On False Equivalency, by Elayne Riggs
I was but a wee babe in the ‘60s, and I don’t really remember JFK’s assassination, or his brother’s, or King’s. I don’t think we had separate drinking fountains for black and white kids in New Jersey. But I remember racism. Anti-Semitism affected me directly (we were the only Jewish family in a heavily Catholic neighborhood) but, as our suburb became integrated and I was best buddies with a black boy, the jeers of racists were never far behind. Prejudice is kinda hard to forget, too, since it never went away.
Granted, everyone may be a little bit racist or sexist or homophobic. But there’s a difference, to my mind, between folks who need to work a bit more on their white or male or hetero privilege and people who wallow in it, who wear their ignorance proudly like a badge of honor. It’s like the difference between what superhero comics fans used to understand as the good guys and the bad guys. We read how the bad guys could fool some of the sheeple some of the time, but at heart they were just plain rotten because they had no moral core. And it was understood that they were not to be emulated nor aspired to and that there was a clear delineation between them and the “do-gooders.” This was in the days before do-gooders apparently became boring and passé.
I think the McCain campaign is counting on the American public to forget that he and his boring, passé do-gooder opponent are vying for a position that will affect millions of real lives very deeply, and pretend instead that they’re voting for the American Idol who will best kick ass and take names (especially yours, which reminds the government that they’d like to thank our fine troops so much for all their wonderful phone sex conversations!). Perhaps they reason that, since the whole Wild West schtick worked so well for the caricature currently occupying the White House, the same script can be retooled for the “James Garner He’s Not” Maverick and Sancho Bimbo — no wait, that’s Bible Spice — no sorry, I meant to say Caribou Barbie. Frontierswoman with a gun! And a helicopter! And golly gee, she knows how ta use ‘em, winkety wink!
But for some reason (maybe a series of cascading wake-up calls from 9-11 to Iraq to Katrina to Abu Ghraib to Wall Street etc. etc.), the vast majority of the voting public seemed to tire of that quickly, as the enormity of the financial hole we’ve bored for ourselves and much of the rest of the world started to set in. For many people it’s possible to ignore “all that political stuff” (especially when much of it involves foreign countries and you’ve been raised in an America First and Only xenophobic atmosphere) as long as you’re able to feed your family and pay your bills. Suddenly when you can’t, “kitchen table” issues become mighty important, and fiction is again relegated to its proper place.
Unfortunately, for a select few, this lizard-brained mentality still doesn’t recede even in the face of more important matters. If anything, they seem to sink deeper into fantasy, and woe betide the sensible citizen who questions any part of that fantasy (whether it’s We’re Number One or Our God Can Beat Up Your God or I Yearn For A Time When Bitches and Fags and N-words Knew Their Place). Fantasy is safe and comforting and knowable. Reality is risky and scary and improvised. Quick, get us rewrite!
And thus we see the worst elements of the McCain/Palin camp and their camp followers trying to spice things up a bit with good old-fashioned racism and red-baiting, the kind that never goes out of style in some parts of this fine country. And because it’s been the Republican MO these past two terms (okay, these past 38 years but who’s counting?) to immediately accuse (i.e., the lie that goes halfway around the world) your opponent of doing what you yourself have done before the initial truth about your own questionable actions can get out, the media is spoon-fed these little nuggets of grade-school “he does it too!” false equivalency designed to bring the good guys down to the bad guys’ level and foster an atmosphere of futility and hopelessness. After all, what’s the point of trying to effect change when both candidates are rotten to the core?
Well, because they’re usually not. There are usually degrees and nuances of “rottenness” beyond the superficial. Shouts of “[he’s a] terrorist!” and “kill him!” directed against the mention of Obama’s name at the McCain and Palin Nuremberg rallies are not the same thing at all as Palin getting booed at a Philadelphia hockey game even though she dressed her 8-year-old daughter in a Flyers jersey in a self-admitted attempt to stave off the hostility. "But what I thought I’d do is I’d put Piper in a Flyers jersey, bring her out with me. How dare they boo Piper!" she wailed, pretty much confessing the cynical, calculated move to make herself look good at the cost of possibly traumatizing her young campaign-prop daughter. It looks a lot more like this sort of thinking is what got her booed in the first place, rather than some fantasy of liberals being big ol’ meanies with filthy mouths.
But the hammering continues, on the Rovian theory that if you repeat a lie to the media often enough it becomes the truth even in the face of overwhelming facts to the contrary. (Yes, I know variations on the expression “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth” have been attributed to Lenin, Goebbels and even Hitler, but Rove has really perfected their vision in the age of 24-hour news networks and the blogosphere.) My favorite TV pundit, Rachel Maddow, was flabbergasted on Monday that Sarah Palin outright lied about the findings of the Republican-led Alaskan commission that found her guilty of abuse of power and unethical behavior. Over and over she crowed about how delighted she was that the commission cleared her, even though it did just the opposite.
Although another current popular target for the Republicans, ACORN is hardly rotten. While I’m delighted that this well-respected community activist organization (which I first heard about years ago when they were helping build low-income housing) has been thrust into the public eye enough for millions of thinking people to check out their website for themselves and give their good works a nice boost, I’m of course disappointed about the way it happened, with the Republicans accusing ACORN of doing the exact opposite of what they actually did. ACORN registered tons of low-income people to vote, flagged every single problematic registration they had to submit by law, and when election officials said “hey, these are bad registrations!” ACORN replied “Yes, we told you that” and showed them the paperwork proving it and suddenly Republicans started crying “voter fraud!” It’s worth remembering, once again, that voter fraud is precisely the sort of thing the Republicans are guilty of in truth, rather than merely by accusation. Again, the current MO: Do something bad. Accuse your opponent of doing the same thing, even (especially) when they’ve done the opposite. Lie about your wrongdoing, and/or encourage the media to engage in false equivalency so voters will wind up confused or disgusted with the whole process. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
In countless superhero stories Our Hero is falsely accused by a bad guy who sets him or her up for a fall then replaces him or her in the public’s fickle taste. I can only surmise that, sometime in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, a number of the more macho-thinking comic writers got so frustrated with the way they felt the good guys kept being played for patsies (i.e., the modern man’s worst nightmare, being made to look impotent or, heaven forfend, womanly) that they turned them just a little bad. Jimmy Carter was sneered at for being too contemplative in the White House Rose Garden, so in rode the macho Ronald Reagan to save the day with his folksie anecdotes and early-onset dementia and trickle-down-upon-the-poor-while-the-rich-get-richer economic theories and pretty much set the ball rolling on our current income-disparity crisis. But gosh, wasn’t he the Great Communicator! After all, for every good guy gone bad, for every World’s Greatest Detective become the Goddamn Dark Night, there must be an equivalent bad guy who actually means well in his own head and who’s to say the Joker’s any less sane than the rest of us who might judge him too hastily?
And so the fictional line between good and evil gets blurred, but not necessarily in a good way. More in a macho way, so that all the male characters can metaphorically retain their never-seen testicles. Heroism is redefined as a Make-Believe Maverick, a “mean little fucker” so nasty and misogynist that he got hauled into court for excessive profanity. (Don’t forget, profanity is okie-dokey when a conservative uses it but is only strongly indicative of hate-speech when employed by liberals.) And his Strong Female Character running mate is a woman in high heels who can wield a gun as she stands by her man fighting the forces of truth.
Because truth itself is boring. Truth is hard to sort out, because it often contains complexity and nuance. It’s even harder to draw. Come on, make an exciting-looking comic out of all those Guantanamo prosecutors resigning because they consider personal integrity more important than keeping their jobs. Inject some visual pizzazz into a reformed Bill Ayers working with a Republican-led educational foundation with which Barack Obama was also involved without talking about Ayers’ dangerous past forty-plus years ago, I dare you. Good luck with that one.
Conflict creates drama. Blurred lines and false equivalency make everyone seem the same, so that it doesn’t matter for whom we vote, and thus voting becomes a popularity contest won by the more exciting candidate. Barack Obama is an even-tempered Superman type, a boring old Boy Scout. McCain’s the goddamned Batman, the unbalanced antihero who treats everyone like poop he just scraped off his shoe but it’s okay because he’s the GDB and wow, get a look at his running mate’s ass!
I swear, I don’t want to believe the Republican presidential campaign is being scripted by Frank Miller, but sometimes I wonder.
Elayne Riggs blogs at Pen-Elayne on the Web and has just been to see a new primary care physician (what we used to call "family doctors" in the old days), an expert in diabetes management among other things, who called her yesterday afternoon with the news that she does not, in fact, have diabetes at present. She’s wondering if that makes her last column moot, or if the condition comes and goes…
Anyone from the Philly area could have told Sarah that showing up at a Flyers game was a bad idea. This is a team whose devotees were declared the meanest fans in professional sports. Their booing and catcalls are legendary.Diabetes doesn't come and go, alas, but it can be such a weak case that it can be held in place with diet and excercise only. Best practice (unless they called to tell you they got the blood test switched and they were completely wrong, in which case it's "sue for Mental Duress" time) is to keep laying off the sweet stuff, and fold it back into the diet in moderation, testing yourself occasionally to see if you're still on track. Anything below 150 is acceptable, and the closer to 100 the better. It is a degenerative disease, so it will get worse over time. You can help control the angle of the slope, tho.
Great column, Elayne. I like how you deftly brought in the comics parallel! Kudos! I'm also a big fan of Rachel Maddow. But, here's a story that Maddow missed or passed over the other day because it's about Al Franken. Franken founded Air America, where Rachel still has a show, so I think she avoids reporting on him. She doesn't want the appearance of a conflict of interest.OK now, Republican Senator Norm Coleman is running for reelection in Minnesota. He has been running a really lowball, mudslinging campaign against his challenger, Al Franken. Coleman has accused Franken of being a pornographer who jokes about rape. Seriously, it's gotten THAT low. Well, just like McCain, Coleman has seen his poll numbers decline proportionally with the level of his rhetoric. The more mud Coleman has slung, the dirtier Coleman has seemed. Coleman has gone from a comfortable lead in the polls to scrambling from behind in them. So last Friday, Coleman announces that, because of the economic crisis, he will be SUSPENDING all his negative campaign ads. (Sound familiar?) He also announces that because he will be spending the day pulling ads and finding a new strategy for his campaign, he can't be at the McCain rally in Lakeville, Minnesota that day. In other words, on the very same day Coleman distanced himself from negative campaigning, he also distanced himself from the McCain Campaign. I think McCain noticed that not only were voters running away from his negative campaign, but his own Republican colleagues had begun to distance themselves! This is not the only spot. In Florida, Republican Governor Crist couldn't make a McCain Rally because he had to go to Disney World! (I saw that one on Maddow!) Some see this as Republicans distancing themselves from McCain's negative campaign. Others see this a rats leaving a sinking ship. Anyway, so last Friday, McCain grew a pair and actually told his Minnesota audience that Obama was a decent, American citizen and that the people of the United States don't need to be afraid of him. For his troubles, McCain was BOOED by his own audience at his OWN rally. McCain is between a rock and a hard place. His base has been so fired up by the hate propaganda and lies, that Obama is somehow a Muslim, not a Citizen or a lover of terrorists, that if McCain backs away from this hateful rhetoric now, he loses his base. And if he continues down this path of mudslinging and insinuation, he loses the undecided swing voters. Either way McCain is losing. Personally, I think McCain lost when he decided to ignore his family and principles to invite Karl Rove into his campaign. Rove is infamous for his dirty politicking. I think Rove organized the 2000 push polls that implied McCain's daughter was a bastard. I think Rove is treasonous scum. And McCain invited Rove to consult on his campaign! I bet that sent a chill up Cindy McCain's spine. Ah, sometimes Karma bites you in the ass. And you reap what you sow.
I think Franken burned some bridges at Air America, at least alienating a few of his fellow hosts there. I don't know Maddow's relationship with him, so I'm not going to read anything into her not reporting the story. She does have only that hour show now and can't cover everything, plus have time for her guests.Donna is on insulin and really does have to keep an eye on her sugar intake. Her current diet seems to be helping a bit.
Norm Coleman ducked out of a McCain rally the same day he backed away from negative campaigning. This was the same day McCain distanced himself from the vitriol and stupidity at his own campaign rally, the same hatred and ignorance that his campaign has been fueling. I have yet to see anyone in the media make this connection. I've heard a lot about Crist and Disney World. I've yet to hear about Coleman, and his good reasons for distancing himself from McCain, which aren't just Mickey Mouse.
Franken was part of a different Air America. It's owned by difference people now and has a near-completely different line-up, and in some markets is on a radio station different from where it started. I suspect they're more interested in their Internet and satellite listeners, although they'd never admit that.
I cannot believe that you are falling into the "race baiting" garbage, which is, and has always started with the Democrats (George Wallace, Al Sharpton, Rev. Jackson, Robert Byrd, need I go on? I can. There are tons more in the history of that party). You, my darling, must have lost your mind. It is sheeple like you, who love talking points, and live by them, as force fed from our corrupt media, claiming lies as truth. Hoping to keep people down by lack of knowledge and false honesty.Are you and your ilk, seriously, too lazy to actually do some research and see the truth for what it is? Or is it, that you don't seek truth for the fear of what it will unveil, and it is easier to live the lie?Obama = Superman? Than on it's face is a ridiculous comparison. Unless of course, he is an actual alien to this country. You know, not born in HI as he claims to be. Or is this your way of actually revealing the truth, by accidental comparison and bad analogy?McCain = Batman? That is beyond laughable. McCain? Seriously? That would mean, that he actually has a spine, and is willing to fight for those that can't, because he has the means and training. Were his parents killed by violence? Was he born into wealth, and forget to tell people? C'mon Elayne, let's get with reality here. Both of them happen to be puppets, whose movements and motives are provided by the George Soros, Karl Rove, Democant's and Republicant's of the world. Which, in my estimation, would liken them more Elmo and The Count, of Sesame Street fame. Rather than heroes of a fictional universe.Wake up, I thought you and your fellow creative folks might have a modicum of intelligence. I guess there is no hope in any medium. Enjoy Socialism, because it's already here, and it looks like it is here to stay because of people like you and our "government". "We the people" has been replaced by "We the sheeple" and the failure of our democracy falls squarely on the shoulders of people like you.
I cannot believe that you are falling into the "race baiting" garbage, which is, and has always started with the Democrats (George Wallace, Al Sharpton, Rev. Jackson, Robert Byrd, need I go on? I can. There are tons more in the history of that party). You, my darling, must have lost your mind. It is sheeple like you, who love talking points, and live by them, as force fed from our corrupt media, claiming lies as truth. Hoping to keep people down by lack of knowledge and false honesty.Are you and your ilk, seriously, too lazy to actually do some research and see the truth for what it is? Or is it, that you don't seek truth for the fear of what it will unveil, and it is easier to live the lie?Obama = Superman? Than on it's face is a ridiculous comparison. Unless of course, he is an actual alien to this country. You know, not born in HI as he claims to be. Or is this your way of actually revealing the truth, by accidental comparison and bad analogy?McCain = Batman? That is beyond laughable. McCain? Seriously? That would mean, that he actually has a spine, and is willing to fight for those that can't, because he has the means and training. Were his parents killed by violence? Was he born into wealth, and forget to tell people? C'mon Elayne, let's get with reality here. Both of them happen to be puppets, whose movements and motives are provided by the George Soros, Karl Rove, Democant's and Republicant's of the world. Which, in my estimation, would liken them more Elmo and The Count, of Sesame Street fame. Rather than heroes of a fictional universe.Wake up, I thought you and your fellow creative folks might have a modicum of intelligence. I guess there is no hope in any medium. Enjoy Socialism, because it's already here, and it looks like it is here to stay because of people like you and our "government". "We the people" has been replaced by "We the sheeple" and the failure of our democracy falls squarely on the shoulders of people like you.
Hey red…McCain WAS born into wealth…not the level of wealth that say the woman he dumped his crippled ex-wife had, but he wasn't get by on food stamps.Democracy didn't fail. Unrestrained capitalism failed. One's a political system, the other's an economic one. Economic systems will always fail because people are inheritantly greedy."Sancho Bimbo — no wait, that’s Bible Spice — no sorry, I meant to say Caribou Barbie. Frontierswoman with a gun! "This comment is beneath you, Elayne!Barbie is a woman of accomplishment who has prospered in numerous careers, such as a doctor and astronaut, who stands on her own two feet, doesn't need a man to gift her jobs she hasn't earned, and actually wins beatuy pagents!
In all seriousness, Scav, Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister wrote a thoughtful post opining that using terms like this about Palin is indeed sexist — with which I happen to disagree, as I remember folks calling Dan Quayle a Ken-Doll. To me it's not a matter of sexism as much as an observation about personae that portray an intelligence level befitting plastic dolls.
THIS is gonna be good…(Play one, exposure and resulting invalidation as a Michael Savage zombie in 5…4..3..)
I knew Bill Ayers back in the day, and didn't have a lot of respect for him. Actually, I knew and worked with most of the Weather Underground back in 1969 and 1970, and only had respect for a few of 'em. Whereas I grieved for two of the three that blew themselves up in New York City, the other guy was perhaps the biggest asshole I had met to date and didn't miss him in the least.Since those days, Ayers has truly earned my respect for his work as an education advocate. And it's earned the respect of Chicagoans who named him their Citizen of the Year — including Mayor Richard M. Daley. All-that says a lot; many Chicagoans still feel Richard J. Daley and his goon squad got a bad rap 40 years ago, and the Weatherpeople's infantile "Days of Rage" trashing spree only reinforced those opinions. So for Bill to earn that level of respect, he had to go a LOT of dedicated good work.Unrepentant, indeed.
In the early '70s I knew several people, including my first wife, who had been active members of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) from which the Weather Underground evolved. They felt that the Weather Men had gone too far and while many of us agreed with their goals, we didn't believe that bombing or destruction of property was the way to go.
In fact, SDS broke up into three separate factions. In order of relative wackiness, there was Revolutionary Youth Movement Two (RYM-II), then the Weather Underground (a.k.a. RYM-I), and by far the wackiest of them all, Lyndon LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees. The latter was so bizarre it did a quick run to the deep right, aligning with such groups as The Republican Party (under Reagan), the Liberty Lobby, and the Klan. Lyndon was convinced that Henry Kissinger and the Rockefellers were trying to have him murdered; the fact that he wasn't gives lie to the claim. He spent six years in jail for tax violations and mail fraud, and he ran for president while inside. I gather he thought he could pardon himself. He's the sort of guy who made George Metesky seem sane.
Home run! Touchdown! Goooooooooaaaaaaaallllllll! Best. Column. Ever.Take the truth being said about your side and accuse the other side of it, of them being the evil ones. A typical Rove tactic. Examples: accuse your opponent of being clueless, an ignorant tool, of being in the pocket of lobbyists, of associating with terrorists.And is it just me, or are others finding themselves calling her Sarah Putin?