<<I don't get anywhere pointing out that America is evil - - I have to show that it's MORE evil than any other country. Being evil today just ain't no big deal. >>
(my - - MT's - - comment that calling attention to evil conduct on the part of America no longer seems sufficient - - evil conduct by America seems to be unobjectionable unless some other country is equally or more evil. Morality has turned competitive now - - the ultimate victory of moral relativism)
and here's sirs' response:
<<I think you can attribute that to calling any and everything that doesn't agree with your myopically skewed view of what is, is, and what the war in Iraq is supposedly all about, as being some fascist, torture-loving, Bush sychophant. >>
I'll try to translate that into English. [still in sirs' voice]
<<Tee, people don't take you seriously when you point out any so-called "evil" conduct on the part of America because whenever somebody disagrees with your skewed view of the situation, such as the Iraq war, you call that person a fascist, a torture-lover and a Bush sycophant.>>
Well, with all due respect, sirs, you've addressed one issue, that of the boy who cried "wolf" once too often and was not taken seriously thereafter. Unfortunately, you are completely wrong about that issue as well, but since I wasn't raising it n the first place, I don't feel I need to respond to it in detail here; suffice to say that the frequent cries of "wolf" aren't due to the "boy's" hysteria but are the only valid response to the deeds of the pack of wolves that live near him. And that some people understand that and know that "wolf" means "wolf" ten times out of ten, and others live in a fantasy world, refusing or unable to believe that the country they love could in fact be inflicting a plague of wolves on the planet.
The issue that I was raising wouldn't apply to you at all, sirs - - you're living in that fantasy world of America the Good and the Beneficent, and so you don't see any of the evil at all; except of course that you are afraid of appearing totally ridiculous, and so from time to time, you make a pro forma admission that you "know that America's not perfect" or "America has its faults, sure, but . . . " and then go on to defend just about every God-damn thing the country's done in the past 100 years.
The issue that I was raising concerns those folks who at least have enough realism in their POV to know that America does a lot of bad things. My point to them was that that in itself ought to provoke a shit-storm of rage, shame, activism, pressure to end the abuse, etc. However, it seems to me that we are now into some new era of public morality, in which, before it can even be admitted that there is a problem, I (or whoever else is conducting the argument) must first show that nobody else is committing the same act, or that if they are, that America is not the worst of them. That was what I meant when I said that morality is becoming a competition. A wrong act isn't wrong if others do it too. A wrong act isn't wrong if others do even worse. Moral relativism at its worst and craziest.
<<You want to call Amerikkka evil Tee, you go right ahead.....knock your socks off.>>
Translation: Say whatever you like, I ain't lissnin and I don't give a shit. (Who gives a shit?)
<<All the while those countries and entities volitionally performing true acts of evil enjoy your brushing right over them . . . >>
Translation: (1) The U.S. doesn't perform "true acts of evil." Only the others are capable of "true acts of evil;" and (2) I shouldn't be condemning the U.S. for anything if other countries are doing something even worse. Ridiculous.
<< . . . they'd kill you and your family in a heartbeat, and not think twice>>
I think this line wandered in from another thread. It's usually part of the "support Amerikkka's war on "terror" because otherwise them fuckin Ay-rabs will slit your throat and your family's throats, they hate you so much. They hate you for your freedoms because they're Muslims." The Great Threat from the Mysterious East. Cue in the snake-charming music and the sounds of an Arab market.