While I don’t know whether to call it Palin Derangement Syndrome or Palinphobia, a poster has sprung up in San Francisco which I think reveals more about the anger and fear on the left than it does about the anger and fear on the right it purports to condemn:
Enrage them with fear? Who is really enraged here?
The artist explains,
“Enrage them with fear until they feel justified in their violence.” explains the artist, “I’ve associated it with a number of people from Glen Beck to Palin, Pinochet to Pol Pot, Hitler etc. Sometimes events unfold in such a way that your message becomes so much more relevant and you have an opportunity to really make an impact and communicate. That’s timing and timing is important.”
The recent Arizona shootings made the timing of Colla’s piece especially poignant. The tendency to oversimplify the issues turning them black or white, leaving room for minimal, if any, intelligent discourse struck a chord in the politically conscious street artist.
“Fear mongering, simply intensifies the likelihood of violence. If people are made to feel that they are in eminent danger or threatened, there is a fight or flight response. Based on that principle you are guaranteed a percentage of the responses are going to be violent.” says Colla.
And what’s with the fire burning behind her? Is it supposed to be a burning cross? Is the man behind the sign wearing paramilitary gear? Isn’t the whole idea that we should all be afraid — and VERY AFRAID — of Sarah Palin. Is that not fear mongering by any logical standard?
And if, by the artist’s own admission, fear mongering intensifies the likelihood of violence, then wouldn’t the image share the same goal as the words he stuffs into Palin’s mouth?
Who is trying to guarantee that a percentage of the responses are going to be violent?
You’d almost think that what they’re attributing to her is exactly what they’re doing.
MORE: Dave has similar thoughts about projection.
Comments
3 responses to “Stoking the fear in San Francisco”
The irony in the current tragic farce is just jaw-dropping.
Anyone who tries to compare Glenn Beck to Pol Pot suffers from a delusion of seriously debilitating proportions. Mere ignorance is inadequate to explain it.
I don’t know exactly who invented “cognitive dissonance” but many in the American left have, apparently, perfected it.
I wonder if they actually do know–or have begun to suspect–that their entire worldview is untenable. But they are not yet willing to actually face that fact (or are not sufficiently mentally agile to consider alternate philosophies), and so instead they lash out at their favorite target: the “intolerant right.”
They have themselves become what they most fear. And the OTHER real tragedy of this sorry spectacle is that they are, it seems, utterly bereft of the self-awareness necessary to even recognize what they have become.
I have a friend on the left (not the hard left) who is just appalled by the spectacle.
I believe 2012 is going to be worse for the Ds than 2010.
I call it Palin Rabies. Mostly because of the froth at the mouth.
http://reformaliberal.wordpress.com/category/sarah-palin/palin-rabies/