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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Friday, November 11, 2005 Driftglass Every once in a while, someone quotes Driftglass, and I wander over there and read in dumbstruck awe, and wonder why this person isn't writing best-selling books. Maybe he is. The writing has something of the Making Light school of penmanship about it. In any case, I bumble around in there marveling and occasionally stealing quotes, like a tourist with a camera in a great museum, and then I wander back out into the real world where things are not what they are, but only what they seem, and the experience fades away.Lex has a quote posted on his sidebar, and so I wandered back one more time, and found this:. . . Republicans have a radically different definition of Right and Wrong than the rest of us humans.Now for the epistemologically pure at heart, let’s stipulate that “Right and Wrong” and “True and False” are not the same things, but with regard to the GOP value system I’d argue that one can – and often does – proxy for another (separate and apart from the fact that Republicans have an absolute fetish for wildly unrelated or tortured-to-the-point-of-weeping factoids. They line ‘em up and leap toadishy between them as if lumps of contextless datum “proves” anything.) And like the utterly deranged Christopath with the reasonable tone of voice, to understand the argument they are making – and why their heads aren’t positively exploding at the complete hypocrisy and moral perversity of their positions – you have to consider what they count as “Right” and “True” in the Republican Universe.And to understand that, this is not a party of rugged individualists. Of Mavericks. Of Iconoclasts.Despite all of their gun-slingin’ blather and Reagan Cowboy Idolatry, to judge by the only measure that counts -- their votes, their hearts, thier hates, their rhetoric and their day-to-day actions -- Republicans behave in every measurable way (and this is true of every Republican I know ) in a way that is eerily and precisely the opposite of every one of their foundational myths and principles. You have to realize that most Republicans are slaves.Happy slaves. Or at least slaves who are kept so terrified at the propect of thinking for themselves that they have learned to credibly mimic happiness at being servile. Who can tell?It’s kinda like a Fucktard Turing Test: the result are the same whether they’re really thralls, or just faking it really well. And in the end, the are nothing but a pack of order-taker. Dogma bureaucrats (Shall we call them “Dogmarats?”) who do not know how to function outside of a rigid hierarchy.They like Order. They like Discipline. They like shiny, martial displays. They are the pecksniffing Leviticans –- rules-crazed Literalists, either ideologically, or Biblically, or both -- who also yearns for a harsh and exacting God to crush anyone who is unlike them…and who will reward them on the basis of how perfectly they obey the commands of the Dear Leader. So to people that value prostration and loyalty to the Dear Leader above all else, what is the measure of “Right and Wrong” and “True and False”?And doesn’t that question, when phrased clearly, almost answer itself?To such as these, who measure the “rightness” of their position by how deeply they kneel, The Truth must always be whatever the Dear leader says it is. And the “Right” is bottomless fealty to the Dear Leader no matter what he says. No matter how much he lies.Without their Master telling them what the think, the Republican is lost and rudderless, and there is no fate more terrifying to them than to be cast adrift and confused with no whip-hand to kiss and no boot to lick.It’s not that they hate facts or science or reality per se, it is that they are chattel, and the measure of a good dog is not whether it can do differential calculus, it’s how blindly faithful it is. If the Dear Leader says “facts” are good on Monday, and that the “facts” – like yellow cake in Niger – support the Dear Leader, then All Hail the Factual.But when the “facts” turn out to be lies on Tuesday and Dear Leader’s story turns out to have been bullshit…well then facts are Bad and people who toss them around are Traitors. And never once in their minds to they even notice the glaring contradiction, because never once did they ever care in the slightest about the facts themselves.To them, being “Right” has nothing to do with facts at all: to them “Right” is perfect, empty-headed abasement, and will merrily turn like a pack of Rottweiliers on a mean drunk on anyone – even friends -- who rock the boat in the slightest. Which in why, at the end of the day, I sincerely believe Republicans hate this country and are anxious to destroy it.Because America is a dream founded on dissent. On asking hard questions to the men and women who govern us. Of not shutting the fuck up. Of demanding that our civil servants be accountable to you and me. In a Democracy, the citizen is supreme. The government elect disposable and grabbing the government by the lapels and adamantly insisting that they cough up the truth – whatever their party affiliation – is the God given, natural-born right of every, single American. People who loathe dissent do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who smear dissenters do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who value a slave’s loyalty over a citizen’s demand for the truth are an embarrassment to real Americans.People who would burn the Nation down over lies about semen stain’s on one President’s lover’s dress…and yet shrug off and ignore an ocean of innocent blood on another President’s hands have no business calling themselves Americans.Because anyone who calls willing blindness and the protecting of traitors a virtue, and clarity and honesty a sin, is no American.They’re a Republican.And if any Republican is reading this and saying, "But I don't think that way!" maybe you're not really a Republican. Or maybe you're so far into denial that you don't recognize truth when it slaps you in the face. posted by Liz @ 3:43 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
Every once in a while, someone quotes Driftglass, and I wander over there and read in dumbstruck awe, and wonder why this person isn't writing best-selling books. Maybe he is. The writing has something of the Making Light school of penmanship about it. In any case, I bumble around in there marveling and occasionally stealing quotes, like a tourist with a camera in a great museum, and then I wander back out into the real world where things are not what they are, but only what they seem, and the experience fades away.Lex has a quote posted on his sidebar, and so I wandered back one more time, and found this:. . . Republicans have a radically different definition of Right and Wrong than the rest of us humans.Now for the epistemologically pure at heart, let’s stipulate that “Right and Wrong” and “True and False” are not the same things, but with regard to the GOP value system I’d argue that one can – and often does – proxy for another (separate and apart from the fact that Republicans have an absolute fetish for wildly unrelated or tortured-to-the-point-of-weeping factoids. They line ‘em up and leap toadishy between them as if lumps of contextless datum “proves” anything.) And like the utterly deranged Christopath with the reasonable tone of voice, to understand the argument they are making – and why their heads aren’t positively exploding at the complete hypocrisy and moral perversity of their positions – you have to consider what they count as “Right” and “True” in the Republican Universe.And to understand that, this is not a party of rugged individualists. Of Mavericks. Of Iconoclasts.Despite all of their gun-slingin’ blather and Reagan Cowboy Idolatry, to judge by the only measure that counts -- their votes, their hearts, thier hates, their rhetoric and their day-to-day actions -- Republicans behave in every measurable way (and this is true of every Republican I know ) in a way that is eerily and precisely the opposite of every one of their foundational myths and principles. You have to realize that most Republicans are slaves.Happy slaves. Or at least slaves who are kept so terrified at the propect of thinking for themselves that they have learned to credibly mimic happiness at being servile. Who can tell?It’s kinda like a Fucktard Turing Test: the result are the same whether they’re really thralls, or just faking it really well. And in the end, the are nothing but a pack of order-taker. Dogma bureaucrats (Shall we call them “Dogmarats?”) who do not know how to function outside of a rigid hierarchy.They like Order. They like Discipline. They like shiny, martial displays. They are the pecksniffing Leviticans –- rules-crazed Literalists, either ideologically, or Biblically, or both -- who also yearns for a harsh and exacting God to crush anyone who is unlike them…and who will reward them on the basis of how perfectly they obey the commands of the Dear Leader. So to people that value prostration and loyalty to the Dear Leader above all else, what is the measure of “Right and Wrong” and “True and False”?And doesn’t that question, when phrased clearly, almost answer itself?To such as these, who measure the “rightness” of their position by how deeply they kneel, The Truth must always be whatever the Dear leader says it is. And the “Right” is bottomless fealty to the Dear Leader no matter what he says. No matter how much he lies.Without their Master telling them what the think, the Republican is lost and rudderless, and there is no fate more terrifying to them than to be cast adrift and confused with no whip-hand to kiss and no boot to lick.It’s not that they hate facts or science or reality per se, it is that they are chattel, and the measure of a good dog is not whether it can do differential calculus, it’s how blindly faithful it is. If the Dear Leader says “facts” are good on Monday, and that the “facts” – like yellow cake in Niger – support the Dear Leader, then All Hail the Factual.But when the “facts” turn out to be lies on Tuesday and Dear Leader’s story turns out to have been bullshit…well then facts are Bad and people who toss them around are Traitors. And never once in their minds to they even notice the glaring contradiction, because never once did they ever care in the slightest about the facts themselves.To them, being “Right” has nothing to do with facts at all: to them “Right” is perfect, empty-headed abasement, and will merrily turn like a pack of Rottweiliers on a mean drunk on anyone – even friends -- who rock the boat in the slightest. Which in why, at the end of the day, I sincerely believe Republicans hate this country and are anxious to destroy it.Because America is a dream founded on dissent. On asking hard questions to the men and women who govern us. Of not shutting the fuck up. Of demanding that our civil servants be accountable to you and me. In a Democracy, the citizen is supreme. The government elect disposable and grabbing the government by the lapels and adamantly insisting that they cough up the truth – whatever their party affiliation – is the God given, natural-born right of every, single American. People who loathe dissent do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who smear dissenters do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who value a slave’s loyalty over a citizen’s demand for the truth are an embarrassment to real Americans.People who would burn the Nation down over lies about semen stain’s on one President’s lover’s dress…and yet shrug off and ignore an ocean of innocent blood on another President’s hands have no business calling themselves Americans.Because anyone who calls willing blindness and the protecting of traitors a virtue, and clarity and honesty a sin, is no American.They’re a Republican.And if any Republican is reading this and saying, "But I don't think that way!" maybe you're not really a Republican. Or maybe you're so far into denial that you don't recognize truth when it slaps you in the face.
. . . Republicans have a radically different definition of Right and Wrong than the rest of us humans.Now for the epistemologically pure at heart, let’s stipulate that “Right and Wrong” and “True and False” are not the same things, but with regard to the GOP value system I’d argue that one can – and often does – proxy for another (separate and apart from the fact that Republicans have an absolute fetish for wildly unrelated or tortured-to-the-point-of-weeping factoids. They line ‘em up and leap toadishy between them as if lumps of contextless datum “proves” anything.) And like the utterly deranged Christopath with the reasonable tone of voice, to understand the argument they are making – and why their heads aren’t positively exploding at the complete hypocrisy and moral perversity of their positions – you have to consider what they count as “Right” and “True” in the Republican Universe.And to understand that, this is not a party of rugged individualists. Of Mavericks. Of Iconoclasts.Despite all of their gun-slingin’ blather and Reagan Cowboy Idolatry, to judge by the only measure that counts -- their votes, their hearts, thier hates, their rhetoric and their day-to-day actions -- Republicans behave in every measurable way (and this is true of every Republican I know ) in a way that is eerily and precisely the opposite of every one of their foundational myths and principles. You have to realize that most Republicans are slaves.Happy slaves. Or at least slaves who are kept so terrified at the propect of thinking for themselves that they have learned to credibly mimic happiness at being servile. Who can tell?It’s kinda like a Fucktard Turing Test: the result are the same whether they’re really thralls, or just faking it really well. And in the end, the are nothing but a pack of order-taker. Dogma bureaucrats (Shall we call them “Dogmarats?”) who do not know how to function outside of a rigid hierarchy.They like Order. They like Discipline. They like shiny, martial displays. They are the pecksniffing Leviticans –- rules-crazed Literalists, either ideologically, or Biblically, or both -- who also yearns for a harsh and exacting God to crush anyone who is unlike them…and who will reward them on the basis of how perfectly they obey the commands of the Dear Leader. So to people that value prostration and loyalty to the Dear Leader above all else, what is the measure of “Right and Wrong” and “True and False”?And doesn’t that question, when phrased clearly, almost answer itself?To such as these, who measure the “rightness” of their position by how deeply they kneel, The Truth must always be whatever the Dear leader says it is. And the “Right” is bottomless fealty to the Dear Leader no matter what he says. No matter how much he lies.Without their Master telling them what the think, the Republican is lost and rudderless, and there is no fate more terrifying to them than to be cast adrift and confused with no whip-hand to kiss and no boot to lick.It’s not that they hate facts or science or reality per se, it is that they are chattel, and the measure of a good dog is not whether it can do differential calculus, it’s how blindly faithful it is. If the Dear Leader says “facts” are good on Monday, and that the “facts” – like yellow cake in Niger – support the Dear Leader, then All Hail the Factual.But when the “facts” turn out to be lies on Tuesday and Dear Leader’s story turns out to have been bullshit…well then facts are Bad and people who toss them around are Traitors. And never once in their minds to they even notice the glaring contradiction, because never once did they ever care in the slightest about the facts themselves.To them, being “Right” has nothing to do with facts at all: to them “Right” is perfect, empty-headed abasement, and will merrily turn like a pack of Rottweiliers on a mean drunk on anyone – even friends -- who rock the boat in the slightest. Which in why, at the end of the day, I sincerely believe Republicans hate this country and are anxious to destroy it.Because America is a dream founded on dissent. On asking hard questions to the men and women who govern us. Of not shutting the fuck up. Of demanding that our civil servants be accountable to you and me. In a Democracy, the citizen is supreme. The government elect disposable and grabbing the government by the lapels and adamantly insisting that they cough up the truth – whatever their party affiliation – is the God given, natural-born right of every, single American. People who loathe dissent do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who smear dissenters do not deserve to call themselves Americans.People who value a slave’s loyalty over a citizen’s demand for the truth are an embarrassment to real Americans.People who would burn the Nation down over lies about semen stain’s on one President’s lover’s dress…and yet shrug off and ignore an ocean of innocent blood on another President’s hands have no business calling themselves Americans.Because anyone who calls willing blindness and the protecting of traitors a virtue, and clarity and honesty a sin, is no American.They’re a Republican.
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PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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