05 March 2008

Perpetually Outraged America

There were some memoirs published recently by Margaret Jones, which told her chilling tale of being half-white and half-Native American, growing up on the mean streets of South Central LA running with the Bloods. It certainly sounds like she grew up in unfortunate circumstances, but too bad she actually grew up in the Valley attending private school and she made the whole goddamn thing up.

This sort of behavior always strikes me as bizarre and I sought to understand it. Certainly there are some born into more advantages than others in this fine country of ours. And certainly persecution and social injustices have existed in America, which deserve acknowledgment. But why the hell would you want to be unfortunate or persecuted? The Washington Post recently published a satirical article “We Scream, We Swoon, How Dumb can we Get?” written by a woman clearly for the sake of a humorous read on a Sunday morning. I guess some folks felt left out of the joke, because they were hoppin’ mad about this sexist article. The Washington Post even has a politically correct addendum at the top of the online report that directs you where you can email your flaming daggers representing your outraged self. Don’t people have senses of humor anymore?

But don’t think this type of behavior is limited to women, as I previously ranted about the joker in Aspen who thought white men had it tough in this election cycle. Stuff White People Like has successfully ridiculed this culture of victimhood in their latest post chastising those “poor Graduate students”:

Being in graduate school satisfies many white requirements for happiness. They can believe they are helping the world, complain that the government/university doesn’t support them enough, claim they are poor, feel as though are getting smarter, act superior to other people, enjoy perpetual three day weekends, and sleep in every day of the week!

This article helped me understand. Being faux-persecuted fills up your moral quotient so that the banality of our current mainstream American culture of consumption and stupidity is valid. Also, being perpetually outraged gives an individual free rein to carry on an argument that has little justification in facts or reality. Take a look at the latest “Marine throws pooch off cliff” incident that has appeared on YouTube, which Mrs. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette clearly points out that it is not representative of the military, but just a couple of cruel yahoos. You wouldn’t know that by looking at the comments section of this Democratic Underground piece though. They use this one incident to make broad sweeping assertions that US imperiali$t stormtroopers have a culture of massacring everything!

Should I feel outraged from these commentaristas, since I’m in the military and everyone should be feeling sorry for me? No. Nobody owes me anything, and I would be giving these imbeciles more credibility than they deserve if I became “outraged”, “persecuted”, or a “victim”.

Guys like this definitely got the short end of the stick in America (h/t to Hot Chicks w/Douchebags)

6 comments:

Wek said...

I read the 1st 20 or so comments on DU. Pretty effin disgusting. I guess they're the type of folks that expect our servicemen to come back from combat and just blend back into society like nothing ever happened.

Anonymous said...

Hi, LT.

Don't know if you're a fan of NPR or not, or if you can get it where you are, but they've been running a really good series on the war in Afghanistan (which is pretty damn spectacular in and of itself since all the other news outlets have apparently forgotten there IS a war in Afghanistan.) So far there's been four parts in the series with more to come. Here's a link where you can listen to each part up to today's (Mar. 5). I hope you're able to listen. If you like it, and aren't able to get NPR, I'll keep sending you the links as the series continues, okay?
Be safe.

Anonymous said...

Damn! (Senior moment.)

Here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87872802

Anonymous said...

Double damn!

Don't know why it doesn't make a link. You may have to drag it or type it in your browser, or I can publish it somewhere else (VV), and you can pick it up there. Tell me.

Nixon said...

Wek,

DU seems to be a hodgepodge of the "Black Block" crowd mixed in with old-time hippies, I usually read the comments for giggles. I like the guy with the upside down flag as his avatar, he's "totally hardcore". Haha.

Gage,

Thanks for the links, I'll try to listen to some of them tonight. I usually like NPR, it's good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't they just re-name that site douchebags with douchebags? What's the female equivalent to douchebag anyway?