Anonymous: A Case Study in Conservative Argument

I've devoted a number of posts recently to the motivations behind the conservative fabrication of a totally alternate reality in which their racist, hate-filled, corrupt leaders are paragons of virtue, while those who care about the sick, the poor, the less fortunate are somehow the source of all evil.  I would like to draw on my own recent experience here at Green Eagle to provide a glimpse into how this works among rank and file right wingers, who don't have the likes of Frank Luntz to help them cloak their malignance in superficially acceptable imagery.

I've had several right wingers who have commented with some regularity on my blog.  They have all followed a similar pattern.  The latest just refers to himself (or herself) as Anonymous.  Here are the contents of anonymous' replies to some of my posts over the last couple of weeks:

I posted a piece about a person with strong right wing beliefs who was arrested for threatening to kill a Democratic congressman.  Anonymous replied with the following comment:

"well who should we credit to Sarah Palin getting death threats.
I won't hold my breath.
For one straight week the left ha been smearing the right and when the right defense themselves it' time for discourse. I have an idea let the media bash the left for one week straight and the left keep silent.
The Daily KOS targeted tha Disctrict and the guy was influned by leftist Karl Marx.
Remeber When Eric Cantor got death threats adn his window was shot up? Of course you don't.
Obama was the one who said bring a gun. Looks like he took his advice."

This was accompanied by two articles concerning a bullet which went through a window of an office occasionally used by Republican Representative Eric Cantor.  Amusingly, one of Anonymous' articles made it clear that the bullet was not aimed at Cantor at all, and the other identified the perpetrator, who was a religious fanatic who in no way could be considered a liberal.

Notice that, as always, the claims of endless death threats against Palin were accompanied by no examples linking them to the left in any way.  Anonymous claimed about Jared Loughner that "the guy was influned by leftist Karl Marx."  He failed to mention that based on Loughner's comments, he was equally "influned" by arch-rightist Adolf Hitler and by current wingnut fave Ayn Rand. Anonymous' response to my post was both ignorant and disingenuous.

By the way, Anonymous, Fox News has been bashing the left for ten years straight and that seems fine with you.

In response to a post about another violent right wing threat against a Democrat, Anonymous posted links to two You tube videos.  One accused Obama of being like Hitler, and the other one a grossly racist attack alleging that it is Obama's intent to lead a black movement to destroy the white race, America and the church.

In response to a post about the seeming disinterest in discovering the truth about Loughner's politics, Anonymous linked to this:

In relation to this, he also made the following comment:

"that is shut bullshit you are just upset that your party lost the last election and they are using this tragedy to shut up conservative view points which is the views of most American..."

His response to my story about the arrest of a Republican congressional candidate being arrested for making violent threats against judges and other government officials:

A U-Tube video about a Harvard educated woman who killed three people.  I guess everyone who went to Harvard is a pinko- including George W. Bush.  By the way, there was absolutely nothing political about this killing, which was a retaliation by a person with a long history of violent behavior against people who wouldn't grant her tenure; not that this fact meant anything to Anonymous.

And, an utterly irelevant biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, which Anonymous included, apparently thinking that it made some point about Oswald having been a left winger.  It did not make any such claim.


Finally, Anonymous linked to this cartoon in response to my comment (based on decades of observation of the right) about the utter inconsistency of Republican ideology over time:

An utterly unsubstantiated smear, as a response to what was at least an attempt to find some meaning in Republican behavior.

Well, there you go:  a compendium of racist videos, meaningless, cheap-shot cartoons and barely literate, fuming comments filled with smears for which he offers not a shred of proof.  That's what Anonymous has to offer the American people to help them find their way out of their problems; and in that regard, he is pretty representative of Conservatives and teabaggers in general.

This infantile hatred and abuse is never going to lead our nation to anything positive, and I would think that fact would be clear even to people with the kind of limited political understanding possessed by Anonymous.

P.S. Anonymous:  Of the whole vast internet, this little corner is mine.  I welcome all kinds of comments, but I do not appreciate people like you coming here and polluting it with your violence and hatred.  I know this may be a foreign concept to you, but I try damned hard to make sure I know what I am talking about before I post things.  As with the right wingers who have preceded you, when confronted with facts, you have quickly degenerated into grotesque ugliness.  You're welcome to continue in this vein, because my readers are not as familiar  as I am with the hatred and abuse that pass for political analysis on the right, and I think that it is a good thing for them to see some of it.  But don't expect to be treated with much respect.

And just be thankful that I'm not into criticizing people's grammar.