A Taste of Right-Wing Hate Mail
After one of my previous articles - "More Lies: Bush Finally Comes Clean On Secret CIA Prisons" - I received some very interesting hate mail from a few readers who felt they needed to give me a piece of their minds. While almost all of the feedback I've received over the years has been from fellow progressives encouraging me to continue to voice their same ideas and concerns, for some reason this article in particular seemed to trigger a variety of right-wingnut backlash. In the spirit of Al Franken's "Hate Mail" segment on Air America, I thought it would be interesting to share this feedback with my readers, and even respond to their criticism...
#1:
Nice reporting, sport. I guess you don't do any writing for Fox News, huh?
Can you offer any valid reasons WHY the general public would have benefited from knowing about "secret" prisons? There IS something to be said for what you don't know, won't hurt you.
Maybe you should try a new writing style; one with a little tact and grace, you might get through to more intelligent people. As it is, the only idiots who believe what you have to say are the blind sheep who remain loyal to the losing party, just because they know no better.
My response:
You're right about one thing - I don't do any writing for Fox News. FNC is clearly recognized as a right-wing, conservative, Bush Administration lapdog. Their motto of "Fair & Balanced" is the biggest joke/lie in the mainstream media, as they produce a format with Bill O'Reilly & Sean Hannity slinging garbage which is rarely accurate, uniformly conservative, and almost always pro-Bush.
My issue with the secret prisons is not the fact that he kept them secret, as you seem to suggest. I'm not okay with these prisons now that they're no longer secret. The fact of the matter is that the United States has been torturing prisoners, and proudly continues to do so. I'm not okay with torturing prisoners. I don't believe that the information gleaned from tortured prisoners is necessarily accurate (one of the false justifications for the war in Iraq came from a tortured prisoner who gave them what they wanted to hear just to stop the torture), and I believe that our mistreatment of prisoners puts our own soldiers at greater risk.
As for my writing style being untactful and ungraceful - Thank You! This is exactly what I hope to hear from right-wing sheeple like yourself. Tact is for negotiators, and gracefulness is for figure-skaters. I tell it like I see it, and I pull no punches. If it hurts - too bad. Get over it.
You may not choose to believe this, but you have the intelligent people and the idiots mixed up. The intelligent people know that Sadaam Hussein and Iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction, and had NO connection to al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the attacks on 9/11 (perhaps you'd like to download the Senate Intelligence Committee report - 7mb pdf). It's idiots like yourself (the minority, btw) who watch Fox News and still think Sadaam Hussein was the one who attacked us on 9/11 and that the war in Iraq is justified.
#2 (copied-and-pasted unedited):
Who gives a shit if we torure a few terrorists. I dont think any real person in this country objects and for those that do, they need to be deported to Afghanistan. Stop hammering Bush and go on your merry faggot ways and get some other folks killed by the terrorists. Personally as a Verteran I find your writings disgusting, uneducated and you are obviously morally confused. Just my opinion of course. I am a network engineer with two masters degrees and have seen much of the world. Apparently you didnt pick up the body parts of a loved one on Sep 11th. And if ou did and still have the veiws you do , Check yourself in to the nearest State hospital.My Response:
I think one of the biggest differences between you and me is that I DO give a shit. (btw.. for a guy with two masters degrees, I'm surprised you never learned how to use a spellchecker.)
How can we be sure that the people renditioned to secret 'black site' prisons, for extraordinary torture, are all terrorists? Isn't this type of brutality the same reason we labeled Sadaam a vicious dictator? You assume & accept that the Bush Administration is telling the truth, and you trust them. I, on the other hand, have watched the Bush Administration very closely over the last 6 years, and have seen them lie to us repeatedly and consistently. I don't trust them... at all. That's why I'm a big fan of oversight, transparency, and checks-&-balances in our government. These are the things that the Bush Administration has mutilated. These are the unspoken casualties of war.
But there's a lot more to it than that. I care very deeply about how people are treated. I care very strongly about our Constitution and how our country was built on a foundation of rights, protections, and tolerance for diversity. And, I care unequivocally about the truth, and that the people who we elect to positions of responsibility, tell us the truth with unmitigated honesty. The Bush Administration has rarely been honest with the American people, as evidenced by the 6-year disparity between what they've said and what they've done, not to mention the multitude of documentation & evidence that has surfaced over the years debunking their claims.
Since you're a veteran, I certainly owe you a debt of gratitude. I have the utmost respect and thankfulness for our men & women in uniform who have given of themselves and put themselves at risk to protect us. Granted, I have criticized the rare occurrence of soldiers who have abused their authority (i.e. the atrocities of Haditha & Ishtaqi). However, I have also been extremely supportive of our troops while criticizing the Bush Administration and the mission.
I think it's deplorable that your fellow soldiers were sent into harm's way under fraudulent circumstances and without proper protections. I think it's deplorable that so many of your fellow soldiers have been killed and/or maimed in an effort to fuel the military-industrial-complex's greed. And, I think it's deplorable that your fellow soldiers have returned only to find that their benefits have been cut.
#3:
You are such a know it all. Why don't you join the muslim fascists and kiss up to those you love?
My Response:
I am not a Muslim, and I'm certainly no fan of fascism. In fact, I believe that the Bush Administration has brought our country perilously close to a fascist state. Yet, they've managed to label "our enemies" as "Islamic Fascists", in their patently hypocritical and paradoxical 'doublespeak'. Before you start throwing around the word 'fascist', I suggest you do a little research. I have.
As for kissing up to those I love, I hope my wife appreciates all the kissing up I can muster.
posted by Scott Shuster at 9:49 PM
4 Comments:
I see you read your correspondents' mail fully before replying, and use their own words to hang them. That's a very good habit.
I try to keep responses much shorter and crisper. People who believe Bushco propaganda tend not to have very good skills in reading or critical thinking. For such people, brevity is not merely the soul of wit, it is its delivery service.
Anyway, good on you for responding politely but firmly. They may be dopes, but they are brothers and sisters in our American family.
Hey my name's Shawn.
I have this INSANE take on the world.
I think, that the current US powerboys let or even planned 9/11, so as to benefit from it when it occurred.
I think that Iraq, the situation of Iraq, the entire adventure into Iraq, was these rich guys putting out a story, so as to move in and take control of the oilfields amidst the chaos they were to cause by deposing policeman Saddam. And yea like it or not, he was the area cop with his army.
I'm from Canada, and I think Afghanistan is our Iraq. I know about the pipeline deal in ghanistan that they mean to put through or are putting through to the Caspian, and I'm embarassed, pissed, and scared. Everyone here is brainwashed, no campaign to subdue and coersce the Canadian public will of this size has ever been undertaken before and we've been morally hit like Hiroshima.
So yeah, I think the west is playing for keeps these days, full on blood and guts, to the point of, if the wrong guy read this and investigated, I might see an assault somehow on my person for knowing and talking too much.
And the point of this post, yes the point.
IT WAS TO THANK YOU. To thank you so much, for staying uncomprimised. For still writing, and fighting, and for being a thinking sane stable human being, one that I can look at and go, "Hey, I hope I'm still like that and not like those other nut sellouts that I see every day."
THANKS MAN. You convinced me to want to hold on. Thank you. Your smackdown of that verteran with the two masters degress was especially inspiring, as thats the prevailing mentality of pretty much everyone in the city I live. :D
Yo brother from anotha mutha, yo simple son with the big love gun, thanks AGAIN.
-Shawn, from Canada.
(So sad what they did to New York. Roman Politics? And finally, F&#@ O'REILLY AND HANNITY!!!)
>:D
I feel so sorry for the Republicans who are being so deceived by Bush & this administration! They don't realize what they are doing! My skin crawls just thinking about shaking hands with any of them! I wonder at how they can do it!!!
I DON'T THINK WE HAVE ANYONE In Washington that cares one way or the other what the people think. I see no differences in either party at this time and that my friends is a sorry situation. If we as American cannot agree on anything what can we expect from the so-called leaders in Washington, after all they had became millionaires at the expends of the American taxpayers. But the worst part of that it is the people of this country who are to blame most people just think in the order of Democrat republican not whether this man is good or that man is good just what party they belonged to. Intel we change that and become independent from either party we will continue to have these problems. We must take back our country from the politicians if we are going to survive as a country.
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