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.
