Ur petard, let me let you hoist urself on it
In the comments to my last essay, editer writes:
Given [the fact that extremist right-wing radio and TV hosts are encouraging people to show up armed to Obama speeches, among other things], is it any wonder that the sight of gunmen at Democratic events makes a lot of us nervous?
The thing is -- if they succeed in making you nervous, you're letting the terrorists win. That's right, I just called Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their scum-sucking ilk terrorists, because that's what they are: they preach divisiveness from their bully pulpits in order to inspire hatred in their followers and fear in their targets. Those are terrorist tactics. And they have every expectation that their targets' response to this particular fear tactic will be to recoil in horror and redouble their efforts to restrict or ban firearms, thus further angering the Loyal Followers and driving even more of a wedge between what they view as their useful minions -- the right-wing authoritarian followers -- and their useful targets, which is to say, people like you and me.
Nothing -- I repeat, nothing -- would turn the tables on the Limbaughs and Coulters of the world more than a group of peaceful, armed progressives showing up at one of these rallies. It's just not in the script. They haven't planned for it, they wouldn't know what to do with it. And they'd do exactly what they've always done when someone goes off script and throws them for a loop: rage, fume, and weaken their own credibility. They're hilariously predictable in this regard.
Now, as Bob Altemeyer explains quite lucidly -- I'm a convert, I'll admit it, the science sold me -- this doesn't mean that they'll end up driving away their flock. Authoritarian followers will perform truly amazing contortions to avoid having to come to the conclusion that one of their Chosen Leaders is wrong. But you don't have to strip away the followers to strip away the power; point of fact, it's more effective to strip away the money. And when these bozos flip out, they go off script and say dumb, offensive things. We can use this against them. ELEVEN major corporate advertisers have dropped their sponsorship of Glenn Beck's show thanks to pressure from citizens like you and me who object to Beck calling Obama a racist. ConAgra. Geico. Sanofi-Aventis. LexisNexis. These are big companies with lots of money in their pockets, and the more we can inspire the Becks of the world to show what giant assholes they really are on nationwide television, the greater the likelihood that we can convince these major corporations to pull out of Fox News entirely. Do that enough, and they're gonna have to start firing some people.
So why not show them that we're not afraid of them, and let them hang themselves with their own rope?
Seriously. I want to see a dozen gay couples show up to one of these events, carrying signs that read "Health Care For All", "Right to Keep and Arm Bears", and "Gay, straight, black, white: marriage is a civil right", every last one of them with a holstered pistol. Now there's a front-page photo for you.
Given [the fact that extremist right-wing radio and TV hosts are encouraging people to show up armed to Obama speeches, among other things], is it any wonder that the sight of gunmen at Democratic events makes a lot of us nervous?
The thing is -- if they succeed in making you nervous, you're letting the terrorists win. That's right, I just called Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their scum-sucking ilk terrorists, because that's what they are: they preach divisiveness from their bully pulpits in order to inspire hatred in their followers and fear in their targets. Those are terrorist tactics. And they have every expectation that their targets' response to this particular fear tactic will be to recoil in horror and redouble their efforts to restrict or ban firearms, thus further angering the Loyal Followers and driving even more of a wedge between what they view as their useful minions -- the right-wing authoritarian followers -- and their useful targets, which is to say, people like you and me.
Nothing -- I repeat, nothing -- would turn the tables on the Limbaughs and Coulters of the world more than a group of peaceful, armed progressives showing up at one of these rallies. It's just not in the script. They haven't planned for it, they wouldn't know what to do with it. And they'd do exactly what they've always done when someone goes off script and throws them for a loop: rage, fume, and weaken their own credibility. They're hilariously predictable in this regard.
Now, as Bob Altemeyer explains quite lucidly -- I'm a convert, I'll admit it, the science sold me -- this doesn't mean that they'll end up driving away their flock. Authoritarian followers will perform truly amazing contortions to avoid having to come to the conclusion that one of their Chosen Leaders is wrong. But you don't have to strip away the followers to strip away the power; point of fact, it's more effective to strip away the money. And when these bozos flip out, they go off script and say dumb, offensive things. We can use this against them. ELEVEN major corporate advertisers have dropped their sponsorship of Glenn Beck's show thanks to pressure from citizens like you and me who object to Beck calling Obama a racist. ConAgra. Geico. Sanofi-Aventis. LexisNexis. These are big companies with lots of money in their pockets, and the more we can inspire the Becks of the world to show what giant assholes they really are on nationwide television, the greater the likelihood that we can convince these major corporations to pull out of Fox News entirely. Do that enough, and they're gonna have to start firing some people.
So why not show them that we're not afraid of them, and let them hang themselves with their own rope?
Seriously. I want to see a dozen gay couples show up to one of these events, carrying signs that read "Health Care For All", "Right to Keep and Arm Bears", and "Gay, straight, black, white: marriage is a civil right", every last one of them with a holstered pistol. Now there's a front-page photo for you.