Magical Truthsaying Bastard (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jackscarab) wrote,@ 2006-10-24 16:25:00 |
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Civil or service?
Two gold nuggets in Crooks and Liars today.
The first is a ten-minute special comment from Keith Olbermann about Republican fearmongering. Innovative, I know. So how is it different from all the others I've linked to?
1). He mentions a new Republican attack ad and blames the party in as many words for hiring Osama as a spokesman.
2). From about the 4:20 mark to the 6:00 mark and referred to later, he speaks of the 4chan hoax and how the administration handed it hot to the media, who ran with it.
3). He mentions the fresh remains of 9/11 victims found under a manhole and takes Bush to task for it.
The second, which cuts off halfway, is a 60 Minutes report on Nancy Pelosi wherein Leslie Stall gets miffed at her for being uncivil after Pelosi had said she would be civil. At issue, Pelosi's use of such words as "immoral" and "corrupt" and "incompetent" in relation to Republicans and Bush, which Stall says "stings to hear."
"How does this raise the level of civility?" Stall asks of her.
"Oh mah goodness, mine sensitive ears! Why I simply cannot understayund why you must use such vile profanities towards such a good and proper gentleman as he!" Stall's complaint registers to me.
You see, just now I engaged in exaggeration to illustrate my contempt. I painted Leslie Stall as a wounded Southern belle because someone speaking with a Southern accent is shorthand for "I am retarded." That is an example of being uncivil.
If I say something loudly enough with the right inflection, anything sounds like an insult.
"This, this ZEBRA, this ANIMAL that's basically a HORSE... just LOOK AT IT! It has stripes -- STRIPES! -- and half of them aren't even the same COLOR! And look, it has HOOVES! FOUR LITTLE HOOVES! That's one for each FOOT! And even each LEG has one because the feet are CONNECTED TO THEM!!"
The thing is, English has certain words that have connotations of insult stapled to them. Words like "immoral" and "corrupt" and "incompetent" instantly come across to some people as "IMMORAL" and "CORRUPT" and "INCOMPETENT!!"
Pelosi isn't using those words just for the sake of being uncivil. If she were, as she says, there are much more unkind things she could say. Things like "the worms of Ronald Reagan's corpse." She merely uses the above words as lowercase adjectives, whereas Republican critics of her tend to hit the Cruise Control for Cool button.
It's an easy mistake to make, hence many make it.
Two gold nuggets in Crooks and Liars today.
The first is a ten-minute special comment from Keith Olbermann about Republican fearmongering. Innovative, I know. So how is it different from all the others I've linked to?
1). He mentions a new Republican attack ad and blames the party in as many words for hiring Osama as a spokesman.
2). From about the 4:20 mark to the 6:00 mark and referred to later, he speaks of the 4chan hoax and how the administration handed it hot to the media, who ran with it.
3). He mentions the fresh remains of 9/11 victims found under a manhole and takes Bush to task for it.
The second, which cuts off halfway, is a 60 Minutes report on Nancy Pelosi wherein Leslie Stall gets miffed at her for being uncivil after Pelosi had said she would be civil. At issue, Pelosi's use of such words as "immoral" and "corrupt" and "incompetent" in relation to Republicans and Bush, which Stall says "stings to hear."
"How does this raise the level of civility?" Stall asks of her.
"Oh mah goodness, mine sensitive ears! Why I simply cannot understayund why you must use such vile profanities towards such a good and proper gentleman as he!" Stall's complaint registers to me.
You see, just now I engaged in exaggeration to illustrate my contempt. I painted Leslie Stall as a wounded Southern belle because someone speaking with a Southern accent is shorthand for "I am retarded." That is an example of being uncivil.
If I say something loudly enough with the right inflection, anything sounds like an insult.
"This, this ZEBRA, this ANIMAL that's basically a HORSE... just LOOK AT IT! It has stripes -- STRIPES! -- and half of them aren't even the same COLOR! And look, it has HOOVES! FOUR LITTLE HOOVES! That's one for each FOOT! And even each LEG has one because the feet are CONNECTED TO THEM!!"
The thing is, English has certain words that have connotations of insult stapled to them. Words like "immoral" and "corrupt" and "incompetent" instantly come across to some people as "IMMORAL" and "CORRUPT" and "INCOMPETENT!!"
Pelosi isn't using those words just for the sake of being uncivil. If she were, as she says, there are much more unkind things she could say. Things like "the worms of Ronald Reagan's corpse." She merely uses the above words as lowercase adjectives, whereas Republican critics of her tend to hit the Cruise Control for Cool button.
It's an easy mistake to make, hence many make it.
