Al Gore Blows It
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to wander back to the left, to see if I can fit inside their worldview again, and accept their passions as the proper passions.
I’ve said it before: a guy like me, I would love to be over there. It’s so comfortable and even fun railing about the fascism here at home, knowing that the genocidal hatred we face is ultimately our own fault, and that if we (specifically, our domestic political opponents) acted more nobly, radical Islamic rage would fade away.
It's maybe not 100% without merit, this worldview.
Then I stumble across this. It's Al Gore, ramping up a quite long speech about the insufficiently rebellious state of our corporate-controlled, reactionary media:
“As recently stated by Dan Rather -- who was, of course, forced out of his anchor job after angering the White House -- television news has been "dumbed down and tarted up." (my emphasis)
How can I ally with a man who lies like that, in that bolded phrase?
A man who pretends a major chunk of the population that includes me doesn’t exist? Or doesn’t matter, somehow, our opinions don’t count, since (I guess) we are just led around the nose by the fascists running the country?
Who manages snidely to disappear those of us - 53% of the population, at a rough minimum - angered that CBS aired a report shortly before an election based on an obviously forged document, as Al in his heart knows it was?
And without whose anger any Presidential anger would have been, for Dan, just another easy-won badge of honor bestowed by the millions of his fellow courageous few who dare to criticize - gasp - their own society?
I just feel so denigrated! Discounted! Margnalized! Can't Al feel the hurt he causes me?
I’ve said it before: a guy like me, I would love to be over there. It’s so comfortable and even fun railing about the fascism here at home, knowing that the genocidal hatred we face is ultimately our own fault, and that if we (specifically, our domestic political opponents) acted more nobly, radical Islamic rage would fade away.
It's maybe not 100% without merit, this worldview.
Then I stumble across this. It's Al Gore, ramping up a quite long speech about the insufficiently rebellious state of our corporate-controlled, reactionary media:
“As recently stated by Dan Rather -- who was, of course, forced out of his anchor job after angering the White House -- television news has been "dumbed down and tarted up." (my emphasis)
How can I ally with a man who lies like that, in that bolded phrase?
A man who pretends a major chunk of the population that includes me doesn’t exist? Or doesn’t matter, somehow, our opinions don’t count, since (I guess) we are just led around the nose by the fascists running the country?
Who manages snidely to disappear those of us - 53% of the population, at a rough minimum - angered that CBS aired a report shortly before an election based on an obviously forged document, as Al in his heart knows it was?
And without whose anger any Presidential anger would have been, for Dan, just another easy-won badge of honor bestowed by the millions of his fellow courageous few who dare to criticize - gasp - their own society?
I just feel so denigrated! Discounted! Margnalized! Can't Al feel the hurt he causes me?
posted by Lonesome Payne at
1:43 PM
