~ happy veterans’ day and happy birthday to kurt vonnegut, veteran and author of ‘galapagos’.
~ by ‘cultural war’, we are insisting that certain hand wringing over kerry’s defeat is misplaced when based on the fact that some assholes claimed that ‘values’ were the factors that determined their votes. considerable hay has been made since the election over various notions, such as: the democrats have no values, the democrats have values but can’t articulate them, the democrats values are immoral.
initially, the values impetus was a sensible theory as it explained the surprising turnout—discounting the likelihood that the election results are fraudulent—in support of bush (we have never grasped the democrats confidence that a large turnout favours democrats by default, do not republicans turn out, as well?). however, we are skeptical of the truth of the reports of the ‘values’; it seems to us that blaming people for being christian, anti-choice, homophobic or all of the above is an easy way to divert attention from the fact that john kerry was a shitty candidate and unworthy politician. if democrats can make people agree that it is the naiveté and prejudice of the rural voters, then democrats do not have to admit that they fucked up by selecting john kerry.
this spin notwithstanding, in our analysis, anyone who voted for george w bush is at least one of three types: ignorant, bigoted, or an idiot. two of these types can be turned to our advantage; the third is useless.
the ignorant are the people who suffer from cognitive dissonance; they know what they want in their lives and in the country, but they have been misinformed that bush is capable or willing to service these needs. there is a chance that the ignorant can be educated as to what is best for the country and what will serve them better; this can be accomplished without altering our positions.
the idiots do not have any ideas; they are voting for whoever has the prettiest campaign images, most numerous signs, and loudest surrogates. the idiots can be turned to vote for our side with these superficialities. they would not understand why they are on our side, but they will prove useful as warm bodies at the polls; think of them as replicants or eloi. they are stupid and will remain so, no matter who uses them, it might as well be us.
the bigoted are useless. we can only bring them to our side if we adopt their insane causes (ex. jerry falwell); if this were to happen, we would not only destroy our own cause, but become as twisted and inhuman as them in the process. granted, some bigotry is based on ignorance and/or idiocy; for this type of bigot, see above paragraphs. otherwise, be prepared to deal with the rest of these people only with overwhelming force and numbers. they can not be reached with reason; they must be marginalized, punished, and excommunicated.
we are not just talking about voting here; we are speaking of serving as proponents of cultural education, where our goal is to have the citizen engage the public as an inquisitive participant, rather than serve as a mere consumer, a sponge soaking up ‘the incredibles’ and ‘grand theft auto’. as inheritors of the enlightenment, this is our duty.
~ the above use of ‘our side’ is not a euphemism for ‘democrats’ the above is meant to help democrats; we hate your party, but this is mainly for your spinelessness and ineptitude, not just because you shun commies and liberals.
'Gray' responds:
In the spirit of things…
http://www.fuckthesouth.comNot the most well written diatribe, and I bristle at it’s brazen ignorance of all things Antebellum, but it does bring up some interesting points about those “Red States” that we inhabit.
12 November 2004 _ 11h05m34 EDT [link]
'the angry red planet' responds:
we assume that the ‘[non] well written diatribe’ to which you refer is the ‘fuck the south’ website, rather than our own. we actually sent a note to the ‘fuck the south’ organization a couple of days ago; we have not yet received a response. our note:
—–
Subject: welcome to the south
Date: 11/9/2004 8:33 AM
To: info@fuckthesouth.comfor what it’s worth, i say not fuck the south;
rather, fuck utah and kansas.
the south ain’t much different than pennsylvania:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/maplinearlarge.pngcheers
12 November 2004 _ 11h53m11 EDT [link]
—–
you are correct, the “fuck the south” website is, in fact, not mine. without a website of my own,i have remained on the sidelines of this “internet revolution” as i feel it is a passing fad, and i’d hate to be remembered as “that trendy cyber dude”. although just being remembered might be enough.
12 November 2004 _ 12h30m11 EDT [link]
word life.
'critical disaster information recovery' responds:
Nice web page! Very sharp. Very few comments are wrong, if any at all. Make sure you keep the blog going.Keep it real.
25 February 2006 _ 09h30m47 EDT [link]
public response: