Savage guest host Kuhner: Sotomayor believes "that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic and misogynist society"
May 28, 2009 1:06 pm ET
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Pot.
Kettle.
Black.
Suuuuuuuuuuper Geeeeeeeeeeeenius!
Uh, sorry, moron, but there's nothing wrong with believing in FACTS.
America is racist. America is sexist. America is homophobic. America is misogynistic. These are simply FACTS. Indesputable FACTS. Facts backed up by mountainst of HARD evidence.
Now, I understand that in this blowhard's world of PHONY patriotism, saying such things is tantamount to treason. However, the truth is, that a patriot recognizes the faults of his nation and works to change them. A true American Patriot will recognize that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic nation, and will tirelessly work to change that and to make sure the words of our Declaration of Independence will be followed in principle and not just in theory, "that all men [and women] are created equal..."
Pretending that America is living up to its lofty founding ideals, rather than objectively and truthfully assessing our nation and realizing it's not and then working hard to make it live up to them is the purvue of a coward and a traitor to everything this nation is supposed to stand for. However, there's never been any shortage of traitors willing to pretend they're patriots in this nation, has there?
We are a racist nation.
We are misogynistic nation.
We are a sexist nation.
We are a homophobic nation.
We are improving, and have made great improvements over the years of this little experiment known as America, but we still need more improvement.
As an example of racism, well, just look at how an average black man or woman is treated in this country today. Still not very good. Look at how we treat immigrants (both legal, and illegal).
As examples of misogyny, look at the attacks on Nancy Pelosi where they don't stick to what she said, but her botox, and her looks. Look at how they attacked Hillary for her looks, not her positions. Sexist? Look at the same things.
Homophobic? Well, look at the right turn themselves inside out anytime someone suggests that 2 gay people should be allowed to get married.
It's just that, Sotomayor didn't say, or suggest any of those things, but to ignore that they exist, and are sometimes the prevalent thought in the US is turning a blind eye to the world around them.
As for the rant, he really falls for a blatant misunderstanding, a blatant and deliberate perversion of the meaning of those words. He, like so many on the right, want people to believe that to be racist is to be an absolute demon. No person would be able to be comfortable in the same room with the racist boogeyman the right imagines. To be racist, in this view, is to be so far beyond the pale that an average day would involve wearing a tshirt that says, "kill indians, because they're not white!" This has been the result of a deliberate campaign over many years by people on the right and on the left, though more on the right, who didn't like the feelings of guilt they had about some of their own behaviors. They learned that those behaviors were wrong, but didn't want to feel guilty, so they created this idea that some people "make mistakes" and that horrible, awful, demons "are racist."
The same, of course, goes for these other words that describe fulcrums of oppression. "I just think the bible had adam and eve, not adam and steve...I don't actually wanna kill all gay people!" is the kind of thought many use to "prove" to themselves that they aren't homophobic. A slight rewording would give an example of misogyny.
Why do I write all this? Because what he says makes no sense. He says that many on the left believe that America is imperialist, racist, etc...AND that we think that America is NOT a force for good, that we are a force for Evil, and that the rest of the world, the middle east is a force for Good to which we must submit and adapt.
But if you understand what racist really means - that it is something or someone that treats white folks differently from folks of color and in a way that ends up hurting folks of color (yes, I know that racism = prejudice + power, but i'm trying to speak colloquially and make a broader point) - then it is easy to say that one person or one law, like the law that requires 1/100th the amount of cocaine to get a major dealer sentence if the cocaine is in a form more often used in black/african american communities, is racist, but that the same person is a GOOD PERSON or that our laws are a good system of laws.
To be good is not to be perfect. To be a good person or system or, yes, Nation, is not to be perfect. Some of our flaws as a people are the four listed...but because we speak about them more often, because of the conversations we have, in part because we had a history that was too horrific to ignore forever, we are a leading light as a nation. I believe that, everyone I hang out with believes that. If we are frustrated by the fact that we are the most militaristic nation on earth, if we cry at the fact that no other nation kills as many people outside its borders as the US, if we want to reform the crack/cocaine laws, none of that make us feel unlucky to have been born or have come to live in the US. A heck of a lot of people - hundreds of millions - are too poor to listen to talk radio, much less call in to the show.
Yeah, we are all of those "bad things." But we are also a great nation. Poor Kuhner is too idiotic to know the difference between Sonia Mayor and Sotomayor, so it is likely to be far beyond his capacity to understand that you can be imperfect and good at the same time.
so much of the right's time and energy is spent talking about how evil the left is, and the left is such a large part of our country - large enough to provide Obama's base and to legitimize him in a way that allowed the middle to vote him into office. Heck, even large enough that the republicans couldn't nominate anyone to the right of John McCain, which was pretty much the whole primary field, even if JM was swerving right himself.
with all that, you would think that the right would be able to see the US as good (which is how they always see the US) but also flawed.
But they just can't do it. Their black/white (or should I say, "male/white" ;-) ) brains can only handle "my country is perfect" which means they HAVE TO demonize the left. We have to be like the secret (and imaginary) jewish cabal that uses its super-powerful influence to force this "perfect" country into doing "bad things" like, y'know, social security insurance. The poor things. Maybe someday there will be a study that determines the genes that makes brains love the dichotomy and we can medicate Beck and others like him so that they can understand an argument that has, y'know, multi-syllabic words and different lines of logical support...or even, gasp, a point of view that's not their own!
'Nuff said!