alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

November 24, 2006

Giving Thanks for Dissent

by AltHippo @ 1:56 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

I hope Thanksgiving has been good for you. I am thankful that I’ve been able to gather once again with friends and family here in the sleepy village of Washington, DC. I’m thankful that through a combination of good luck, and some persistence on my part, I’m surrounded by people immune from the propaganda and disinformation catapulted by the Republican Noise Machine. I’m thankful for this somewhat addictive mechanism known as the internets. I’m thankful that history has provided us with men and women of sound judgement whose reason I can appeal to in chaotic times: Socrates, Thoreau, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Anton Checkov, Martin Luther King, Jesus of Nazareth,… The list continues seemingly without end. I’m thankful it’s not a short list.

While watching a history channel program on FBI files created to hurass John Lennon, and keep him from interfering in domestic politics- meaning Nixon’s administration primarily, I experienced a moment of gratitude for those who cared enough about society to be dissenters.

Which led me to the following observation: the modern blogosphere has grown up amidst the Bush 43 administration. It would be largely correct to say that it has grown up because of the Bush 43 administration. The electronic printing press exists to fill that void that exists between Bush’s mouth and its domestic audience. For the last few years it has become one of, if not the, primary means of dissent.

Dissent, thus far, in the eyes of the right half of the blogosphere has been tantamount to “enemy of the state” status. Take for example this post from the Jawa Report lightly stolen from the comments at this Glenn Greenwald post:

After the Democrats won in November, I wondered just how long it would take for their influence to see real world results….Contrary to the Lefties argument that our presence in Iraq creates more violence, the terrorist’s morale and appetite for the blood of innocents has only been heightened by the anticipation of a US withdrawal promised by Nancy Pelosi.
Good job Democrats. You’ve really turned things around for Iraq.

In other circumstances I might be inclined to pounce on this, but instead will reflect that the right is now in the position of being the dissenters. The democratically elected majorities in the House and Senate are, after all, no less “US government” than the Bushies.

It will be interesting to hear from our colleagues on the right, the Powerliners, the Malkinians, the NRO’ers, how this is a good kind of dissent, while criticism of the Executive branch is a bad kind of dissent.

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
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