You're Goddamned Fucking Right I'm Online & Outraged!!!
I was simultaneously amused, offended, annoyed and empowered by a front-page feature in today's WaPo titled The Left, Online and Outraged. The article talked about several bloggers including Markos, Atrios, The Rude Pundit and others, but focused on Maryscott O'Connor. Here's a snippet:
"Rage, rage against the Lying of the Right" is the subtitle of O'Connor's Web site.
"If I can't rant, I don't want to be part of your revolution" is how she signs her comments, in the place other people might write "Sincerely."
"I was not like this before," she says. "I was riddled with empathy for everyone suffering in the world. Classic bleeding-heart liberal."
Before: She signed petitions. She boycotted veal. She canvassed for Greenpeace. She donated to Planned Parenthood. She read the Nation, the New Yorker, the Utne Reader and Mother Jones. She agonized over low wages for overseas workers every time she bought a $40 leather purse.
Then George W. Bush was elected. Then came 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, the Patriot Act, secret prisons, domestic eavesdropping, the revamping of the Supreme Court, and the thought "It has come to the point where the worst people on Earth are running the Earth." And now, "I have become one of those people with all the bumper stickers on their car," she says. "I am this close to being one of those muttering people pushing a cart.
"I'm insane with rage and grief. But I also feel more connected than I ever have."
Wow, it's like Maryscott O'Connor is INSIDE MY BRAIN!!! Like, for real. This sounds exactly like me.
I used to be much more relaxed and tolerant about republicans, conservatives and anyone or anything I generally disagreed with. I mean, I would still go off on Rush Limbaugh or reproductive freedom rants occasionally. But nothing like I am now, where I get into shouting matches with people I care about (like my delusionally republican godmother or my stubbornly conservative stepdad). Something really changed in me after the stolen 2000 election... and then after seeing 9/11 get co-opted, and then after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and ESPECIALLY after Bush was re-elected. It's no coincidence that I started a blog titled "Liberal Rage" right before the 2nd inauguration, ya know?
I think it's kind of funny that the Washington Post did an article about how OMG ANGRY!! liberals are these days:
What's notable about this isn't only the level of anger but the direction from which it is coming. Not that long ago, it was the right that was angry and the left that was, at least comparatively, polite. But after years of being the targets of inflammatory rhetoric, not only from fringe groups but also from such mainstream conservative politicians as Newt Gingrich, the left has gone on the attack. And with Republicans in control of Washington, they have much more to be angry about.
*sigh* You know, I wish the media would come to a consensus about how they want us to act. If we don't argue enough, then we're a bunch of latte-chugging, French-loving, bleeding heart pussy pushovers. If we do get upset, then we're spittle-flecked crazies barely above al Queda. It's like, we can't win for trying.
One note though: this blogs' title and my general "Raaar!!!" attitude is NOT how I am in my daily life. I'm actually a quite pleasant person. Ask some of the people who know me IRL - bailunrui, valereix, ktnb, girlfromsouth, etc. Also, my computer monitor has never been flecked with spittle, and I don't normally type until my fingers go numb. Unless I'm doing a porn RPG. That's different though.
At any rate, go read " I Am Not The 'Angry Left'" by a diarist at Kos, Maryscott's response to the article, and generally everything Mary has written at My Left Wing. It's good stuff.
"Rage, rage against the Lying of the Right" is the subtitle of O'Connor's Web site.
"If I can't rant, I don't want to be part of your revolution" is how she signs her comments, in the place other people might write "Sincerely."
"I was not like this before," she says. "I was riddled with empathy for everyone suffering in the world. Classic bleeding-heart liberal."
Before: She signed petitions. She boycotted veal. She canvassed for Greenpeace. She donated to Planned Parenthood. She read the Nation, the New Yorker, the Utne Reader and Mother Jones. She agonized over low wages for overseas workers every time she bought a $40 leather purse.
Then George W. Bush was elected. Then came 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, the Patriot Act, secret prisons, domestic eavesdropping, the revamping of the Supreme Court, and the thought "It has come to the point where the worst people on Earth are running the Earth." And now, "I have become one of those people with all the bumper stickers on their car," she says. "I am this close to being one of those muttering people pushing a cart.
"I'm insane with rage and grief. But I also feel more connected than I ever have."
Wow, it's like Maryscott O'Connor is INSIDE MY BRAIN!!! Like, for real. This sounds exactly like me.
I used to be much more relaxed and tolerant about republicans, conservatives and anyone or anything I generally disagreed with. I mean, I would still go off on Rush Limbaugh or reproductive freedom rants occasionally. But nothing like I am now, where I get into shouting matches with people I care about (like my delusionally republican godmother or my stubbornly conservative stepdad). Something really changed in me after the stolen 2000 election... and then after seeing 9/11 get co-opted, and then after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and ESPECIALLY after Bush was re-elected. It's no coincidence that I started a blog titled "Liberal Rage" right before the 2nd inauguration, ya know?
I think it's kind of funny that the Washington Post did an article about how OMG ANGRY!! liberals are these days:
What's notable about this isn't only the level of anger but the direction from which it is coming. Not that long ago, it was the right that was angry and the left that was, at least comparatively, polite. But after years of being the targets of inflammatory rhetoric, not only from fringe groups but also from such mainstream conservative politicians as Newt Gingrich, the left has gone on the attack. And with Republicans in control of Washington, they have much more to be angry about.
*sigh* You know, I wish the media would come to a consensus about how they want us to act. If we don't argue enough, then we're a bunch of latte-chugging, French-loving, bleeding heart pussy pushovers. If we do get upset, then we're spittle-flecked crazies barely above al Queda. It's like, we can't win for trying.
One note though: this blogs' title and my general "Raaar!!!" attitude is NOT how I am in my daily life. I'm actually a quite pleasant person. Ask some of the people who know me IRL - bailunrui, valereix, ktnb, girlfromsouth, etc. Also, my computer monitor has never been flecked with spittle, and I don't normally type until my fingers go numb. Unless I'm doing a porn RPG. That's different though.
At any rate, go read " I Am Not The 'Angry Left'" by a diarist at Kos, Maryscott's response to the article, and generally everything Mary has written at My Left Wing. It's good stuff.