I don't feel like posting much today, but I will say this: over on Joe.My.God., commenters are gleeful about the Republican infighting over the Empower Texans audio clip that trashes Gov. Greg Abbott and mocks his disability. Well, that's fine - a couple of potty-mouthed Republicans inadvertently blowing up their own party is a fit subject for scorn and ridicule.
I have no personal feelings about Abbott one way or the other - he is an elected official at the head of the Republican hegemony in this state, and that's all I need to know. But I notice that about half the commenters are ALSO mocking Abbott's disability themselves. This is filthy. It doesn't matter which end of the political spectrum you are on. If you do that, you are no better than the creeps on the audio clip - at the bottom of the moral cesspool. Despicable.
In the past, commenters on JMG have frequently said much worse things about other people, as well as relished the thought of another civil war in this country - "Yeah, bring it on, we'll kick their racist butts," and such as that, as if it would be like a teenage street-corner rumble - not giving a single thought to what immense harm and ghastly suffering it would cause many millions of people who, unlike their prissy, petty little selves, are not young and agile and fleet of foot. For this reason I have tried to train myself in these last few years not to look at the comments on JMG and other websites - in fact, I wish comments would disappear from news sites altogether.
You cannot claim the moral high ground - the "right side"of any argument - if you are just as nasty and hateful as your opponents. God forbid any of these neanderthal, rock-throwing creeps on either side gets the upper hand in our society - I can't support any of them. The political spectrum is not flat - it is a ring, and at either end, extremism and egotism end in government-by-thug; there is very little difference between a thugocracy, a dictatorship, of the right or of the left. Both are abominable.
Hatred is not an American value, and neither is contempt for the disabled. This is not about freedom of speech at all - it's about simple decency, without which there can be no society worth living in.
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3 comments:
I had stopped reading the comments AND the content on JMG for a while just because I could not stomach some of the juvenile, inane and outright nasty comments there. As a former Catholic with plenty of personal history around being gay and mortally sinful, I am still offended whenever I read comments on JMG following, for example, a positive article about Pope Francis regarding the environment and climate or the like...Commenters just take the opportunity to trash everything about the Catholic church and hardly ever post a positive comment about the article.
I will admit that I have negative opinions about the right-wing evangelicals but I hope that any comments I may have made were at least somewhat objective and not attacking someone personally.
On the other hand there are some very intelligent and well educated individuals who post informative and in-depth comments on JMG. Some are very well versed in law, government and other disciplines and provide background and technical information that is enlightening and give a more complete picture of an issue or event than the article.
I comment sparingly and carefully on JMG. Even so, there is a 20/80 chance that someone will reply to me with a mean-spirited or or vulgar comment. In which case I will block them from my feed.
Oh.well.
I gave up on JMG years ago. The triumphalism is as bad at that on right wing media. If we cannot win an argument rationally then we don't deserve to win it. Thank you for being the great person you are, Russ.
Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm glad to see I am not the only one disgusted with the mindless, hateful comments on JMG.
Davis - Just a candle in the wind here. Appreciate ya, buddy.
Frank - Yes, I've noticed how they continually trash anything and everything Pope Francis says. In my view, he is a very fine man, the most personable of popes in my lifetime - a kindly, humble soul - and though of course I don't agree with every point of doctrine, he always seems to emphasize love of neighbor and care for the underdogs of the world. Which is the Christian program, of course.
Let me also throw in that I have been sadly dismayed over the past decade or more at the cricket-chirp silence coming from the great mainstream Protestant churches - Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. - about all the political and social evils of the present time in this country. If they have spoken/are speaking out, and not just piously nodding heads at one another, it has completely escaped my notice. Why? Why? Why?
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