Yesterday was, indeed, an official Shit Slinging Festival. Amongst other things, I was called--and not for the first time--a radical by one of my colleagues. Why? The proximate cause was my suggestion that Bill Clinton was (1) the best Republican president we've ever had and (2) that said Clinton was culpable for the destruction of the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant. I was amazed, by the way, at how quickly, loudly, and uniformly the group of people in the immediate area rose up to chastise me for suggesting that Clinton either knew what he was doing at the time (destroying a pharmaceutical plant, that is) or knew after the fact and was unapologetic (and therefore immoral). I will also hazard a guess: none of the people who chastised me had the slightest scrap of knowledge about the incident, and were reacting solely on an "I like Clinton" or" We wouldn't do that" knee jerk response. None of which is really the point. The point is that apparently to express any opinion which deviates from the cultural norm is considered (at least by my immediate peer group) as the defining characteristic of a radical. Words. Questions. Radical? As I have pointed out on more than one occasion, I live in the suburbs, I have three kids, three cats, and drive a Honda Accord. How radical could I possibly be? If the act of questioning has now become the province of the radical, then we are in very serious trouble. Worst of all, though, after this experience I felt so drained that all I could think was, "I never want to talk about this stuff again." You get tired of being called out--particularly by people who don't know anything on the subject at hand. It is demeaning, and it definitely undermines friendships and working relationships. It would be so much easier to just give up, to smile and nod. That's what I wanted . . . for about three hours. And now? Fuck that. If people want to keep their heads buried in the sand, fine. It just makes it that much easier to kick them in their big fat asses. Shit washes off, y'know?
By the way, if your're interested, there's a rather large posting on al-Shifa at this address:
http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq16.html
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