While my theological beliefs (which have very little to do with my religious observance) tend towards that 'ol time agnostic monism, Nicholas Kristof, in one of the daffiest columns he's ever written, has decided that the Christopath Right "has largely retreated from the culture wars." Therefore, any resumption of said wars must be squarely laid at the feet of "the Atheist Left."
No, Special K, the Right didn't "retreat", they were driven off the battlefield. There is a huge difference.
Kristof's column is nothing more than Compulsive Centrist Disorder rearing its head in the culture wars. I'll let driftglass explain:
To be sure, on November 7th, the Right certainly got their collective noses bloodied and asses sawed off and served to them on the good china.
This happened when a majority of the voting public finally showed its contempt for a clique that had literally done nothing with its One Party Rule but endlessly hector everyone else on morality, while happily giving aid, shelter and comfort to a menagerie of Pious, Jebus-luvin' liars, traitors, briber takers, bribe makers, war profiteers, war criminals, looters, child sex predators and, just for goofs, gay-hooker-frequenting, meth smoking preachers...so long as they puked up the correct slogans or voted the right way.
Sure, that happened, but since when has simply being massively wrong about every single thing impeded the neutronium-clad belief in his own, invincible Rightness of single Conservative Evangelical troll?
Seriously, who but a Persistent Vegetative Pundit actually believes that the Terri-Schiavo-Died-For-Your-Sins Right has suddenly up and decided to fold its revival tents, deep-six its demands that the Ten Commandments be incised onto every flat surface in the Universe, eschew its Long March of Justice Sundays, embrace tolerance, Darwin a pair of opposable thumbs, clamber down out of the Stoopid Tree and walk upright like men?
These people don't retire and reform -- They rearm and regroup.
And so it is well to remember that Kristof is not bystander in the culture wars.
His focus on Darfur has been resolute and laudable, but he has also been a consistently obedient disease vector for the Right's perverse ideology. And here his facile assertions and his despicable conflation of genuine atheism with State Personality Cultism like Stalinism, Maoism (or Bushism) do little more that show his own positively Maoist loyalty to that all-purpose Conservatives firewall: The fake Centrism Fraud that Liberals/Atheists/Progressives/Whoever-is-Left-of-Dobson-today are always automatically, equally and oppositely as bad as the worst excesses of the Right.
How hard is it to understand that theological criticism, particularly when directed against those who use sectarian dogmatic particulars to force their beliefs upon others, is not the same as attempting to use the goverment--which has a monopoly on violence--to coerce others? If you don't like others' religious (or irreligious) beliefs, then ignore them. I do it all the time to the 'religious' right. But I can't ignore them when they want to force their religion upon me.
Kristof is a fucking moron.
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Actually, in this instance he's a hack propagandist. And given he's not really a moron, he clearly understands the fundamental differentiation you make at the end. So that makes him simply one of the multitude of rightwing-franchisee mouthpieces -- dishonest and amoral. An intellectual whore . . whoops, he gets paid for it. An intellectual prostitute.
He's another one of those professional liars.
driftglass, on the other hand, speaks truth. And I like his style -- he can pack a lot in a few words and then set them off like tiny fireworks.
We all know what will happen to Kristoff and ilk come Judgment Day. What intrigues me is why the readers and viewers that lap up this utterly obvious false witness and regurgitate it ongoing through their personal lives think they'll get a pass. Ignorance of the law is never a valid defense before it.
[where might we find driftglass's response, or more?]
It's grossly unfair to compare prostitutes to Kristoff. Unlike Kristoff, many prostitutes are not such by choice. Many endure substantial dangers which Kristoff does not face. Few if any ever attain his level of ill-gotten wealth.
llewelly
Agreed.
Mad Mike
Somehow I missed the link to driftglass. I've also missed the fact you have a fucking morons category. Otherwise, I would have hesitated to quibble. I looked and my conclusion is you qualify as an expert spotter. Is this a new field in biology?
Questions: When the Left/Democrats suffered electoral defeats, were they 'Driven off the battlefield' of the culture war? When Republicans took over congress from Democrats, did the Democrats get their 'asses sawed off' etc?
Folks, the facts are plain - the nation is roughly 49%/49% left/right in various flavors. Any attempt to take a small victory (and the most recent election represented a samll victory. If not, why did it take so few changes to take control, and why were those dmall changes so agonized over beforehand?) and turn it into a big one is suspect, no matter who does it.
Mike, if you really believe the Christian Right has been 'driven from the battlefield', then you can relax about creationism, right?