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The “larger issues”I shouldn’t write about this sort of thing, because it only makes me mad and I’m not a reliably intelligent read when I’m angry. Started last week when the Duke 3 finally were declared innocent – not “not guilty,” but innocent by the North Carolina attorney general. That didn’t fit the approved narrative of certain folks, including one Samhita over at the “Feministing” blog. Samhita it was that had jumped all over the women’s lacrosse team at Duke last May, when the rape accusation was already unravelling:
Of course, the Duke women – who actually knew the players in question, and it might be presumed had better insight into their personalities – ended up being right. Samhita’s tortured “rich white kids always rape poor women of color BECAUSE OF THE PATRIARCHY!!1!” meme ended up being dead wrong. But she wasn’t sorry for calling the sisters “stupid,” and unrepentantly wrote a post entitled, “You will not shame me.” Because her shame – or lack of it – at being wrong in every single detail on this case is what was really important. Not that three young men were falsely accused, wrongly prosecuted, their reputations smeared, their futures clouded. Not that a local prosecutor showed a reptilian willingness to do whatever it took to hold to power – there’s patriarchy for you – including twisting the truth, slandering the accused in public, perverting established police procedure and wrongly withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense. Not that a treasured and ancient principle of common law – the presumption of innocence – was junked in favor of identity group factionalism. Not that actual victims of future assaults have just been treated to a demonstration of the media circus surrounding such an event, a deterrent which might make an already difficult decision – to press charges, and see the guilty party rot in prison rather than threaten others – more difficult still. No, it was her shame that was important. For this, a healthy dollop of denial is ladled over a bowlful of willful ignorance – garnish with straw men to taste:
It didn’t matter to her that everything she’d unthinkingly, reflexively believed to be true about the case was wrong. The really important thing was the “larger issue”:
How very true. I mean, probably not in the way she meant. But still. – And now yesterday’s massacre in Blacksburg is apparently too juicy a topic for at least one of the usual suspects to let slide without hijacking the tragedy for their own pet political whipping post. In the “No Quarter” blog, one Larry C. Johnson – to much approbation, and some derision – writes in a post entitled “Now do you understand?” that, sure it’s awful and everything. But what about Iraq?1?!?
As if pre-invasion Iraq was some kind of paradise, with only the flesh of 300,000 enemies of the state needed for fertilizer. As though it was Dick Cheney and George Bush blowing up police recruiting stations with suicide vests and vehicle borne IEDs. As if it were them engaging in the newest round of a sectarian battle that has been going on for 1400 years. As if there were here, like there is in Iraq after every fresh assault, a large contingent of partisans secretly – or openly! – pleased that 32 university students were senselessly slaughtered. That was posted yesterday at 13:25. Think about that. And all of this partisan tub thumping even before their poor corpses had cooled. We are not permitted our sorrow, not allowed to grieve. He must thrust his biases in front of us, make us “understand.” Yeah, I understand: Thirty-two families have been irretrievably shattered and it makes for pretty damned good copy. Contemptible. – Others have taken the tragedy to flog pet causes such as “high capacity” magazines. Very well, but it’s not at all clear that the shooter used any. I believe in the law they call this assuming a fact not in evidence. But at least the staff of certain congressmen are taking the deaths as a reason to be “more optimistic.” Well, bully for them and their sense of augmented optimism. Here’s the “larger issue”: Apparently things are no longer what they seem to be. You cannot be trusted to interpret them. We’ve come at last to a time and place where even the governmental persecution or random slaughter of our youth is nothing more than a stage upon which to flog our “larger issues.” What tastelessness. What arrogance. 18 comments to The “larger issues” |
 
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Now, do you understand?
(Why I have this tendency to drink more ethanol than is good for me)
Or, as that Puck guy said, “What fools these mortals be!”
Oh, this might help:
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/328653.html
Some people, as like myself, I’m afraid, just couldn’t resist and got him peeved anyway.
I wonder… It wasn’t terribly long ago that the only newspaper I read was a daily from the Big City and my own Small-Town weekly. One noticed a difference. Articles in the latter were more refined, and shorter of course. The topics didn’t wander and segue into whatever issue-of-the-moment. It was as if the three days instead of three hours to press allowed for a bit more thought to go into the publication.
Contrast that with today’s 24-hour news, plus the immediate access of the internet. Where before camera time was precious, today a live feed of nothing happening is cheap. Where before one might wait for a few facts to come in, today you’ve a deadline in three hours and need copy in two hours for review, then it’s off to the webguy and the printers.
And I don’t think we’ve had a corresponding increase in thoughtfulness over that time either.
Not that there was ever a time the press was a model of decency and reserved contemplation, you understand, but as it’s changed to compete I fear it as lost the temperance and moderation that once made it a respected and trusted source for information.
– Max
I should add, the same is true of commentators as it is the press. As the time-frame decreases reaction time must also decrease. Quite simply, we’re turning into a nation of knee-jerk immediate responses rather than being contemplative and potentially risk missing the event news cycle.
– Max
Yeah, what Max said in comment #4. It seems like we do less critical thinking about the long term effects of a snap response.
Sort of flows from the instant gratification culture we have built.
In the words of my oft politically maligned better half: “Ah now all the special interest groups will be using this tradgedy to promote their cause”. She is so very wise. I especially like GWB’s response to the gun control question yesterday – This is not the time for that discussion, it is a time to mourn – Heartfelt prayers to all wronged by this event, damnation to those that will pervert it for their cause.
Lex, take a look at the newest Newsweek when you get the chance. It’s got an account of what actually happened at the Duke Lacrsse party – the first I’ve seen.
Until reading it, my position was basically this: This was a race-bating prosecutor who was railroading students with air-tight alibis while ignoring all ethics and relying on an accuser who couldn’t keep her story straight. But I also thought it was clear that these were overprivileged white kids who, according to neighbors accounts, yelled racist insults at the dancers as they left. I thought it was unfortunate that we (or Duke) could not discuss the racist acts that DID occur because the world was focusing on an act – rape – that clearly DID NOT occur. Because they were victims of a out-of-control prosector, the lacrosse team now gets a pass on what actually happened (not discounting, of course, the witchhunt they have previously endured).
The article changes my mind a little. It sounds like a situation in which the “performers” were surly, calling the players “short-dick white boys,” which prompted at least one of them to respond with the n-word. Not good behavior, but not quite instigated by the players, either.
I went to a theology graduate program several years ago thinking I was a liberal. The racial politics there convinced me that I was, in fact, a moderate. You are told that not only are you a racist, but that you can never understand quite HOW you are a racist because you will always see things from a white perspective. Whites are always oppressors. Minorities are always oppressed. Even economic class does not matter – I would somehow oppress Michael Jordan, if we were in the same room.
I do think plenty of racism still exists, and that much of it is subtle. But the lynchmob mentality around this shows that racial politics are partly about a desire for revenge and power, not justice.
Lex;
Good rant!
Lex – I give you credit for slumming at those sites. I prefer the ostrich approach – I ignore them because I neither agree with them nor do I want to raise my blood pressure to the point of explosion. These types just aren’t worth it – they see their agenda, their pet causes, and nothing else.
I didn’t hear the President say that about it being a time to mourn – but wish I did, because truer words haven’t been spoken yet this week. And we need more truth and less spin these days.
Feministing – what an ugly “word.” Some women are so blinded by their rage at the male sex that they truly can’t see how much damage false accusations of rape do to women who are genuine victims of that awful crime. It’s sad.
I do think plenty of racism still exists, and that much of it is subtle.
It’s also a two-way street, although that is seldom recognized. Case in point: one Al Sharpton. Ironic, that.
Gun control advocates in Congress quickly cited the Virginia Tech shootings as evidence of the need for tighter firearm restrictions.
For a demonstration of how ridiculous (and exquisitely poorly timed) that statement is, replace “firearm” with “immigration.”
As soon as I heard the tragedy, I remarked to a co-worker that the floodgates would be opened for the anti-gun lobby and that the tragedy would take a back seat to it.
I feel sorry for the parents, of these kids, I’ve been calling them kids from the start, they must certainly have a hole in their heart that will never be filled again, as you said earlier.
RIP.
What Max said –twice.
Have you noticed on network TV how the “talking heads” all rapidfire talk at once, like the 3 Stooges trying to get through a narrow doorway at the same time? How they all talk at the camera, and not to each other? How its way beyond even the rudeness of not letting each other finish before speaking. It isn’t even interruption of a conversation anymore. Because there is no conversation, just a simultaneous bias and emotion dump that has to be completed before the station break.
Team Tourrette’s Syndrome.
Melville said that “God’s one and only voice is silence.” May the grieving families find their sanctuary away from media ghouls.
Well said.
Ben, being a racist is not illegal, it is in fact an integral government policy, ie Affirmative Action.
Unkawill brings up a valid point, we officially sanction a number of -ism’s in our laws.
Racisism – affirmative action. Sexism – same, even though women are 51% of the population. Ageism: commercial pilots are required to retire at age 60. Wealthism – progressive income taxation.
That these laws were brought about in the hopes of righting past wrong, spreading equality, spreading inequity, or just playing to the least common denominator makes no difference – in the end they serve to classify us not as the individuals we are but as members of a convenient group to be categorized, quantified, and coddled in proportion to extract the female vote, the black vote, the hispanic vote, or the evangelical vote. If it looks like a divide and conquer tactic, it’s because it is.
The last thing I suspect anybody wants is an unruly group of individuals not easily divided into groups. That would lead to things like Constitutional Republics where every vote must be earned. I do not think the use of the word “democracy” to describe the USA and this trend towards categorization are unrelated.
And hence the news cycle peddles their cause du-jour, content that if they write it properly they can seek favor with the group they identify with. Never mind facts, folks — here’s how it affects *you*.
– Max
[...] Neptunus Lex takes down one of the complete idiots that somehow connects the shooter with American foreign policy. Simply put, when you hate Bush as much as the left does, common sense is not involved with any type of discussion. Lex also redresses the criticism of the Duke Womens Lacrosse team – because they stood up for the boys. [...]