BO'R-ing
Bill O'Reilly talking to a Jewish caller who is not crazy about the in-your-face Christmas extravaganza and the sometimes-associated inappropriateness of the message. This comes via his stupid ass radio show via Media Matters via The Rude Pundit:

O'REILLY: All right. Well, what I'm tellin' you, [caller], is I think you're takin' it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don't wanna hear about it? Come on, [caller] -- if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then. I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo -- and that's your guys' -- Christian, that's my guys' philosophy. But overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don't wanna hear about it? Impossible.

And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that's what this anti-Christmas thing is all about.

End quote.

This has been quite a week for the Ascendency of Global Conservatism (Washington Branch). Yesterday we had Rummy telling logistically hobbled, forcibly re-enlisted, unarmored soldiers to "suck it up, you big babies". There was the Falwell thing a few days ago where he was forced to categorically deny ever having eaten a gay person.

And now there's this. The three incidents do have one thing in common: self-important, puffed-up manly-men being challenged by people who don't buy what they're selling, leaving them to blurt out what they really think in exasperation. I don't pretend that this is strictly a conservative phenomenon, they just happen to be the only people in any kind of authoritative position right now. Harry Reid could come out tomorrow and say Osama bin Laden has been living in his basement for the last six months and nobody would care. Harry Reid is a Democrat.

It just occurred to me: you probably have no idea who Harry Reid is, do you? If you do, then you are afflicted with the same disease as I am and should seek treatment. Not knowing who Harry Reid is might just be a sign of functioning person-ness.

Anyway, back to making fun of conservatives: the election is over, the heady, frothy mixture of champagne and pure unadulterated power has been guzzled and the political inhibitions are dropping hard, like a fat guy with narcolepsy. The message now is: "We are going to do what we are going to do. The steamroller does not discriminate."

The really cool thing about Bill O'Reilly is that, even when invoking it, he finally kills off the lie of the "Judeo-Christian" tradition. He throws it in there out of reflex, because he feels like he has to ("I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo -- and that's your guys' -- Christian, that's my guys' philosophy"), and still somehow manages to be patronizing and condescending even as he tries to be inclusive.

But by the last line, in the post-Bush re-election glow where we can all really say what we've been thinking of such a long time, in reference to the caller's complaint, he spells it out: "And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that's what this anti-Christmas thing is all about."

Christmas-->Christian-->American. Dissent is an "insult". No, better than that, dissent is de-stabilizing, it's rabble-rousing, it's akin to treason. It's the small band of quaint pagans and atheists rising up, just asking to be squished by the majority, those for whom the existence of the minority and their unorthodox positions is a barely tolerable nuisance.

Looking at the trend of recent weeks, I expect by tomorrow that Rush Limbaugh will make a public call for the "re-patriation" of black people to Africa and the blogosphere will implode from the sheer weight of it.



This post on the Narcissus Scale: 8.4


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 9:51 AM