All Over this Country
Well, it's comment wars time again, and this time, it's on the crossover review for "Accidental Racist" by Todd in the Shadows and Rap Critic.
I wasn't initially going to get involved with the comments on that one. I've never listened to the song all the way through, and what I heard of it in the review made me want to avoid it as much as humanly possible. But then Todd mentioned on his Twitter how some people were defending the song, and like any fool, I took the bait and went to see what was going on. Because honestly, there is no better form of entertainment than conservative assholes defending an outdated viewpoint in video comments. (Note that I do not think that all conservatives are assholes. I understand that there is a conservative viewpoint and when it is argued correctly, I respect it. When I say conservative asshole, I mean to obviously sexist/racist/homophobic people who feel the need to defend their worldview by shouting down everyone who disagrees.)
And I was actually kind of disappointed to find that there was only one asshole there saying that the Civil War wasn't about slavery and that slave masters were good people and black people owned slaves too and the Confederate flag wasn't a racist symbol and on and on and on. Naturally, having grown up with two parents who teach rhetoric, I refuted the points made as intelligently as possible, because the only entertainment better than reading the conservative assholes' comments is to argue against them and see how butt hurt they get. Okay, I'm just kidding about that-- I really did want to make the point that the Confederacy might not have been a good organization that that Southern pride is a bit misguided.
I'm not going to repeat the whole argument here-- it's on the first page of comments for that video if you're interested. But like clockwork, another conservative asshole immediately jumped into the mix to tell me in no uncertain terms to shut up and not make my arguments against Conservative Asshole Number 1's points.
I have already refuted Conservative Asshole Number 2's point that I should keep my mouth shut, but I feel that I can expand upon the topic here without being told I'm an idiot-- which, if my history of using my rhetorical skills to engage in comment wars stands, will be the next point made in the discussion. So this article isn't necessarily about racism and Southern pride. You want to know what I think about that? Okay-- racism is wrong, slavery was wrong regardless of how nicely slave owners treated slaves, and Southern pride is an attempt to keep racist ideas alive even though the rest of the country has moved on. And I say this as someone who lived in Texas for several years. And not the liberal bubble of Texas-- I lived right next to George W. Bush's hometown. The very heart of conservative Southern pride. There you go.
No, this article is on the loss of rhetorical debate in this country, especially when it comes to politics. Now, I realize that a comment war on a comedy review is hardly the place to go if you want a good debate, but I expect people to have a better argument than "shut up I'm right" if we're going to discuss political issues. (I suspect that's why Spoony disallows political discussion on his videos.) A debate is when both sides form cohesive arguments to make their points and pit them against each other until one side concedes that the other may be right. It is not formed when one side refuses to listen to the other, actively insults the other, or tells the other that they need to shut up and stop whining about the points made. Yes, I was told to stop whining about every point. Go figure.
It's not that we can't have good debate in comments. If you read "I am Wonder Woman," you'll remember that I actually had quite a nice discussion on gender roles with a young conservative woman, and we both came out of it understanding and possibly even respecting the other's viewpoint. It can happen if both sides are willing to talk to each other.
The trouble is that our political climate has grown so polarized and so ugly that real debate doesn't happen anymore. Even in real political "debates," the two sides stand at their podiums and take potshots at each other without giving much reason for anyone to believe them. Even Barack Obama-- who is actually pretty good at rhetoric-- was reduced to saying "that's not true" to every one of Mitt Romney's points in the last round of presidential debates. That climate translates into our every day conversations, and makes it difficult for anyone to get their point across. We're taught to say "I'm right, you're wrong" and not find any middle ground because finding middle ground supposedly indicates weakness.
I do not believe that. I believe that we should revive real debate, learn to form cohesive arguments, and listen to each other when we make our points. We should not tell each other to shut up when we disagree, we should not stoop to petty insults when making our points. I realize that I have done so in this article, and I'm sorry for it, but this isn't really a debate, it's a LiveJournal rant, and no one's going to read it anyway. Rhetoric is fast becoming a lost art, and it's one that we need to revive for the sake of our country. After all, if we can't have good discussion, we can't have good democracy.
As to the conservative assholes in the comments, I'll probably continue to argue with them until the discussion fizzles out or the next Todd video is posted. Whichever comes first.
I wasn't initially going to get involved with the comments on that one. I've never listened to the song all the way through, and what I heard of it in the review made me want to avoid it as much as humanly possible. But then Todd mentioned on his Twitter how some people were defending the song, and like any fool, I took the bait and went to see what was going on. Because honestly, there is no better form of entertainment than conservative assholes defending an outdated viewpoint in video comments. (Note that I do not think that all conservatives are assholes. I understand that there is a conservative viewpoint and when it is argued correctly, I respect it. When I say conservative asshole, I mean to obviously sexist/racist/homophobic people who feel the need to defend their worldview by shouting down everyone who disagrees.)
And I was actually kind of disappointed to find that there was only one asshole there saying that the Civil War wasn't about slavery and that slave masters were good people and black people owned slaves too and the Confederate flag wasn't a racist symbol and on and on and on. Naturally, having grown up with two parents who teach rhetoric, I refuted the points made as intelligently as possible, because the only entertainment better than reading the conservative assholes' comments is to argue against them and see how butt hurt they get. Okay, I'm just kidding about that-- I really did want to make the point that the Confederacy might not have been a good organization that that Southern pride is a bit misguided.
I'm not going to repeat the whole argument here-- it's on the first page of comments for that video if you're interested. But like clockwork, another conservative asshole immediately jumped into the mix to tell me in no uncertain terms to shut up and not make my arguments against Conservative Asshole Number 1's points.
I have already refuted Conservative Asshole Number 2's point that I should keep my mouth shut, but I feel that I can expand upon the topic here without being told I'm an idiot-- which, if my history of using my rhetorical skills to engage in comment wars stands, will be the next point made in the discussion. So this article isn't necessarily about racism and Southern pride. You want to know what I think about that? Okay-- racism is wrong, slavery was wrong regardless of how nicely slave owners treated slaves, and Southern pride is an attempt to keep racist ideas alive even though the rest of the country has moved on. And I say this as someone who lived in Texas for several years. And not the liberal bubble of Texas-- I lived right next to George W. Bush's hometown. The very heart of conservative Southern pride. There you go.
No, this article is on the loss of rhetorical debate in this country, especially when it comes to politics. Now, I realize that a comment war on a comedy review is hardly the place to go if you want a good debate, but I expect people to have a better argument than "shut up I'm right" if we're going to discuss political issues. (I suspect that's why Spoony disallows political discussion on his videos.) A debate is when both sides form cohesive arguments to make their points and pit them against each other until one side concedes that the other may be right. It is not formed when one side refuses to listen to the other, actively insults the other, or tells the other that they need to shut up and stop whining about the points made. Yes, I was told to stop whining about every point. Go figure.
It's not that we can't have good debate in comments. If you read "I am Wonder Woman," you'll remember that I actually had quite a nice discussion on gender roles with a young conservative woman, and we both came out of it understanding and possibly even respecting the other's viewpoint. It can happen if both sides are willing to talk to each other.
The trouble is that our political climate has grown so polarized and so ugly that real debate doesn't happen anymore. Even in real political "debates," the two sides stand at their podiums and take potshots at each other without giving much reason for anyone to believe them. Even Barack Obama-- who is actually pretty good at rhetoric-- was reduced to saying "that's not true" to every one of Mitt Romney's points in the last round of presidential debates. That climate translates into our every day conversations, and makes it difficult for anyone to get their point across. We're taught to say "I'm right, you're wrong" and not find any middle ground because finding middle ground supposedly indicates weakness.
I do not believe that. I believe that we should revive real debate, learn to form cohesive arguments, and listen to each other when we make our points. We should not tell each other to shut up when we disagree, we should not stoop to petty insults when making our points. I realize that I have done so in this article, and I'm sorry for it, but this isn't really a debate, it's a LiveJournal rant, and no one's going to read it anyway. Rhetoric is fast becoming a lost art, and it's one that we need to revive for the sake of our country. After all, if we can't have good discussion, we can't have good democracy.
As to the conservative assholes in the comments, I'll probably continue to argue with them until the discussion fizzles out or the next Todd video is posted. Whichever comes first.