Morning Rant - Special Guest Ranter Weasel

Sometime in kindergarten or first grade most of us learned not to be bothered by being called names. Creative offerings such as ButtFace and DoodieHead were the childlike taunts of the playground. Today they are Racist, Fascist and Homophobe, among a seemingly endless list of others. While the meanings have become more sophisticated, the reality is the same; the person making the assertion has run out of ideas and logic and is resorting to the infantile. The name caller is not making a point, but is rather simply trying to elicit an emotional response. Just as you cannot use logic to dissuade someone of a notion they did not develop through logical means in the first place, attempting to defend yourself against an ad hominem insult only serves to place you in the un-winning position of arguing the unprovable.

Today we live in a climate where social, cultural and political labels are common and have become an effective tool of the intellectually lazy. Where once arguments were made and decided on merits, today insulting names and derogatory labels are used instead, and attacking entire swaths of the population has become a favorite tactic of the left. Systemic racism, anyone? We are not the first to observe it condemns everyone and no one in particular, yet it has achieved an undeserved and almost mythical status in our society through no other means than repetition, and where overapplication has rendered the term meaningless. Perhaps revisiting the lessons of the playground is in order. Want to change the narrative? Remember names can never hurt you, unless you give them the power to do so. You think I'm a racist? So what? I don't care what you think, and despite what you've been told, your opinion does not matter. As long as these assertions generate a reaction, they will be effective and they will continue.

How you choose to respond is of course entirely up to you. Painting with a broad brush is a tacit admission by the left of the weakness of their position, and reacting to such an insult serves only to give it credibility. The surest way to counter someone making such an assertion is not to engage them at all. Idiots make infantile assertions, and arguing the point levels the field.

posted by Weasel at 11:02 AM

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