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Originally Posted by Linus
I'm watching this on MSNBC right now. It's an interesting piece but I wonder how much stuff like this creates divisiveness within the US by creating an "us" vs "them" ideology? This is something that seems to have grown (probably starting in the Reagan era and continued from there). Some of the sound bites have been interesting thus far ("The islamics are taking over everything in the US! The President isn't even Christian!").
What is also interesting is that the Militia numbers have tripled in membership and number of groups (from the 300s in the 80s to 500s+ today).
Anyone else watching this?
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I watched this over the weekend (and will probably watch it again when I'm less distracted) and found it interesting although, quite honestly, I think this documentary comes a day late and a dollar short. The MSM is behaving as if this is a new phenomena on the American scene when, in fact, this movement has long and deep roots in American conservatism. As far as the 'us vs. them' thing; at some point, you have to realize that they DO mean you harm. I don't consider it us vs them to state what is plainly obvious--there is a non-trivial part of American conservatives who want to make America
active hostile to queer people. Acknowledging this isn't divisive, it is merely talking about reality in unvarnished terms.
By actively hostile, I mean this; for the most part, the state of play in America vis a vis queers is one of spotty but largely passive hostility. Sodomy, for instance, is currently legal in all fifty states and in most states being queer will not automatically lose you custody of your children. The Texas GOP would like to change *both* of those and since it's in the Texas GOP platform in 2010 you can bet those provisions will also be in the 2012 national GOP platform. Now I, for one, appreciate the Texas GOP for being so out-front because it makes it easier to point out what they are doing. However, it is disturbing that they feel so comfortable putting out such a document that is so blatant in its bigotry. Again, this isn't 'us vs. them' any more than claiming that the segregationists in Alabama circa 1961 were bigots and in the wrong.
While mainstream conservatives bear quite a bit of responsibility for this, I also have to point a finger at the mainstream media and at liberals for letting this go unchecked. The mainstream media has, for about two decades done this false 'objectivity' that ends up being 'report what one person says, then report what another person says but don't actually follow-up'. So we now have a media that behaves like this: "Sarah Palin said that the sky is green and the moon is made of cotton balls. Some "scientists" say that the sky is blue and that the moon is made of rock." Those two statements are then treated as if either one could be equally true. The problem with this is that we have now raised a generation of folks who no longer even have the ability to determine whether a statement is true or false nor do they see any reason why they should *care*. It doesn't really matter if global climate change is *actually* happening, as long as Lord Monckton is willing to get up and say it isn't people will say "well, it might not be happening so the envirowhackos are trying to scare people so they can have a One World Government". It doesn't matter if that statement is crazy on its face, crazy has come in from the cold in American politics.
Worse yet, liberals have sat pretty much silently by and allowed this to happen. From teaching creationism in schools to climate change to gay rights liberals AND progressives have fallen back or, worse, ignored the threat. They did this by minimizing the influence of folks like Pat Robertson, making the religious right out to be nothing more than a few hundred people, meeting in a basement church and, as such, safely ignored.
So now we have a conservative movement with its own, parallel media universe that is large and has reach and that movement has been seized by the most extreme right-wingers available in the country. Because of this, conservatism has become unmoored from anything that might be generously called reality with drastic consequences for us all.
Chris Matthews (who I really, really wish would lose his job because he's a horrible interviewer) has done a public service in highlighting what the New Right believes in their own words but it comes a day late and a dollar short.
Cheers
Aj