It's hard to believe that Amanda Marcotte is really this clueless. Supposedly, she doesn't understand why conservatives object to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being given a platform on U.S. soil from which to spew his particular brand of anti-Semitism and hatred. The only reason she can come up with is that "rightwingers are just like him" (I'm not making this up) and that they fear, somehow, their followers will suddenly want to stone women and wipe Israel off the map.
The other explanation, according to Amanda, is that conservatives want to "distract" from President Bush's "failures." Well, there's little chance of distracting the left from it's pacifier. After all, if you look at Pandagon or KOS or nearly any leftwing site, you will find daily barrages from people telling us how President Bush is worse than Ahmadinejad.
No, Amanda really isn't this stupid, although she plays stupid on TV. I don't even think she's as dumb as her commenters who say,
Ahmedinejad is a Bush clone with blacker hair and a goatee. Both are rogue leaders that have a long proven record of misogyny and homophobia. Both also have jailed people who spoke out against their governments.
Well, here's a clue for the clueless: the reason conservatives denounce allowing Ahmadinejad to speak in the U.S. is that it gives him legitimacy and free publicity. There's an idea called "public shunning," which should be practiced by intelligent people when discussing thugs like Ahmadinejad, but the Left, so blinded by their own partisan politics sees nothing different between being jailed as a suspected terrorist and being jailed for being a woman.
And, honestly, Amanda is just giving her sycophants the red meat they so greedily gobble up. Amanda finally admits that she's all for free speech for lunatics trying to make nuclear weapons, but she doesn't like free speech for pro-life supporters. Why? Because if pro-lifers are given a platform on which to debate, they might actually persuade people that abortion is wrong.
It's painful reading stuff like Amanda's posts, realizing that the left doesn't get what free speech is about. For the left, free speech is just another tool to bash one's political opponents and make brownie points with the nuts that support you. It's not about debate and reason because the other side might have a better argument than you. That's why every argument about abortion or gay marriage becomes just another mudslinging event (yes, Jes, I'm talking about you) for the Left, who can't debate with logic, history, or law but must resort to ad hominem attacks (yes, Jeromy Brown, I'm talking to you). When you don't really support free speech, as so much of the left proves over and over, it seems just a wee bit disingenuous to try to paint conservatives as the intolerant ones.
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