October 09, 2010
I Feel Sorry For John Amato
Perhaps the most aptly named excretion in the political blogosphere is Crooks and Liars, where John Amato and company do their very best to reinforce the group-think of their increasingly insular community-based reality.
Amato's latest attempt to bend the truth to fit with his ideology is this nearly humorous effort to call Rush Limbaugh a racist. What was the talk show host's offensive statement?
Why, this.
This is a tough thing to say, because a lot of people don't want to hear this, because it goes against everybody's desire that we all be the same, that there be no pain in life and that there be no suffering and that everybody do well and that everybody have what they want and so forth.But there is no equality. You cannot guarantee that any two people will end up the same. And you can't legislate it, and you can't make it happen. You can try, under the guise of fairness and so forth, but some people are self-starters, and some people are born lazy. Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves. Some people are born to put up with somebody else making every decision for them.
Some people, on the other hand, are born and they're not going to take anything from anybody. They're going to be totally in charge of their lives. They're not going to sit around and wait for something. They're going to make it happen. You can see this throughout the American strata -- population.
Predictably, Amato got his quote from Media Matters for America, which shows he follows orders well.
But what, precisely, is wrong in what Limbaugh says?
But there is no equality. You cannot guarantee that any two people will end up the same.
Virtually no sane person will dispute that. There are variations in intelligence, education, physiology, and aptitude that differentiate us as individuals. It is part of what makes us such an interesting species. But perhaps it is the next line that infuriates the socialists and Marxists that are in the choir Amato to which Amato is preaching.
And you can't legislate it, and you can't make it happen. You can try, under the guise of fairness and so forth, but some people are self-starters, and some people are born lazy.
This truism—that you cannot pass enough laws to force equality and stamp out individualism—is what infuriates dedicated communists, for it undermines the entire premise of the ideology. It is a slap in the face of everything Amato and his fellow big government totalitarians believe. The next line—which is equally true—allows a reeling Amato to try and lash back with what appears to be the only weapon in the liberal arsenal, as he tries to claim the following words are somehow racist.
Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves. Some people are born to put up with somebody else making every decision for them.
No rational person can really dispute this comment, which merely speaks of the mindset some people have that keeps them from ever being able to prosper, not matter what advantages they are afforded. We all know of people like this, and acknowledge that it afflicts people in every segment and strata of society. Some people cannot be forced to succeed, just as other individuals cannot be keep down no matter the obstacles thrown in from of them.
But John Amato is neither a rational person, Nor an honest one. John Amato is a person so blinded with ideological hatred for moderates, independents, and conservatives that he is forced to lash out irrationally and disproportionately against any rational statement that threatens his carefully constructed and delicate view of the world. And so Amato does what modern American socialists do, and attempts to claim Limbaugh is racist, asserting bizarrely that his comment has something to do with the institution of slavery.
This mindset, simplified, is that whatever you say that I don't like is racist, and therefore, I win. It is their ultimate, catch-all defense mechanism, now worn to the point of toothlessness.
Limbaugh's commentary cannot in any way be twisted to mean what Amato wants to make it mean, and it is sad he even makes the attempt.
One must wonder if he knows how much he is embarrassing himself, or if he even cares. But he'll continue preaching to his choir, not matter how small it gets.
Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be ideological slaves.
I have always said that Crooks and Liars is not so much a blog name as an admission of guilt.
Posted by: Paco at October 9, 2010 10:01 PM"And so Amato does what modern American socialists do, and attempts to claim Limbaugh is racist, asserting bizarrely that his comment has something to do with the institution of slavery."
Amato is announcing to the world how ignorant he is of history. Slavery existed from ancient times, and it didn't have anything to do with race until relatively recently (a few centuries ago). Virtually all ancient civilizations practiced slavery, but their slaves were convicted criminals, conquered enemies, abandoned children, and people who couldn't pay their debts. The slaves were almost always the same race as their masters.
Slavery existed in ancient Greece and in the Roman Republic. Everyone involved was what we would call white today.
Posted by: Sundog at October 10, 2010 02:10 AMJohn Amato starts out with his desired conclusion. "How dare you say there's racism in the Teabircher movement? ... Isn't what Rush Limbaugh says just soooooo true?" and attempts to prove that there is racism in the Tea Party.
Rush used the word "slave" deliberately, knowing how it would be twisted by twisted minds desperate to cling to their last, broken, dented weapon: racism.
Amato has to pick up the pieces of his shattered world view and cobble together with hot glue the last two that seem serviceable:
Slave + racism
Note I said "slave," not "slavery." Rush is clearly describing people who simply refuse -- for whatever sad reason -- to fend for themselves, and throw themselves at the feat of society, and demand to be taken care of.
Rush said nothing at all about race. Amato injected that, because he had to. To him, slavery means the American South 150 years ago, and the civil rights movement of the 60s where all the Amatos got their societally sanctioned hate-paint bucket.
Well, it's over. Gone. Racial friction from all quarters will always be with us, but institutionalized racism is gone. Hardworking black people are upwardly mobile. The majority of blacks in the U.S. are Lower Middle Class, Middle Class, Upper Middle Class, or Rich -- not ghetto poor welfare slaves. Just like the rest of us. True, they still have a larger under class, but why is that? Certainly not racism. That just won't fly. The hate paint won't stick any more, and most Americans are tired of being called racists, and we aren't buying it any more.
Posted by: Bill Smith at October 10, 2010 08:16 AMIt has been argued that slavery is a frame of mind. I believe that to be true. Someone can put you in bondage and try and make you work, but at some point you rebell and turn on the individual. However, some will not rebell. If you study the history of slavery, you will find that all races were subjected to it. In fact the word itself originates from slav as the East Europeans were the ones most troubled by Muslim raiders. All races were used a slaves in the US. It was only one group of people that allowed themselves to continue in bondage. Indians just died, whites killed the master. In the two hundred years of African bondage, there were only a handful of attempts at freedom.
You can see modern slavery by looking at the tapes of Katrina. People who had no idea as to how to take care of themselves.
Posted by: David at October 10, 2010 12:29 PM
