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In the same vein

By Al Schumann on Tuesday November 23, 2010 12:48 AM

SMBIVANs may recall the "Don't tase me, bro" incident, in which a persistent student kept questioning John Kerry's evasions until he was tortured with tasers to make him stop. Kerry rattled away while the poor kid was abused. He was obviously incapable of seeing it the way normal humans would: as an appalling, cruel act by self-dehumanized thugs. He simply didn't get it. He was a little bit baffled, but that was the only sign he showed of contact with the world around him. A normal human, with some level of authority, would have used that authority to intervene on the kid's behalf. Even hard asses have some distaste for gratuitous cruelty. But Kerry couldn't really grasp what was going on.

I relate that without exculpatory intent. Rather, it's an explanation for the behavior of senior Democrats. There's something broken in their psyches. They can't make the necessary empathetic connections. When the chief groping dude defends casual brutalization of travelers, he does so because he honestly can't understand how violative it is. He doesn't object to being in charge of the groping, so why should the victims object to his orders? He gets querulous because his class has decided it's necessary, and there's an end to the matter. There's no way to reach them and explain why it's violative, or why losing a shitty job is frightening, no matter how shitty the job is.

Comments (5)

There were even low-level grunts of the blog comment thread participant type, engaged in mocking the guy who got TASER-blasted... and in defending Kerry, in word-assaulting the victim for his "disruptive" and/or "rude" behavior toward Kerry.

I love how TASERs are considered non-lethal. The only way that's true is if the po-po knows the victim's heart can handle the blast. And po-po don't know.

Even in miraculous CSI-Everywhere and other present police drama, where laboratories have endless deep pockets to spend blingola on electro-gewgaws and quirky, highly-accomplished-yet-under-30 "professionals" to staff the ubertech lab... they can't predict how a human's heart will respond to the TASER blast.

Al Schumann:

I recall the ugly reactions. They showed a complete lack of moral and empathetic sense. I'm not sure how much of that was affectation and how much was heartfelt, but ugly either way.

There's a lack of good data on how widespread it is. I mistrust polls and surveys. That said, here's a survey on torture that was done about as well as they can be.

Americans will roll over and take it. They tolerate prisons. Hell, they lobby to have them built. You know, for the jobs. Maybe they'll start lobbying to build TSA training centers.

Anonymous:

For the jobs? Bah, for the children!

Brian M:

TSA Training Centers! Because the solution to a bad economy is EDUCATION. Always more EDUCATION. I hear the local airport is hiring ten Serial Groper III positions!

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