer"/> </div> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20110116045044js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-4601490-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body> </html>