Elitism is Real and it's Making the Tea Party Bigger
Whoa, OMG, WTF...the Tea Party made me think a thought beyond, "how do I stop these people from being relevant?" But it's still in that vein.
It made me wonder: am I an elitist?
And why do I give a a rat's ass? Because if I am guilty of being an elitist, then I am exactly what they want me to be. I by virtue of reacting to idiocy the way I do, in a slight way, justify the existence of the Tea Party. Really, those tea bagging nut jobs are just there to prove that the average American truly is average (or below average) in many things: intelligence, wages, education, and common sense. By attempting to reveal myself as the complete opposite, I justify their existence.
In reviewing Gawker.com's stellar spread on The Teabonics Dictionary , I found myself scoffing with superiority at my ability to point out spelling errors. I also found myself scoffing at the daft notion that any one could be such an imbecile as to only get their news from the television and not to explore it on the internet.
Reality check to my brain: you're one of very few elitists that do that.
Reality check number two: it doesn't make you better than anyone else. You don't read the news like it's crack for other people, you do it for yourself, smart ass.
So why slather all my unnecessary mental Napoleon complex all over this post? Because it's how I really feel and I know I am not the only one. Yes, I feel that I am smarter than conservatives, the Tea Partiers, Sarah Palin, and any member of the senate or congress aside from Barney Frank (he totally pwns everyone). I can feel that way all day long, it doesn't change anything in reality.
In reality, the Tea Partiers are doing more to change the world than I am. They are going out into the media-space, for people to gawk at, one at a time, with giant obnoxious and slanderous signs. I am sitting here, hiding behind my internets, only bringin' up my beliefs when they become part of an exceedingly inappropriate business conversation (in which, my strategy is to announce that I am a socialist as soon as possible so as to end said conversation).
I'm not making a difference by being an extremist, but I might be able to make a difference by being normal.
Tina Fey once said it an interview that she is unlike other comedians because she is normal. She said that she felt she became famous for being normal. The number of things that can be learned from Tina Fey are pretty much fucking endless, but this one is a real shining beacon: especially when we're talking about winning a philosphical battle which isn't of the wits or minds, but of history and generational discourse.
I do, in the depths of my cranium, believe that a progressive society is one that seeks policy and practice that is humanitiarian and naturalist. This is the type of world that will keep us safe from our selfish nature, which in a world of scarce resources (technologically, agriculturally, monetarily, and intellectually) will doom us. However in daily life, my fellow elitists and I will grant less power to our Tea Party adversaries if we simply behave normally, logically, and openly. If Republicans are the party of "no" us liberals ought to the the party of "let's talk about it".
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Amy A
big fat trauma queen
Sheldon The Wonderhorse
BikeLizard
WriteNOWMom
Del Stone
Salon.com
Comments
Thinking is silent.
Unless I'm arguing with myself, again.
I took a quiz last night (yes, an online quiz, I'm a masochist) that informed me I'm equally right and left brained. This would explain why, I too, argue with myself constantly...silently.
Thank you.
I think that should be on a t-shirt. "NOT A RACIST IDIOT AND PROUD OF IT!" ha.
Meghan McCain once wrote an excellent blog entitled something like, "the GOP doesn't understand sex." And sooooo...
The GOP/Tea Party's fear of sex, sexuality, and slang has finally bit them in the pass: they named their big grand ol' movement after a term for putting one's nutsack on another person's face. Ignorance leads to really really embarrassing mistakes.
I love your teacher analogy. I also love your comments regarding debate. Last night on the Colbert Report they examined common weekly news show (like Meet the Press) debate and it was likened to Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny arguing about something inane. Of course the audience and myself erupted with laughter as that metaphor is unfortunately 110% accurate.
I had a huge discussion with my fiancee about the abortion debate a while ago. We're both pro-choice but I was making the mistake of saying, "you'll never understand how mad pro-lifers make me because you're a man." Well, while it's kinda true, it's also dumbing him down, and it's mean. He wisely pointed out that the most successful revolts in history have been the quiet patient ones, not those who yell the loudest. When the Tea Party screams, our natural reaction is to yell louder with different points. But that won't change their minds, it only make them more adamant. We can teach, we can be patient, and only through understanding can we remedy wrongheaded thinking.
Hopefully most bloggers at least try to make their daily mullings-over helpful to the world. I've definitely encountered some that don't.
The real irony of conservatism is that any wealth that group accumulated was due to the massive real estate boom of the last 50 years (hence the retired individuals and women in good shoes). Their wealth wasn't accumulated due to hard work or independence as the movement would like us all to believe. Those of us that were either too young or too poor to get in on it are fucked and are probably liberals.
But I've decided that trying to be calm and reasonable and logical in the face of this insanity isn't going to get us anywhere. You really think you're going to talk those lunatics down?
Maybe in the long run the truth will out. When we're all dead and buried.
In the meantime, I'm going to give as good as I get.
http://shoryland.com/2010/04/tea-party-wants-to-kill-your-child.html
This is it, isn't it? Beautifully said.
Rated.
If I misread, I do apologize.
It's just that too often in the past, our "logical," willingness-to-talk approach has not been accompanied by the backbone necessary to stand up to these people; rather, we've mumbled our truths, then slunk out the door with our tail between our legs when we're shouted down. That must end.
If that's what you mean, count me in as an ally.
Actually I think it's the closed minded elitists that did this. The movement was originally just called the tea party movement.
But if thinking about sex is preferable to thinking about what the actual issue is, then heck, by all means allow name-calling to distract you. It also works for "demon" democrats and "repugnant" republicans -- as you probably know.
Yup, we're definitely on the same page. I don't know exactly how to go about it, but the collective think should be coaxed gently and logically to a progressive collective think - but we should be relentless about it. Maybe the "relentless" part is the part I didn't communicate well. If I knew how to do it though, well shit, I'd publish a how-to guide.
I am curious how to keep oneself safe from one's own nature. I think you are confused in some of your concepts. When people start to rail against self interest, I start to wonder about the validity of other interest. Even the Bible mentions the primacy of self love.
Basically, if your own desires are not morally considerable, why would your neighbor's be? I just don't think the kind of thought process that leads one to indict interest in the self can consistently lead one to value some other individual's interests. If you, in your elitist enlightment, have figured that one out, please share.
Great. Likewise, some of us on the right need to have the same tactic. The din level is not coming out from just the right or the left speaker, as it were, it is in stereo there, and those who will sit down and talk about dwindles as the discourse coarsens. Robert Reich and Alan Simpson paired up for a PBS show called" the Long and Short of it" for years. Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton have been going around discussing education. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were fast friends who worked on a number of things.
So, yeah, let's talk about it.
Black, Hispanic, or other; Jewish, Muslim, or other; poor, unpropertied, student, working-class union member, female = ELITE everyone else.
I do not understand this math.
When a person is "elite" because they believe in spelling and civility, what does "elite" even mean anymore? Where does that put "average"?
You've already given away the argument by accepting the definitional premise.
Unless we're as active as the 'baggers, we're giving them the playing field.
In order to argue the norm, one must acknowledge it. Despite the fact that the norm is fucking ridiculous and illogical, it just IS as you have defined it in your comment. I agree with you on all counts, however, I decided to discuss the feeling of discrepancy between elitist and Tea Partier rather than what it tactically is.
Absolutely. Write, write, write away !
Asta (what a beautiful name by the way) try not to attribute total understanding of what comprises the Tea Party movement to the clips and posters you see, which is rarely flattering of any movement, nor be offended by some of us that don't articulate or elocute perfectly. You would live quite happily and comfortably in our midst (if not at Tea).
The revolutionary soldiers (or a union soldier) if you had cornered one for questioning may have offended you with their non-elite erudition, and one may betray a prejudice of some sort (similar to the one our President has for police). But faced by one of the founding fathers on the other hand, maybe you’d better avoid interaction as not to allow your intellect to be challenged by those superior on that regard. (Me too by the way.)
Upon acquiring this elitism you speak of is there any chance that you have, along the way, lost a bit of the meaning of what the Founders meant when creating this great nation? Many of us Tea Party types may not have the capacity (as you do) to fully grasp the intelligence of it, but we certainly are trying. And when we fall short of it we lean on those of us who do in a big way. (Bill Whittle and David Barton come to mind).
All we ask you elites do is compare the policies of government you might presently endorse against the intent of the authors of this great liberty, and if you find an incompatibility, and can’t face it directly (because of the scorn of your peers) at least sponsor one of us rubes to secretly protest on your behalf. We’ll let you make the sign so everything is spelled well. I can only imagine how embarrassing it might be for you but I understand. But then I may be flattering myself.
The founders.. and Lincoln had this weird idea that the people if given the truth, could be counted on to do the right thing. Sounds risky I know, but look where it got us. I read the other day that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. Imagine that. Why didn’t I know that? I want so much to be an elite. Will you sponsor me?
Wayne Harropson (by the way I’m married, but don’t tell Tina if she asks)
The intellectually lazy will always be a major problem for our democracy. Convincing the lazy to start reading and questioning is foolish. The achievable objective of thinking Americans should be to protect ouselves from the inevitable catastrophes created by our foolish and lazy fellow citizens. One doesn't want the East or West coasts to end up like the failed red states in the heartland and the South.