Back in April of 2006, the Washington Post ran a story entitled “The Left, Online and Outraged.” In it we read of one Maryscott O’Connor, for whom the day begins thusly:
(The) rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O’Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.
Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O’Connor’s reputation is as one of the angriest of all. “One long, sustained scream” is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day.
There were educational photos.
Herself runs a blog called “My Left Wing,” and on it she hosts dKos-style “diarists,” one of whom is, as it turns out, rather inappropriately y-clept “Miss Mannered.” The latter is saying farewell to all that, apparently over the objections of many compassionate commentors there. She’d come for only the best of reasons:
I came to join with MSOC (ed: the aforementioned Ms. Maryscott O’Connor), in her words, to rage against the lying of the right, against injustice and cruelty. Instead, I found injustice, cruelty and hate directed at me.
I left, then, earlier this year, not because I was reluctant to engage in verbal combat with the people who insisted on making themselves my enemies [I also post on PFF (ed: I haven't a clue), after all], but because I discovered myself descending to their level, from rational discourse to insults and invective.
Hatin’ on righty is counted good clean fun in certain quarters, but it appears that Miss Mannered may have tiptoed across the line. It can be so hard these days, knowing where proper hate leaves off and improper hate takes up. Still, there are standards:
I now find myself, for the first time in my life, hating Jews. I find myself hating the Jews on this site, both the Jews who have conducted their malicious campaign against me for so long and the Jews who have stood by in silent solidarity with them, never saying a word against their vile attacks, their cruelty and ugliness.
I find myself thinking that Proximity perhaps has the right idea, that Jews regard other human beings as objects, to be sacrificed to the interests of Jews. That Jews will always stand with other Jews no matter their guilt, and against non-Jews, no matter their innocence. The face of Jews has become unspeakably ugly in my sight, because of the ugliness of the Jewish haters here.
Golly.
Miss Mannered has her blood up apparently because she defended the aforementioned Proximity, who, when he wasn’t ascribing the objectification of The Other to an entire race of people bravely proposed that on the topic of the Holocaust, or eastern European pogroms or even a little of that good, old fashioned, medieval Jew burning it might just be that the victims had it coming. A little.
Which is, to say the least, a controversial point of view. So much so that most people – even progressives, one hopes – might find it difficult to defend. If only because the relatives and descendants of victims subjected to two millenia worth of blood libel and its murderous sequelae might passionately object to such a characterization. With cause, I might add, although admittedly at the risk of choosing sides between those who are gassed in the showers and those doing the gassing.
But to label that passion in turn as improper hating – and there might be another term for it in the “My Left Wing” literature, I honestly don’t keep up – is, I think, to stretch the term until something snaps. If it hasn’t already.
This hating thing, it’s just not healthy. There are treatments, you know. Medicines. Group therapy.
It’s time for that.
I’m waiting for the BDS world to wake up on Jan 21, 2009 and realize that, “oh heck, we’ve still got problems – who do we blame now?”
SSGJeff … don’t count on any logic or reason reigning in the minds of those enchanted with BDS. We’ve had them with us since the 1930s and before, and they still cling to the same precepts they had then; America is eevil, the free enterprise system is eeviller, and any Republican president is the eevillist of all. When Jan. 21, 2009 comes around, they’ll simply enlarge the conspiracy theories to include every Republican in the House, the Senate and every single state in the Union.
Will all that hate tire them? I’m afraid not. Some people have an infinite capacity for hate, just as some seem to have an almost infinite capacity for love. I try to hang around with the lovers, not the haters. Better for the digestion.
Marianne Matthews
I know we’ve had “them” around for a long time, but this batch does seem a bit more vituperative than those in the past. Which does make me wonder, as SSG Jeff said – what will they do in 2009? Especially if (God help us) a Democrat lands in the White House. They certainly can’t be too happy with all the Dems they put in Congress this past year…
The difference between Maryscott O’Connor and Omar Bakri would be…???? Other than the plumbing, I mean….
Shipmates,
The problem that I have with so many of these folks is their use of the word “hate”. Most of them haven’t a clue as to what the word really conotates, what the results of hating can become.
Once someone truly embraces hatred, it becomes an all-enveoping passion, something that directs every minute of every day, an emotion which nuances every part of your life. It will consume you, and it will destroy you, and damage or destroy eberyone and everything around you.
I stay as far from hatred as I can, because I have seen up close and personal what blind hatred can do, what it does to someone.
Those on the left who screech oh hatred for this or that are playing with a fire that is not easily quenched, and which can quickly become an inferno.
I would like to find some sort of pity for their plight, but these days I reserve my compassion for those who actually want to be helped, and for those who, through no fault of their own, have been caught up in something beyond their control.
respects,
“…that Jews regard other human beings as objects, to be sacrificed to the interests of Jews. That Jews will always stand with other Jews no matter their guilt, and against non-Jews, no matter their innocence. ”
Funny, but you could swap the word “Jews” for Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims…heck…even Democrats. I wonder if she’d be so bold as to proclaim that in a public forum.
Just an FYI.. that wasn’t the owners diary, it was a co-blogger’s over there.
-Chuck
…Wow. My skin is crawling. *shudder*
If she wants to rage against cruelty and ugliness, maybe she needs to look in the mirror. There is truth that we all do become the thing we hate.
Fortunately, extreme anger tends to be self-neutralizing in political dialogue. Someone might possibly change an opinion in reaction to well-mannered argumentation; people who are being vitriolically insulted are unlikely to do so.
And there’s more good news: these angry people enjoy life less, get sick more easily, and die sooner. There is a God.
I admit I’m unsophisticated, just a rube with my toe in the dirt and corn silk in my underwear, so I can’t possibly comprehend all the subtle nuances to the argument here. All those subtle shades of grey.
But as I read it, somebody basically said, “Hey, if I was Jewish and had been persecuted for millenia I’d have to take a good hard look in the mirror and see if it wasn’t my fault. Because, you know, the odds of everybody else being wrong are kind of, well, not good. So it’s likely me.”
Other voices chime in, say that’s anti-semitic, you shouldn’t claim it’s their fault just because they Jewish. Can’t stereotype, it’s unfair, etc…
Aren’t these the same folks claiming September 11th was the fault of the USA because, well, we’re the USA and we’re thus poking a finger in the face of AQIA and others because we exist and happen to export daytime TV and Coke bottles and blue jeans and Disneyland to any willing buyer?
I’m having a bit of a time reconciling this single argument with these two different outcomes.
It’s wrong to blame a group for their own suffering because, well, not all members of the group are like that and anyway the people who persecuted them probably over-reacted. The group is a stereotype not at all representative of the individuals who make it up. Unless it’s America, the Melting Pot, in which case we can toss all that because, well… Something I guess.
Must make for a difficult life, trying to keep all the actors straight *and* determine if they deserved their fate or not. Seems kind of, I dunno, judgemental on the face of it.
But then I never did understand all those subtle nuances of grey between the black and white of rigt and wrong.
– Max
I dislike resorting to a pithy quote, as reasoned discourse is more illuminating. However, the good CAPT has handled the reasoned part, so I’ll just add this:
All empty souls tend to extreme opinion.
– William Butler Yeats
I had to laugh at your 2nd to last line as I am frequently heard to say around here, “they have drugs for that now, you know”.
Honestly, however, I’m not sure all that would help this woman. Drugs and therapy, perhaps awhile ago would have helped, but now? She’s a Nazi now and I think there is no cure for that.
Such sensibility and candor!
I wonder if that blogweasel hates Barbra Streisand? Barry Manilow?
I agree with AW1 Tim. Hate is barbaric and eventually will consume the body and soul. This is why I never “hated” any politicians. No pointy in it.
NEVER AGAIN. I join my voice with the survivors of the Shoah, their children and grandchildren.
Here I stand. I can do no other.
Semper Fidelis,
ASM826
As AW1 Tim stated.
The problem that I have with so many of these folks is their use of the word “hate”. Most of them haven’t a clue as to what the word really conotates, what the results of hating can become.
I think George Lucas, an inconsolable lefty, coined it well: “Good, I can feel your anger. I am unarmed. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.”
Sorry, couldn’t resist the force…
I think her journey is just about complete.
Anyone who wakes with a vitriolic hatred for any human being and then spends the day writing about them needs to reorganize their priorities. Capt is correct though, they do make medication for this now.
Looks like a cry for attention to me. Think about it. Five, six years ago she was a nobody. She started puttering around on the web and the next thing she knows, she’s a story in the Washington Post. It’s the 15 minutes of fame story all over again. People like her don’t bother me. She has her outlet. It’s the mentally unbalanced person, who reads her blog and decides to take action in her name, that worries me. This is where Dylan Kliebolts and William Cho’s come from.
She sure has a crude and limited vocabulary. I wonder if she allows her son to read her work.
She is a lot like the blog trolls. They show up and spew their hate without bothering to put forth any reasoned arguments… Easily ignored really. If they’d bother to think through their positions maybe they wouldn’t hate so much. Maybe they’d even come over to the “dark side”.
Jim C
#15, myself and my rifle will stand with you. This I’ll do of my own free will and accord.
Semper Fidelis,
Hiram
Hiram and ASM826… I agree completely. I will gladly stand with you all to make sure that that never happens again.
Jim C
Hiram #21, you’ve stated it well. When people are persecuted for what they are and not whom they are, when people are judged unfit to live based not upon their actions but upon their creed, it’s time for people of honor to heed the call and join the fight on their behalf.
Never. Again.
– Max
Holy smokes. People like her are the reason that I still get cold sweats at night.
As I have said before with regards to people (?) like her, I hope that she chokes on her rage and her hatred.