February 23, 2005
(Hey, did you read that nutty stuff over at Powerline today? And every day? Here’s my advice. When you find yourself reading something by Hindrocket, some rant about how irrational and traitorous the left is, or the MSM; just sort of pretend you are reading a Spider-Man comic, and Hindrocket is J. Jonah Jameson yelling at Betty Brant, or Robbie. Or Peter. About Spider-Man. Because why does he hate on Spidey so? Spidey is so obviously not a menace. He’s good. It’s too bad we all know who Atrios is now. Otherwise we could imagine: what if Atrios is really, like, Hindrocket’s secretary? I realize it is really a quite serious matter than the right-wingers have gone around the bend and apparently aren’t coming back. Still, you’ve got to find a way to read their stuff with a sunny heart.)[12:27 PM]
Patrick, was a post entitled "18 years" your first post on this blog? Because the blog seems to think that you'll be making your next post on March 1st 2002.
And now it doesn't. Okay, that was weird. But interesting. Now I'm going to feel the need to check in on your new york life as it turns old enough to drink.
In the Crooked Timber post, first of all:
"Why are philosophers limited to one-at-a-time journal submissions? Law professors can submit articles to as many journals as they like. It seems to work. We can submit book manuscripts to multiple publishers ..."
Because Lawyers make more money and some become judges and Congressman; and because Science Fiction authors outsell and thus outrank professors of Philosophy!
Corollary: there are few professional Agents for Philosophers.
Corollary: Few works of Philosophy are adapted to film and television.
Exception: as Emperor George W. Bush II, M.B.A. said, Jesus Christ is his most influential Philosopher. The current Right Wing cult that's taken over our country is playing starring roles in a movie adapted VERY loosely from a life of Jesus Christ, as rewritten by Mel Gibson, and turned into a Graphic Novel by Art Spiegelman. Suggested studio pitch: MAUS meets USA.
A lot of the slurry on Usenet and much of the stuff our hard-hitting moderator has to disemvowel here is generated by people who haven't learned a simple lesson: I am not reading this to raise my blood pressure, damage my heart, rupture my spleen or detonate one of those dodgy looking blood-bag thingies in my brain.
I'm a volunteer. If reading this (or anything else) causes me to lose my temper or my lunch it's my own fault.
People who haven't or won't learn this get very angry, and then write a lot of choleric prose which causes those of complimentary philosophical bent to respond in quarte. No!
Parry and laugh! Touché!
I have just discovered that "Hindrocket" is not a silly name John Holbo made up to mock right-wing blogs.
It isn't? Wow. These people satirize themselves. Astonishing.
But is it stupid or nefarious? Are they just trying to leave us no room to satirize them, because as we all know satire is one of the best tools people of reason have...
They got me all tense an' paranoid, that's for sure.
Given Steve Ditko's later Randroid turn, it's hard for me to identify Peter Parker with Spiderman; on the other hand, J. Jonah Jameson has a lot more to do with Col. McCormick than a chinless looter.
On the third hand, headless ranting is hardly confined to the Right.
Oops, that should have been "...hard to identify the Left with {Peter Parker}/Spiderman".
Shocking confession: I only found out who Betty Brant was a year ago (didn't get to read much Spiderman as a kid).
So who's Doc Ock: Cheney or Rove?
For Cheney's matchup with a Marvel villain, I think you'd have to go over to Daredevil: The Kingpin.
along the same lines, but a bit more serious in tone, hilzoy over at obsidian wings has the following thoughts on hatred:
I get the distinct impression that the neenerconservatives are, at the absolute peak, Flash villains -- Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Captain Cold, The Top (who is of the spinning variety, not, well, you know). Though come to think of it, their level of competence puts them in the category of Tick villains.
heh. Cheney is def Doc Oc.
First of all, Mr. Vos, bite your tongue! Spiegelman wouldn't cooperate with such an ill-advised venture, or at least I hope he wouldn't.
I don't know about pretending Atrios is spiderman or anything like that- I just try to remind myself that we survived the corruption of the 1870s, the McKinley 1890s(with its own suspicious war against a foe that was easy to beat up on),and the McCarthyite 50s. Now we are in (yet)another dark age, but I'm not ready to give up.
As I've said elsewhere, I think we need our own 24 hr cable TV network, one that was widely available (unlike Air America)all over the US on basic cable and satelite. Salon TV, anyone? Wouldn't you rather watch Joe Conason tell you what's going on than Brian Williams? Brit Hume would derisively dismiss it as "Soros TV" and lots of ordinary people who don't know what's going on would tune in to see what all the fuss was about...
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
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