The Right and its persecution complex.

The BBQ Pit
1

I have had a revelation. I have finally realized what is pissing me off about the Conservatives in this country: They have a Persecution Complex, exacerbated by the existence of the “MAIN STREAM MEDIA”. So much for personal responsibility. The MAIN STREAM MEDIA is the cause of (and blaming it is the solution to) all of life’s problems

As I have mentioned here before, I have a new hobby: listening to Right Wing pundits on my new XM radio. Mostly, I do it just to see what current twists in logic will be used to defend whatever crazy-assed talking-point comes out of the White House in any given week. However, yesterday when I was listening to some crappy radio show on XM (Larry Elder - who has perhaps the worst radio voice on the planet), I came to the realization of Persecution Complex. Basically the Persecution Complex states that the MAIN STREAM MEDIA and all that encompasses are out to smear the poor, innocent, patriotic, clean, fresh, sweat Conservative.

I switched to Elders’ show, after listening for a bit to Hannity (who gives out more incorrect “facts” than a fifth grader attempting to explain cold fusion). After listening to these knuckleheads, I switched to a local guy. The one thing that all of these shows had in common, was some kind of weird idea that the MAIN STREAM MEDIA was out to get them.

Elders had a guy on there (please keep in mind, I’m barely listening, and flipping stations rather rigorously, so details are sketchy) who was apparently a journalist. He made the claim that whatever publication he wrote for, in the MAIN STREAM MEDIA, wouldn’t publish his column because it was “Politically incorrect”. This, in his world, is evidence of a liberal cabal which has gotten together to oppress the Conservative Journalists in this world. I guess he’s never heard of Robert Novak (Douchebag for Freedom), George Will, William F. Buckley, Judith Miller, et. al. I suppose it never occurred to him that his article may simply have been crappy. After all, why blame yourself, when you can blame the MAIN STREAM MEDIA?

Hannity was then talking about the Plame case and how the MAIN STREAM MEDIA was unjustly picking on Scooter (and I thought Joey Harrington was an idiot for using Joey instead of a more dignified “Joe”) Libby, for “technicalities”. Perjury, shmurgery, Damn you MAIN STREAM MEDIA!!

And then there was the local guy who was saying how the fact that CNN wouldn’t show the film of the soldiers burning the Taliban bodies somehow meant that the MAIN STREAM MEDIA was denying the best evidence that the soldiers were innocent. Huh? I’ll admit, this is the Persecution Complex gone awry.

So the was pièce de résistance on NPR this morning when they were talking to this guy running for Republican Governor of Virginia, Jerry Kilgore, who aired a commercial in which he Godwinized his opponent, Tim Kaine, by saying that he would not have handed down the death penalty to Hitler. Anyway the Persecution Complex evidence was hearing this Kilgore guy claim that reason several local papers wrote editorials condemning the commercials by claiming that the MAIN STREAM MEDIA are “liberal soul-mates” with his far left opponent. Well mister Kilgore, perhaps the reason papers are condemning you, is because you’re clearly a jack-ass.

So there you have it. This is my new drinking game (if I drank in the car, which of course I don’t, but maybe I’ll count them all up, and drink them when I get home): Do a shot every time you hear the words MAIN STREAM MEDIA used as a defense for the indefensible. I personally am going to use it as an excuse in my office. Why didn’t I complete the testing? Because the MAIN STREAM MEDIA has distracted me with interesting stories of Hurricanes and indictments.

Take that MAIN STREAM MEDIA!

2

That’s not Godwinization.

The rest of your rant is neat though, but let’s be frank. It’s not “the Right” that has a persecution complex, it’s some-but-not-all of the people on the right.

3

Agreed. Though I do find it funny, in the same way I chuckle over the ‘oppression’ of Christians in the US.

4

Hey, some on the Left have a persecution complex as well. Remember the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?

5

Is anyone else amused at Hannity’s portrayal of Fox News as a small bastion of truth and light being held up against the vast left wing media machine?

6

Bah. Political distortion knows no boundaries. Beyond the hyperbole and whacked-out conspiracies of both sides, the truth lies somewhere between…hidden, blindfolded, gagged and hogtied…away from everyone’s view.

7

Every now and then, I listen to Michael Savage for the joy of being righteously pissed off at a deserving scumbag, and according to him, even the right wing media conspires to silence him. It’s this conspiracy that keeps him off of the O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes. And he’s the only one in the media telling the truth! To here him tell it, the Second Coming has occurred, and it has a Bronx accent. (And skyguy help us, he’s taken seriously by many.)

It seems like one of the main purposes of news media these days is to report how biased other sources are.

8

Umm…I think that’s Fox News’s subtitle, right under “Fox News: Fair and Balanced”.

-Joe

9

Gotta hand it to the right. That whole left wing media shit worked wonders for shrinking any balls that the news media had.

I heard that NPR report. What I found shocking is that the election is close even though it’s painfully obvious that Kilgore is a complete and utter idiot. I don’t care who you are. That’s some scary shit right there.

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Why, specifically, is Kilgore an idiot?

11

Always one of my favorites.

12

I’m not buying this. Just because a couple of people believed it, didn’t make it a common belief. I think lots of people thought Clinton was picked on, but I don’t think most went for the conspiracy theory. This blaming of the main stream media, is on every single show, every single episode, every single day. Today, Hannity was claiming how he just wanted to “inform the public” about the scourge that is Joseph Wilson, because the MAIN STREAM MEDIA won’t.

Moreover, with the House, Senate, Presidency, and Judiciary under their control, how can anyone of sound mind, believe in a wide-spread media conspiracy against them?

13

I’ll try to make this as clear as possible. I’m remembering from this morning and as dinner is on the stove I don’t have time to go to the NPR site for a link. Maybe later tonight.

Kilgore laid out an attack ad claiming that Tim Kaine wouldn’t even recommend the death penalty for Hitler. This is a tremendous oversimplification of an answer Kaine gave at an event. Kaine, a death penalty opponent and fairly religious person, was asked if he would allow the death penalty for Hitler, Stalin, and one other whose name escapes me. What Kaine said was something to the effect that only God gives life and only God should be allowed to take life.

When called on his purposeful oversimplification of the remark for the purpose of smearing his opponent, Kilgore blaimed it on the “liberal” media and their being soulmates of his liberal opponent. It’s an excuse, and a lousy one to boot.

Maybe idiot is the wrong term. Raging scumbag would probably suit better. It’s just my opinion on his character. I just don’t understand how anyone could support a candidate who uses such blatant mischaracterizations and then tries to dodge it with a broad blanket attack on the media. I just can’t stand that whole “media has x partisan bias” line of crap. YMMV.

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Idi Amin was the other guy. I too, thought the mis-representation was scuzzy. Also, Kaine, has made it clear that the death penalty is the law and he was willing to implement the law. What I think it really disgusting about it, is that anytime a Catholic is asked these questions it’s fodder for mill, but low, to the person who asks an evangelical Christian the same thing regarding, say, abortion. It would be the MAIN STREAM MEDIA persecuting them.

15

Amazing what the impact of one little “small bastion of truth and light” has had, huh?

For decades, the overwhelmingly liberal MAIN STREAM MEDIA held sway, and it resulted in ever-increasing liberal influence in our lives and government…much to the seething resentment of many of us on the right.

Now, thanks to cable television and other communication advances made possible by electronic technology, the MAIN STREAM MEDIA no longer dictates what we see and hear. The right is no longer marginalized and without a voice…and the result is what you mention above.

And what’s really interesting is that it only took primarily one television network and one radio guy to vanquish the combined power of CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc., etc. ad nauseum.

16

Absolutely! YAY FOR THE LITTLE GUYS, the oppressed billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, who pays people to be partisan. If it weren’t for him and his contemporaries, journalists would still feel the stifling need to be objective.

17

And yet, the persecution of the Right continues. My heart bleeds. Funny enough, I don’t remember these complaints during the Regan Administration, the Bush I Administration, or the Clinton debacle. It’s only when you guys are at the losing end of the field that these accusations come up.

18

Maybe you’ve read the book already but What’s the Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank features a good illustration and analysis of the Right’s persecution complex. Acting through their agents–the Republican Party–the Right controls the White House, Congress, and has the upper hand in the Supreme Court. They also have a major mouthpiece with Fox News, dominate talk radio, and have numerous outlets on the internet. Yet, despite all this power and influence, many conservatives continue to behave like it’s Dunkirk and they’re desperately clinging to a tiny piece of political territory that’s about to be overwhelmed by the evil forces of the vast left-wing conspiracy. They’re like a football coach who’s pissed off about the results of game even though his team wins by a score of 77 to 3.

Aside from the fact that some people are just constantly angry regardless of situation, I think one reason for this perpetually defensive mindset is that it’s good for organizational purposes. A right-wing radio ranter just can’t sit back and be pleased with all the control the conservatives have. That’s dull radio. There always has to be some liberal bugaboo or bogeyman that’s threatening all that’s good and holy (i.e., Republican) in America. It helps if such a threat can be viewed as part of the constant struggle between the common people who value God and country and those decadent “Blue State” leftist elitists who either work for or listen to the “Mainstream Media” and vote Democratic. That’s the way the Republican keep raising money and getting the vote out.

19

Exactly. People like Starving Artist are useful as illustrations of this effect. The footsoldiers - the folks who vote, and give small donations, the general public supporting right wing causes - are tremendously motivated by the spectre of being the little guys fighting some big mean ol’ enemy. Now that they’ve managed to take control of the government (though unless Bush cures cancer or something it doesn’t appear that they will much longer) the message becomes more complicated. But it still boils down to some amorphous force trying to get the little guy down. Elitists, college professors, the “mainstream media”, “political correctness” - it’s some shapeless but eminently powerful creature that manages to constantly oppress middle class white people. And it’s a tremendously effective message. Some Yalie from the east coast who squandered fortune after fortune in his business failures, always to be saved by Daddy’s money, still manages to come across, to rubes like Starving Artist, as a folksy, “shucks, li’l ol’ me” type of guy who’s courageously fighting against the invisible army of hippies and intellectuals who are destroying this country.

This message works. These are the people who have made the far right into a political force once again in the United States. It’s not a matter of ideological victory - the Brickers of the world, who after long and thoughtful consideration vote for the Republicans, are a tiny minority. This is the victory of an admirably well-played bit of smoke and mirrors. It’s Bush’s style that wins elections, not his substance (quite obviously). Most people do not vote based on their opinions about political issues - they vote based upon sound bites. They vote for “personal responsibility” and against “liberal elitists”. While it may signify nothing, the sound and fury is what wins elections. Just look at the right’s good little parrots like Starving Artist.

20

Meh. That’s where you ask your GOP opponent if he would support aborting Hitler or Stalin…

-Joe