I listened to Sarah Palin's "State of My Livingroom Address" (thank you Colbert for that!) last week, about the Tucson shootings and yeah we're all against violence, we hate mass shootings, all of us bears can agree with that. However, her high-pitched mom-style let's talk basic sense telepromted address went way off the rails with the "Blood Libel" talk. Excuse me but WTF!?!? I read about Blood Libel in a Sam Harris book several years ago, it was partly about how religion can push humanity into dark places, of which the Catholic Church has many examples, blaming the Jewish for the murder of Christ and starting vicious rumours about them all over the Middle Ages and one could argue into the Nazi Era too. It is a term the Jewish get to claim alongside Holocaust and probably not to be used lightly and not to be used by those who haven't read anything other than their ratings for their own Reality show!
Many pundits, not "pundiNts" as Palin pronounced it in her address, have been wondering where and how did the term Blood Libel get into that speech? Chris Matthews pondered that someone obviously wrote it and Palin was too ignorant to know what it meant, as anyone in their right mind would have left it out. Yesterday Matthews pointed out that the term was used in a recent right-wing newspaper article, ahh that explains it all. It's just not a term that is on anyone's mind, until now, even I had to search hard in my collection of neurons to remember exactly what it was. It ties into a broader narrative the right uses and has used for a long time, namely, the idea that white Christian folk are being persecuted by so called special interest groups and the non white Christians that are taking over America and stealing our jobs! In Palin's recent fireside chat she claimed a blood libel was placed on herself and all her friends in the radical right-wing talkosphere, like radio hosts and FOX News hosts. I'm sorry but I do not have enough space or time on this blog to go thru the insane rants of people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who encourage violent rhetoric against Obama daily, but I can tell you that these guys are constantly bringing up the words Nazi, Socialist, Fascist and Communist when talking about the President. All of these radical right talking heads claim victim everyday. Most of the time I can't believe what comes out of Palin's mouth but claiming that she is the victim in the Tucson shootings is beyond the pale, to put it politely. If you have put crosshairs on the district of an actual shooting victim there is going to be some fallout, people are going to notice. Yesterday's interview with FOX's Sean Hannity, Palin said she took the crosshair image off her site for reasons unrelated to the shooting and she hasn't even looked at her website in a few days. Come on, take some responsibility, a child could spot that lie a mile away! Just say, maybe this was in poor taste and we took it down and we're sorry. Man up Sarah!
Anyway, I was talking about how the right always claims victim hood. Take any gay rights issue for example, the argument is always, why should the gays get special treatment? Why should they have parades? We don't have straight parades. (except we have Mother's Day and Fathers Day, and Family Day in Canada) Or the constant BS every December about "the War on Christmas" as if not assuming everyone was a Christian by saying, holiday, is a full assault on Christians. No, we just live in a increasingly pluralistic society, I think it's pretty hard for non-Christians to escape the all enveloping mass marketing of Christmas, I get pretty sick of it by December 15 myself! More recently we have people like Glenn Beck constantly saying the word Nazi or comparing Democrats or the President to Nazi's, I think they are trying to compare themselves to the struggles of the Jewish people. I find it completely disgusting, call me crazy. Having a warped political viewpoint does not make you a victim here, being born a race or sexuality that is not popular, can make you a victim, but really, unless you were in a concentration camp please do not go around comparing yourself to that! Being a Tea Partier does not put you on the level of Anne Frank or Jesus Christ so please stop the Nazi and Blood Libel talk, it's as ridiculous as it is patronizing. Do you know who uses self-victimization? People seeking attention, people with personality disorders, alcoholics and drug addicts, those with Munchausen Syndrome and those who are unfit to become President of the United States.
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