Ignore at your own risk
I haven't seen Michael Moore's new movie myself yet, but here's very good review. Read both posts but I wanted to spotlight this one graf about our larger current social environment.
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This teabagger movement is happening in a vacuum created by a lack of interest in this topic by liberals who are so enamored of being members of the new "creative class" and the like that they aren't paying attention to the cynicism and anger that's reaching critical mass among average working stiffs out there. It's easy to dismiss it, but very, very foolish. The issues Moore raises in this film will be answered on the right with authoritarianism, militarism, immigrant bashing and violence. It's a recipe for disaster unless the left takes this on in direct, political terms.It's a good point. I see a lot of liberals get caught up in the clever snarking but while the angry mob is mockable on many levels, it is a mistake to treat these folks as if they have no potential to affect not only the narrative, but also the long term outcome.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
posted by Libby Spencer at 9:33 AM
2 Comments:
Hey, Libby, my friend.
It is a good point, but it is one that has nothing to do with me. I do not fucking care about being part of a new creative class. The cynical, angry, average working stiffs are my people. (My biggest estrangement is with cynical angry working stiffs who are intolerant evangelical Christianists, and you don't have to be a lefty elitist schmuck to feel estranged by them.)
I do pay attention. I often get told to simmer down, that I do more harm by taking the angry, cynical spokespeople seriously. I do not know what it means exactly to "take this on in direct political terms".
Ooh, and I am all over the map right now, and my thinking is disorganized, but WTF? "This teabagger movement is happening in a vacuum created by a lack of interest in this topic by liberals...." OMG, now it's my fault?
Maybe it's happening because of a vacuum created by the lack of morality, empathy, and common decency on the part of the haves and have-mores.
But seriously: what should I be doing that I am not doing? What direct political terms should I be taking on, or doing, or whatever? Also, a lot of angry, cynical working stiffs are not avid tea partiers, even if they think people like me are untrustworthy leftist jerks. So I don't like to assume that people who aren't on board with stuff I'm on board with necessarily think that Obama is Hitler and that Chicago's loss is grounds for celebration.
Oof. Ya know?
Hey larkspur. I'm with you. I'm an angry, cynical working stiff too that doesn't go shouting nonsense on the street. I don't think that remark was aimed at people like us. I think he was talking about the high profile progressives that seem to think just dismissing the teapot tantrums with mockery is enough to eliminate an underlying danger that these people will take to the streets with guns someday.
I posted it because I think he's right that the danger of them being set off isn't taken seriously enough by those who have microphones big enough to sound the alarm.
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