Language matters. In the McCain/Palin campaign, what I found most destructive and depressing was how the candidates casually allowed--even encouraged--disturbing rhetoric to flourish among their supporters. Xenophobia. Homophobia. Racism. And, yes, despite Palin's "I am a belipsticked pit bull" protestations to the contrary, sexism.
With the first black president in the White House AND a Bush-whacked economy, the ugly rhetoric soon found fertile ground after the election to blossom into the Teabagging movement. (Seeded with a Dick Armey's-worth of Astroturf money, of course.) I find the growth of something else, however, even uglier and more disturbing.
Progressives who use the same language. The lead paragraph from a diary rec'd by 100+ Kossacks earlier today:
What’s a good woman to do when a real tramp moves in right next door? Skirts too high, neck lines too low, and the willingness to do and say anything for attention? The children might be scrubbed and schooled, the house clean, and dinner on the table promptly at six, but even so a spectacle like that draws the eye ... and sets urges in motion. Linky
The intolerance next door...I've had enough.
I'm all for using hyperbole to make an important point. (Check out my dissection of John Mayer's member after his infamous Playboy interview, for example.) The paragraph cited above leads to a blanket condemnation of today's media, into which the diarist tosses other attention-getting imagery such as "starlet without panties" and "chattering pack of cable news trollops." Props to rb137 for tackling the use of the word "whore" in the diary's offensive title: please check out her excellent diary, In defense of whores.
Challenging the diarist's sloppy generalizations about the media would take another diary entirely. (Is Rachel Maddow a "cable news trollop?") And I'm on deadline today...I have to get back to my media whoring work!
But I couldn't let the sickening sexism slide...the sickening sexism about good women and good men. Aren't we several decades beyond going to deeply sexist clichés about a women's place being in the home? And about a man not being able to resist raping another woman because her dress and demeanor meant "she asked for it?"
Diaries ranting and raving about "ZOMG: Teabagger X Said THIS Outrageous Thing Today!!!" make the Rec List here every day. Let's make sure that we don't repeat rhetoric that accomplishes the same thing that the right wing extremists are trying to achieve: undermining the hard-won progress of all Americans who have fought, and are continuing to fight, so hard towards the elusive goal of acceptance and, eventually, equality in our society.
It's 2010, and it's time for good women and good men to say ENOUGH.
Oh, and could someone else swing by with dinner tonight? This good woman is gonna be working late...