oh futile bloggering
I stumbled on this interesting story about Iranians at a shopping center attacking a group of religious police who were attempting to arrest a young woman for a dress-code violation:
That was when the large crowd, predominately made up of young people, rose up against the police and attempted to liberate the young woman themselves. Faced with a full-blown riot – complete with angry crowds with garbage cans being set on fire – the frightened police jumped into the van and fled the scene, except for one unfortunate officer who was left behind. The policeman was reportedly attacked and beaten by the mob.
It’s a disturbing but strangely heartening story; your heart goes out to the people who have to live under such a regime, and you want to cheer for those who stand up to it.
Unfortunately, the story was posted on an idiotic right-wing blog; the comments cheered on those who fought back, and went on to blame Iranian problems on 1) Islam (“satan’s religion”) and 2) Jimmy Carter.
Stupidly, I added my own comment. I doubt it’ll actually be published on the site; one of their regular bloggers was a participant in Iran-Contra and continues to spout the most idiotic prescriptions for fixing Iran’s problems. But I liked my comment, so I’m reproducing it here:
What a great story. So heartening to see ordinary people spontaneously rouse themselves against the kind of routine tyranny they’ve suffered all of their lives. I can only hope that this will scale up into a full-on regime change, though I admit I can only fantasize about how such a thing might work in practice.
Iran is a beautiful place, filled with great people, and there’s a wonderful culture hiding under all that oppression.
I can only shake my head at the people who would show support for the Iranian people’s thirst for freedom by damning their religion. How would you feel if someone offered to help solve your problems by eliminating Christianity? Conflating the religion with the regime is both incorrect and counterproductive; it’s also the tactic used by the oppressors themselves, and that should give you pause.
I’m also disappointed to see some people stooping to partisan point-taking by dropping the responsibility for the 1979 revolution onto Carter’s stooped shoulders. Do you really think that the previous administrations’ support of the Shah had nothing to do with it? He outlawed all but his own party and built torture chambers for dissidents, for crying out loud. Do you find the subsequent administration blameless for selling Iran arms even as they continued to kidnap Americans and attack our embassies and airplanes into the 1980s? Partisan hackery isn’t going to free Iran, nor is bloodlust, nor is insulting the faith or intelligence of average Iranian people.
+1 Iranian shoppers, -1 American blog commenters.
I was wrong; they posted the comment.
I like you so much. Thank you for being an intelligent and articulate person. Really. Seriously. Chrys and I responded to a blog about social issues, and had ridiculously offensive comments responded to it- 10% towards us- 90% towards the original topic posted. One of your cousins of course- and their associates. It is refreshing to see others that we esteem to be of similar ilk.
Awesome.
Thanks. I’ve all but lost touch with the cousins and don’t really know them as adults, but based on anecdotal evidence, I can kind of imagine what you mean.
::sigh::
‘idiotic right-wing’ bloggers are very quick to criticize oppressive policies in middle-eastern countries (criticism well-placed). What’s ironic is that they are the same voices calling for more oppressive policies at home. They pay lip service to the idea of freedom for, say, Iranians, while playing a large part in the erosion of freedom in the US.
The war on drugs The patriot act Torture of terrorism suspects suspension of habeas corpus
Warrentless surveillance Laws against gay marriage FCC regulations (Government power over media) Immigration policy (denying path to citizenship) ETC.
all with wholesale support from right-wing nutjobs. If a bunch of citizens in the US rose up against the police to stop them from arresting an elderly cancer patient using medical marijuana, right-wing bloggers would be the first to call for their heads.
Perhaps their criticism is not stemming from their love of freedom but from their ethnocentric hatred of Muslims.
Spot on, Kip. But the intellectual hypocrisy is a bit more ubiquitous than just that.
See: anti-choice for abortions but support for death penalty and endless war See: “terrists hate our freedoms” as an excuse to remove said freedoms See: mindlessly anti-recreational drug but pro pharma/anti affordable medication See: use of the term “conservative” while spending ~$2.7 trillion on war See: use of term “family values” and virulent homophobia despite countless closet cases See: “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg See: “Christian Conservatives” doing exactly the opposite of what JC said and on and on
agreed, Except for one point. Jonah Goldberg’s book, while somewhat pigheaded, does not strike me as hypocritical. He has pretty much bastardized the term ‘fascism’. He ignores the actual definition of the word and pretty much makes it his own. But to call it hypocrysy would suggest that right wing politics actually have a monopoly on oppressive policies. This is far from true; see: castro, chavez, correa, etc. Both the left and the right will sometimes go too far trying to control people. Whether it’s fascism or communism (supposedly opposites) doesn’t matter to me; totalitarianism can come from the left or the right. my point is, my only real disagreement with Goldberg’s book is semantic. I ultimately agree with his goal of calling out the left on the logical conclusions to many of their positions. as far at idiotic right-wing nutjobs go, i wouldn’t put Jonah Goldberg in that camp.
I wasn’t trying to imply that the Right had the market on authoritarianism, just that Goldberg’s attempt at painting Fascism as a historically Leftist policy was inherently hypocritical. After all, among the original stated goals of Fascism was to eclipse, or combat, communism. Also, Mussolini himself said that Fascism could better be named Corporatism, which is where the policies of Goldberg’s favorite party seem to be taking this country.
As for Goldberg being a right-wing nutjob, he does write for the National Review and Weekly Standard, and while writing for these two far-right publications doesn’t automatically define him thusly, he does try to paint liberals, Democrats, and progressives as immoral. Blatant hypocrisy.
Ok I guess you are right. His hypocrisy lies in criticizing leftism for it’s fascist tendencies while supporting the fascist tendencies of the American Right. I guess I feel like defending his book simply because I don’t think there is enough noise about the totalitarian tendencies of liberalism. Especially when it comes to the far left romanticizing their revolutionist heroes like Che and Castro. The left does have fascist qualities, now and historically. The problem is you don’t call it fascism, you call it naziism, communism, Marxism, etc. Jonah Goldberg did a good job pointing out the many areas in history where the left wandered into fascism (entire chapters on Wilson, FDR) while ignoring the recent trending towards fascism by the republicans. Anyway I don’t want to hijack the thread and make it about a book. Regarding right-wing bloggers, I should probably point out that the reason their batshit insanity makes me so angry is because I happen to agree with many conservative ideals, and I feel the republican party and it’s base have ruined conservatism as a movement.