(no subject)

[fpb]

One thing I did not expect was that a passing note arising from my fury at the BBC's biased and mendacious reporting of the American election - and astonishment at the Spectator's attitude - would give rise to the first real blog-clash in months. Evidently I had badly underrated the desperate wish of many people to believe that Sarah Palin has horns and a tail.

Comments

[cheyinka]

Horns and a tail would be fine, so long as they weren't attractive and she didn't carefully groom the fur or scales (as appropriate) on her tail and she remembered that her state had insufficient people to count for anything in the real world.

(That's what makes me the angriest. I'm from Montana. The state where I was born has, right now, fewer people than the city in which I live - assuming you only count people in the city limits, not in the sprawling attached city-like entities. But only someone who can use the term "flyover country" unselfconsciously would think that being governor of Montana means less, in terms of executive experience, than being mayor of a large city. If nothing else, the governor of Montana has to deal with the sharp differences between places with a couple thousand or a hundred thousand people and places with a couple hundred or even a dozen people... much like a good president has to deal with the sharp differences between cities with a couple million people and towns with a couple hundred people. Alaska can't be any different.)

[super-pan.livejournal.com]

I also do not appreciate being called sweetie, except by people that I am genuinely fond of, and who are genuinely fond of me. I also think that the only apropriate response to being told not call someone sweetie is to say, "I'm sorry; I won't do it again".

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I don't like that "straight talk" apparently means acting like the people I go to drink beer with on occasion. Also, "gosh darnit" is not something I want my vice president saying in a room full of diplomats. AGGGH.

(Sorry fpb, I don't mean to stop on Mrs. Palin. I am just very unimpressed with her professional conduct as the 2nd-in-command.)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

OH yes you did (mean it, that is). And that's OK. I knew you did not like her. You have a right to your views. It is not that I ask anyone to like her, but that I am intensely struck by the irrationality and inconstistency of the hatred being roused against her.

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

Aw, well okay. You just get so much meanness (or what seems like meanness) that I want to show at least a little respect on your LJ. You are older than me and are an educated historian, so I think it's wise to pay attention to what you have to say, as well as someone as my mom (who is also a historian, but certainly of a different religious mindset). It's hard to pick any particular point of view to examine things like historians do.

Blah, I'm sorry if I'm rambling, I think historians are cool!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

So are you. You are learning stuff I could never in my life have coped with - calculus and whatnot. I repeat, I am not after anyone changing their minds, but where there is evidence of collective irrationality, I am interested in how and why it arises.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

P.S.: Tell me more about your mother. (Actually, I know nothing whatsoever about your family except that you have a historic Western name - Garrett like Pat Garrett - and some sort of connection with a Native American tribe, the Shoshone IIRC.)

[8bitbard.livejournal.com]

As a bit of anecdotal evidence, a co-worker said to me tonight "I hope someone hits that bitch in the face with a sledgehammer" with regard to Palin.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Pretty horrifying. How did you respond?

[8bitbard.livejournal.com]

I just gave it a "huh, okay" - it didn't sound like the statement of someone interested in debate.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you were right, but I know that in your place I'd have answered back. Who knows; perhaps I'd have started a ruckus, or perhaps the other person might have realized that his/her statement was offensive, and moderated it.

[8bitbard.livejournal.com]

You're probably right - I did consider telling him not to inject personal hate into his politics. Cowardice is a besetting sin of mine though, and I usually find it offputting when someone brings up politics out of nowhere.