Today’s the Feast of Corpus Christi, when we Catholics celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist, and the things that bring us together rather than divide us as a Community in Christ with all of the others. One of our number who lives near Corpus Christi, Texas, continues to struggle with his own fleshly trials, and I ask that you keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
More, though, I want to make an appeal to your better natures. It is true that much of what I write here and elsewhere is designed to provoke, and I seldom write a full-fledged thesis that follows an argument from beginning to end in any comprehensive fashion, preferring to frame issues in a suggestive but open-ended way, and to let the commentary develop its own direction. So, when I ask for your consideration, I am aware that I am in certain lights being a hypocrite, and you are certainly welcome to hold that opinion of me if it suits you (though to be honest, I’d rather you didn’t).
This week I’ve watched in fascination as portions of the left-wing blogosphere tore apart one of their own, for not signalling blatantly enough the irony of her post. And I’ve been appalled at the arrogant stupidity that’s been perpetrated in its wake. Jeff has written at length of the dangers attendant on permitting others to ascribe meanings that were not intended to things that one has uttered or written, and to misprision at will because they are part of a speech community that believes that its interpretive practice is privileged. And here we have an extraordinary clear example of a practice that devolves into a requirement that one not gainsay someone’s version of events, or they will punish you. Like the drunken gambler who loses and doubles down, the idiocy now extends, apparently, to threats against Scott Eric Kaufman with respect to his situation in his graduate program. That Jesus’ General should present himself as Chief Ideological Hygienist of the left is absurd. He is, in point of fact, a more and more complete jackass who is attempting to demonstrate his power by unleashing his well-cultivated forces of malign stupidity.* Jeff has rightly compared this with a pogrom.
The same sort of dim-witted, screechy desire to silence contradiction is expressed here, at Pandagon, where it goes hand-in-hand with the blogmistress’s practice of nuking even well-intentioned, thoughtful comments that express disagreement. And we on the right are guilty of this sort of thing when we state without argument that “Liberalism is a mental disorder,” a line that we see expressed here, from the other side, where the author, perpetuating ridiculous memes crystallized in a Psychiatry Today article, insists that conservatism is based in a sort of psychosexual protofascism, particularly suggesting that Chris Matthews is one, when in fact he’s just a political starfucker.
Whether from the left or the right, whoever it is who attempts to shut down dissenting voices does the community a distinct disservice. I reserve the right to mock and to pillory, and Lord knows I’ve deserved some of the mockery for being an intemperate moron that’s been sent my way. But even though I might disagree on a host of issues with SEK, I respect his willingness to engage in real debate, and to listen, and to consider, and to not take offense where none is meant. As for his opponent–alas, there are people who merit the epithet fuckhead.
So, before you take up arms against me for posting the image of a woman with big, patriotic hair as a provocation against feminism, for example, please ask yourself whether that’s what you really think I’m trying to express–before you go making a twatwaffle of yourself a la Idiotboy.
Oh–and peace be with you.
*Not, however, a misogynist, in my view.
UPDATE: as per Rachel’s comment below, here’s the latest from SEK. Someone calling himself John Casper is making trouble for him, and Jesus’ Genitals won’t cop to who it is. My guess is the name’s taken from Johnny Casper, aka Giovanni Gasparo, from Miller’s Crossing. So, we’re probably looking for someone of Italian-American stock who fancies himself a mob boss and who is fixated on cosa nostra concepts of ethics.
Random, slightly OT. The Navy added “City of” to the name of the Los Angeles-class attack submarine ”City of Corpus Christi”, a nice gesture I thought. I believe there was a destroyer or frigate in WWII called the USS Corpus Christi.
Yes! The word re-emerges!
And I think whatever Rove tells me to in his memos. Isn’t your secret decoder ring working?
I remember the anti-(Cold-)war wackos raising a fuss over a <gasp!> weapon of war bearing that name.
As has previously been noted, they do find godbothering useful when it suits their purpose.
As one of the posters in Amanda’s thread who was banned (BYU) for proffering heterodox views, let me say that I fully expected such treatment and therefore went out of my way to stay civil and on-topic. I didn’t want to give her an excuse because, deep down, she knows her objective is not to win the debate, but to silence the opposition.
Are there those on the right that do this? Absolutley. I can’t listen to Michael Savage, he disgusts me so. But his fingering of mossbacks notwithstanding, even a soggy like Time’s Joe Klein knows where the rage and the urge to censor exist today, and it ain’t on the starboard side.
Re: Eucharist, interpretation, and intention.
Earlier this week, Jeff posted a “haiku” with Jesus as a scoop of gelato, causing one commenter to express offense.
As to Jeff’s intention behind the post, it is not clear (I assume humor for humor’s sake) but interpretation of his intention is variable.
My answer to the offended would be that if Jesus could associate his body with bread, a representation of the sustenance of life, then gelato could be seen as representing the sweetness of being—a reward from God that we should savor. I don’t think Jesus would have a problem with that view but that’s just my take on the matter.
Sorry for sermonizing.
Whether from the left or the right, whoever it is who attempts to shut down dissenting voices does the community a distinct disservice.
And that sums it up beautifully, Dan. Good post.
It was fascinating, in a train wreck kind of way, to read that thread with SEK. He simply pointed out that it appears that the minions took the “offensive” post was taken completely out of context, and their interpretation flew in the face of the intent of the author. For that, he was originally described as a defender of racist / white supremacist language, to espousing same, to actually being a white supremacist. It concluded with a threat to contact his employer about his racist actions. I had thought that the groupthink on the left could not devolve any further, but sadly, no.
“For even the Devil may quote Scripture to his own ends,” McGehee.
An update, with this interesting bit about Gen. JC Christian:
GMG, well, I wasn’t going to actually quote anything myself…
I just posted this on JG’s, but since he deleted the other thing I posted, he’ll probably delete this too. He’s being a complete ass, and trying to cover it. It’s a sad day when I trust conservatives to value the truth more than liberals. If I had a bigger venue, I would take the General to task for his desire to protect a harasser. Whatever, I wrote:
The General wanted to lie to protect someone trying to destroy the career of a graduate student by falsely accusing him of being a white supremacist. Fortunately, SEK found the IP address himself when he looked in the message headers, so the General’s efforts were all for nothing.</blockquote>
Rachel,
Let’s be sure, if you must use the initials, that nobody confuses Jesus’ Genitals with Jeff Goldstein, though.
There was also a John Casper who was a segregationist/Klan member/terrorist active in Tennessee during the 50s and 60s. Given his other alias, The Ghost of Adolph Rupp (Rupp was a basketball coach at Kentucky known for making a racist statement about black players), it would fit, for what it’s worth.
Well, I dunno about you guys, but the phrase “feast of Corpus Christi” has some mighty unsavory cannibalistic connotations to me…
See? I knew I shouldn’t have taken Latin…