Today I read something so stupid it made me dizzy and I had to put my head down on my desk until the dizziness passed. From Shakesville:
“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”
I have nothing to say about this, because I keep having to put my head down when I read it. But I am reminded of Digby’s post today:
This is why I say that they have retired the concept of hypocrisy. It goes far beyond double standards or duplicity or bad faith. There’s an aggression to it, a boldness, that dares people to bring up the bald and obvious fact that the person making the charge is herself a far worse perpetrator of the thing she is decrying. There’s an intellectual violence in it.
And I guess that is how I experience things like Palin’s quote–as intellectual violence. The idea that you would run for vice-president of a country governed by a constitution with which you are so poorly acquainted just hurts my head.
I mean, seriously.
We used to have brilliant statesmen–like Jefferson–who were morally repugnant and now the Republican party is tossing up moral statesmen–like Palin–who are intellectually repugnant.
Filed under: America how can I write a holy litany in your silly moo, Politics and Other Nonsense
Second delurking post just to say that “intellectual violence” is probably a phrase I will need to use often, for a very long time.
Hear, hear, Observer.
B., we are seeing the results of decades of poor citizenship here, among other things. That the McCain/Palin ticket was even presented to the public– much less that it has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning– is a sure sign that at least a huge plurality of our nation’s population has chosen to embrace intellectual dishonesty.
I like that you draw the distinction between moral and intellectual dishonesty. It is one thing for you to either artfully obfuscate the truth or for you to tell me a straight-up lie; if I don’t know the truth, at least the deception is grounded in my ignorance. It is a far more sinister thing to stand in my face and present to me a statement that you and I both know is false, and for you to dare me to either accept the statement or contradict you. The latter tactic (along with a massive voter suppression campaign) is what the GOP is using to try and take hold of the highest office in the land. God help us all if it works.
I saw a car on I-40 this morning with a Palin sticker. Not McCain-Palin, must Palin. It was very disturbing.