"Identifying The Enemy or Stupid Rethuglicans!"

*To my one or two readers and the occasional person that wanders through by search engine or whatever...I have been on a little sabbatical, but I have returned! Let's party!

"Against stupidity the very Gods fight in vain." -Schiller

Seems I cannot go a day without reading about some idiot, usually rethuglican, saying something stupid and without any merit to make a point...Last week it was that idiot Bill Oh'Really?! Today we have a new idiot in the spotlight...Meet Michael Medved...He is a movie reviewer and talk show host and now confirmed right wingnut idiot...This guy might make the idiot of the week this Friday...He's got the early lead! Mike claims that slavery wasn't all that bad and neither was Amerikkka's role in it...

From the Town Hall:

Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery

Those who want to discredit the United States and to deny our role as history’s most powerful and pre-eminent force for freedom, goodness and human dignity invariably focus on America’s bloody past as a slave-holding nation. Along with the displacement and mistreatment of Native Americans, the enslavement of literally millions of Africans counts as one of our two founding crimes—and an obvious rebuttal to any claims that this Republic truly represents “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” According to America-bashers at home and abroad, open-minded students of our history ought to feel more guilt than pride, and strive for “reparations” or other restitution to overcome the nation’s uniquely cruel, racist and rapacious legacy.

Unfortunately, the current mania for exaggerating America’s culpability for the horrors of slavery bears no more connection to reality than the old, discredited tendency to deny that the U.S. bore any blame at all. No, it’s not true that the “peculiar institution” featured kind-hearted, paternalistic masters and happy, dancing field-hands, any more than it’s true that America displayed unparalleled barbarity or enjoyed disproportionate benefit from kidnapping and exploiting innocent Africans. More! (if you can stomach it)

Our good friends over at Crooks & Liars have been nice enough to pull out his six points he calls "inconvenient truths", I call just more bullshit and excuses...From Crooks & Liars:

The entire op-ed is too long to cut and paste here, and a snippet would do it no justice. So for your amusement (or if you read the whole thing, as I did–stay away from sharp objects–revulsion), here are the bullet points upon which Medved makes his case, ironically entitled Six Inconvenient Truths:

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.

2. Slavery existed only briefly, and in limited locales, in the history of the republic - involving only a tiny percentage of the ancestors of today’s Americans.

3. Though brutal, slavery wasn’t genocidal: live slaves were valuable but dead captives brought no profit.

4. It’s not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: the most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves.

5. While America deserves no unique blame for the existence of slavery, the United States merits special credit for its rapid abolition.

6. There is no reason to believe that today’s African Americans would be better off if their ancestors had remained behind in Africa.

Please don't get me started on slavery again! You know we can only talk about slavery during February and then why complain it wasn't that bad...Lot of black folks think the same way...Slavery never went anywhere they just adapted to enslave everyone not just the black man this time...We are all slaves to the corporate theocracy that America is rapidly becoming...Anyway, let's go over Mr. Medved's idiotic claims and see if we can refute them with just some plain old logic and real history not his-story...

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.

1a. Yes slavery was ancient however never an institution until America started exporting it's products to the rest of the world, then it became not only an institution but a mind set, which was uniquely American. Slavery wasn't necessarily race based until it came to America...

2. Slavery existed only briefly, and in limited locales, in the history of the republic - involving only a tiny percentage of the ancestors of today’s Americans.

2a. Slavery existed in America for at least 300 years I don't know about you but three hundred years is a long time to be doing anything let alone working for free, and it was hard work...The whole country benefited from slavery and anyone born since then is affected by slavery...Again we are all slaves to our corporate masters...Here is a pre-civil war map of free vs slave states...I love that open to slavery category! Unbelievable!

Don't let this map fool you either...New York supported slavery for two hundred years and it existed in Boston and all up and down the east coast...They may have abolished it sooner in the North but they still supported and benefited from it...So again Mr. Medved's claims are bogus at best stupid on the surface!

3. Though brutal, slavery wasn’t genocidal: live slaves were valuable but dead captives brought no profit.

3a. At the height of the slave trade, nothing was more valuable than human trafficking! The only thing more valuable was the land itself...At the same time the shear number of slaves was growing exponentially, therefore that same slave meant nothing to them other than someone to do whatever work needed to be done that could be replaced at any time...

4. It’s not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: the most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves.

4a It is very true that America became filthy rich buy not paying wages for work performed...We can use simple logic and reasoning here...If I pay you a wage for your labor then I cannot make as much as I can if I do not pay you...There were more millionaires along the Mississippi Delta back in the 1800's then there were in the whole country...Remember the Northern states had the textile and manufacturing technology, therefore they still benefited from the slave labor long after they abolished slavery themselves...

5. While America deserves no unique blame for the existence of slavery, the United States merits special credit for its rapid abolition.

5a. Again we can see here that Mr. Medved is just stupid...America turned slavery into a cottage industry especially after the cotton gin was invented...Nothing is rapid about 300 years and even then it took a long bloody civil war to finally end it, as it was then...Slavery has never went anywhere just adapted to the times...

6. There is no reason to believe that today’s African Americans would be better off if their ancestors had remained behind in Africa.

6a. There is no reason to believe otherwise either Mr Medved...Not only can he re-write history, he has seen the alternative reality and he is telling us we wouldn't like that one either...I mean how do you logically answer\argue something like this?! Here I have to invoke the Third Law of Stupidity, which clearly states among other things;

A stupid creature will harass you for no reason, for no advantage, without any plan or scheme and at the most improbable times and places. You have no rational way of telling if and when and how and why the stupid creature attacks. When confronted with a stupid individual you are completely at his mercy. Because the stupid person's actions do not conform to the rules of rationality, it follows that:

one is generally caught by surprise by the attack; even when one becomes aware of the attack, one cannot organize a rational defense, because the attack itself lacks any rational structure. More!

So here we have another idiot trying to downplay America's role in slavery...Rewriting history and bringing up bizarre nonsensical statements...Typically rethuglican and most definitely stupid!




Stupidly Happy!
10-acious_D
The New Defenders of The Deaf, Dumb & Blind!
(at least they have an excuse)

I see stupid people counters