The Style of Self-Righteous Disgust

I am very sad I missed the 50 year anniversary of JFK's assassination, or as it is sometimes remembered with melodramatic excess "the day hope died." However, the shoehorning of the Liberal Kennedy into the conservative co-opting machine just will not die. Personally I am afraid to look for all the ways (alright, here is one) in which movement conservatives, singularly responsible for the decline of America, have latched their meat hooks into Kennedy's corpse and hauled it rightward. Why? Because people like JFK, therefore he MUST BE OURS! Anecdotally, I know angry white men who believe in the worst conspiracy theories who also believe that JFK was our last great president.

Mythology is a constant in American politics. This country was founded on the ideas of imaginative men (imagine if ladies could have participated as well?). The founding fathers knew they were trying something new and would need stories to tell and popularize the idea of no kings, no above the law privileged classes, no ancient traditions to bind the people for well or ill. America is an idea, and in our spirit of democracy ideas can take all sorts of shapes, nestling in among good ones and solid foundations. Charles P. Pierce took the misshapen ideas to the woodshed in Idiot America where he states that charlatans and cranks have a unique place in our republic. This is a good thing, Pierce argues, because once in a while a visionary arises from the ranks of cranks and in any case these goofballs make life interesting. When it gets out of hand, as in the modern conservative movement though, someone (ideally all of us) need to stand up to the cranks and knock down their insane ideas before we invade Iraq while cutting taxes and creating creation museums of humans riding saddled dinosaurs again.

While they will never admit it, movement conservatives live in a fairy tale of myths they have injected into the public sphere. First through the subtle inoculation of the erudite William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review magazine, to more and more blatant assaults on reason culminating in Fox News. An alternative world exists in the minds of right-wingers today, and the money men behind it all cultivate willing rhetoricians to defend and maintain Idiot America. You may have encountered "conservasplaining" where your dittohead coworker or relative explains away any deviation from the script with some canned talking points of the day. A pretty simple formula, assert an alternative view and never relent or admit any other points. Paradoxically, the bigger the lie, the easier it is for small minds to internalize and regurgitate it. By now, this universe exists with only weak challenge from outside and practitioners can exercise well-honed defenses of their heroes through a style of self-righteous disgust. To demonstrate, let us take this example of parodied outrage.

Someone named Emily Hulsey, writing for a site I had never heard of called independent journal review, decided to be offended by something Bill Maher said about former President Ronald Reagan. Who is Emily Hulsey? What is this site she is freelance writing for because her newly-obtained MBA wasn't worth shit after graduation? Why would anyone care what she has to say about someone "bashing" her hero on a cable show?

You can almost hear her gasp and stamp her feet, "how dare you" permeates the prose. There is an adage about people who can dish it out but cannot take it, somehow the irony is lost on wingnuts.

From criticizing Ronald Reagan’s style to his friends to his sex life, Maher held nothing back. He even made time for a shot at Sarah Palin.

By resorting to childish insults, Maher completely ruined what was supposed to be a tribute to a fallen President of the United States. There was nothing presidential in Maher’s monologue, and I’m sure Kennedy would have been completely ashamed of it.
Honoring the deceased – particularly our fallen leaders – should be done with dignity and class. Obviously, that is something that Bill Maher just doesn’t get. 

It is difficult for Kennedy's biographers to discern what he would have thought about anything, let alone this hack freelancer. As to honoring the deceased, well okay but by that logic the living are fair game right? So have a glance at this article on how conservative proto-tea baggers treated JFK while he was still alive. And if you are still unsure how seriously conservatives take this self-righteous disgust, you can read further into how they treated JFK in the book posted at the footer. How about another example?

When ever rush limbaugh makes a vicious comment about someone, vile, racist, misogynist, or other some wingnut will come to his defense by asserting "oh, rush is just an entertainer, lighten up you libs." Well, no a great many republicans treat the oxycontin addict as a leader, but if we accept this assertion of rush as comedian then why is Maher held to a higher standard? You know why, I know why but it is convenient when on a tirade of self-righteous disgust to forget and pretend that Bill Maher is some kind of respected authority and leader, not a sometimes entertaining comedian on television. The firewalls thrown up by conservatives between mental files that keep them from connecting relevant information are impressive bulwarks of insulation from the real world indeed.