A close friend who has, thus far, appeared in this little corner of the universe oncet, suggested to me over the weekend that I might do a better job of reaching diverse audiences that are not predisposed to believe me, if only I would tone down my tendency to explore the various conjugations of various sex- and scat-related words. And stop calling the other side names. And just not be so darned upset and hyperbolic all the darned time. Do these things in some combination and to some degree, my friend suggests, and perhaps my message will start to filter in to some of those on the other side, or at least those on the near side of the other side. This, he further suggests, might be better than preaching to the choir that is you, my minions.
My friend is not ignorant, and he knows me quite well, actually. He's really rather brilliant, both in a couple of areas of intellectual/academic interest that we share, and in other areas less scathed by the scorching heat of my interest. Unlike me, he is creative, leaving me in constant fear of boring him so much that he'll dash off to something else shiny.
He also styles himself more or less a moderate. I think he's actually more of a Social Capitalist or a Material Socialist, and I see no shame in either (I can fairly be characterized in the same way, only I have an edge on him in anger management, for a given value of "edge" defined as "there is an edge to my anger management that makes it pretty ineffective as management"). Most importantly, he is a fellow who sees shades of grey. I suspicion that that's why he is able to style himself a moderate, even though he's clearly more one of us than one of them (he has the gift or hindrance, take your pick, of having originated in The Middle Place--and I think that colors his political origins with good old-fashioned rural American sensibility).
It's worth a think; much of the blogosphere is drawn from the 20-30 percent of relative extremists at each end of the political spectrum. This blog is no exception, whether or not I fancy myself more level-headed than many libruls. Part of the reason that the middle is the middle is that it's offended by the level of rhetoric shrilling from each end of the spectrum. Doesn't matter to the middle who started it. Right is right, bad is bad, and while there may be grey, there's black and white, too.
Alas, I'm not trying to win hearts and minds here, not really. I mean, if I happened to say something that allowed some state-loving theocrat to completely toss over his or her ideology, hey, great. But right-wingers don't listen to strangers, you know, so I just don't see that as the route to goal fulfillment. No, as long-time readers know, Minions is all about ventaciousness and pressure management and hyperbole and righteous outrage.
And so? Fuck you, you fucking fucks. John Hindraker did, in fact, eat my baby. Or at least he roasted it up nice and crispy with some garlic and rosemary and fed it to a gleeful Sam Alito. Bill Frist is a pederast, and Jeb Bush...well, blame my middlefriend, he happened to sojourn in Florida for a spell, and who knows what that horror did to his voting finger? I mean, just ask Broward Jews for Buchanan.
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8 comments:
You are being excessively influenced by The Moderate is you are referring to Assrocket as Hindraker. And. Perhaps your Moderate has failed to read The Rude Pundit lately. A rude means of expression sometimes makes a point more clearly and effectively than does a moderate one.
I'm with Tech. Fuck 'em all. Take no prisoners. I like rude and outrage is sometimes righteousness.
Of course, I'm a bitch that way.
Ventaciousness? Lol - you do put the hype into hyperbole!
I read you because you fuck the fucking fucks so fuckingly fucktaciously, and I'm from the Middle Place too.
Hey - reasonableness is my gig!
I'm glad you came to your senses in the last paragraph. I was this >< close to starting to look for the pod that sprouted you.
Heh. Materialist Socialist, that's me roight down to the gun rights I so vehemently defend. Hey, looking things over here, I have to say that hyprbole in measured doses is way more effective than ranting as a means of communication.
Take, as my fav current example, the Daily Show. Here's a show that is clearly aimed at you people, (and yes, I know my audience here) but that still draws a lot of attention from "them" because it says what it says so darn intelligently.
I, for one, would love to see Stewie drop the "hehheh" Bush impersonation -- its an easy laugh, TOO easy really -- because it makes anyone who doesn't think Bush is a complete idiot (none of you, I understand, but they are out there, and I count myself among their number) turn off the show, and miss the biting invictive that is aimed at things like poor policy and hypocricy. Which, hey, even "them" will cop to if put in a way that can't be ignored. Some of them. Sometimes.
So, when I read things like "Ubercunt," I, like most people who aren't deeply emotionally invested, just stop listening. If you know Bob the Angry Flower, you might know the kind of thing I mean -- here's a smart guy with something to say who is so absolutely unable to imagine a worldview other than his own that he can't do anything but rant.
And that's what I am saying to Herr Landru. You gots problems? Preach it, Brother! Evil? I say SMITE the evil, hallelujah! But we don't want to come over and find you collapsed over the keyboard when Roe finally gets overturned -- whups, sorry, you guys haven't been told about that yet, have you? :) Pretend I didn't say that.
And, omg, can you bleev who got kicked off Lost? It was teh Gayzt!
The title of the blog says it all. Preach to the choir. Even the half assed converted choir, if you must.
Purplestate? You're. Um. Wrong. Just totally wrong. The bad Bush impersonation that Stewart does? Makes him seem just a little bit more palletable for folks who don't exactly want serious. And folks who can't deal with Ubercunt probably can't deal with the rest of the message either. IMO, you should feel free to post on your own blog however you think appropriate.
But what do I know? I'm outrageous. And sick to death of the middle ground, of being reasonable -- and like Dweeze said, that's his gig. Y'know, moderate one's voice bears a strong resemblance to not telling the truth. Oh, that should have been the fucking truth.
That's all.
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