My first post -- concerning the ugly, disturbing hysteria provoked by the 5 Middle Eastern men who tried to purchase disposable cell phones at Walmart -- is here. Michelle Malkin courageously led the outrage over these would-be cell phone buyers. The Comments section to that post is long, raucous and some of the comments are reprehensible, but it's worth checking out the comment of The Ugly American, who is a blogger and sometimes-commentator on my blog.
In light of her book defending the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II (which has a picture of 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta on the cover), has anyone ever asked Michelle Malkin whether she favors similar internment camps for Arab-Americans or Muslim Americans - not for forever, but just until our current war on terrorism is over in 30 years or so? It's hard to imagine how she could be opposed to that. Maybe they can ask her about this on Fox News the next time she guest hosts the morning program.
Don't worry, you need a rest after your stomping on Jonah's skull, tearing off his limbs and then setting them on fire. That can be exhilirating, but tiring, work!
ReplyDeleteDo you think the store clerks were wrong to report the mass purchase of pre paid cell phones?
ReplyDeleteI'd have to know more about the facts, but if all that happened was that 5 Middle Eastern guys tried to buy 60 disposable cell phones, the only one I think should be locked up is whoever caused the police and the FBI and made them come to the Walmart and waste resources investigating.
Now let me ask you a question - if this was 5 white guys instead of 5 Middle Easterners trying to buy the cell phones, should the police have been called?
Even the drug dealers from "The Wire" on HBO only bought a small handful of prepaid cell phones from corner stores.
ReplyDeleteIf a store has a problem with this this volume of purchases, then they should have a policy of purchase limits or sort of ID confirmation regardless of race or skin color.
I'm reminded of the time I was in my office, glum because of the way the 2000 election came down. At the time, a good many Americans questioned the legitimacy of Bush's election, and the transition would be tricky for the GOP - if there were any time Americans might sort of rouse themselves, protest, get angry, demand that the voters' choice be honored, it would be then.
ReplyDeleteSo what happened? A couple of frustrated Clinton staffers removed the "W" from some White House keyboards. I remember hearing about it from a colleague and both of us laughing.
But the GOP, embarrassed at how the story was initially playing - as a practical joke - went into action and turned this story into a spurious attack on Clinton's staff, claiming they had trashed and vandalized the place. A subsequent GAO investigation uncovered no such vandalism, but the false story had served its purpose, to distract Americans from the real story. From the recent shenanigans in Florida, and from the inauguration itself - the unprecedentedly huge military and police presence on the day of the inaugural, the eerie absence of friendly crowds, as noted by Peter Jennings, the contrastingly huge "Hail to the Thief" demonstration, and the images of cheering crowds that greeted Clinton as he debarked.
The GOP media machine successfully changed the focus: to the fabricated vandalism, to nonsense about Hilary stealing silverware; to Clinton's granting unconscionable pardons. It worked. The New York Times editorial board focussed on the Rich pardon in a way it had never focussed on questionable pardons from previous presidents, instead of continuing to remark on the unconventional method by which Bush had ascended to power. Maureen Dowd, now so angry at the Bushies, swallowed their tactics at the time, column after column, somehow - they seemed obvious enough to some of us.
And we heard all about how Bush would "restore dignity to the White House."
They are very clever at this. There are hundreds of examples. A clearly upset close friend of Paul Wellstone's asked at his memorial service that people put aside their grief and work for Mondale so as not to allow his death to be in vain. The GOP smear machine then skillfully turned public opinion away from sympathy for Wellstone into denouncement of his "funerally," without ever directly attacking Wellstone himself.
Bush has a little problem with lack of service in Vietnam? Attack Kerry who did serve, and earned medals, for maybe not fully deserving every medal!
It works. Alito's wife crying, Kerry mentioning Cheney's daughter in a debate he otherwise won hands down - they are masters of misdirection, sleight of hand.
This Walmart story is just the very latest. Have a little problem with public outcry over illegal government spying? Get out a story about Arab men trying to buy cell phones. It could have been staged, or it could be an exaggeration of some real event, but it serves its purpose of making fearful people more fearful, more willing to engage in tribal "us" and "them" thinking, the kind of thinking that leads one Common Chimp tribe to destroy another.
Why our Democratic leaders haven't figured these tactics out and don't simply and straightforwardly try to explain what's really going on every chance they get, I don't know. Howard Dean valiantly tries, but he doesn't get much backup.
Howard Dean valiantly tries, but he doesn't get much backup.
ReplyDeleteWhat you describe - perfectly - is most evident in how it's been applied against Howard Dean, who, as a result, has become the single most misunderstood political figure in our country. He is percevied so inaccurately precisely because he has been mauled by that exact distortive process that you described.
It was necessary to turn Dean into a cartoon of a far left, pacifistic, mentally imbalanced loon because he was actually something new, strong and unafraid, and couldn't be characterized by any of the standard boxes or defeated by any of the standard rhetorical tricks. The "weak effeminate flip-flopper" smear that they love so much would never have worked with him (just as it never worked with Clinton) because of how aggressive and audacious Dean is, so they took his hawkish opposition to the war in Iraq (which tons of ex-generals and intelligence officers shared) and turned into proof that he was a slightly louder version of Dennis Kucinich. It's a patently false depiction which will probably endure until the day he dies.
There is no falsehood too extreme for it to be implanted with the methods you just talked about. Of course, we're supposed to have a media that prevents these sorts of distortions, but we don't. They are the first line which gets snowed by them.
Well, I think issues need to be separated. The Malkin/Powerline crap about how this proves the terrorists are adapting to the heinous revelations from the NYT are manifestly cynical and absurd. I think most readers here would already know why.
ReplyDeleteIt is usually not intellectually defensible to diss a book one has not read, but Malkin's premise about the Japanese internment is so repugnant to me, I don't need to read it to know I reject it.
But my eyebrows would go up if 5 Middle Eastern men were purchasing 60 cell phones. If white guys were doing that I would suspect they were drug dealers; if they are likely to be Muslims and they are foreigners, I would not rule out terrorist interests. But white or Middle Eastern, they could be making such bulk purchases to, say, give the fones out at mosque/church. It is just that it is not a patently insane idea to suspect otherwise.
Some time ago I read this June, 1944 article about the "Japanense problem," by popular author Edgar Rice Burroughs, and felt then, and feel now, that we should keep in mind what it means that in WWII-era America it constituted enlightened, civil-libertarian thinking.
ReplyDeleteI don't reflexively recoil from "racial profiling," but I also appreciate the progress we have made since 1944, and no Malkin revisionism should undo it.
It is a lot more likely that these guys were drug dealers than terrorists.
ReplyDeleteThere just aren't that many real terrorists.
As I said, I'd have to know all the facts to make a definitive statement about what the clerk did. It may not be the worst thing in the world to have alerted the authorities, although I think there is nothing at all suspicious about buying disposable cell phones in bulk, and the idea that terrorists who wanted to use cell phones for some criminal use would march into the middle of a Midland Walmart with a group of 6 Middle Eastern guys is beyond moronic. But people are scared and so perhaps it's understandable that the clerk jumped to the phone.
ReplyDeleteBut none of that has anything to do with the hysterical (in both senses of the word) reaction of the Bush-worshiping bloggers, who have as their number one goal in life proving that terrorists have infiltrated every inch of our country and pose an unprecedented threat, so that their repugnant police state fantasies can be brought to life. I challenge anyone to go read those posts which Michelle Malkin spawned over this incident and not walk away feeling nauseous and alarmed.
And they whipped themselves into that frenzy over nothing. Think about what they are going to be doing and saying if we have another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
You write well, better than most, but I still disagree with you. However, it is a relief to read someone of your viewpoint who seems to grasp facts instead of emotions.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't convincing to read (again) of someone who says he would have no problem supporting Bush if he were just doing something else. That time and event just never comes, does it?