Surely the Visigoths will be here soon
You’ve probably seen this video of Tea Party demonstrators ridiculing a man with Parkinson’s:
My late grandfather had Parkinson’s, by the way. Little reclusive fact there for you.
The video is shocking, or at least it is until you remember that these people are the folks who listen to Rush Limbaugh. Remember Limbaugh’s impression of Michael J. Fox? This is just good clean fun for these cretins. Plus there’s the mob mentality; it’s amazing what people will get up to when they’re in a crowd.
Many people have pointed to this video as evidence of just how evil and barbaric the right-wing crazies really are. And they are, of course. But evil and barbaric is not exactly limited to the right. If you doubt me, cruise through the archives of this blog for the year 2008. Go on, I dare you. Remember the “Sarah Palin is a cunt” T-shirts? Remember the jokes about her “Mongoloid whelp”? Remember the public fantasies about murdering that lying bitch Hillary and burying her body in West Virginia? Good times.
American culture is coarse and vulgar and hateful. It’s like that on both the right and the left. I can’t stand any of it, to tell you the truth. This is why I live in an imaginary Smoking Lounge and pretend to be a ghost who’s sleeping with a reincarnated parrot. It’s more fun.
For as long as I can remember (which is edging towards the half-century mark here), pundits have been punditing that American civilization is in decline. We’re past the high point, they say; Marcus Aurelius is behind us and we’re deep into the Crisis of the Third Century. Or maybe we’re already in the Dominate, or in the rump Western Empire after the death of Theodosius. (Or maybe some of us have spent a little too much time noodling around in the history books.)
Personally, I’ve reached the point that I just want it to be over. Come on, Visigoths. Bring us your best shot, Vandals. Let’s crank this thing up. Where are the Huns? Can we fast-forward to the Merovingians yet?
11 Responses to “Surely the Visigoths will be here soon”
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Swannie says:
The visigoths camp is located at wonkette.com ..you can tell them by the stench of their campfires where they burn their own dung for warmth …..
March 20th, 2010 at 10:16 pm EST -
Violet Socks says:
Har.
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song! says:
the good news is? Everything does tend toward atrophy in the patriarchy.
The bad news? Undifferentiated emotion fuels and maintains their structures.
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Three Wickets says:
Speaking of visigoths and wonkette, how could so many righteous progs have been wrong about Edwards. Also smells a bit of anti-semitism to me. I could be overreacting of course.
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Swannie says:
Yep.. the VISIGOATS are at wonkette ;)
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Kiuku says:
Cruelty has become the new “edge”. It shows how non-politically correct you are. You may fancy yourself as a naturalist or a realist but in reality you’re just a douche, probably with a penis, that believes he is above society. When more than one people subscribe to this belief, it’s called a gang, not a society. This a problem that men bring to society.
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Sameol says:
I keep hearing about Lewis and Frank getting screamed at and wondering if a female Rep being screamed at would make news, or whether the reporters would be too busy fist pumping and joining in. I guess it would pretty much depend on how she’s voting on any given day.
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Violet Socks says:
Were you around in 2008? Here’s what would happen:
1. Most reporters wouldn’t even notice.
2. Most that did notice would agree or think it funny.
3. Any that reported on it would put the word ‘sexist’ in quotes, and pose the story as a question: is this “sexist”?
4. If the female politician commented on it, she would be accused of throwing a fit and Keith Olbermann would christen her “The Worst Person in the World.”
5. The overwhelming consenus among “progressives” would be that it was just a little joke and the stupid humorless feminazis need to shut the fuck up because there are important issues at stake.
6. Stockholm Syndrome types would pipe up to announce that they weren’t offended, etc.And so on.
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Level Best says:
We ARE a vulgar, mean, uneducated society. But sometimes I go beyond just invoking the Visigoths to thinking it’s a species-wide problem and perhaps the human race just needs to go away and leave the other species and Mother Earth so that they can heal themselves from our horrible incursions.
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djmm says:
Love the Merovingian reference! And one or two of the Long Haired Kings were civilized. Well, more civilized than Mr. Limbaugh and his followers or Wonkette and hers…
djmm
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okasha skatsi says:
The Merovingian kings who were half-civilized were half-civilized by their queens.
