A Tale of Two Protests
I didn’t really pay much attention to the pro- and anti-war protests held over the weekend, partly because the issue is clearly far more complicated than a stark “Yeah, war!” or “Boo, war!” position can capture.
I admit I was amused to learn, however, that while the anti-war rally had at least 100,000 attendees, the pro-war thing attracted just 400 people (hee). Furthermore, I was QUITE curious to see how various right-wingers would spin this disparity. After all, the talk among this crowd for the past several weeks has been that the war protesters are a tiny little group of Sheehan-ites who are vastly outnumbered by Americans supporting the war effort. How then to respond to a 999,600 person gap?
I’ve seen two attempts at explanation so far:
1. The anti-war protest was just attended by “liberal loving, America hating” groups such as NOW and PETA, while the 400 people at the pro-war rally were true individuals (or “folk”) supportive of the war.
2. Liberals are like sheep who will just mindlessly attend rallies, whereas conservatives are individualists who won’t stoop to that level.
I actually think my love for reality TV and my love for political spin (on the left and the right) are related. Both highlight the ridiculous. And I LOVE the ridiculous.
I admit I was amused to learn, however, that while the anti-war rally had at least 100,000 attendees, the pro-war thing attracted just 400 people (hee). Furthermore, I was QUITE curious to see how various right-wingers would spin this disparity. After all, the talk among this crowd for the past several weeks has been that the war protesters are a tiny little group of Sheehan-ites who are vastly outnumbered by Americans supporting the war effort. How then to respond to a 999,600 person gap?
I’ve seen two attempts at explanation so far:
1. The anti-war protest was just attended by “liberal loving, America hating” groups such as NOW and PETA, while the 400 people at the pro-war rally were true individuals (or “folk”) supportive of the war.
2. Liberals are like sheep who will just mindlessly attend rallies, whereas conservatives are individualists who won’t stoop to that level.
I actually think my love for reality TV and my love for political spin (on the left and the right) are related. Both highlight the ridiculous. And I LOVE the ridiculous.
posted by OleNelson at 12:29 PM
4 Comments:
Yeah, but you only love the ridiculous because some hippie group like NAMBLA tells you to, you sheep. Baa-aa. Baa-aa-a!
with all his ridiculous to love, you must be really lovin' W
Have you read "The American Thinker" before? Here's another great quote, from their article "On second thought, it is Vietnam.":
There was Martin Sheen in Los Angeles last week, bellowing, “This war is ill-conceived, ill-advised and illegal,” amidst a festival of protest that brought out every cultural fringe group from gay activists to vegetarians.
Who else is on the cultural fringe, I wonder?
I could have attended a relatively large protest in San Francisco. I decided to go to Amoeba Records and get honey sesame chicken on the other side of town instead.
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