Dear Antivaxxer: This is why I do not care for you, Skewed Distribution, March 26, 2012
Over the years I have heard many plaintive cries from the anti-vax movement about those who would dare to confront them. They ask for respect for their opinions and don’t understand why I am so “mean” to them. Here you go, anti-vaxxer. Here is why I am the Honeybadger, and you are the cobra.
1. You believe that your opinion should be respected no matter how ridiculous it may be.
I must quote Poland and Jacobson to begin with. “Ultimately, society must recognize that science is not a democracy in which the side with the most votes or the loudest voices gets to decide what is right“. Anti-vaxxers, your opinions regarding vaccination are not based on science. They are ill-formed things with little basis in any reality and are due no respect whatsoever. I do not know where the idea that all opinions must be respected came from, anyway. Should I respect the opinion of a racist or a bigot? No, I should not. And I do not now, nor will I ever, respect yours. Just because you state your dangerous antivaccination views “politely” on an internet message board does not mean that you are due any kindness. It’s like putting a pretty red bow on a turd. The underlying basis of your belief system is about as rude and harmful as can be imagined; therefore, I do not feel compelled to be “nice” to you for any reason.
[Emphasis in original.]
My week in the right-wing lie machine: When Fox News, Twitchy and Montel Williams declared war on me, David Masciotra, Salon, December 18, 2014
The prevention of wars of aggression and corruption is central to any culture not just gesturing, but marching toward justice. Maintaining faith in the fidelity of the American government to causes of freedom, and expressing that faith in the ritualistic prayer of thanking “heroes” for “protecting our freedom” is sacramental and essential. Religious language clarifies the dogmatic approach to American exceptionalism and militarism, because as historian Morris Berman correctly explains, “The real religion of America is America.”
Spiritual devotion to the purity of America, preached by fundamentalists such as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and even by moderate believers like Barack Obama, explains why for all their whining about “political correctness,” the right wing is far more sensitive and emotionally fragile than liberals. Many liberals do have a problem with overreacting to gaffes and jokes, but the real p.c. enforcement comes from the flag-saluting conservative crowd, with “p.c.” standing not for “political correctness,” but “patriotic commandments.”
At the top of the tablet is the Patriotic Commandment, “Thou shalt not criticize the military.”
[Emphasis added.]
White Liberals Cannot Hide From Racism Any Longer, Tim Donovan, AlterNet, December 20, 2014
White people in this country have always had the luxury of simply ignoring our culture’s racism, brushing it aside or shutting it out. But whites can no longer sit idly by. There are a number of things white people can do, as highlighted in a recent article for AlterNet by Janee Wood. But we must also be willing to call out our friends, colleagues, and relatives. We can’t keep dodging uncomfortable conversations. For too many whites, this whole topic is off-limits. Racism, they tell us, has surely ended. Whatever disadvantages the black community still faces can be chalked up to laziness, criminality, irresponsibility. These are Hard Truths that need to be discussed! Just ask Don Lemon, or Kevin Hart, or maybe even this guy! I’ve been utterly shocked — sickened — by the number of ostensibly liberal whites I know who hold these ugly opinions, and hide their cruel assumptions about 40 million black Americans in the mouth of another black person — as if this somehow absolves them of its message, or elides its cruelty. (“Hey, I’m not racist, a black guy said it.”) This must stop. It simply cannot continue any longer.
***
More than anything else, the last few weeks have revealed that too many white liberals refuse to even question their own assumptions about race and racism in America. They scoff at the notion of institutional racism, and cannot abide the idea that racism can be the product of social forces and cultural mores. Even prominent writers like Jonathan Chait seem to fall victim to the ridiculous idea that one must be actively racist (or capital-R Racist) to contribute to a racist culture. Chait recently fought on Twitter with Coates, misunderstanding America’s most shameful legacy as a mere intellectual disagreement. Perceiving deep-seated racism as an abstract debate is a position that only white people can take, and refusing to see the embedded privilege necessary for such a perspective is tragically blinkered.
[Ed.: I count myself among the white liberals who need to do better. We are all works in progress in so many ways.]
