“Everyone loves America except for half of the Americans, and I hate them.”
Why do I read TownHall.com?
by John Cole| 49 Comments
This post is in: Assholes, General Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
“Everyone loves America except for half of the Americans, and I hate them.”
Why do I read TownHall.com?
Comments are closed.
Damien
So you don’t turn into one of them?
The Navigator
If these awful home-grown American haters could just convert a few more, they’d be at 50% + 1, meaning they’d be a majority, meaning, in effect, they’d be America. Then, to hate America would mean to hate the America-hating majority. At that point it’d be “OK, Prager: America – love it or leave it. And since you’ve proclaimed your hate, there’s the door.”
Personally, I don’t hate America, nor do I think dissenters, even Dennis Prager, should be expected to emigrate. It’d be a kind of sweet justice, though.
Ned Raggett
I think it’s one that rather answers itself at this point in the game.
UNK
I read the article, critically examined the premise, and just have one thing to say. HuH?
John S.
So we don’t have to.
I mean, somebody has to keep an eye on the fever swamp to see what noxious gasses may be headed our way…
Tim F.
That doesn’t make sense within your logical construct. If liberals take over America and if Prager hates liberals, the only conclusion is that he will hate America just as much as the rest of us do. What’s better, by hating America Prager will in essence become a liberal. Townhall as a conservative outlet will cease to exist, unless they give up hate and embrace their enemies. It’s beautiful.
Bubblegum Tate
Well, at least he mixed up his “liberals hate America!” boilerplate with his “damn dirty LIEbrul media!” boilerplate. That’s gotta count for something. Oh, it doesn’t? Never mind, then.
Frankblack
This is kind of off topic, but I looked at the site and they had some pretty hilarious shirts. I think I’m going to buy a couple before they realize they’re making fun of themselves.
Ugh
Put it on the Mock List please.
The Other Andrew
Conservatives love the (imaginary) America of the past, while liberals love the (imaginary) America of the future.
Zifnab
If we do not read Dennis Prager, we may be condemned to repeat him.
jrg
I’m convinced that we see this “liberals hate America” meme so often because the right does not understand that calling someone a traitor is not amusing. It’s despicable.
Perhaps if Republicans like Prager understood and believed in the founding principles of America (like the Constitution, for example), “Patriotism” would mean more to them than just a punchline.
Garbage like what Prager is spewing is the reason why Republicans spent so many years in the dog house after the McCarthy era.
Keep it up, Prager, “The Left Hates America” might be a funny joke to the 28%ers, but it pisses a lot of people off.
Zifnab
I… I don’t understand. For years, I have viscously, obsessively, pathologically clung to the notion that the entire country of France is out to get me. I was so horribly opposed to the French that I felt obligated to rename fries and toast, lest their delicious deep-fried goodness sway my soft and delicate world view.
But now my eyes are clear of leftist propaganda. I should have turned off Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw when I had the chance, and listened more to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, whose benign wisdom would have enlightened me to the coming conservative French Revolution.
Indeed, it is all so crystal clear to me. France has always been a bastion of right-wing ideology and Patriotism-spouting goodness. We were never at war with Oceania and two legs have always been better. Quick, we should celebrate. Where’s my kool-aid?
Pb
Hey Dennis, let me introduce you to the science of polling…
Which is, oddly enough, about in line with Bush’s approval ratings in the US–yeah, Dennis, you’re way outnumbered on this one, and you have been for a while. Read a newspaper sometime, will ya? Your imaginary conservative majority is now down to a third of the country or less…
Dulcie
Good GOD – Dennis Prager is an f’ing moron. The way he tries to rewrite history and then blame everything on liberals is truly amazing. How do these people even get out of bed every morning? WHY do they get out of bed every morning? They should just hide under the bed and leave the rest of us sane people alone.
Gus
Dulcie, I often take exception to people calling wingnuts morons. I’ve seen Bill Kristol, for example, get called an idiot for saying something that sounded stupid. I believe that in Kristol’s case that he’s not stupid, he just says stupid things without believing them. He’s not stupid, just unprincipled and amoral. I think that’s true of a lot of wingnuts. Prager, on the other hand is a moron.
Notorious P.A.T.
Hey, we know France doesn’t hate America, because they elected a new president who likes America!
And we know Spain doesn’t hate America, because they didn’t re-elect their president who likes America!
It’s all so obvious!
filkertom
I’m not sure what’s more boggling — Prager’s rampant, fearful idiocy or the commenters defending him. That was some incoherent sh*t on that thread.
28 Percent
You make fun of Dennis Prager at your own peril but can you deny his allegations? Will you say that you do not believe that our Founding Fathers owned slaves? Will you deny that 35 million Americans go hungry? How can you believe horrible things like that about a country you claim to love?
Ed Drone
“I’ve seen Bill Kristol, for example, get called an idiot for saying something that sounded stupid. I believe that in Kristol’s case that he’s not stupid, he just says stupid things without believing them.”
Well, as my old mother used to say, “Handsome is as handsome does.”
The Bible says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
I says,
Oh, it may sound silly,
And kind of crass,
But if you let horse-shit pass,
You’re a horse’s ass.
(There’s a musical phrase that all the old jazzmen knew, a mocking riff called, “You’re a horse’s ass.” That phrase is the tune to the last line of the little ditty up there.)
Ed
Enlightened Layperson
But, as he’s already explained, everything in the newspapers is a bunch of left-wing lies. Only Fox News, talk radio and Townhall are “fair and balanced.”
jake
I look forward to the day when Prager becomes so OutRaged(TM) at everything he starts punching himself in the face.
Judging from this exhibition, I won’t have to wait much longer.
Lisa in Bama
My experience on a recent trip to Italy (Salerno, Florence, Como) was that Europeans on the whole love America and love Americans. They do, however, universally loathe George Bush. And they feel sorry for us for being stuck with him. You know your country’s reputation is in the crapper when you’re pitied by people who change governments the way many of us change hairstyles.
Mike S
I listened to Dennis for many years before he went national. He was actually a pretty reasonable guy. Then he realized that he could make more money by being an unreasonable wingnut. The rest is history.
libarbarian
Of course, DP uses the standard wingnut definition of “The Left” as “People who hate America” from which he goes on to prove that “People who hate America hate America”.
Genius.
Tom Shipley
“However, because the left dominates the world’s news media and because most people, understandably, believe what the news media report, many people, including Americans, believe that the world hates America.”
O…M…G
Can they get more milage out of their media bias conspiracy theory? Next thing you’ll know, some conservative Dolphins fan is going to be screaming that the Dolphins actually won, but since the left hates that Miami since it uses a Dolphin as their mascot (it’s akin to wearing fur), that ESPN altered the broadcast and the rest of the MSM reported that the Steelers won (of course the left are Pittsburgh fans, they’re a fan of anything to do with stealing…).
These guys are freaking nuts.
Libby Spencer
I can’t think of a good reason. I’ve declared a private vow of abstinence myself and my blood pressure has thanked me for it.
I can’t help but think if we all ignored these idiots, they might go away. I’m more convinced that it’s the left that’s driving their traffic and as long as they keep getting it, they’ll stay in business. It’s like that whole MSM theory that as long as both sides are bitching, they must be doing something right.
I’ve been wondering if we tried a month long boycott on linking to them, whether it would have an effect. Everybody would have to get on board though and I’m not a big enough blogger to rally the Alist into testing the theory.
skip
The media’s alleged left-wing bias has worked for Roger Ailes and worked well. Even level-headed neutrals buy into it. No one even remembers that the NYTIMES and WPOST bought into the war in Iraq. Especially the latter.
Zifnab
Are they? Are they?
Then explain Steely McBeam? If that’s not a liberal media conspiracy, I don’t know what is.
Ninerdave
You know what I’m going to love?
For years we’ve all been told that to question or criticize the President was treason. We’ve all been told to support the President in a time of war.
If a Dem gets elected in 2008, the wingnuts will have to line up behind the Democrats and end the in fighting finally. /sarcasm
ET
I don’t know, why do you read TownHall.com? I never figured you for wearing a hair-shirt.
Psycheout
You seem to have missed Prager’s undeniable point:
It’s all about perception. The leftist media shapes and distorts reality. It does not present things as they really are.
jcricket
Yeah, he’s such a “Bush-style” leader. You know, with all his plans to dismantle the french health system, pensions, unions, etc. Oh wait, he’s only trying to reduce the special privileges the transit workers to the level everyone else in France gets? The level of benefits that is beyond anything anyone in America could hope for (4+ weeks of vacation, 35 hour work week, pensions, universal healthcare)?
Sounds exactly like an embrace of Republicanism to me.
Seriously, this it the problem with the right-wing today – no nuance, all bluster and swagger. They can’t understand how you can be pro free-market, but with conditions. How you can be pro-worker (pro-union, pensions, guaranteed healthcare), but also understand it’s not a one-sided situation.
Again, Democrats in this country would be solidly in the middle, if not towards the right, in most countries in Europe. Sarkozky is basically Hillary Clinton, or maybe even John Edwards.
jcricket
Did you read about that software some newspaper is using that “secretly” deletes comments but makes it appear to the commentor that those comments are still there? Sneaky, but seems like a great way to deal with trolls.
I deny Prager’s point. It is not, in any way, undeniable. It is, in fact false. It is a lie. A misrepresentation of the truth. Simple google searches, along with everything on Bob Somersby’s web site (The Daily Howler) will prove Prager wrong.
jake
And if you consider “Liberal controlled media,” is just “Jewish controlled media,” in a new party frock, they’ve gotten enough mileage to make a few round trips to the frickin’ moon. I’m wondering who will control the media next. Teh African-Americans? Teh Gay? Teh Atheists? Teh Chinese? If some Arabic conglomerate starts buying up US broadcast corps. watch out for fRighty skull shrapnel.
This is either hilarious or very sad because it would not surprise me a little bit. Although I would think a conservative Redskins fan would make the claim first. Your average Skins fan being a more than a tad delusional to begin with.
Pb
The irony here of course being that Dennis Prager is Jewish, and in fact has co-written a book all about why (the evil liberals who control the media, among others) just can’t help but hate the Jews…
From the book summary on Amazon:
And from the Wikipedia link:
Xenos
Prager is beyond tedious and it is a waste of breath to even try to correct him He is as full of bad faith as Anne Coulter. Just ridicule him on a weekly basis and be done with it.
jcricket
Maybe John can have some kind of template or “mad lib” where he collects all the good insults and then just periodically inserts a different wingnut into the top of the template to see what it spits out.
maxbaer (not the original)
Ditto Italy and Australia.
Notorious P.A.T.
The leftist media shapes and distorts reality. It does not present things as they really are.
Leftist media in action:
*Almost every major US media outlet just tore into Nancy Pelosi for talking to Syria, but now praises Bush for doing same
*CNN promised to go easier on Republican candidates during their debate than they went on Democrats during theirs
*Time Magazine passed along as news disinformation from a Republican source that is known to be factually false but refuses to retract, even though their report is harmful to Democrats
And that’s just the past few days.
Notorious P.A.T.
Link for the Time Magazine story:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/26/klein/index.html
jake
He can’t. Mad Libs Style writing has been copyrighted by the Wingers:
“If we allow ___________ to ____________, the _____________ will take over and force us to [gay marry] [burn our Bibles] [have abortions] [wear burquas]!eleventyone
MikeF
Because you are a closet masochist?
Conservatively Liberal
Because you can’t help rubbernecking a train wreck?
There are some disturbing problems with the extreme right. They want those who disagree with them (read hate America) to leave the country, yet they proudly proclaim that Americans are free and thus are better than anyone else in the world. That they can not see the problem with these opposing views is just mind boggling to me.
I think there are a lot of racists and elements of the old KKK in the extreme right. The religious bent, the fear of brown people, the intolerance of others sexual/religious practices and beliefs, the kick everyone out who disagrees with them mentality and more are all hallmarks of the old KKK. Well, they had to go somewhere, and once the new KKK went with the Aryan Nation crap, that blew it for the old timers.
I have taken to referring to the right (current definition, not the old one) as Moonies. Hey, if the shoe fits then wear it. The ‘coronation’ of Reverend Moon in the Senate was the icing on the cake for me. The right likes to worship Moon’s media as factual, thus they earn the name ‘Moonies’.
So, you so-called ‘Moonbats’ ought to be objecting to being called that, and place the Moonie name where it belongs. Squarely on the head of the right.
Darkness
I’m with Lisa in Bama. I just returned to my little U.S.A town from 6 weeks overseas (India, Netherland, Italy, German). The world loves Americans and America too as a concept, perhaps not always a reality. Really, we are Disney Land every day where we do what we want. What’s not to love? The few who hate us for this *cough*fundamentalist-whatevers* hate that we sell a brand that lets people choose what to do with their lives and only because that takes power away from THEM to control what their believers/followers should do with their lives. The threat of modernism as Brand America is what the Middle East sees as a threat. It means they can’t force their women to bear 15 children and live under a black full-length garment in 130 sunlight. It means they can’t send out their sex-starved men as robots controlled by viciously debilitating mores to do their bidding. They have an untenable system and Brand America is the easiest target in the fight to maintain that system.
People in Europe don’t so much hate Bush as just don’t effing understand what he is doing in power. “Mystified” would be a better word. After 2000, Europeans (we travel a lot, every year) were sympathetic, commiserate. After 2004, there was a little open WTF?? in discussions about why he was STILL there, but that has faded back to general sadness and sympathy again.
But claiming the world hates America is manipulative bullcrap that would only be spouted by someone who never even made it to Windsor to drink underaged. The world does not hate America, they are ever hopeful that it will return to its former humanity-raising glory. Saying your American and having the person opposite sadly shake their head is not hatred… it’s something more complicated and harder to deal with, frankly. I’m American, an outright argument I can take. Tortured souls are harder to cope with.
Randy Paul
Why do I read TownHall.com?
So that we don’t have to. God bless you for it.
4tehlulz
Because it’s cheaper than a dominatrix.
jcricket
It’s certainly cheaper than a couple of wetsuits.
zing.
yet another jeff
Not directed at you, John…I just need to work in Heather’s quotes whenever they seem close to fitting:
Veronica’s Dad: Will someone tell me why I smoke these damn things?
Veronica Sawyer: Because you’re an idiot.
Veronica’s Dad: Oh yeah, that’s it.