Loving hate

As most of you know, my new hobby is hanging around right wing blogs. It's not the best hobby for someone whose blood pressure is already pretty bad, and I bite my tongue so often it's a miracle I haven't taken it clean off, but regardless of the sometimes truly horrifying commentary I see there, I've become fond of many of them as people. I like to think some of them have become a little fond of me because that's how we're going to build a people's movement and take the system back. By discovering that we aren't so different and the enemy isn't [insert hated ethnic and/or political group here], it's the corrupt people who govern us.

I've survived as a regular on these blogs by holding my piece. I rarely comment on the hate threads that I find so appalling. But I read it all and try to understand why they hold such contempt towards people they don't know. Tell you the truth I still don't get it and one of the recent disturbing trends I've been noticing is the widening of Islamo-hatred to include all Muslims and the religion itself. I wondered how this meme was spreading.

Dean Esmay in a brilliant post has the answer. It seems there's a particularly vile viral email making the rounds and he dissects and debunks the disinformative diatribe bit by bit. An easy enough task but a lenghty one and he does it superbly. I wish I had posted that. It's well worth the time to read in full.

It astounds me that the people who pitch this meme don't realize they're doing the government's dirty work -- for free. While they foment hate and suspicion between the classes, the government is quietly taking over all our lives. [via]