Oh, tea partygoers. You know you're not supposed to use bad words.
We all learned this fact in preschool when your mother took you to Kids 'R Us for clothes shopping. Remember? They had this big electronic Tic-Tac-Toe game, but you couldn't play it because this other child, whose skin pigment was very different from yours, was there first. And then you asked your mother in an indiscreet tone, "Can I play it after that brown faced girl is done?"
The lesson here is that racism is only cute when you're four years old. These adults are closer to 40 and posses jobs and 401Ks and outrageous cell phone bills. And they're calling congressmen niggers and faggots. They may as well be treated like they're four years old. Let's send them home without any dessert or health care.
Nothing poisons the pool more than getting a large crowd together to conscientiously object to something. (Remember all those "Kill Bush" signs during the Iraq war protests? And in the original Boston Tea Party, there was the offensive placard that read "The King dreſseſ in maternal garmentſ.") So just invite fewer people! Then again, a protest isn't successful unless lots of people show up, are mad as hell, and make it known that they're not going to take it anymore.
But as the following graph proves, the mental capacity (IQ) of a person in a group is inversely proportional to the number of humans (size) of said group:
So as you can see, combined intelligence is not a sum or even an average. I don't even think a layman's mathematical term applies to this phenomenon. We may need to break out some quantum physics for this one.
And it's not just protesters that suffer this absence of acuity. It happens everywhere. Traffic jams. Sporting events. A theater showing The Backup Plan. Places on the Internet where comments can be found. We don't expect much from these settings other than to witness some type of brainless asshole rise above his peers and steal the headlines. And we REALLY don't expect these protests to be self-policing. It's such an emotional experience, nobody is going to be the buzzkill by telling their outraged neighbor comparing an obscure House congressman to Hitler to try a different method of social activism that won't make the front page of the Huffington Post.
Because that person is too busy comparing a different House congressman to Genghis Khan.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Luke
Garbage liberal-minded article. When taxes go up even more tell me how great universal health care is
2 - roger nowosielski
A very timely article, Sussman. Except I wouldn't compare those adults to four-year olds - you're giving kids a bad name.
I suppose Luke can treat us to some more of the invectives, although I fogot; as an individual thinker, he's not part of mob mentality.
3 - Arch Conservative
What was the point of this article. The author graciously pointed out the left has their wackadoos at their protests too but did we really need an article telling us that if you get a bunch of people together some of them might act like jackasses?
What's you next article going to be about? the time you left your ice cream cone out in the sun and it melted? I'm giddy with anticipation.
4 - Leroy
The tea parties seem to have unleashed a lot of Repressed Rightist Racism (RRR, neatly superceding KKK).
5 - the Hawk
Luke and Arch proving your thesis.
6 - roger nowosielski
You should solace in the article, Archie, because it does, in a way, "excuses" some of the behavior. So yes, I do disagree with you. We need to be reminded of crowd behavior and the phenomenon of mass psychosis.
Yes, Leroy, a very good appraisal. There still is apparently a great deal of repressed racism in America, and it was certainly brought out.
7 - roger nowosielski
I'm sure glad they're not in the same room, because the comments would get much more juicy.
8 - zingzing
i hope you won't defend these people, archie.
9 - Doug Hunter
Using these power words is the height of stupidity as they, rightly or wrongly, place the utterer somewhere between the moral equivalence of a rapist pedophile and and animal torturer. The effect is so powerful it also spreads to and taints any number of people represented by the group. When you say one of these words, they win, you lose... period. (and you just might end up on the national news)
As to the general mentality, that is the frustration of the powerless. Sometimes it manifests itself in screaming the most obscene of obscenities, other times it's assault and battery, broken glass, and burnt vehicles (although even those crimes, even involving mild bodily harm, aren't as poisonous as shouting the power words)
I understand the feeling, the politicians have been given the power of life and death over you and normal individuals can barely gain an audience or have their voice heard in any other way than a scream from behind a barricade. They'll decide what they want to take and what they'll allow you to have and there aint a damn thing you can do about it.
It's mindbogglingly insane to me that people (a majority in fact) actually desire that these politicians should have even more power and control over their lives, but hey, that's what makes this site interesting. People probably think I'm crazy for not loving big government.
10 - Dr Dreadful
When taxes go up even more tell me how great universal health care is
Even more than what?
11 - diana hartman
um, am i the only one who laughed?
12 - ACMESalesRep
I'm not sure how people wanting an intelligent health care plan equates to "desir[ing] that these politicians should have even more power and control over their lives", but I can certainly see how it equates to desiring that HMO's have less. It's mindbogglingly insane to me that people have tolerated this intrusion into the necessities of life by private interests unaccountable to anyone but themselves for as long as they have. But people probably think I'm crazy for recognizing, as history has shown us repeatedly, that governments do a far better job than the private sector at providing essential services.
13 - Silas Kain
Protesters don't need to go to Jupiter to be stupider. They usually live in one of the Louisiana Purchase states.
14 - roger nowosielski
I'd say they've already made that trip, Silas, a one-way ticket to ride.
15 - Silas Kain
Amen, Roger. Discouraging, isn't it? I'm really gravitating toward a new paradigm which thinks outside the borders of the USA. I'm even frightening myself.
16 - roger nowosielski
It's time to think beyond America, Silas, scary as such an idea may be.
To put it plainly, I've got nothing in common with those people. Indeed, Sussman is right, they are from another planet.
17 - Dr Dreadful
Poor Jupiter.
18 - Doug Hunter
#13
I don't know how raising trillions (and spending trillions more) in new taxes, creating and extending a massive entitlement which puts people further into the dependency on the government, and putting the feds more in control of 1/6 of the economy than they already are doesn't involve more power and control by politicians. We're back to the 'everyone on the other side appears insane' stage.
Perhaps you simply mean you agree with the way they are exerting their power (or are simply blinded by the prospect of receiving your own share of the redistribution). In any case, the rest of your comment didn't cover any ground I hadn't already addressed: To those who approve of more government I seem crazy, to me you seem crazy.
The primary difference being my politics in no way seek to use the power of the government to mandate you to do anything, the reverse is certainly not true, hence my interest in the subject.
19 - Doug Hunter
"To put it plainly, I've got nothing in common with those people."
I think alot of people feel this way, on either side. I know it's an old fashioned idea but it'd be nice to do these things on a state by state basis. States, or groups of them, that want nothing to do with healthcare could go without, some could go with reform, and others could go with universal or single payer. People could vote with their feet which system they prefer. I suspect liberals wouldn't appreciate this freedom to choose either though, what say you?
20 - Silas Kain
And another Jovian has been outed: Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, confirms he called Rep. Bart Stupak 'baby killer'. We should demand nothing less than censure in the well of the House. He has a very interesting list of political contributions. If I live din his district, I would be furious!
21 - El Bicho
"There was nothing in my comment that even came close to being racist"
Maybe Hawk was referring to Matt's stupider thesis
"Just what BC needs, another moron posting."
Are you worried about being replaced?
22 - Baronius
Yeah, rightist racism. Because that's what the KKK was, rightist.
23 - Silas Kain
OK, because the KKK is racist we forget that they do maintain some positions which make sense. Maybe we need to look at those positions and come up with a compromise which brings KKKers to the table. Enough division, folks. Let's start talking.
24 - zingzing
yes...
25 - Baronius
The KKK is already at the table, thanks to the Democratic voters of West Virginia.