The NYC Mosque/Community Center Is Just A Strawman

[MineralMan]

The thing that the right wing has held up to get their willfully ignorant and prejudiced out to protest has nothing to do with what will actually be built on that site. Once built and a reality, it will be quickly forgotten and ignored by everyone, except for the ones who use it. No, what is being protested is just a strawman, a fantasy concoction of the leadership of the right.

It's the same thing as their calling President Obama a Socialist or their insistence that he's not really a natural born citizen. The leadership of this group knows that both things are untrue. But that doesn't matter. All that matters is getting warm bodies out holding signs and yelling at the top of their lungs. And that's easy to do with a strawman. It's a technique as old as politics.

And our media, bankrupt financially and intellectually, shows up for the easy story. If a bunch of morons are out screaming and waving misspelled signs, they can send a low-paid camera crew and an inept, cheap field reporter out to film a bunch of footage and a standup or two. They don't have to think. They don't have to interpret. It's cheap, easy ratings material. Screaming crowds are a sure thing. Explaining a complex policy is hard, and requires people who expect to be paid well for their expertise.

The leadership on the right has it figured out just right. Build a few strawmen, rouse the rabble, notify the media, and their work is done. The country eats it up like fast food. We grow fat on the lies.

We have a tough job ahead of us, and we need to be torching those strawmen as fast as they emerge. I hope we're up to the job.

[ZombieHorde]

1. A strawman is an argument which attacks an imaginary argument, or a distorted argument.

I think the word "distraction" would better fit your OP.

[NoNothing]

2. The technical term is

"Red Herring"

[MineralMan]

3. The point is still made.

This usage of "strawman" is also in wide use. In fact, it is accurate. The description of this mosque is a classic strawman, or straw man, if you like. It's an absurd argument, as is the Obama socialism or the birth certificate lies.

Only the argument exists. The reality does not.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. I'm with Zombie - 'distraction' is a much betterword than 'strawman'. Other than that, you're right.

It's total smoke and mirrors - something to take the focus on what's really important.

And I had the thought the other day that what's worse about Islamic Center bashing isn't just the inherent bigotry and hate that it represents, but also that we have a lot of Muslims serving in the military (including at the Pentagon, where they have a prayer chapel) and to bash this Islamic Center is saying to our military Muslims "You're good enough to risk your life for this country in a war, but you aren't good enough to have a place of your own near where the WTC used to be".

[MineralMan]

6. Actually, the only thing the right has is an absurd argument.

A straw man. That's true in all those cases.

[NJmaverick]

5. K & R!

[JoePhilly]

7. The far right hates it because it will bring people together.

That's what they are really trying to stop. They know that if the center is built, non-Muslims will use it too. Muslims and non-Muslims will meet. Talk. So on.

The far right hates that idea.

[MineralMan]

8. But that's not the issue they're raising right now. Instead, they're

raising an anti-Islamic issue tied to the 9/11 sabotage. Never mind the facts. They make the argument, the morons buy it, and they're off to the media races.

Long-term, they probably don't like the idea of a cultural center of this kind, but that's not what they're pushing.

[JoePhilly]

20. Of course they can't make the argument that I describe directly.

Our far right wing wants to impose its narrow religious view on the world. And so does Islam's far right. They have the same goals, and they see each other as competition.

Both sides WANT a holy war. And so they each do everything they can to prevent more moderate voices on either side from coming together.

Every time you start to make some progress, either our far right, or their far right, does something to provoke a fight and get the other side to walk away from the table.

[greyl]

9. Unrec for improper use of "Strawman". ;) nt

[matt819]

10. Strawman, distraction, whatever

It's not "THE MEDIA" that's at fault here. It's Fox News and its symbiotic relationship with the extremist republican party. If Fox were not on the scene, the republicans would almost certainly tone down their nonsense because the rest of "the media" could spend time on stories instead of on reacting to Fox as it throws tons of shit against the wall. Think about it. Here on the left, or even somewhere in the center, we know what the lunatics at Fox are spouting because we love making fun of them. And Olberman and Maddow spend large percentages of their broadcast time calling out Fox for its lies instead of reporting. On the flip side, we have that report that came out in the past day or two that 40% of republicans get their news from Fox. You know full well they are not getting clips (or at least accurate ones) of Olberman or Maddow or others. They are being fed the Fox crap non-stop. Under these conditions, there's no way we as a nation can have a reasoned debate on the issues.

[Spazito]

11. Yep, agree....

Timing is everything. I always wonder which of their three strawmen they will choose for each election cycle: Will it be all three; God, Guns and Gays or two of the three? It seems they have chosen the "God" one for 2010 and have given the strawman an extra arm by attaching it to 9/11.

Good OP, recommended.

[Scurrilous]

12. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Sinistrous]

13. My comment is in my sig line.

[NJmaverick]

14. Are you saying the GOP is dead?

[Sinistrous]

15. If you call a car a lemon,

do you think it has to be yellow? Does it have to have seeds? Does it mean you can use it as a garnish for fish?

Damn, I hate cutesyness.

[NJmaverick]

16. What you should me more hateful of is the dangerous mistake of underestimating

the enemy

[Sinistrous]

17. "Dead Horse" is a figure of speech, as most who can read are aware.

It is not to be taken literally.

Good bye.
Have a nice life.
Try not to hurt too many people.

[NJmaverick]

19. Your comments are nonsensical

[TheBigotBasher]

18. I agree with you but I think that behind this are some clever tactics.

No one was really interested in this Community Centre other than some far right blogs. The GOP informally adopted it and without shame got on board with Neo Nazi hate sites and were never called on it.

Their reason for getting on board was not to support the uber right SIOA but to directly link again Obama to being a Muslim. To them, the far right making extreme comments about Muslims does not matter. In fact it helps. They are useful tools to create the monster. Then the more "respectable" Republicans use the issue to tie Democrats and the the President with Muslims.

The problem is that the Republican idiots really do think that they can control the likes of the hard right. History teaches otherwise.