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September 30, 2005
'He should have known better' - the Bennett kerfluffle
News story here.
Extensive analysis, with sources and quotes, by Jeff Goldstein.
'nuf said.
Posted by Darleen at September 30, 2005 12:52 PM
Comments
Thing is, Bennett is right, in a way. Make abortion easily available to the underclass and after a long while, violent crimes will, in fact decrease.
Seems to me true conservatives would want this state of affairs.
Which makes me wonder if conservatives really want to abolish abortion.
Bennett is attempting withdrawal from his gambling addictions, so that might explain why he made such stupid remarks.
Posted by: Carl W. Goss at September 30, 2005 08:42 PM
The point has been made that Bennet's comments, taken literally, are true. In fact, Matt Yglesias, a liberal blogger, has said you could logically extend the point to saying why not abort all Southerners and all males...that would also cut crime down to about zero. (I'm guessing this is of the Modest Proposal model of argument, to expose the simple absurdity.)
However, what this kind of apologia ignores is the humanity of the people being discussed. As I've noted elsewhere, red state Americans don't take kindly to being reminded that they are responsible for most of the violence, poverty, ignorance and welfare consumption in our country. Somehow, statistical truth doesn't assuage their hurt feelings when confronted with these facts.
One can only assume that those who use this line of defense for Pig Bennett do not believe that black human beings have feelings on a level of those that red state wingnut bloggers do, and that they do not deserve that same level of common human decency and respect.
Posted by: Snicker at October 1, 2005 04:28 AM
It is also instructive to notice the ways White vs. Non-white perceptions of racism differ.
When you listen to Repubs lecture Americans on why they are the true defenders of racial equity in America, you can only conclude that they consider non-white perceptions of American racism to be irrelevant. Now one might think that such blatant dismissal of a massive block of humanity in itself constitutes racism. But the darleen types would not accept that. The only reason blacks fail to perceive the innate moral superiority of repub ideals and the love of mankind buried within them is because they have been victimised by those evil liberals.
Again and again one finds this pattern in repub thought. Blacks are stupid victims of liberal brainwashing...i.e. intellectually inferior. The arrogant blindness of this self righteously held perspective is the doorway to understanding the implicit racism in all American conservative thought.
Posted by: Snicker at October 1, 2005 06:56 AM
Bennett was making the point that it is ABSURD and morally reprehensible to make such a claim, even if it was true. He was discussing a book called Freakonomics which really DOES try to make the case for abortion=less crime.
Bennett WAS using a specific "Modest Proposal" type of argument, his quote shows it, and the race-baiters and race-sensatives are all over it because rather than discuss race they want to shut down any debate that differs from the hard Leftist stance that all problems blacks face are all Whitey's fault.
S/H/et al... you and your ilk are the ones that are racist, you keep telling blacks that they can't make it without your wonderful white plantation help, as long as they shut up, shine your boots and act like attack dogs against your enemies.
Posted by: Darleen at October 1, 2005 07:06 AM
you and your ilk are the ones that are racist, you keep telling blacks that they can't make it without your wonderful white plantation help, as long as they shut up, shine your boots and act like attack dogs against your enemies.
The same old tired bullshit. We "keep telling blacks"? What racist nonsense this is. Don't you think black human beings are equally as capable as white ones of evaluating information and coming to their own conclusions? The patronization of this self righteous perspective just flies under rightard radar apparently. You dismiss not only the emotional humanity of blacks with your defense of Bennett 's indefensible remarks but you constantly dismiss the intellectual integrity and abiility of blacks with this asinine "the libruls are brainwashing them" argument.
Why don't you EVER respond to a salient point? Why didn't the asshole Bennett make the equally logical point that US educational achievement could be improved by aborting red state babies? Why do the perceptions of minorities themselves matter not at all to you Randian Darwinists?
You can't seem to spout an argument that hasn't been pre-digested and regurgitated for you by the rightwing spinmeisters. The more I become familiar with you, the more pathetic I find you to be.
Posted by: Snicker at October 1, 2005 08:15 AM
"Why do the perceptions ..."
When perceptions don't match reality, they are irrelevant.
Otherwise, why should we charge a rapist with rape when he "perceives" a woman is "asking for it" by wearing a short skirt?
Posted by: Darleen at October 1, 2005 12:56 PM
Perceptions don't match reality? So black people who perceive racism in America - the entire 75% for instance who thought Katrina response was determined by race - are what? Insane?
Your persistent patronization and dismissiveness is sadly typical of the rightardists in America today, and gives all the explanation needed why your "message" goes unheeded.
Your party has had absolute power in this country now for FIVE YEARS. Where's the plan to eliminate poverty? Please don't tell me these condescending lectures are the sum total of your plan. Did you find condescension, condemnation and ridicule to be useful when motivating your children to succeed in life?
When Howard Dean said the Repub party was almost exclusively white, there was an uproar from the thinskinned pubbies. Was his statement not true? Are not most Pubbies white? I watched the RNC convention on TV and saw about two black faces that weren't being paraded before the podium. Why are whites allowed to howl "bigotry" when they hear something that they don't like, especially when perceptions in this case was incontrovertibly reality?
When Kanye West said "if a white person is stealing food they call it "finding", if a black person is doing it they call it "looting" ", wasn't that TRUE? Of course it was. We all saw the photos that proved it. Yet you and yours howled that he was the real racist, not the media that characterized people that way.
You'll never win this argument, because you are so clearly disingenuous. Bennett could have chosen any number of other comparisons. The fact that he chose one that implied blacks are genetically predisposed to criminality was a grossly racist stereotype. I'll say it again, though like a true rightardist you'll ignore it, it would have been a far better argument to say "let's abort all the Red State babies, and America's intellectual stature in ten years will be light years ahead of where it is today." Why didn't he choose that analogy?
If you think Bennett's comments advanced the discussion of race in this country, I can only assume you are as stupid as you are condescending and patronizing to non white Americans.
Posted by: Snicker at October 1, 2005 01:24 PM
"When Kanye West said 'if a white person is stealing food they call it "finding", if a black person is doing it they call it "looting" ', wasn't that TRUE? Of course it was."
The other point missing here is that the two captioned photos came from _two different news agencies (Associated Press, or "AP", and Agence France-Presse, or "AFP").
It's not hypocrisy if _two different people_ make conflicting statements. That would be like suggesting that Snicker is hypocritical because she said one thing and Darleen said something opposing.
Curvedbrain's link above to Snopes.com (here it is again: http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/looters.asp) describes the situation very nicely.
Posted by: Strider at October 2, 2005 08:35 PM
Just curious Darleen...
Is there a reason that "curvedbrain"'s comments keep disappearing?
[Darleen says: I don't know. I only delete spam. I have blocked some of the more egregious cialis/viagra/et al spam IP's... I'll watch more carefully and make sure it's not getting unnecessarily deleted]
Posted by: Strider at October 7, 2005 11:06 PM