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The Reaction To Reverend Wright Reveals How Totally Lame We Have Become

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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:34 PM
Original message
The Reaction To Reverend Wright Reveals How Totally Lame We Have Become
Edited on Tue Apr-29-08 07:38 PM by omega minimo
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. -- Voltaire


Were folks concerned a couple months ago when Barack Obama praised Ronald Reagan's propaganda skills and his "trajectory" for the nation? No. Did folks talk about that propaganda or that trajectory? No.

Folks went online and on air and started talking about talking about and arguing about talking about what he meant and what he meant to say when he said what he said.

Instead of talking about what he said.

The current kerfluffle is not over what Jeremiah Wright said, its validity or relevance. All the excitement is about how it can be spun and interpreted to fit various political and primetime agendas. Catapulted.

Not that long ago -- we were a nation capable of allowing discussions of issues that were not controlled by paranoid McCarthy-esque lunatics passing as opinion and/or policy makers. Currently, our candidates have to swim those shark infested waters of televised insanity.

The last debate between Hillary and Obama shows how totally lame we have become. That slick, sick parody of a political event with those two slick, sick clowns pretending to be journalists and our candidates pretending to take them seriously. Joe McCarthy and P.T. Barnum went to Hell and cooked up that absurdist nightmare.

How far we've regressed is proven by Rush Limbaugh whining about his own handiwork. Complaining that dumbed down, miseducated youth don't care about history, he doesn't take enough credit for dumbing down the nation for two decades. Mr. Puffballs deserves a lot of credit for the demonization and degradation of discourse.

As for history, Barack Obama chose to play Pied Piper to the generations who don't remember life before Reagan, before the "trajectory" that led to these Orwellian times. He's old enough to know better. He wants to "transcend" race by pretending that it doesn't matter -- by ignoring how and when and why it does matter -- just like those who want to pretend gender in marriage doesn't matter. It's a youthful, hopeful, head in the sand approach, which might work, except that things like Reality keep coming up.

The Founders did not intend for us to be blind to the consequences of our actions. Our system of government has the flexibility to allow for corrections, when it is recognized that African Americans are whole, not 3/5ths of a person and that women are people, deserving of self-evident and inalienable rights. If we were ready to have an Equal Rights Amendment, the nation might even be ready for gay marriage. If we race didn't matter, Americans would not have accepted watching abandoned, black American bodies floating on their television screens.

Reverent Wright reminds us that it is not so easy to walk away from history or consequences or national legacies. Hiding your head in the sand only works for a while.

Reverend Wright is the antique clock in the soulless, streamlined shopping mall -- you may think he's cuckoo or oudated, but he's still telling you what time it is.

It's time, children, to grow up. To return from Reagan's Never Never Land and awaken from Bushco's Through the Looking Glass Opposite World.

Reverend Wright has a historic perspective, some attitude and a wry smile, as he holds his cuckoo clock. He is passionate and fiery as he points to the returning chickens, watching all those heads pop up out of the sand -- or just pop. He knows this is the Theater of the Absurd, although he told Bill Moyers otherwise. The Clothes Have No Emperor, the catapult is spewing emptiness, the Tuskeegee Airmen were betrayed by the country they proudly served.

Courage for reality or a legacy of lies. You decide.








edit: this OP intends no insult to lunatics
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Oleladylib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:36 PM
Response to Original message
1. Great post!
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:39 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. much obliged
:toast:
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:37 PM
Response to Original message
2. Yes indeed n/t
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Forkboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:40 PM
Response to Original message
4. Nothing we shouldn't have recognized years ago.
In many ways we have no one but ourselves to blame for what's happened to politics in this country, and the consequences are almost deserved at this point.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:45 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. have you seen the latest Harper's?
"Why The Economy Is Worse Than You Think"

Couldn't read past the first couple paragraphs outlining everything some of us have been warning was preventable for a long time.........................

Yer subtle, forkboy. Tempting to set up who recognized what and who deserves which consequences.

This OP edited hopes mebbe some heads might pop out of the sand.
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nomorenomore08 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:41 PM
Response to Original message
5. Very well stated. Wright's rhetoric may seem excessive at times, but on a basic level he knows what
he's talking about. Certainly more so than most of these empty talking heads, with a few bright exceptions like Olbermann and Colbert.
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Mojorabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:48 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. I don't know
I think he threw Obama under the bus and I think it totally surprised Obama. I may be wrong but that is how it looks to me.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:52 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Obama sold out the legacy of the past when he negated recent history -- see OP
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Mojorabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:56 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. I saw the op
and agree with it. I cannot believe how dumbed down the discourse in the media has become. I was thinking about the dynamics of their relationship tonite though and it occured to me that he was probably a father figure to Obama and by coming out and saying the things he said after all the media bruhula, he threw Obama under the bus and I was thinking, it had to hurt. Just rambling tonight.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. JW's bemusement seems based on showing up everybody who pretends history ain't a thing
including Obama
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Mojorabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 10:19 PM
Response to Reply #16
22. Yes
but if he cared anything about the country or Obama or this election he would not be doing this at this time. I find it interesting.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 12:10 PM
Response to Reply #22
27. I find it interesting that tis still possible to pierce the toxic membrane of perception management
:bounce: :bounce:
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. He can back up his assertions. He has a right to preach as he does. He knows that.
That's why he holds his head up. That's why he points out that Obama doesn't have the right to tell HIS truth -- he's got to play politician.

He's definitely got an ego and seems to enjoy the fact that he knows his stuff, that the toxic environment is sliced by his clarity.

I don't have to agree with him to not be horrified or threatened by what he says.




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Uncle Joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:44 PM
Response to Original message
6. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, omega minimo.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. thanks, Uncle Joe
:thumbsup:
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:57 PM
Response to Original message
13. k&r -- damn fine post!
Edited on Tue Apr-29-08 07:58 PM by scarletwoman
I've known a few grownups over the years on DU, but they are few and most often drowned out by all the noisy adolescents.

I love your metaphor of the antique clock. Thank you very much for a substantive post.

:thumbsup:
sw
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. thanks to you, scarletwoman
:toast:

grats on the clock.

hope some younguns check in and check it out.
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:32 PM
Response to Reply #15
20. "hope some younguns check in and check it out." Oh dear. Last I saw, old hippies like me
are best shunted aside.

Screw the Hippy resurrection...

:D

And grats to YOU on the clock -- it was YOUR metaphor!

:hug:
sw
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 07:57 PM
Response to Original message
14. Sheep get herded around. nt
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
17. I have no expectations from either of these two candidates
but Barack Obama either has no sense or understanding of history.
Obama had a choice and he chose the hacks.

Al Gore - why why why aren't you running!!!
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:19 PM
Response to Original message
18. Finally. Someone who gets it.
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #18
29. ;)
:thumbsup:
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Stinky The Clown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
19. Would that I were so eloquent
K&R
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 12:11 PM
Response to Reply #19
28. honored coming from ye, H2S
:toast:
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Time for change Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-29-08 09:04 PM
Response to Original message
21. Very well said
This is sad indeed.
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-30-08 07:57 PM
Response to Original message
23. This wonderful post deserves a boost back up the page. I hope someone else will also help. (nt)
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The Straight Story Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-30-08 07:59 PM
Response to Reply #23
24. I'll kick to that
:)
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-30-08 08:03 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. Well, thank you, kind sir!
:D
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omega minimo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-04-08 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #25
26. kickety kick
I haven't been back for a few days... in the meantime, two major regional papers in this area (mebbe nationally?) PARAPHRASED in their first paragraphs on Rev. W's appearance last week, paraphrased what he said, claiming that he made claims that I didn't hear him make -- and maybe no one else did either.

We are told by the interpreters what to believe via their translations and end up arguing about interpretations that may (and often are) completely false.

That is why I welcome the opportunity to hear someone speak for themselves, "in context," and get fed up with the time wasted in chasing our the red herrings thrown out 24/7/365.

As for "old hippies" (above post) I've been known to take the Boomers to task for why they took a 30 nap and dozed through the rise of Reaganism (year 28 and counting). Hardly anyone has a real answer. I quit asking.

This issue of "perception management" really got going back then, we have seen it get its hooks in, and SO HAS OBAMA.

FWIW.

Thanks for your feedback.

:hug:
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