Sunday, July 18, 2004

 HOW TO SHRED A FOX VIEWER'S "ARGUMENTS"
or
HOW TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH
 
A former student of mine, currently a senior at the school where I used to teach, just started his own politically oriented blog.  He's liberal, of course, and his information and opinions seem to be pretty good--he does have a major tendency to glorify the Democrats, however, but what the hell, at least he's not a Republican.  Do me a favor and go check him out:
 
 
I dropped by yesterday, myself, and got to have a bit of fun.  Miles, or JFK as he prefers to call himself on his blog for some reason, posted a link to the same story that I posted yesterday about Iraq's new Prime Minister murdering six suspected insurgents.  In the comments section for the post, I saw that he had garnered his very first conservative detractor.  It wasn't a particularly shrewd or clever detractor, unfortunately, but I figured that young JFK could use a hand nailing this obviously Fox news fed know-it-all.  So, for your entertainment, and because it represents the bulk of my writing for the last 24 hours, I now reproduce both the troll's opening salvo and my response to it.
 
First, the troll:
 
Anonymous said...

Do you absolutely have nothing else better to do with your life? Why not study medicine or law for Pro Bono cases? Why must you bash someone who represents you? Gore and Lieberman (BORE and LOSERMAN) couldn't even win their own state! And you are supporting someone who changes his views to suit the crowd he speaks to. No one is perfect. We have never had a perfect president. But your Bush-bashing is somewhat redundant. You must listen to everything you hear on TV. Also, Bush reads the REAL news and not the news that has a view to make a REAL judgement. I see him as a man to look up to. You REALLY need to take a step back. Do you really think you are right? I have erased the board and read the real news and come to the conclusion that I have applied here. Also, about the stupid prisoners. I bet you are one of the people who says we mistreat the POWs. How do you think they treat ours? Most POWs don't make it home. Only a few have they shown killed. These soldiers are tortured over there. And if we don't make a stand against these evil men, who will? We are the most powerful country in the world. And they were able to penetrate us. Of course you blame Bush...but the warning signs were there all through Clinton's administration. You speak with wisdom you must have earned from TV. Walk around the world and then speak. Turn off your TV...God knows kids don't know how to do that anymore!
 
Now, my response:
 
Ron said...

Hmmm. It looks like you guys have gotten hit by what they call a "troll" over on the Eschaton comment boards. It ought to be easy to wipe his ass.
 
Why must you bash someone who represents you?
 
Ahem, Bush, with his brother's help down in Florida, stole the election of 2000 in a disenfranchisement scheme that kept tens of thousands of black voters outside the polls on election day. Bush represents no one: he is a criminal who should be behind bars for this act alone.
 
Gore and Lieberman (BORE and LOSERMAN) couldn't even win their own state!
 
I have no love for those two corporate Democrats, myself, although Gore is showing some progressive spine these days, but I must point out that, even though they lost Gore's home state of Tennessee, Lieberman is from New Jersey, which they won. Get your facts straight, troll.
 
...supporting someone who changes his views...
 
Versus someone who changes his reasons for...let's see here...tax cuts for the rich, reasons to invade Iraq, and just about any other action that has had it's original rationale exposed as the bullshit it is. Politicians have to change their stances from time to time, troll, due to political reality. I can forgive that to some extent depending on the circumstances. But your hero, a talking chimp, is a straight up liar, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent individuals. Whatever. Vote for him if you must, but you're a fool.
 
You must listen to everything you hear on TV.
 
Even though broadcast news coverage of Bush has become more objective as of late (like they had a choice after it became completely clear that there were no WMDs, no connection to al Qaeda, Abu Ghraib, etc.), the corporate news media in the US still tend to take Bush seriously even though it's now obvious to all but true believers that he's a faith-based, dim-witted, criminal. Note that the US press (except for Bloomberg) has not even mentioned the Allawi story: the real stuff that our media won't even touch is in the foreign press; it was the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia that broke the story.
 
I see him as a man to look up to.
 
You're kidding, right?
 
Do you really think you are right?
 
Are you serious? I mean, what do you think this blog is? A joke? What a patronizing and pointless question; you're completely in line with Rumsfeld, O'Reilly, Hannity, and all the other boorish big mouths on the right. Of course, he thinks he's right, silly troll!
 
Also, about the stupid prisoners.
 
You mean the young boys sodomized by US soldiers on film at Abu Ghraib? Who's stupid here?
 
I bet you are one of the people who says we mistreat the POWs.
 
Ahem, we do mistreat POWs, and it's on film. Pull your head out of the sand and admit the obvious: the US does both good and bad things; lately we're doing more of the latter.
 
How do you think they treat ours?
 
As if that justifies abandoning the civilized principles for which our nation supposedly stands. What a lame justification! "They do it, too." You're a loser, troll.
 
And they were able to penetrate us.
 
It's difficult to avoid any puns about Abu Ghraib and the word "penetrate," but I will for expediency: the real point is that the Iraqis were in no way involved with 9/11, and that is an indisputable FACT--even Bush agrees with that. No, the 9/11 terrorists mostly came from our close ally, Saudi Arabia, and the rest came from Egypt, another ally.
 
Aside: a study a few months back found that viewers of the Fox news channel were most likely to believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11. Not at all surprising.
 
Turn off your TV...God knows kids don't know how to do that anymore!
 
Actually, I'm 36, college educated, and don't watch a lot of television. So why don't you come over to my blog, Real Art, and pick on me for a while. It'll be fun.
 
This was just too damned easy.  Of course, from time to time, it really is fun to shoot fish in a barrel.  Young JFK seemed to be pleased: he responded, "Wow... game, set, match."  Actually I prefer a football metaphor like scoring a touchdown with the statue-of-liberty play or the fumble Ruskie.  At any rate, such praise is pleasing. 
 
All in a day's work, just another inconsequential verbal clash with a wingnut.  Hee, hee.
 
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