There is a story circulated about Lyndon Johnson. I don't know if it is true or not, but it makes for a good illustration. Johnson was in a congressional race, and he told his campaign manager to leak a story to the press that his opponent was a homosexual, or made it a habit of having sex with farm animals (I have seen both versions of the story).
His campaign manager was shocked. 'We can't say that, Lyndon,' he said. 'It's not true.'
Johnson replied 'Of course it's not, but let's make the bastard deny it.'
Anyway, the current round of rumors makes me think of that.
I always thought that Marxism is essentially anti-religious. Now be it far from me to let a little thing like truth spoil a good rumor, but I think we can leave that Marxist part out for now. But it is the denying part that I wonder about.
Lets invent a few rumors, just for the sake of discussion.
Sarah Palin is a closet lesbian. She has known about this since she was a teenager, but made the decision to try and blend in because she feared being ostracized by her family and friends.
Newt Gingrich is a pagan. Despite courting the religious right, he has been a pagan since his college days, and still meets at solstice to dance naked in a circle with a group of trusted friends.
George Bush is actually half black. Even his brother Jeb does not know he is the progeny of an affair that his father had with a household servant. When the baby was born with white features, George W and his wife came to an accommodation with the servant, and the baby was raised by the two of them. George knew his mother as a family friend until his 21st birthday, when his father revealed the truth to him.
OK, these are all interesting rumors. They would all stir up a huge amount of press. But this is the important point. Whether they were true or not, it doesn't matter, and the act of denying them, attaches more importance to them than they deserve.
So what if Sarah Palin was gay? Well sure, there are elements in our society that would have a problem with that, but that would be their problem, not based on any fact. Sarah will still be a shrill, brainless politician lacking the courage and will to do the job the Alaskan people elected her to do. Being gay would change nothing related to her abilities,qualifications, or suitability to hold higher office.
Newt Gingrich a pagan? Well, he has already demonstrated he is a hypocrite, preaching family values while serving his wife divorce papers as she was in the hospital with cancer. So pretending to be a Christian to pander to the Christian right is no different. It doesn't mean anything, it neither qualifies nor disqualifies him for anything.
George Bush half black? What would that have to do with anything at all? Would anybody even care?
Now I don't think that Obama is a Muslim. But why should being a Muslim be an issue?
Oh, and the first major terrorist attack on American soil, wasn't that the Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't the bomber a Christian? Should I be concerned if Obama is a Christian? After all they blew up a building with a day care center in it!
It is the fact that anybody cares one way or another, that is what bother me.
Friday, August 20, 2010
1 comment:
All comments are screened, but you don't have to agree with me to get published. You do have to make sense though. If you are not sure what I mean by making sense, read this. Unless what you say is really, really stupid, and then I may publish it just so I can make fun of you.
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The advent of the computer allows for some of these bogus rumors to die down faster than previously, when news spread at snails pace.
ReplyDeleteThen, the news hung in the air for weeks, now, at warp speed it dissipates, into nothing, because of the nation's collective short attention deficit that permeates the new information highway.
Just the same if any rumor is true, it will be dug up and splashed on the internet and the mystery solved.
I wish the rumor that Sarah Palin's Down's Syndrome (grand)son(?) is not really hers, but her daughter's would get some long grinding at the rumor mill. I'd really like to see how she pulled that pregnancy delivery off. I still believe its Sarah's child. And why does she name her kids after horses: Trigg, Tripp, Track, etc. Willow(daughter), Bristol(sounds like an over the counter indigestion remedy) Too weird........!