I Am The Fruit Cup Of Human Blindness
The Corner is the Del Monte fruit cocktail of the conservative lunchroom, a mix of rubbery personalities that appear distinct at first glance, but that upon gustation all taste pretty much the same. We could take the metaphor as far as we like, casting Jonah as the festive, superficially naughty cherry; Derb as the square, pasty white object of unknown provenance; K-Lo as the gelatinous goo that fixes the whole lumpen mess in a kind of parochial stasis, lest the bits and bobs in her charge wander too far afield and mingle with the libertarian tater tots (or, more disastrously, get swapped for a tamale or some such dangerously spicy fare).
Perhaps she remembers all too well what happened some years ago with Rod Dreher, once the cheeky pineapple of the fruit cup. His cavorting with the hippie kid’s brown rice and tofu scramble was amusing at first, but soon it became clear that Dreher had forgotten whose lunch box he’d arrived in. And by then it was too late.
Andrew Stuttaford poses no such threat. He’s a peach slice, one of many on the Corner — reliably present, generally mealy but in a comforting, even therapeutic way, a delivery system for the bland ideological calories upon which the quasi-literate segment of the conservative market sustains itself.
Pecking at Roy’s scraps yet again, I notice this Stuttaford commentary on John McCain’s environmentalist rhetoric:
That said, whatever their practical effects (some would be good, others not), McCain’s gestures to greenery are politically shrewd. Environmentalism is these days not only a widely-held civic religion, but, at least amongst some folk, a religion religion. Friendly nods in its direction are therefore a good electoral move, essentially harmless, and in the finest tradition of American political pandering: the equivalent, perhaps, of just another prayer breakfast.
Just Peachy, wouldn’t you say? Although it’s a bit risky, perhaps, to slip in a tart reminder of the hucksterism present in nearly all political displays of religiosity. K-Lo’s syrupy tendrils would no doubt have recoiled in agitation (and begun discharging restorative secretions) had Stuttaford not submerged this basic awareness of reality under chunks of tepid tree-hugger baiting.
Peachy may be contemptuous of greens, but he’s too well-mannered to be crude about it. …Unlike Glenn Beck, who on his dismal CNN slot tonight actually restated the Earth Hour rant of Adam Yoshida in so many words, promising to idle his gas-guzzling SUV, eat tons of shitty food and blast his home’s air-conditioning and heating day and night, just ‘to piss liberals off.’ Yes, sir, Mr. Beck — your dwindling bank account and obesity will really show us.
Not for Stuttaford this sort of boorishness. Peachy couches his antipathy towards greenfoolery in the modern pundit’s favorite passive-aggressive gimcrack, the procedural question of whether some bit of ham-handed rhetoric or other will successfully ‘play in Peoria.’ To that end, he posits that McCain’s ‘gestures to greenery’ are just pandering. The real answer is probably-kinda-sorta-yeah, but McCain is a bit of an outdoorsman, or so decades of myth-making would have us believe. A better topic of discussion is whether environmentalism is itself ‘essentially harmless,’ or more to the point, whether the general public sees it abstractly as a vaguely good thing, pace Peachy, or if there are practical concerns in play.
From my vantage point, it’s the latter. But I cover high-tech and see that all the Green IT initiatives the big vendors push are less about global warming than they are about saving money on the out-of-control cost of power in a peak-oil world. Which isn’t to say that marketing-green isn’t still pandering a lot of the time — there’s a ton of ‘energy-efficient’ technology available that actually isn’t, or that is only marginally so. The point is, though, that the sell to consumers (and voters, to bring it back to McCain) is about consumers saving money, not some weird ‘religious’ bullshit about spotted owls.
Peachy doesn’t get this (nor Beck neither, only orders of magnitude more stupidly). You’d almost think these elite, uniquely coddled journalists weren’t particularly worried about their gas and electric bills.
the fruit cocktail metaphor is a pretty excellent one. well done.
Didn’t that Jesus guy say something about being stewards of the Earth or something? Why don’t “christians” read a Bible sometime?
Myself I don’t give a rat’s ass how many SUVs you own. I’ve seen two Hummers in crashes totallly destroyed. One by a van that was hardly damaged at all. Made my day.
and I was first bitches!!! Working graveyard has finally paid off!!!
damn you, sarah !11!
All this talk of cherries and tater tots makes me wonder how the whole “saving Haiti” thing worked out.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9441.html
We are on track with that, eh? Buckets of brown rice tofu and hucksterismberry pie are enroute?
Peaches aren’t in season yet, but man-o-man my mouth waters at the prospect.
And some cheeky pineapple.
Bet they’d be loving that shit over there in Haiti… and whatever that other country is we can’t pronounce… Meenamar? Myanamer? Mryanemer?
Fuckit, Burma.
What’s commonly used to thicken juice and gravies in the home is cornstarch but guargum seems a better fit for K-Lo.
All this talk of tasty food- cherries and pasty white squares, tamales and parochial statis, hucksterismberry pie and spotted owl, Jello and sweet sweet panda meat makes me wonder how the whole “Feeding Haiti” thing is going.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9441.html
We’re on top of that right? Problem solved? No need for me to bucket up these leftover contemptuous greens, syrupy tendrils and restorative secretions? Cause that’s gonna cost me a pretty dime to fedex that stuff to Port-au-Prince. And a dime ain’t worth what it used to be back the last time i sent fruitcups off to those islands.
I’ve figured this out.
All we have to do is get everyone (Kos, Atrios, Digby, et al) to start drumming up the critical importance of saving the environment, and maybe even promote gay marriage, by NOT stabbing yourself in the kidneys with a flat-head screwdriver. Seriously, forget hybrids, it’s all about not stabbing yourself in the kidneys with a flathead screwdriver. We’ll have bumper stickers and tee shirts and commission Al Gore to do another documovie on it.
All the wingnuts will be dead within the year, and life shall move forward in peace and prosperity.
Beck and his “To piss libs off” bullshit.
I’ve written him daily for months letting him know how much it would piss me off to see him eat both barrels of a shotgun…
Sorry, I just kinda got into the whole tofu, brownrice and dingleberry snark thing without offering a solution.
Its actually pretty fucking easy, solving the world hunger thing. Stop subsidizing farmers.
See NZ
ps- possibly this has nothing to do with whatever the post was above. I’ll admit, i barely read the thing and what I did skim over made me think recipes. Pineapple and cherry and chunks of tepid tree-hugger stew recipes.
The mouth waters, eh?
So anyway, carry on, ignore me, I’m off to the grocery for some panda.
From what planet do these fruit cutlets get their air, water, and foodstuffs?
Excellent fruit cup metaphor D. Yes I think the tamale would be disastrously spicy to these folks, or the hummus.
Also, the whole bit about environmentalism being a religion– that is a fairly common trope of the right wing.
Armchair psychoanalysis always needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, but I think perhaps the attraction of that particular line of rhetoric has to do with the right wing authoritarian world-picture. I think that to these folks, anything which suggests a moral way of acting, has to be counted as a religion. Of course environmentalism isn’t really a religion, it’s a social movement. You can totally be an environmentalist and simultaneously also a Catholic. But Stuttaford might not believe that.
All I’m really saying is, the “green is just another religion” thing sounds like a line of bullshit. And it is. It’s a manipulative line of bullshit designed to twit liberals & greens. But, I think that perhaps the attraction of this particular line of bullshit to Stuttaford & other right-wingers is that they actually believe it on some level.
Never understood the anti-Greens, myself. There’s TONS of money to be made from it by developing and selling green tech to the world, there’s TONS of money to be SAVED by it, by not using electricity and fuel and the like. Sounds like a win-win-win to both Big Business and Ordinary Folx. Unless your one of the “I’m gonna bankrupt myself to show you ****ers” idiots, what’s to lose?
Just to show you, Glenn Beck is going to buy more frozen steaks as gifts!
http://www.allenbrothers.com/glenn-beck-favorites.html
…****ers” idiots, what’s to lose?
Have you checked with Halliburton and friends?
Also, the whole bit about environmentalism being a religion– that is a fairly common trope of the right wing.
By likening environmentalism to religion, it makes it easier for them to dismiss it as frivolous superstition…whereby their true feelings about religion (Christianity, too, I’m assuming) are revealed.
To them, it’s a deluded constituency that must be pandered to as any other.
Cynicism is the Karo syrup of the Cornhole’s fruit cup–it keeps those old ideas tumescent and tasty as the day they were preserved.
Glenn Beck just signed a $3M book deal, so I guess he’s the really high price tag affixed to that fruit cup.
The anti-greens, and indeed the entire conservative movement, is based upon an inherent fear of change. In reality, they are nature’s dead end: a creature completely incapable of adaptation. It’s what makes the fruit cup metaphor even more apropos. 50 years from now, you open the damn thing, and it still tastes like it would’ve today: bland, syrupy and simple.
As much as it might be fun to look down upon the humble fruit cup, it at least had a use, especially if you broaden the conception to include canning & jars.
At times in our history, there were places in this country where it was hard to get good fresh fruits into schools — and by fresh, I’m meaning literally not overripe or rotten. There are places in the world today where you have to balance the occasionally available fresh items with the storable items which don’t require delicate preservation.
Today’s right wingers, though, have no such metaphorical nutritive value as some packaged product bringing basic ingredients in a convenient (albeit wasteful) package.
They are more akin to the diseased fruits & vegetables and rotten meats which have been quickly cleaned up and sold to the vulnerable & unsuspecting, the bleached rotten chicken of Food Lion fame, except that they are both sold as fresh and nutritious and as what you really prefer.
Don’t make me think about K-Lo’s secretions, for the love of Jesus.
Calling environmentalism a religion is a way to get fundamentalists to equate it with those demon-infested animal-sacrificing homo-communist Pagans. If it’s a religion & it isn’t all about Teh Christ, it’s both false & evil. So they can go right back to passionately imploring said Christ for the miraculous bounty of yet another 1/2-Off Sale at Wal-Mart.
Given that it was started by an amazing young lady named Petra Kelly in GERMANY (- dunt dunt DUNNN!) I’m amazed that I’ve yet to hear about the menace of the looming crypto-fascist Green Movement from Herr Pantload – or did I mercifully miss it?
Don’t make me think about K-Lo’s secretions, for the love of Jesus.
The love of Jesus is the only identified cause of K-Lo’s secretions. Well, that and the love of Mittens Romney.
D. Aristophanes:
Of course they aren’t.
The defintion of “enough money” is that you have enough that you don’t have to worry about the bills.
Beck and Stuttaford, these guys clearly have “enough money”.
Neither of them has to run a business, where they would have to worry about the effect of energy prices on the bottom line, and their own personal energy bills are too small to notice in comparison to their income or personal wealth.
So, to them, environmentalism is just ‘feel good’ political pandering. Cost is a tertiary concern – at least until energy becomes a lot more expensive.
.
…whereby their true feelings about religion (Christianity, too, I’m assuming) are revealed.
To them, it’s a deluded constituency that must be pandered to as any other.
c. garret:
See, to me, it looks different. I know that right wingers appear to be cynically taking advantage of the rubes. (And, in fact, I am sure that they are often doing just that.)
But there’s a second possibility, both more laughable and more frightening: that right wingers actually, honestly believe that what they are saying. I think that often this is the actual state of affairs.
Wingnuts mis-construe environmentalists as being just another kind of religious extremist (the mirror images of themselves, in other words). Similarly, I think that often we progressives mis-construe wingnuts as being just another group of cynical individualists (the mirror image of ourselves, in other words.)
It sometimes seems to me that we “progressives” seriously mis-understand right-wingers. We should stop that.
Cf.: http://youtube.com/watch?v=iWRE-1K84o8
But there’s a second possibility, both more laughable and more frightening: that right wingers actually, honestly believe that what they are saying.
No question–point taken. We do tend to see the world as we see ourselves, don’t we?
Wingers are hardly a monolithic bunch; but the Cornholers in particular seem to be of the neo-Platonic, Straussian variety: noble lies and deceptions in service of the greater good (as they see it, anyway).
It’s ironic that we read about Beck’s ranting and such on the same day that oilman T. Boone Pickens announces he’s going to build a wind farm in Texas that will supply electricity to almost 1.5 million homes.
You’d think that if Pickens gets it, that the numbnuts in the GOP would get it as well.
And someone talked about the money to be made in green power…that goes both ways Up here in Maine we already have one wind farm. The company hired over 300 people to build the turbines, injected 20 million into the economy and are paying the host town another 10 million over 20 years. And now 25,000 households get their electricity from the wind and the company earns cash hand over fist. Everyone wins and the environment is the better for it.
Yeah. The Neoconservatives do seem to have a major thing for manipulation and deceit, don’t they.
And it’s hard to fight them when nearly the whole US media seems to want to play along.
Above: Packed in oil
Yuck! Fruit cocktail in oil?
Yeah, I don’t get this “I’m going deliberately blow money just to piss you off” either. Honestly, I think it’s that neo-cons are still stuck in the 60’s/70’s (as usual).
Back in the 60’s/70’s, pollution was an incredibly serious problem (from what I remember of the 70’s, everything had a beige, yellowish sepia tone), so environmental policy was “you can’t do this, and you can’t do that” in order to clean everything up. Now that those regulations have been in place for a while, and pollution is less of problem (except for developing countries where such regulations are lax/non-existent, such as China, Mexico, Brazil, etc.), there is more of a focus on “positive environmentalism”, or things we can do rather than can not do, such as develop better/more efficient technologies, and sustainable energy sources.
So while the rest of the world is pushing toward better technologies that can coincide with better environmental policy, the neocons are still stuck in the “environmentalists want to take my guns away, not let me pray in school, won’t let me drive a huge truck” attitude.
Yep, and Shell is investing in algae farming biofuel, which yields literally thousands of times more fuel (usually in the form of biodiesel) than corn ethanol. The largely public oil companies’ main business is selling fuel and energy (as opposed to the other half of petroleum, which is materials), so they have an interest in finding cheap energy sources to sell to the public at a profit.
So while the rest of the world is pushing toward better technologies that can coincide with better environmental policy, the neocons are still stuck in the “environmentalists want to take my guns away, not let me pray in school, won’t let me drive a huge truck” attitude.
The reaction to Obama’s Portland speech was the perfect example. He said, basically, “here are some positive things that you could do to improve the world and our reputation in it.” They heard, “I’m going to sign over control of your thermostat to the UN.” Funny how nobody interpeted Bush’s “Want to help with the war? Go shopping!” As a plan to force people out to the malls at gunpoint.
Glenn Beck just signed a $3M book deal
The first edition will be printed on Post-It! note pads.
When Obama says, “Yes we can,” they hear it as, “No you can not.”
Don’t call Beck a journalist. He’s a propagandist for Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Dick.
Cheney, that is.
This post is the long dark Libby to the Dole.
of the Dole.
/sigh
I blame WordPress.
When Obama says, “Yes we can,” they hear it as, “No you can not.”
Or else as “Yes, you must”
Or else as “Yes, you have to or you don’t get to go to the shooting range. Why? Because I said so, that’s why! Now just go do it before I give you something to cry about.”
Unfortunately, with the tens of millions he’s getting for his pathetic show, and for his new book deal, he can probably idle his SUV, and eat steaks until he bursts…
He appeals to the reptilian lizard-brain of the disenfranchised who don’t want to believe that their disappearing lifestyles are the fault of the Corporate Aristocracy and the Republican Party…it must be the Liberals, black, polar bears, Mexicans etc, etc, etc……
Beck will propagandize for any big dick really. He’s the cuckold of Liberal Fascism.
Waitwaitwait…
Who is McJowels supposed to be pandering to? I thought that the Corner’s worldview was that America is fundamentally conservative and that only far-left DFHs care about the environment.
One would only pander to a group if it represented an opportunity to swing votes toward oneself, away from one’s opponent. And that would require more voters to come to your side than you would piss off. So is this an implicit admission that people believe the environment is important? Do they have to believe six imposible things before breakfast at the Corner?
Never mind that ‘pandering’ amounts to saying stuff you don’t believe…and how is that any sort of principled position? Are we seeing the bones of the conservatives? Power above all?
What a great bunch.
Listeners describe him as a close friend.
That’s the saddest thing ever uttered in the English language.
God put the resources of the world here for Americans to use.
In his infinite wisdom, he left enough resources to last until the End Times.
Anyone who is advocating environmental concerns hates God.
Which will make God angry and he will bring on the End Times sooner because Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize while a great American like Bill O’Reilly was denied a Peabody. (Oh. Wait. Bill O’Reilly is an independent who only coincidentally says everything I agree with because I’m an independent too. So that means I shouldn’t like him as much. I think. Better check the Big Golden Book of Republican Talking Points to find out what I think …)
I can’t remember if I was going anyhere with this. It’s kind of like a Thomas Sowell column. (Insert gratuitous and nonsensical slam at global warming here.)
Liberals. Hmf.
Wingnuts are kind of like the traditional antisemitic in that they believe their enemies are both effete wimps vastly outnumbered by good folk and powerful masterminds who can control everyone’s thoughts.
The picture makes me think of High Anxiety: “If you’re late for dinner you don’t get any fruit cup”
I can’t remember if I was going anyhere with this. It’s kind of like a Thomas Sowell column. (Insert gratuitous and nonsensical slam at global warming here.)
If there’s global warming going on, then HOW COME IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!!one1!
(Triumphant smirk, handslapping with fellow wingnuts)
Well, it’s not cold outside. We had record-breaking heat all weekend. So it would look silly if I said that.
Let me check the Big Golden Book of Republican Talking Points.
Hmmhmmhmm …
Oh. I guess I CAN say that it’s cold outside. Apparently we conservatives are confident and manly types who don’t cave on the issues and so we are expected to look silly by sticking to our guns no matter how silly we look.
(Except when we aren’t consistent (see McCain, John). But that’s OK because only Democrats (who have no record of flip-flopping) can be called flip-floppers by the Republican definition.)
Liberals. Hmf.
If there’s global warming going on, then how come it’s cold INSIDE!!11!
Oh wait. Thermostat. Never mind.
Love the title. just sayin’.
Billy Bragg’s a favorite of mine.
Re: religion and faith, from an AP story about Iowan churches going green:
“Every faith tradition has an ethic that calls us to care for creation, but we’ve ignored that for hundreds and hundreds of years,” said Sarah Webb, a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls. “The environmental crisis is calling us to action, and people are now looking to their faith traditions for inspiration.”
A recent poll by Phoenix-based Ellison Research found 41 percent of Americans believe harming the environment is a sin.
On March 10, the Vatican made that proclamation official, listing pollution—along with drug use, genetic manipulation and social and economic injustice—as areas of sinful behavior for today’s believers. Later that day, leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention released a statement saying: “There is undeniable evidence that the Earth—wildlife, water, land and air—can be damaged by human activity, and that people suffer as a result.”
[…]
Muslims believe the earth is subservient to man, but that humans have a responsibility to not exploit the environment. Jewish texts teach that God renews his creation daily, and that humans are both a part of nature and separate from it. Christians believe the biblical figure Noah agreed to a holy covenant that would ensure nature’s gifts belong to the human race as long as we respect the earth and each other. One of the guiding principles of Unitarianism is an interdependent web of existence.
For Catholics, climate change is also a social justice issue. Impoverished Americans are hit hardest by rising energy costs, and developing nations are already feeling the effect of food shortages and environmental disasters linked to global warming, said Dave Cushing, director of adult faith formation for Waterloo’s four Roman Catholic parishes.
“This isn’t a political issue anymore,” he said. “It’s a moral issue, an ethical issues and a justice issue.
Just throwing that out there.
atheist @ 15:41
I think that often we progressives mis-construe wingnuts as being just another group of cynical individualists (the mirror image of ourselves, in other words.)
very important point IMO. The differences between wingnuts and progressives aren’t so much horizontal (“mirror image”) as they are vertical (developmental).
Paul Rosenberg wrote on this a few years back:
Levels of Cognitive Development
(Rosenberg’s premises and conclusions have roots in the empirically-grounded model of self-development pioneered by Jane Loevinger and colleagues.)
PeeJ @19:23
The picture makes me think of High Anxiety: “If you’re late for dinner you don’t get any fruit cup”
Nurse Diesel sends her regards.
Thanks, Centaur, for the linky. Neat stuff.
So I imagine they are stuck at #2.
In a totally Freudian way.
WereBear @ 2:41
So I imagine they are stuck at #2. In a totally Freudian way.
yes! I’ll take “developmental arrest” for $500, Alex.
And it doesn’t take much more than a cursory glance at the description of Stage #2 in the Rosenberg article, combined with a cross-check with Robert Altemeyer’s authoritarian follower personality type, to come to the strong suspicion that these researchers are looking at the same subpopulation, only from slightly different angles.
these are people whose self development freezes somewhere around early adolescence (?).
these are people whose self development freezes somewhere around early adolescence
…um, these being in reference to the authoritarian followers, not the researchers.
(Clarity of writing being a virtue)
Pedant Alert!
Just to mention: the phrase “Will it play in Peoria” comes from the practice of taking a theatrical show out of New York – specifically Peoria, but other places too – to work on it until it was ready for Broadway. Rewrites, different cast, new music… Whatever changes were needed were tried on these trips.
This meant the audiences in smaller surrounding towns saw shows before New York did; if those audiences saw the same show (on the same run) several times, they could see the changes as they happened and judge for themselves whether the effect was an improvement or not. Sometimes, an audience was brought in as the director was working, so they literaly saw a show on the fly.
Bottom line: the audiences in the towns surrounding New York developed a more sophisitcated taste than those in the city itself, and were a much valued gague producers came to rely on. Until a show DID “play in Peoria” it wasn’t sent to New York, and some shows that never worked out died before they made Broadway.
Bows and exits, stage left
As atheist indicates above, this “environmentalism is a religion” bee ess is a popular RW squawking point. So popular that Jonah Pantload typed his newspaper column on the subject today, describing himself as “a conservationist, not an environmentalist,” linking conservatism w/ conservation, etc.
The usual disconnected quasi-ideas strung together, of course. Maybe K-Lo is making everyone down on The Corner type on the same subject, best typist wins.
Thursday @ 3:27 wrote:
Bottom line: the audiences in the towns surrounding New York developed a more sophisitcated taste than those in the city itself, and were a much valued gague producers came to rely on. Until a show DID “play in Peoria” it wasn’t sent to New York, and some shows that never worked out died before they made Broadway.
johnnycarson: I did not know that.
Weird, wild stuff!
edmcmahon: Ho ho ho ho ho!