John Avalon
Beast Books 2010
Wingnuts attempts and succeeds in exploring the ever-polarizing nature of the political discourse in this country.
It also illuminates the (hopefully) clear fact that more and more people are getting fed up with the bullshit and abandoning traditional "party" values and becoming independents. More than on Avalon makes mention of the growing number of Independents in this country, and how few Americans classify themselves as strictly conservative, strictly liberal, strictly Republican or strictly Democrat.
Only the talking heads on the far ends of the spectrum, who are constantly attempting to radicalize the discourse (often in order to gain attention) are the ones who think the way they do. Unfortunatley, it doesn't take much fear to get someone to grab ahold of a leader and proclaim allegiance, no matter how retarded their ideas are.
I used to be pretty far out there. It took time and patience for me to finally simmer down after my collegiate explosion of radical Fuckyouism. It's still here, just on the back burner. I had a whole new world to explore and I quickly found out that it was out to get me.
After several years of hearing that any day now the world was going to end, I figured out that the world wasn't going to end, and that the only way to keep peoples' attention in this country is to keep them freaked out all of the time.
I recognized the power of fear, and I understood it for the mind killer that it is.
Avalon does a great job of illimunating the extreme absurdities on both the left and the right side of the contemporary political spectrum.
People who have no accountability are free to say whatever kind of nonsensical bullshit they like. This gains traction in the echo chambers of "with us or against us" mentalitiy and eventually, unfortunately, winds up on the senate floor.
The people largely responsible for this nonsense (Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann, Sarah Palin, et al) have no responsibility to act like sane people. They're free to go on their radio shows and report that SOME SAY that puppies have been brainwashed by Al Quaeda to report our eating habits to Obama so they can work together to poison our food. Then they'll go on their TV shows and report it like it's news. Some say that puppies are more dangerous than militant Islam to our freedom and way of life.
Normal people know that puppies aren't responsible for anything malicious. Normal people know that the United States isn't undergoing a communist takeover, and normal people know that there probably won't be any kind of armed revolution in the United States. Ever. But it doesn't take much to scare the fuck out of people and get them thinking that it might happen. From might, it's not hard to lead them to likely. From likely to inevitable isn't really all that far. And from inevitable to imminent is just a matter of time.
Fortunately for us, most people in the United States want to return to the center. We're not extremists, we're just represented by them.
Avalon offers some ideas for dissolving the wingnuts in all of their nutty glory, but it can really just be summed up like this: Don't panic.
Ever wonder why the pundits never run for office, even though they seem to have all of the answers? It's because they're not accountable to anyone. They control the memory hole and can say and do whatever they want.
I can't do the book justice. It's full of gems which both enlighten and incense the reader. I'll provide a few.
"Demagogues always arise when the economy goes south, offering a narcotic for the nervous and dispossessed, with occasionally violent side effects."
Check.
"The fringe is now blurring with the base, enforcing a bitter and predictable partisanship. The most influential figures are political entertainers like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck-- they are leaders without the responsibility of governing, a combination that encourages the demonization of difference and the condemnation of compromise."
Check.
"These political performers become prisoners of their own shtick-- they cannot evolve or they will be called traitors by the tribe they have cultivated. They can only move in one direction: further into the extremes."
Check, check, check.
"It's a reminder of what the Czech dissident-turned-president Vaclav Havel once wrote:"Ideology offers human beings the illusion of dignity and morals while making it easier to part with them."
Holy shit. Someone give that man a leadership position.... wait... he went and got one for himself.
"But when you pull the curtain back on Wingnut politics, behind the all-or-nothing demands, apocalyptic warnings and the addiction to self-righteous anger, you'll see that fear is the motivating factor: fear of the other; fear wrapped up in the American flag; fear calling itself freedom."
Nuff said.
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