You know, my cousin and I have had many discussions where we disagree about talk show hosts on the Left, satire, and how to approach the rather nasty, mean spirited, cruel, sadistic element on the Right, or Reich as some of us prefer. My opinion is a bit more on the, “They’re not going to stop, and the only way to deal with bullies is to beat back harder” side. But even I cringe at the site… whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com
How would you feel about this if the other side had lost?
I do hope a little real learning comes out of their sadness, though I suspect the only “learning” will be “we have to be further to the right, nastier, meaner and more bat shisen crazy,” but mocking their sadness merely assures that. Yes, I would feel that way about those who would mock the Germans who mourned Hitler, or the Russians who mourned Stalin.
On this, I suspect, my cousin who posts here too, agree.
Maybe I didn’t peruse this site as much as you did. What I saw was a lot of people, most of them seemed to be campaign workers, who were naturally disappointed that their candidate didn’t win.
I’m not sure if the ‘white people’ in the title was supposed to imply racist white people or not.
The one texting post, is the same feeling that Obama supporters felt about the consequences of an Obama loss.
To the more general question: I don’t feel you solve anything by lowering yourself to some other’s level. You don’t thwart a bully by being a bully, but by standing up for yourself in a reasonable manner.
I heard an example of this just the other day. An older fellow, who walks with difficulty, with two canes, witnessed some local hooligans steal a child’s basketball. He went up to them and demanded the ball back, and they gave it to him, and apologized. Even with the canes as weapons, he would not have been a match for them.
Two wrongs don’t make a right (right Dad?)
As someone who was told to do as you suggest by my own mother for two years who wound up in Doc Stein’s office with a black eye, cut up, a bike smashed, bruised, a limp, hair ripped from my head because every time I tried to “take a higher” path… I can vouch for the fact the only way it stopped was when I got off my bike and got nastier than they did. This happened despite police, the principal and parents, being “nice,” taking different paths home, not responding in kind (which made them madder and meaner), parents calling other parents, talking to the principal, complimenting them… yada, yada. After two years, I tried it all but my last solution.
Perhaps this goes to the difference between some female/female bullying vs. male/male?
But as to the site, talk show hosts today: Miller and Press were finding it funny. I’m sorry: too far. I don’t take pride in what happened to them after I got off my bike, willingly, instead of being punched and kicked off like the previous time. It was sad I had to.
The thing that infuriates me the most, however, is how some will blame the victim: whether it’s a kid or a woman beaten by her husband. You do whatever you think you must do t solve the situation. I can vouch, personally, for the fact that that “higher” path doesn’t always work, and does nothing but make it get worse, and worse. But I do think that attempting the higher path first is to be respected, even the wiser path.
I think we may be discussing 2 different kinds of events. I would not suggest to someone who is being physically attacked that they not defend themselves.
The talk show / media format is more like someone calling names or making faces. Doing the same thing back, usually only escalates the situation. I would not suggest countering Mitt’s or Rush’s or Beck’s lies, with lies and fantasy. Calling Rush fat, is not a lie, but doesn’t disprove his propaganda either.
Colbert and Stewart do a better job highlighting the BS (though even they, especially Stewart, resort too often to foul language and juvenile humor).
I think that Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Thom Hartman are much better at countering the right-wing crazies.
By the way – I think the picture that appears above your article could just as well depict relief and tears of joy that Obama won.
True, but that was directly from the site, and from the convention… unless the owners of that site just took random pictures. Didn’t seem so.
There’s a dynamic here you may, or may not, be aware of. In “male world” there’s not so easy a separation between those who simply stick their tongues out and those who will assault you. It starts with simple tongue stick out. etc..But when you do what Moms suggest: ignore, don’t respond in kind, go a different direction that makes them madder, they get more vicious. It escalates from there, kind of like with a true alcoholic. Eventually it winds up where I brought you to: kicked off bike, hair torn from head, a visit to Doc Stein. Let’s just say I have had a problem agreeing with how male dynamics are developed in this society since I was a kid. The aggressiveness we build into the “species” does NOT not serve us well.