On the day where every other blogger was blogging about the controversies over Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan and their resigning, I too was about to do the same until something similar happened to me.
The most striking thing about our national debate over immigration is the utter lack of attention to the moral dimensions of the injustice and human tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes. So imagine my surprise and horror I got when a request by email came my way by the name of GayPatriot who wanted to “confirm” if Daniel Maldonado, Editor and Publisher of Aztlan Electronic News was the same Daniel Maldonado (aka Daniel Aljughaifi) who was recently arrested for training with Al-Qaeda to become a terrorist bomber. I do not think there are any words in English or in Spanish that can describe exactly how I felt. Being called an asshole or a fucker is no where near as having someone imply that you are a terrorist due to guilt by association and with the goal of publishing it all over the Internet.
Just knowing that some non-thinking mindless fool will willingly scour the Internet to found a way to tie their demons together and act on the notion they are doing a “public service” can make any person panic striken. Because of this a tiny piece of me now knows what it means and how people felt during the McCarthy era…except then, the Boogeyman was not Brown. If fear of being harmed was the primary factor for Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan to resign, I do empathize. It is a fear I wish upon no one. For those who shoulder on fighting for their cause despite it being unpopular, just know this, I have your back because we are all in this together. Devils will rage and burn every page, but the truth lives deep in the hands of the wind.
After exchanging several emails with Daniel over at Aztlan Electronic News, I advised him to address the issue head on; so he issued a “For the Record” statement. The “For the Record” was not about proving that GayPatriot was barking up the tree, or about his personal safety, it’s about millions of Latinos who are easily targeted by righteous individuals who feel their actions are for the “public good” because in our current guilty until proven innocent society we live in today, implications are all the same to them.
There comes a point where turning away from violence and not standing up to it, is worse than appeasement: It’s active encouragement. So it is time to take off the kid gloves and roll up your sleeves and break through the collective delusion mentality that embraces (some might say constitutes) the far Right.
I am tired of the relentless lies and meanness of special pleading right-wingers whose cloying candy coating can hardly conceal the poison pill inside; and unfortunately, there are too many people who uncritically accept any sort of mental dandruff people shake off their heads. Soon after I got over my shock, the first thing that entered my mind was –
Well, la de friken da, give this man a prize. Did he actually think that every Tomas, Pablo, and Enrique he saw and heard on the news were all the same? Just because he is able to do a simple Google search, that gave him the right to say “Gotcha!
This only shows that people like him and his ilk, the Lou Dobbs, the Pat Buchanans, the Bill O’Reillys, the Michele Malkins have only one intent towards Latinos and that is to harm anybody who is Brown.
Whenever I see this kind of attitude, I often feel George Carlin was correct when he said “If You’re Brown, You’re Goin Down! … You got some brown people in your country? Tell ’em to watch the fuck out, or we’ll goddamn bomb them!” But in this case, we’ll deport your ass.
In order for the right wing to sustain their collective delusion, it seems, they must make shit up. For people who disliked the former Soviet Union, they really do enjoy using old Stalinistic tactics to get rid of their perceived enemies by tarring every opponent with broad accusation all for the “public good.” What do Latino immigrants have to do with Al-Qaeda? The answer is nothing at all! However, this is the same mental crap that is being peddled by the right-wing talking heads.
However, this is not new. These are the same tactics that have been used by John Tanton, of US English and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), who planted the seed for English only movement that began in the 1980s; and Glenn Spencer, of the American Patrol, who planted the seed for the Reconquista fable – the alleged plot to turn several American states into a Mexican state or some kind of puppet government controlled by Mexico – that started in the 1990s.
The gist of the anti-immigrant sentiment is that the newcomers are up to no good, they just want a handout, they have too many babies and they are hell-bent on contaminating our precious bodily fluids and, besides, you wouldn’t want your daughter to date one. In fact, the whole anti-immigrant sentiment is starting to turn out to be anti-Brown, where some state are creatively coming up with “anybody but Brown folk” laws.
Their sole argument is based on a Nationalistic pride, which they beat their chest on the mountain top proclaiming, “This is Amerikkka! Secure the borders from the Brown menace!!” That is why it is imperative for them to construct their right-wing boogeyman through a shell game that allows them to find anything “INTERESTING,” no matter how obscure it is to connect “the Latino Boogieman” and the Aztlán movement to Al-Qaeda. Michele Malkin has repeatedly TRIED to link migrant farmers or starving family members to the people who flew the planes on 9/11. There isn’t any sinister back channel conspiracy taking place, the true villains are “ethnic bosses” who keep their people in bondage.
Despite all the discussion about civility, the right wing relies on forms of violence, whether verbal, implied or actual. For many people this appears to be the appeal: a way for the otherwise inadequate to act like solid guys, their violence safely done at a distance and by proxy. One of the right-wings favorite tactics is manufacturing plots, which serves them well as a weapon to attack its “enemies.” This is done so they can avoid having to debate the issues and incite fear in their audiences.
One can find a laundry list of right wing militarists who have adopted this type of tough talk attitude, however, they are the least willing to accept the consequences for it, much less place themselves at risk. The leading targets of such rhetoric have been undocumented immigrants from pundits as Michele Malkin, Pat Buchanan and Bill O’Reilly to name a few.
Even the most marginal member of the right-wing echo chamber does their part by not only selling the lies, but also by making a hash of American politics, the rule of law and the expression of simple decency. Therefore, it is not a surprise to find on the net the use of eliminationist rhetoric among right-wing bloggers, such as GayPatriot.
Back in 2005, GayPatriot embarrassed himself by beginning to believe his own fantasy of right-wing shit-talking strength. Within the confines of his own site, he can do and say whatever he pleases. Apparently, GayPatriot tried to engage in some form of thuggish behavior by labeling two activists and bloggers, Mike Rogers (BlogActive) and John Aravosis (Americablog), as “Gay Terrorists.” On a post entitled “WANTED: GAY TERRORISTS,” with photos of Rogers and Aravosis, GayPatriot wrote:
Wanted for crimes against the gay community. Wanted for repeatedly conducting outing witch hunts against gays who do not believe in radical liberal anti-American ideals. For repeated violations of privacy of gay Americans. For conducting systematic civil liberties attacks on gay Americans.
WANTED! Let’s do something about these gay terrorists who have infected our community with their hatred and self-loathing bigotry of gay Americans who wish to live their lives in peace.
It was all fun and games until Michael Rogers called GayPatriot’s place of employment immediately following the post and spoke to GayPatriot’s secretary and boss. Rogers said he asked GayPatriot to remove the post and replace it with a post about non-violence or he would launch a national boycott of GayPatriot’s corporate employer and pursue all avenues necessary to protect himself. Rogers call to GayPatriot’s employer put an end to that nonsense, the post was removed and GayPatriot temporarily stepped away from the blogosphere.
However, that does not mean he stopped engaging in thuggish intimidation. It really is not a surprise to find more eliminationism rhetoric on GayPatriot’s site, this time targeting Maldanado*.
They should put this guy in front of a firing squad at Ground Zero in NYC.
My point of mention this does not have to do what occurred two years ago. The point I am making is that right wing bloggers, like Michele Malkin do have a nasty habit of advocating violence and not taking responsibility for it.
So when GayPatriot replied back to me on my blog to tell me I was “all wrong” on my facts about the whole GayPatriot-Rogers incident, I knew exactly what he meant because to them its all a game on how far can they go without being caught.
They have a habit of hiding behind the First Amendment, but are they willing to take the consequences after their message has been delivered? Of course not, because they wash your hands by claiming we must have read too much in to it; it was never meant to advocated violence; or they are not their brother’s/sister’s keeper, they take no responsibility on how their readers interpret what they wrote. All of this to absolve themselves from responsibility, so they can sleep better at night.
Its people like these who expect us to say “Si, Señor” while licking their boots, and not speak unless spoken to! But the minute we stand up for ourselves, we are demonized, slandered, libeled, in the same way the Iraqis were right before going to war, all to make themselves look like the “good guys,” the true American Patriot, in fact, they are nothing but a wolf under the a fine suit, with a bag of tricks. They want us to believe we should be GRATEFUL to be living here in Amerikkka, and how we should feel GOOD about licking the boots of our masters. That is why xenophobic jackbooted racist repeat the same Republican meme on how America has given us everything, yet when some Latinos are willing to go back home, they are forced to go back home penniless because it is the Republicans who won’t blink twice as they strip everything they earned.
As much as I have little patience for right wing eliminationist, I certainly will not blindly give left wing authoritarians a free pass either. Left-wing positions should be rational and defensible, not just mirror images of right-wing excesses. No one is such an über-progressive that they get to lie, intimidate and basically play the same realpolitik games they accuse the Bush administration of playing. The rules we apply to others we really have to follow ourselves. We can’t cop an attitude of ethical superiority and then do as what we loathe does at our convenience.
Unfortunately for the left, there’s always going to be people like this who are all too happy to step forward and appoint themselves as spokesman, leader and authority. Even when they aren’t the real thing. It is time for a reality check for those who truly believe in progressives values and for those who really are interested in justice, fairness and tolerance, blindly accepting them as our leaders is our poison.
Many seem to be more “anti-conservative” than actually progressive and original thought among them is lacking. This administration has done enough damage that it may take generations to undo. We can’t let left wing authoritarians and the powerless power worshippers take the lead. Nor can we let some Johnny-come-lately who suddenly discovered they are a democrat dictate to us life long Democrats their version of democrat values.
Are we really that desperate to win to rationalize our ethical superiority to deservedly stomp the right wing for their lies and hypocrisy while at the same time not police our own because they are coming from “our camp” or fall for the inevitable line used by these people that we have to excuse their scummy behavior because, like George W. Bush says, we are “either with them or against them?”
Sabes que, sorry but that is wrong, many of you know it. Lying and self-serving bullshit isn’t putting food in anyone’s mouth, it isn’t comforting the afflicted, it isn’t the path to righteousness. It’s just more of the same. To use a historical example, if you’re a member of the Polish intelligentsia, for example, it doesn’t make much of a difference if you are shot in the back of the head by a Nazi or a Soviet.
I am not some “Si, Señor” ideologue who will blindly follow somebody who slaps a “progressive” label and can babble about “The Movement.” And I am certainly not some “Si, Señor Spic” for some racist prick to kick around either. I have contributed as much blood, sweat, and tears, and money, as any person, only to see clever and greedy bastards squander it away in Dudya’s murderous wars.
It is time to demand justice NOW! It is time to demand impeachment proceeding NOW! And it is high time to say NO to poverty, to substandard schools and housing, to inferior wages and shit jobs, to old and new-fashioned discrimination of driving while Black, Mexican, or Puerto Rican. NO to apocalyptic fantasies of political demagogues and the depraved appeals of right-wing pundits, white supremacists and bigots, even if it’s found wearing a “progressive” disguise, who seek to inflame racial passions.
The gloves are off, are yours!
The guy does not deserve anymore traffic, all links to his site are located on the original post, “The Gloves are Off” on my blog.
