All sorts of fun tidbits float past on my lefty mailing lists. For example:
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/obama_sex_perv_scandal/celebrity/65575OBAMA SEX PERV SCANDAL
The ENQUIRER exclusively reports a "sex pervert" was Sen. Barack Obama's longtime mentor and "father figure".
For seven years, the presidential candidate had a "father-son" relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, who has confessed to having sex with children, sadomasochism, bondage and practicing a wide array of deviant sexual activities.
This item in itself isn't terribly interesting. What was delightful was the response of one of the other list members -- let's call him Eumetheus:
Our concern should be following and countering the reactionary uses to which this latest crap-pile will be put, not publicizing it ourselves or adding our own tidbits....Here we see a number of the deformations professionnelles that are, alas, all too common among what passes for the "revolutionary left" in the US:[I]f the revolutionary left ever "needs" its own "Der Sturmer," [the original poster of the Enquirer piece to the list] is clearly the one to provide it. The times may yet find the man.
That's it from me on this political pornography, at least until consequences, if any, start coming in.
- Phatocracy: The obsession with controlling discourse. Eumetheus thinks if he can stop people talking about this Davis business, it will go away.
- Grandiosity: The overestimation of our importance and power. The thing has appeared in the Inquirer; but Eumetheus thinks that a reference on a lefty mailing list with maybe three hundred members is going to do some additional damage.
- Bipolarity: The Enquirer is "reactionary", or at least providing matter for "reactionary use." Therefore we must defend Barack from its attacks.
- Ubiquitlerism: Behind every contralocutor lurks a Hitler.
- Disindifference: The inability to understand, or act on the understanding, that American elections don't matter.
Comments (3)
Bro' Smiff writes:
Disindifference: The inability to understand, or act on the understanding, that American elections don't matter.
Oh, but they do, Smiffo, they really really do. This is the mostest importantest ever election of all time, ever, since the first organic molecules appeared, really it is. What about the Supreme Court, huh? Huh? What about the Supreme Court?! D'ahhhh-hh hah hah ha ha ha ha haahhh.
Jeezus, I need a drink. Or two. Or twelve. Actually, just skip the drinks and get me some goddamn' heroin.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | October 14, 2008 9:45 AM
Posted on October 14, 2008 09:45
I'm not sure what your point is here. The question of whether "the Left" should promote this attack on Frank Marshall Davis is completely distinct from whether Obama deserves to be protected (which he doesn't).
For one thing, regardless of whether the allegations are true, the idea that Obama's youthful association with this man can be used to attack him is odious. I don't consider myself squeamish about politics, but expanding guilt by association to that point has dire consequences.
Beyond that, there's no real evidence. The Enquirer's "proof" is that Davis admitted to writing some pulpy novel under a psuedonym, and that the novel was advertised as "autobiographical." This is the nature of pulp: a lot of later well-regarded authors made a living writing it, and quite a large number of them wrote "true stories," "autobiographies," etc. I really hope I don't have to explain how goddamn stupid it'd be to regard Sex Rebel: Black as a memoir.
Oh, and again, this has nothing to do with Barack Obama. The reason to object to the Enquirer's claim is that it's probably libel against a man who can't defend himself. It's not about "defending Barack," it's about defending Frank Marshall Davis.
Posted by Djur | October 14, 2008 7:53 PM
Posted on October 14, 2008 19:53
anyone else see this? turns out obama is planning on taxing america's lowly plumbers to pay for wall street's crimes:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/oliverburkemanblog/2008/oct/14/uselections2008-barackobama1
Posted by dermokrat | October 14, 2008 9:43 PM
Posted on October 14, 2008 21:43