No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Facts? We don't need no steenkin' facts!

The letters page of today's Arizona Repulsive contains an interesting insight into the state of the "liberal media" in a society controlled by the unreality-based community.

Apparently, the Repulsive printed a Cal Thomas article a few days ago in which Thomas wrote frantically about Brits living in fear of a massive wave of Muslim and brown-skinned immigration, and desperately fleeing their country. (I missed the column, but it's most likely this one.)

Today, the Repulsive printed two letters in response. One was from a Brit expatriate in Phoenix, who took offense at Thomas's ill-informed fearmongering and countered with facts. (Except that he's wrong about the British economy outperforming the rest of Europe - Ireland comfortably beats Britain. But then a lot of Brits think Ireland is part of Britain, which may explain the statement.)

The other letter was from someone who, I would bet good money, has never been outside the United States and knows little or nothing about any other country - but praises Thomas's column to the skies as "lucid" and "one of the most insightful commentaries I have ever read" because it echoes his prejudices and panders to his ignorance.

The Repulsive highlighted both letters side by side in a little box, with the heading: "Stark contrasts in views of England." Do you see my point? Facts don't really matter, they're just a different viewpoint. One guy is from Britain and knows what he's talking about, the other is just another right-wing bloviator with no clue and therefore shouts all the louder. Both viewpoints are equally valid.

As progressives, we come across the same attitude all the time. We point out fact after fact detailing the incompetence and criminality of George Bush Junior and his lunatic extreme-right junta, and are met with: "Oh, that's just your opinion". And promptly get shouted down by the "opinion" of the lunatic right which monopolizes the media and consists of nothing but blind, incoherent mouth-frothing rage and hatred against everyone to the left of Attila the Hun. The media, of course, shows how "fair and balanced" it is by once in a blue moon printing or airing a fact-based piece but treating it as, at best, no more valid than the hate-based screeching and ranting of the extreme right.

Dammit, people, facts matter! Reality matters! You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts!

This is a measure of how profoundly public discourse in the US has been poisoned and twisted by the extreme right. If we are ever to drag this country back to sanity, we must somehow pierce the bubble of willful ignorance and denial with which the wingnuts have surrounded themselves and which they inflict on everyone else through their control of the media. We have long hard road in front of us...