What Jack Abramoff told me...

[kpete]

What Jack Abramoff told me...
by dengre
Fri Oct 29, 2010 at 06:47:27 AM PDT

Does anybody remember a fella named Jack Abramoff?

..................

So, I mentioned that if he was on a journey of personal atonement, he needed to make amends with the workers of the Marianas Islands as they were real victims of his crimes. I mentioned that as a result of his work some were forced into prostitution, some had their wages stolen, others their lives ruined and that some died. He looked sad. I mentioned that he should get in touch with a friend of mine, who is a long-time human rights worker for the guest workers of the CNMI. Jack knew her name, in no small measure because Jack and his team spent years attacking her, the workers she defended and her work. Jack mentioned that she had written him a nice letter while he was in prison (she is like that—always willing to reach out and give folks a second chance). He asked for her email. I gave him a phone number. As far as I know he never called.

As I talked with Jack about the CNMI he said something that has stuck with me. He was acknowledging the work he did to oppose my friend and the sweatshop workers, but added:

"At the time I was operating with a different data set than her, but upon reflection her data set may have been more accurate."

That explains a lot—not only about Jack, but of the entire modern wingnut, so-called conservative, TeaBagger, griffter movement. It is all about the willful embrace of a pre-packaged "data-set" as truth—as reality. And it is all about defending that "data-set" against any evidence to the contrary.

Blacks are inferior, Mooslims want to kill us all, brown people are lazy and scary, Democratz is socilispts, science is a myth, ignorance is strength... once a belief—regardless of any facts to the contrary—is added to the data-set, then it becomes Gospel. The wing-nut data-set is sacred and any action is justified if it protects the data-set.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/29/914752/-What-Jack-Abramoff-told-me...