Mongol-Swedes Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 Sociopaths Have Taken Over the Op-Ed Pages By David Sirota Is it me, or in the last year have we seen a shocking rise in the number of major pundits who have acknowledged (perhaps inadvertently) their own sociopathic tendencies? I ask this after reading this from the Washington Post?s Richard Cohen: ?I originally had no moral qualms about the war?I was encouraged in my belief by the offensive opposition to the war ? silly arguments about oil or empire or, at bottom, the ineradicable and perpetual rottenness of America?In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic.? This came days before the New Republic?s Jonathan Chait, a cheerleader for the Iraq War, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times headlined ?Bring Back Saddam Hussein?: ?Just maybe our best option is to restore Saddam Hussein to power?Yes, I know. Hussein is a psychotic mass murderer. Under his rule, Iraqis were shot, tortured and lived in constant fear.? I would be quick to dismiss these statements as the insane blatherings of merely two lunatics who are clearly so embarrassed by their advocacy for the Iraq War, that they have lost all control of their faculties. But such absurd comments have now become a mainstay of today?s op-ed pages. Just a few months ago, the New York Times? David Brooks wrote that ?voters shouldn?t be allowed to define the choices in American politics.? Then there was was columnist Mort Kondracke on Fox News saying the veterans health care system ?doesn?t work? even though by all objective measures, it is the best health care system in the entire country. And of course, we have the New York Times? billionaire columnist Tom Friedman appearing on national television to admit that he regularly uses his space on the op-ed page to push free trade deals that he hasn?t even bothered to read. He?s the same guy who pushed the Iraq War, then criticized the war, and now, just today, published a piece saying we should consider ?reinvading Iraq with at least 150,000 more troops? and staying there for 10 more years. He?s also the same guy who has taken to destructive proportions the famous laugh line in the Money Pit about the house being fixed in ?two weeks,? using his column since 2003 to keep claiming that all in Iraq will be finished in a matter of another ?six months.? But I must admit, as funny/sad as it is to watch Friedman?s house of credibility come crashing down as he does his best Walter-Fielding-on-the-collapsing-stairway impression, nothing is more enjoyable these days than to watch the Wax Figure himself, George Will. His entire column today is about how ?uncivil? it was for Sen.-elect Jim Webb to tell President Bush he wants the troops brought home, and how nauseating it is to the Washington pundit class that a U.S. Senator would have the gall to talk about economic inequality. I mean, you need to read this thing - Wax Figure even goes off on Webb for using blunt language, saying he is supposedly ?turning out slapdash prose that would be rejected by a reasonably demanding high school teacher.? Yes, folks - the sociopaths on the right have been relegated to grammar criticism and demands that everyone in Washington attend Miss Manners. Because what really offends someone like George Will is not Americans dying in a war based on lies (Why should it? He's a Washington insider with connections, dammit, and he's not personally affected by such dirty things); it's not an economic class war being waged on working people (Why should it? he's a well-paid pundit who can't be bothered with such trifles); it's not even his fellow Washington Post pal Richard Cohen saying that violence is "therapeutic" (what a message for the kids!). No - what really truly offends the Wax Figure's Capital Grille sensibilities is "incivility" and grammar. Oh, except for one thing - that's not offensive when it comes from people like Dick Cheney who told other Senators to "f*&! off" and George W. Bush, that world famous master of the King's English. None of this is normal, socially acceptable behavior in the real, non-pundit world. These are the kind of sociopathic outbursts that, outside the Beltway, get people fired from their jobs, expelled to pariah status, and ridiculed as having ?lost it.? But I guess the laws of regular society just don?t apply to these people. That?s not all that surprising. As I documented in an earlier article, most of the supposedly ?national? opinionmaking apparatus resides not throughout the nation, but instead inside elite circles in Washington and New York City - places that apparently aren?t subjected to the normal rules of America, places where sociopathic behavior gets you labeled a Serious Person. But here?s the deal - just because you read sociopathic claims on your op-ed pages from the Washington opinionmaking machine about how violence is supposedly ?therapeutic,? how we should supposedly bring Saddam Hussein back to power, how voters suppposedly shouldn?t be able to make choices in America and how new Senators have no right to tell the President they want the troops home - remember, that doesn?t make these claims truthful or acceptable out here in the real world, and it doesn?t make you crazy for thinking that the people who make these claims ARE crazy. Poster's Note: SEATTLE WAS A RIOT!!! Link to comment
Tagmatium Rules Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 Hmm... well, they won't have the chance to put old Saddam back into power - the bugger'll be swinging from a rope before long. It's utterly bizarre what some of these people say, but then I've long been of the opinion that right-wingers don't think right. On a side note, it's Queen's English now, unless her Maj hasn't been telling us something for the last eighty years By-the-by, why do emos offend you so much? The movement will die out again in another couple of years and be replaced by another such group, so I wouldn't stress about it so much if I were you. Just sit back and laugh at their awful clothes, music and hairstyles like the rest of us. PS: You may want to look at reducing the size of your signature. Link to comment
Mongol-Swedes Posted November 30, 2006 Author Share Posted November 30, 2006 Well, good sir, you should know by now that the Emos are a plague/blight (that's rare, a plague and a blight in one package) upon the glory of 30 years of true punk. And everyone knows that right-wingers are the biggest closet freaks. I suspect that Bill O'Reilly himself may have had a hand in some nefarious morgue party or somesuch. And I don't much mind a libel charge. Besides, if word gets out that ole Bill is suing a Soldier, it'll topple his credibility like a deflated flan. Keith Olbermann will see to that. Link to comment
Renposa Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 Well me ohh my, Well I wouldn't mind seeing a tyrannical power come back and conquer that region of the middle-east...*only if AMERICA would not have to go in and rebuild* my friends and me where talking about what would happen if the nations of (Nazi Germany Or Soviet Union) would have came back and what they would have done....I said that "Hitler" would have taken out the middle-east a long long time ago. Also, the same for the Soviet Union. Leaders like Stalin,Lennin,Hitler would not have stoud for such nonsense. Oh! about the Emos....I CANT STAND THEM...they are a burden to our society with their black clothes all they want is attention....It is sad how they try to where their ohh black clothes and listen to their screaming music..."CpL Where Are My Bombers?" Link to comment
Hanemar Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Emos... I just laugh at them. It's a win-win situation. I get to let off some steam by mocking ridiculous people who should now better- they get what they want: some attention and an excuse to feel miserable. Link to comment
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