OT: Brutal Hatemail

Comments

# William said on January 15, 2005 3:58 PM:

8 dollah 8 dollah soldier boy .. 8 dollah !!

# William said on January 16, 2005 9:47 PM:

Hmm, but the Repubs are better at redistricting.

I have no brief for yellow dawg Democrats. I agree that they have redistricted and gerrymandered for a hundred years in order to pervert the intent of the Constitution. The problem is that the Republicans can pay smart programmers more.

What we need is a politics built on social class in which people who live from paycheck to paycheck no longer feel ashamed of it and start demanding health insurance...and no destruction of Social Security.

We also need to stop worrying about being cast into the underclass. I noticed when more or less deliberately unemployed and broke during the writing of Build Your Own, my "friends" from Silicon Valley who unlike me had cashed in on housing were nervous around me and scornful when they'd had a few, blaming me for my "problems".

Whereas the gang at Apress and Desaware, true class acts, were supportive all the way.

The foul hatred to which Michelle Mallin is subject comes from twisted souls, although I've had a few choice thoughts myself about Anne Coulter. We are responsible for our choices but at the same time, we're unnecessarily damaged by a culture of "winners" and "losers" in which the "losers", instead of growing up, take out their rage in anonymous posting and hate mail.

These sorts of posts, Bill, come from both the Left and Right.

# William said on January 16, 2005 10:23 PM:

Bill, one thing to keep in mind is the brutal war going on in America for hearts and minds, one in which RELATIVELY minor issues will be used to "prove" what we'd like to believe: that the President and the administration have our interests at heart.

In Catholic school in Gary Indiana in the 1950s, Croatian priests and laymen told us constantly that Communism was worse than Naziism and that the Devil himself was going to "get" us if we didn't hew the line. With the result that my seventh grade performance went to hell because I was so busy making sure I didn't have a "bad" (Communist) thought.

Key to this war for mindshare is a sort of "regular" grammar, a simplified grammar in which the hate mail sent to a conservative columnist "proves" that the Devil is on the other side of a bipolar situation.

I can't tell you how many lives this has damaged, including a poor clown in Chicago's Loop who walks through the Loop every day passing out leaflets that accuse "Russian Communists" of causing his problems.

In fact, the world is very complicated but at the same time knowable. I "know" that Bush is a big mistake (one nonetheless partly determined by the secret fears of the American middle class) in part because I've tried to do my homework...and in part because he reminds me of Stevie Fifield, a guy in my neighborhood when I was a kid.

Fifield is now Chicago's answer to Don Trump, but when he was a kid, he was just the neighborhood bully. My Dad, as the physician who had to take care of one of Fifield's victims, practically came to blows with Fifield's dad because his dad would not curb the guy.

Fifield (much in the manner of Trump) went on to basically expropriate millions from several Chicago banks in failed real estate ventures. According to an article in Crain's business in 1991, he was bankrupt but today, Fifield denies this.

The guy, like Bush, has redeeming qualities. He's done a lot for Chicago and is a good family man. Nonetheless, I find it strange that real estate speculation as opposed to actually creating something valuable is a path to riches, and here in Hong Kong, people are regularly dispossessed by similar speculation.

Basically, my world view sees the bullies of the 1950s and the dope dealers of the seventies as the new ruling class, and I think that "another world is possible".

We're told, regularly, that college professors don't know their azz from a hole in the ground and that self-seeking guys like Tony Soprano will somehow make it right. Lani Guinier was toasted for her "wacky" ideas such as mere proportional representation and an end to "winner take all" elections...in which people who might like PART of the Bush programme get ALL of it.

Lani was hounded out of public life. Today, Ron Chertoff, a US prosecutor who's apparently let goombahs off the hook while locking up innocent Moslems after 9-11, is up for director of Homeland Security, the previous guy having been too much of a goombah.

I'd rather have college professors with "wacky" ideas so that I have more time to write books, and don't have to take VB dev jobs from people I don't know and can't trust merely to survive.

# William said on January 16, 2005 10:27 PM:

Edward - yes, I concur. that was a Right Winger that was being pretty vile toward Andrew. I think a really big problem is that when you act in a way that's inconsistent with you someone thinks you should - a lot of time that's met with scorn. I forget the guy's name but there was a case that was settled after like 30 years. A Black man whistled at a White woman and was killed for it by some racist scumbags. He wasn't acting how they perceived Black people should be acting. It's when the "How you should be acting" is schizophrenic or unfair that the problems happen. After all, we all would agree that children shouldn't be molested. I think everyone in society should behave accordingly and have no problem condeming people who don't behave in that manner. But take Malkin in this instance, each of those hate mails made reference to her ethnicity and that somehow because of it - that made her a whore. That's utterly ridiculous - she has as much right to her beliefs as anyone else. If they are 'wrong' or 'right' they are so based on their own merits, not because she's of a given ethnicity.

To be totally honest Edward, when I lived in Spartanburg before a few years ago - I disliked how so many "Christian Republicans" that I worked with behaved that I used to tell people I was a devout liberal and card carrying member of the ACLU (the group many of them consider enemy #1) just so they wouldn't talk to me about politics. In Miami it was just the opposite. I personally don't see how anyone can be a thinking person and blindly side with either party - or the left or right for that matter. I know that on many issues (particularly on economics and defense), I'm pretty far to the right. Socially, I'm pretty far on the left. I have a lot of friends on both sides and yes, neither side has a monopoly on being ugly. It's really ridiculous but depending on where you are, you can make a lot of enemies/friends really quickly just by telling someone your beliefs on say Abortion. Like an opinion on one subject could possibly define the complexity of someone.

Ann Coulter is a piece of work. However I think a lot of that is pure schtick. I've no doubt that she believes most of what she talks about - but she really plays it up and I doubt anyone could humanly have so many 'strong' opinions about so many different areas.

About the only thing you wrote that I can't really agree with is the part about demanding more. I don't think people should be embarassed about being broke, poor or whatever. Totally agree there. But ultimately we have more control over our lives (at least in this country) than anything or anyone else does. Just because Bush is president doesn't mean that I can't succeed - any more than Clinton being president could. I could have the dream team of politicos in office and still get fired if I acted like an idiot. And If I came up with Google or microsoft, I'd be rich regardless of who was in power. But the demanding more thing - not sure about all that. Let's just take the case of people that we can totally agree on - caused their own misfortune. The fact that they made some bad decisions shouldn'tgive them automatic right to my money. One thing I really hate is how we subsidize having children in this country. I don't have any - that was a choice of mine. But people who did - even if they couldn't afford them, will get to keep a lot mroe money come tax time because of it. To me, that's ridiculous. As far as Social Security goes - I wish they would run it according to GAAP. If any private company did accounting like the Social Security Administration did, they be front and center getting prosecuted. This is a bi-partisan problem. I personally don't like being forced to contribute to my retirement in a system that pretty much doesn't yeild much - but that's another story ;-)

# William said on January 16, 2005 10:41 PM:

Edward - gotta agree with you there. There ar emany whacko profs out there, but compared to Lawyers? Come on. Give me a professor any day of the week.

<<Basically, my world view sees the bullies of the 1950s and the dope dealers of the seventies as the new ruling class, and I think that "another world is possible". >>
Amen to that. A lot of good came out of the sixties era but so did Pat Buchanan and teddy Kennedy. Enough said there.

I didn't agree with many of Guaniers views, but she got screwed on that one. In the book - A mathematician reads the newspaper - he blows apart the whole "Quota Queen" notion - contrasting her REAL viewpoint with what she was alleged to support. It was widely disparate - and the guy who wrote the book didn't appear to have an agenda either way - he was pretty brutal to both sides - but suffice to say that Lani got skewered by total misconceptions.

I wonder about the 'fear' thing you mention though - I've heardthat argument put forth a lot. I knowat least around here, people just didn't believe Kerry. A lot of people knew Bush was odious in many regards, but just believed he was less odious than Kerry. I think a lot of folks really hated Michael Moore as well - there's enough TRUE stuff to bash Bush over - and having him running around didn't help the Dems. Their base was voting Kerry/Edwards either way - so all moore did was alienate the middle of the roaders. I think Kerry screwed up with the whole 'international community' thing - he really misread the public's opinion on the international community. In 1995 I knew a good many folks that thought the UN was a good thing. Just about everyone I know nowadays thinks it's beyond hope. Anecdotal for sure - but there seems to be a big shift. In '95 I don't remember one single 'anit-Isreal' event. When I was in college a few years before that, I had never even heard of one. But more and more a lot of folks are blaming everything on Israel - and giving people like Arafat a free ride. Right or wrong - I know that issues like that are what make a lot of people really dislike and mistrust the U.N. and the international community.

# William said on January 16, 2005 10:45 PM:

P.S. Did you see the stuff on www.andrewsullivan.com about Chertoff and Monty Burns from the Simpsons - it's classic. Chertoff is totally creepy - but at least Ashcroft is gone ;-)