That’s what I’m being accused of because of a recent post in which I bid adieu to the Old Confederate States of America.
Let’s put aside, for a moment, that those making the accusations clearly didn’t read my full post and chose to read only an inflammatory excerpt provided by Kleinheider over at Post Politics (the little scamp!). Let’s also ignore the accusations of “presentism.” And the bad analogy that equates my use of the words “yokels” and “yahoos” to the very worst of racial epithets.
The real question this hubbub raises – and this isn’t rhetorical, I’m very curious – is how would you describe someone who flies a confederate flag at half-mast on the day we inaugurate our first African-American President, or who says on the day after the election that “she was bothered by the idea of a black man ‘over me’ in the White House?”
I used those words because of actions and beliefs, not skin color. I used those words because clearly the content of character lacks basic human decency. I used those words – which, by definition, mean “crude,” “boorish,” and “mired in local custom” – because they fit.
This is a test to see if DADvocate always gets the last word!
I’m 100% Tennessee redneck by birth, more-or-less pure moonbat in ideology. I didn’t see anything wrong with Mary’s post, but I can understand why it annoys my fellow white Southerners. I’ve lived all over the U.S., and you’d be amazed how people still assume I must be some kind of knee-jerk racist, just because I’m a Southerner. We do get tired of the stereotype, especially since there are plenty of smug, wine-sipping racists living in, say, Massachusetts and California. My New England college was chock full of them.
Nevertheless, everything Mary wrote is true. It’d be nice if native Red Staters of good conscience would have the grace to admit that, instead of getting defensive and implying that casual regional prejudice is somehow comparable to the hundreds of years of enslavement and apartheid suffered by blacks. If we did, who knows–people might stop thinking we’re yokels.
Point proven. Try a little insight sometime.
“Of course, I’ll never have any real credibility in your blog.”
Save the drama for your Mama. We disagree on my intentions in a post. That is all. I hope you visit more often.
I could only find one time where I had used “moonbat” in my blog in the 3 1/2 years I’ve been blogging. A much better record than many liberal bloggers, like, say, Knoxviews and its previous incarnation.
Of course, I’ll never have any real credibility in your blog.
Dad – You’d have much more credibility in making your point if your comment on this blog was the only time you ever used the word “moonbat.”
Just smile, Mary, it was a joke with a point. The point being most people don’t like being called names and are offended. No matter how eloquent or fancy your explanations, they are ring empty.
Do you think that the “yahoos” and “yokels” to whom you refer would greet your words with open arms? Do you like being a femi-nazi or moonbat or airhead? Can you understand how other people feel when you call then “yahoos” and “yokels” and how you’re defeating you purported goal? These “yahoos” and “yokels” are the people you need to reach.
“liberal moonbats” = who?
Jon – I’ve just been waiting for someone to catch that. Hoped it would have been Mary.
Peace to you both.
>liberal moonbats … by insulting them and calling them names
Oh irony, you are always so delicious.
Well, they usually fly things at half-staff when they’re dead. Maybe the symbolism is that the Confederacy is over… if they’d hung the flag upside-down, first of all, you wouldn’t know it’s upside-down (oops) but second, that would be a symbol that something’s wrong in the South.
Heaven forbid that you should insult a group of people and they would be offended. You continue to play your semantics game to try and weasel you way out.
I didn’t compare your words to the very worst of racial epithets. I said, “I wonder what equivalent terms Mancini would use to describe blacks. Probably none.”
If your goal is to bring the races closer together, your methods are greatly lacking. I’ll never understand how liberal moonbats expect someone to listen to their point of view by insulting them and calling them names.
I suspect they’re more interested in the us vs. them game and everybody patting each other on the back saying “You gottem that time!!”
Kleinheider is the TN blogosphere’s headline writer. Unfortunately, like most headline writers, he often focuses on what will drive “sales” more than what the story was about.
Gotta move ‘em papers!