Flutterby™! : On Mel Gibson's insanity 2010-07-19 15:22:05.429526+00

On Mel Gibson's insanity

2010-07-19 15:22:05.429526+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

You've undoubtedly been exposed to the recent disclosure of phone calls made by Mel Gibson in raving batshit insane mode. New York Times: Frank Rich: The Good News About Mel Gibson points out that these calls don't really reveal anything about him that we haven't known for years and years, but that the culture has changed so that those stalwarts of of "conservative" media, like Bill O'Reilly and Robert Novak and the like, can no longer come to Gibson's defense the way they have in previous years.

Yeah, I think there's a difference between the carefully crafted political message that the handlers of the "Tea Party" movement are pushing and the actual beliefs of the those who show up at the rallies.

And your observation on the Ron Paul supporters is why I was reluctant to get behind him during the race, and I totally believe that the Tea Party movement is roughly the Ron Paul supporters, minus the libertarian tech geeks, plus a few more evangelicals and the "damn Mexicans is stealing our jobs" crowd.

But it is quite interesting that the Teabaggers are very carefully avoiding culture statements, trying to keep just on the "taxes" and "constitutionality" message (seems like if they were serious about that latter part they'd be supporting the ACLU more strongly...), and though, when I went looking, I found some crossover on the abortion issue they're staying out a lot of gender and sex politics.

I think there's a valid point here, but I'm not nearly as sanguine about the cultural agenda of the "new" conservatism embodied by the Tea Party and friends. There's plenty of hate in that crowd, and as motivated as they may be by economic issues, a lot of the fundamental energy of the thing comes down to simple racism.

To leave aside other cultural issues and other bigotries: I attended a Ron Paul meetup in Boulder back during the presidential race, and while the people there weren't at all traditional religious fundamentalists as far as I could tell, I have never before encountered such a concentration of batshit insane xenophobic conspiracy freaks. I kind of suspect that these people and their spiritual kinfolk are much of the libertarian ingredient in the Tea Party's special blend of crazy, and they are certainly not doing anything to dilute the American conservative movement's tendency towards antisemitism...