When traipsing round the blogosphere, I encounter a common patois of hatred dispensed with indiscriminate fury, and in the same patterns of speech, against all-comers in the political arena.
I am reminded of the perennial hate-figure from 1984.
To demonstrate, can you discern which politician is being hated in each of the quotes below – Kevin Rudd, John Howard, George Bush, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? Each of them are the target of at least one of these quotes…
1. [S/he] has no soul left, and yes, [hir] eyes speak volumes about [hir] lack of conscience and compassion. Usually when someone smiles their face lights up and you can detect some good, but when [s/he] smiles, the evil shines through. Very chilling indeed!
—–
2. It amazes me that so many journalists, who look at [hem] hour upon hour, do not see the coldness and inhumanness in [hir] face. There is no kindness, pity or compassion – just a ruthless cold dead beady stare.
—-
3. One Chinese Feng Shui practitioner said after the Election results – “Look at [hir] mouth, it is evil, [s/he] cannot be trusted, [s/he]’s not a leader.”
—-
4. [S/he]’s a slick, silver tongued devil and people are going to wake up
—-
5. [Hir]’s greatest experience is constantly lying, hiding behind the biased media
—
6. This is an evil [wo/man] mascarading as a Champion.
—
7. [S/he] is the devil to suggest murder as way to get the [high office]
—-
8. [Hir] true colors are coming out…evil black.
—
9. He is evil incarnate – he may even be the Anti-Christ (“… a man will come from the east…”).
—
10. [S/he] is a megalomaniac. [S/he] has sold [hir] soul to the devil.
—
11. [S/he] is just another predatory member of the human species willing to promote the interests of the few over the many. This makes [hem] evil in a very fundamental way.
—
Can you tell which is which? After adding the anonymous pronouns, neither can I, and I frankly I didn’t want to keep the original quotes to catalogue the hate-speech.
But I find a hypnotic cadence and commonality in the tropes used for these two-minute hates. The drum-beat of devils and invocations of evil can stir the emotions while deadening the critical faculties.
Whatever atavistic need is fulfilled by hatred, it seems to matter not who is the target of the hate. It might as well be a fictitious character. What matters is that the hating gets done.
To conclude, perhaps the great bulk of blogospheric canards and contumely could be avoided if we heeded this sage advice:
Maybe we should all just agree that [s/he] is evil, and have done with it.
UPDATE: I’ve numbered the quotes for discussion.
That’s no how you make stoush.
Don’t know what you’re trying to push, Mercurius, but if you want to make a point you’re going to have to offend someone, and get away from the year 11 civics happy hour.
Politics fight FAIL
Well Howard is hardly going to be the silver tongued devil is he?
Liam, I am offended by your remark and conclude that quotes (6), (8) and (9) above therefore apply to you.
Bad ≠ wrong, mercurius. Put down your copy of Animal Farm. Unload that Victor Gollancz Aspidistra. Step away from Homage to Catalonia. You may not be trusted with Orwell.
Surely #4 is Rudd? But I don’t remember any of this level of hyperbole in the Australian media. Please tell me one of them is a quote from Gerard Henderson – he loves criticising other peoples’ hyperbolae.
SG – these comments are from commenters in the blogosphere – they’re not MSM. They capture the “retail-level” hatred that’s out there in public mind.
Charming isn’t it?
And no #4 isn’t Rudd. Three of them are about Rudd, but I won’t say which.
Well…well…I’m sure that your post contains spelling and grammatical errors! And something or other that equates you with Hitler!
Ironically enough, there are few on the world stage whom one could say you can see the evil shining from their dead blank eyes, as they speak. Maybe Dick Cheney? Other than that, even those leaders I despise, come across as pretty much what they are: flawed, often obsessive, probably detestable, but more or less sane human beings.
On the other hand, the modern media apparatus make caricatures of us all. The George Bush or John Howard I might have caught on TV sure seemed pretty fucking soulless… but that wasn’t really them, that was ‘the leader’. Meh, I dunno.
Hey to many an anarchist all those rotten filthy lying fascist creeps you mentioned there have all quite richly earned a deep dark bile of richly concentrated hate.
In fact I’m running dead-pools online on each and every one of them. ( My 2c)
This has actually been cleared by my health team including my psychiatrist – they say its better than me bottling it up.
Best the Labor & Democrat supporters go back to inoffensive, bland, non-judgemental commentary & leave the character assassination & smearing to the radio jocks, Roves, propaganda-filled animated shows, hidden brethrens, corporate news owned non-stop finger-pointing talking heads…I remember that worked out real well for them in the late 90s/early 2000s. How was it in the wilderness I wonder. Nice time? Plenty of wars happened…and money for essential public services re-directed…and tax cuts to help speculators drive up prices…& important regulation cut to ribbons…& safety nets left unrepaired…& children put in chook cages.
Know your opposition & use their weapons & new ones against them…perhaps when exhausted & awakened to the grotesqueness of their tools they might want to sign a peace treaty. And then we can all drink tea & cider together & be polite whilst using bridges effectively.
HATE is unfortunate & reveals as much about the HATER as it does about those they HATE against. Sometimes a strategy can be perceived as HATE…but in fact is a useful strategy in the war against HATE. Complex thing.
Now you’re getting it, Mercurius. It’s not what you say that makes it a stoush, it’s who you say it to. Silver tongued dead-eyed masked Devil COMMIE.
Now don’t you feel a bit of catharsis getting a bit of sledge on? Professor Rat’s psych certainly recommends it. Don’t be surprised, you’re doing the French Mistake…
Number 6 is clearly aimed at a librul figure because the nong can’t spell “masquerading”. Unless he is making a bad pun about Hilary or Julia.
TWoP: I think we can safely rule out W as the silver tongue too.
#9 must be Barack Obama – he’s from Chicago.
Mercurius,
well done! Any homage to Eric Blair is fine!! Step towards your 1984. Pick up your Collected Essays, chuck your Animal Farm in the back of the ute, and go forth with strength and decency. Remember clearly every item you filed in the memory hole.
Only one thing, are you by any chance the grandson of Emmanuel Goldstein? If so, is it true that Ingsoc has just as strong a tradition of Party lineages and Party nepotism as the ALP and the North Korean Party?
War is Peace!
What place for Eduard Bernstein in a land of rising Marxism on The Road to Wigan Pier?…who will prevent over-the-top strikes that call for Coolidge heads & spin-meisters & ugly picture painters?…only to see the people panic when they saw anything red…useful for so many Big Brothers down that road
…where Brotherhoods are used to construct fear & distract & mobilise…then their leaders vanish into thin air…some in many pieces…some in cells in faraway lands?
What sick creature does make its way into this land…”We are in a strange period of history in which a hater of “Arbeit Macht Frei” camps is called anti-semitic and a constructor of Vernichtungslager in America is seen to be a friend of the Jews”
What choice on the merry-go-round in the circus where friend is foe and people whisper:
“Old Bush’s something different. So’s Ahmadinejad. They aren’t like these chaps in the old days who crucified people and chopped their heads off and so forth, just for the fun of it . . . They’re something quite new — something that’s never been heard of before”.
hmmm…it’s like a wedding:
“something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”
I guess NEGOTIATION & DIPLOMACY is the key…& HATE must eventually be set aside. Hung back on the wall.
I’m so tired of Two Minute Hates courtesy of the Corporate media & politicians sitting in the high chair.
So much COLLATERAL damage & disposable units on the ROAD TO NOWHERE…or the one leading away from Wigan Pier. Some say they are lucky to survive the battle…I prefer bridges & treaties…& common-sense. Especially at comment 11 when you look in the mirror & see Billary.
Author of Narnia
‘Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.’
I might reassure Liam at this point that I’m an equal opportunity hater. Whether Commie or trad fascist or ‘Liberal’, Conservative, Die Grunen…whoever put their hand on me to govern me is my enemy. No need to flatter yrself I could give two shits about you mate.
I never flatter myself, professor rat. I’m too good for that.
Like you, I’m an equal opportunity hater, except in the case of the players and coaching staff of the St Kilda and West Coast football clubs, who are more equal than others.
Not serious about hate,nor serious about the outcome of stated words as hate! If I am commenting on how I dislike the ALP,its easy to consider the form of words to be hatred.Then again,in the sparsity of time, the statements may hold some creedence in their reflective values.Some want plain language from politicians,it would seem unfair then to criticise those who criticise the unplain as dealing in the spits of voluminous attempts at filling spittoons!The question and answers by Garrett over fuel prices,and environmental matters re,more Green line understandings,indicates a problem in establishing absolute requirements,if really accepted as such,from the turbulence of process proceeding to deliver the attempt at such.The reason to hate Garrett’s response is ,if you accept the problem of fuel use leading to emission problems[that a tax on use would then seem reasonable],he didn’t counter Hunt in a manner that knows this problem is the real problem,but answered like they could still sneak in a clever tax on fuel use.That is a sneaky rodent display,rather than a display the whole society readily submits too.It is impossible to hate rodents full time,but it is very easy to hate them full time for what damage they can do.So if you can hate the failings of Labor,and see their problem,if they are still genuine,then what possible reason is there to accuse their haters of missing something,that seems to indicate less than being reasonable!?To refer to hatred sometimes,to me seems to be a attempt to censor a message,that is already well stated and heard completely,which obviously means,the person finding the hatred,is quite unwilling or has a intellectual problem in noting the real and apparent reasons for statements near hatred,than those that induce a form of criminality.Or eye for a eye tooth for a tooth,where no other analysis and activity seems capable of holding one’s attention.I will be hung by my own words,if they fail to represent reality effectively.I have the courage to be the voluntary hangman,anyone who dares me that… as not being true,isn’t handling the same rope I am,and will not succeed on me!
“Like you, I’m an equal opportunity hater, except in the case of the players and coaching staff of the St Kilda and West Coast football clubs, who are more equal than others.”
Assuming you to be a Victorian, Liam, I have no comment to make on your feelings towards St Kilda. The tribal hatreds of Melbournian football supporters are of such labrynthine complexity as to make medieval Byzantium seem a haven of transparency and love by comparison.
But why the ill-will towards West Coast — a bland team remarkable only for a short winning spree (until recently)? Are you — no, it could not be possible! — a fan of the other Western Australian team? In which case, commiserations for recent form, but salutations for a magnificent club song, which can never be played enough. Freo, Freeeeeooooooooo …
I’m a Sydneysider, Paulus, so the source of my feelings towards the Dirty Birds should be obvious. And my hatred of St Kilda is really only because of Grant Thomas and a few of their players, Milne especially. Schneider I’ve time for obviously, and I’d quite admire Hudson if he played somewhere else.
Regarding your comments about Freo’s song I must, in turn, assume you’re musically deficient or having some kind of psychoactive experience.