Educate the Little Bastards!!! aka...I'm Coming Out of the Closet (not like that!). aka...Dengre Asks a Good Question. aka...What Motivates Me.

Dengre at Daily Kos, that website equivalent to the Klan or the Nazis according to Orally, recently asked a good question. As the bumper sticker says, "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention". Dengre asked, what do you do with your anger?

Well, I posted a response to that, some or most of it re-posted here and edited, which I decided to turn into my coming out party for this blog. No...not that kind of coming out party...(not that there's anything wrong with it...)

In explaining what made me angry and what I 'did' with it, I realized I was starting to get to my raison d'etre - both in terms of what motivates me and what I do. My reason for existence, it seems anymore, is to fight 'conservative' talk radio and the neo-conservative ideology which I believe is literally destroying America. And I have a special bullseye set on (economic) libertarianism....more on that later. So, yeah, that's 'who' I am.... And what I 'do' with this obsession, beyond reading all night, 'blogging', posting messages on random websites' comments sections, etc. is teach. Ironically, they now seem to have become intertwined with each other. So here's a quick introduction to how this obsession became the bane of my existence and what I do about it (now are you getting the first title?).

And yes, I know...the neo-cons, con-radio/Fox bloviators, and Libertarians are, as we speak, quaking in their boots. Yeah...

Let me start with what will be a common thread on this site about what I think has gone 'wrong' in this country (not that I'm the first or only one to think of this stuff...but it's my obsession, so...what the hell?). I recently read this quote and it reminded me of how far we've come and who I hold responsible for it. I'll come back to this quote in subsequent posts, but here it is:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas.Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

And here's how I remember us getting so far away from this...

I remember being angry at Reagan/Bush I. But I was still young. And debate in the country still seemed to make sense. Liberals and conservatives seemed to argue that the other was wrong for their positions on the issues, their philosophy, not for simply being liberals or conservatives. At least that's how I remembered it. Yeah, Jerry Falwell was lurking about, but no one of any substance seemed to take him seriously...

Well, conservatives changed all that with the rise of talk radio and Fox 'News'. I first noticed it in early 1993. Not two months into Clinton's first term I saw a bumper sticker that turned the 'C' in 'Clinton' into a soviet style hammer and sickle. I was so perplexed, then. I thought, what has he done to already piss people off? I didn't think these types of things appeared until a President had done something wrong. What I didn't realize then was that I was witnessing the beginning of the 'machine'. The Republican noise machine. Propaganda that would make Goebbels proud. Clinton hadn't done anything "wrong" (yet...). He just was. He was "liberal". He was a Democrat. THAT was what was "wrong"...

I knew something suspicious was going on - like a shadow on an x-ray...but I had no idea.

Then came Rush and the "Revolution". But I was largely out of the loop for awhile, happily listening to NPR and surrounding myself with intellectuals and fellow travelers. And ignoring all of this. Then came impeachment...and I became concerned that reason seemed to be taking a vacation.

A couple of years ago, NPR was doing their pledge drive and I was annoyed with it (and feeling pretty guilty...) so I thought, let me take a listen to this "right wing talk radio" that I hear so much about. So I tuned to AM. And almost drove off the road. They couldn't be serious? This was a parody of idiotic conservatives, right? NOBODY takes this seriously, right???!?!? Right...?

And that was when the anger really began. What happened to real debate in this country? Your policy versus mine, mano e mano?? Nope. Gone. Name calling and the most willfully ignorant "talking points" known to man, instead. I became hooked, in a weird, masochistic way.

Everyone tells me it's not good for me. That all that hate and anger will just fill up space in my brain and who has room for it? Besides, what about heartburn and high blood pressure? But I can't help it. I listen to it. And it's like listening to the slow destruction of the country, one breathless syllable at a time.

But I'll tell ya this much. Having listened to it, I always know EXACTLY what their next move is. What direction the debate will go. Why decent people and ideas will lose. People say nobody takes them seriously, that they're "fringe"... Not so. They were the first to harp on the "flip flopping" and the swiftboats and isn't that what it all came down to in the end in 2004?

The biggest mistake liberals can make is to surround themselves in a little progressive bubble where everyone is decent and kind and rational. It's like they sometimes forget how venal and crass and just plain evil people can be. And did I mention, ignorant? Yeah, that too.

And THAT brings me to the answer to the question. I don't end up just having to sit around seething. I have an outlet. I teach. (cue evil laughter here)

Having listened to the 'enemy' (and remember, as far as I'm concerned they are the 'enemy' - these are not Ike's "conservatives" and they are not participating in a debate - they are destroying the ability to debate) for a few years now, I can pick out the underlying ignorance which might make their arguments make sense to the unintelligent, uneducated, or simply not well taught. I find the lynchpin of their argument - which usually comes down to a profound lack of historical knowledge, or worse, historical misinformation - and here's how I get my 'revenge'.

I teach high school history. No power, you say?

I can pre-emptively unteach this stuff every day! I don't even have to be biased in my instruction, I've got history on my side. I can constantly undermine their position by making sure that I emphasize what it is that people don't know that makes them vulnerable to falling for right wing lies. Every day, I get to 'inoculate' 150 kids against arguments that can only survive in a historically illiterate environment.

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

Ok, ok...I know what you're saying - it's only 150 kids versus quite a few million watching Fox and listening to con-radio. Shut up! It FEELS good! At the end of the day, I can at least say, you don't get THESE kids! Not these ones! Not on MY watch!

They say the truth will set you free, but I like what Aldous Huxley said better, and it came to my mind after a class discussion of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899-1903-1913 when a student blurted out, "we gotta stop liberating people!!!!" Yes, the truth will make you mad....

So, that's what I do. AND I get paid for it! Ok, not much, but still... Yes, most of this post was somewhat tongue in cheek... I KNOW I'm not all-powerful... But impotent rage is really just not all it's cracked up to be. So...ya know...don't burst my bubble here. Yeah, I'm attempting to continue to believe that truth and education can defeat propaganda. Silly, I know.

Hopeless, maybe.