Monday, May 22, 2006

Is there intelligence in the right wing blogosphere?

My brain is overloading tonight so one more post. Zenstar also seems to be in OCD mode tonight so we'll see if he's still up as well :)

So, time to stir some shit. A cursory reading of my archives will show a strong disposition to left-wing politics. Despite my strongly worded opinions I frequently scout around other blogs to see if I can find someone with divergent views with whom I can nevertheless have some discourse. I don't expect to find a right wing blogger who will sway me to their point of view and I don't expect to change them but I want some intelligent debate goddammit!

Some qualifiers: I'm not talking simply about people who are to the right of me (that's probably nearly everyone who reads this blog) and I'm not talking about neo-nazis. I'm talking about people who fit into the mainstream but on the extreme right of the spectrum and have blogs that are mostly dedicated to politics and/or social issues. There's a hell of a lot of blogs that fit this criteria but fuck-all intelligent commentary that I've been able to find. Seriously, if anyone knows of an intelligent right-wing blog I'd really like to read it. Maybe I'll just follow some links from Instapundit (number one right-wing blog on Technorati). Surely they can provide someone whose intelligence I can respect, even if I heartily disagree with them.

Here's on thing that's been setting me off lately: the right-wingers' tendency to say all Muslims are insane Jihadists. They often go beyond saying "they're all the same" to the point where they assert that it's impossible for a Muslim to be opposed to violent extremism carried out in the name of Islam. And they spout isolated incidents, half-truths and outright lies to "prove" their point that Islam is inherently evil. Their latest bullshit is promoting a story that they Iranian regime is promoting a law that will force non-muslims to wear identifying "badges" on their clothes a-la the Nazis in WWII.

I am no fan of the Iranian hardliners and there's no way you'd catch me living in an Islamic theocracy that promoted Sharia law (nor a Christian or Jewish theocracy for that matter) but this story is completely false. One blog that was expounding the "truth" of this bullshit cited about a dozen blogs carrying the story to prove their point. Blogs! For fuck's sake, I can find a dozen blogs that are sure that flu vaccinations are really injecting us with alien zygotes! What the fuck does quoting partisan blogs prove? Try some actual new sources! I found the following:

A copy of the draft law obtained by The Associated Press made no mention of religious minorities or any requirement of special attire for them...

and

Iran's only Jewish MP strongly denied reports that Tehran may force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public so as they can be identified.

"This report is a complete fabrication and is totally false," Maurice Motammed told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Tehran on Friday, May19 .

"It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain by doing so."

That's 5 seconds on Google, people. It isn't hard to come by the truth if you have any real interest in finding it. Get a fucking clue.

Oh, and on the off chance any right winger is reading this blog for the first time (I left a mildly inflammatory comment on a blog) and wants to attack me for my intelligence or lack thereof, do yourself a favour and look up dramatis personae first. And then come to terms with the concept of humour.

And then wrap your head around the fact I don't give a fuck what you think.

7 comments:

Mr Angry said...

Yeah, it drives me nuts when people assert something as truth when it's so easy to disprove. And of course I shoudl have checked the timezones before makign such a dumb comment :) Lucky my other OCD saffer reader is here to help me out!

epikles said...

dang - i was hoping to find out what color the mormons had to wear!

Nazli Hardy said...

Good on you, My Angry. Sincere respect from me for this blog entry.

Best,
Nazli

Mr Angry said...

tom: I don't think the (fake) story had a breakdown for christians - the mormons would have had to wear the same thing as the others which I'm sure would have driven them nuts. My favourite bit of detail in the story was that zoroastrians would have their own colour.

Dr Nazli: thanks. There is a bit more to this story that I will probably post later

zenstar said...

while i did take a nap around 16:00 (GMT +2) i think i was still up at this time... i was probably halfway down from varsity, walking home.
:)

epikles said...

one back-handed compliment you can always pay someone is to say they have "a high degree of emotional intelligence" :}

Mr Angry said...

Tom: Ouch! Mind you, I don't think these people even have that. To paraphrase from the Holy Scripture of Colbert: They're consistent. They think the same thing on Wednesday that they did on Monday. Regardless of what happened on Tuesday.