Pie in the sky
Click here to read about the left's new response of choice to conservatives in the world of academia. I wonder how many "peace" protesters would laugh at or applaud this rather violent approach to dissent.
- Haley for Pres?
- Nice and centered
- Just in case
- Going Deep
- Anglican Angst
- Media en masse
- Apollo 13
- Hale-Bopp
- Sermons Online
- Tall Building
Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]
4 Comments:
Honestly...a few college students think it would be fun to hit radical conservatives with cream pies in the fine tradition of Bugs Bunny, and all of a sudden people sit up in rapt interest at the "left's" new "violent" protests? This is only "violence" in the sense that it looks as if they were foolish enough to use chocolate and stain his nice white shirt - causing someone to be intimately acquainted with some of the sweeter things in life only causes harm to his ego, otherwise. Embarassing, yes, but I'd disagree that it should be characterized as "violent." Previous protests which have been called "violent" usually involved throwing rocks, using firearms, deliberately destroying shopfronts and homes, and occasionally homicide (lynchings, killing foremen, etc). A pie to the face? No, sorry. I'm unimpressed.
And, though I wouldn't characterize myself as a "peace protestor," I think a number of them would probably feel similarly. War is deliberate harmful violence against people who are, for the most part, innocents - war rarely fights the people who deserve to be confronted, and when it does the war has gone through a long line of blood to get there. This is a non-harmful affront to a single individual. I'm not sure they're comparable. Juvenile and in poor taste, maybe, but it's not in any way similar enough to armed conflict to make any "peace protests" who laugh stand center stage in a show of hypocrisy.
Though, I have to admit, I'm extremely amused at Mr. Horowitz's characterization of "leftist" college students as "fascists" - I guess we know somebody whose 20th century history professor was a wee bit neglectful. "Fascist" is for right-authoritarians; these people are "anarchists." Geez, Mr. Horowitz, get the rhetoric correct, please!
~Kes
Kes, its a physical affront. Civilized people confront opposing ideas that don't pose any physical threat to them with competing ideas or arguments--not by physically attacking a guy just because you think his politics are crazy.
Horowitz, Coulter, Krystol, Buchanon. All physically attacked while speaking in an academic setting. This pattern indicates more than just isolated incidents of silliness. It suggests that there's a tendancy on the left to react in the extreme when confronted with an idea or truth they don't like. Why not intellectually engage the beliefs you don't like? And assuming civilized people exhaust all intellectual, non physical means in exploring disputes, I can't help but think that those resorting to throwing pies are intellectually bankrupt.
Actually, civilized people do what gets their point across. This seems to be doing the trick, whereas for the past fifteen years the "liberal" movement hasn't felt like it's gotten very far by patiently explaining and articulating ideas.
And that's because, to be blunt, ideas mean exactly bupkiss to the general public. Ideas don't win votes. Cheerleading wins votes, and which is why popular conservative talking heads like Coulter, Limbaugh, and others are so well known; short on actual content, big on cheerleading. It's hard to oppose that type of thing. And..you said it yourself when we were talking about the framing issue: politics is about getting your point across.
What will get media time?
Pieing will get media time. And, it makes most people laugh, and when people laugh because they think something you did was funny they begin to think of you fondly. Then they begin to associate you and your ideas with fondness, and perhaps begin to identify with you.
Of course, I don't think many (if any) of the people engaged in pieing Horowitz thought about that, even subconsciously. They probably just thought it'd be a hoot.
I also haven't heard of the others being physically attacked; the closest I heard was Coulter being approached at Earlham during her speech and having an orange placed on her podium in the midst of a shower of folded cranes.
"Tendency in the left" - gimme a break. Aren't these still all college students (you did say "academic settings")? That's no more realistic than saying that the right is inherently violent because "they" bomb abortion clinics.
~Kes
This seems to be doing the trick, whereas for the past fifteen years the "liberal" movement hasn't felt like it's gotten very far by patiently explaining and articulating ideas.
You know, maybe it's the message, not the medium.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home