THE LIMITED IQ OF CONSERVATIVES

When you read the letters to the editor section of The Fresno Bee you not only get "treated" to the right wing commentary in the letters, but in the comments sections that follow letters.

I should probably skip the comments section because it's usually the same old nonsense, especially if it's a response to a letter from someone who is not a right-wing wacko.

Lately, the right-wing meme is that people on the left voted for the Iraq war. Therefore, they claim, people on the left who criticize the war are "hypocrites." They conveniently forget that many people on the left opposed the war from the beginning. At the time we were told you were "either for us or against us." The Dixie Chicks made a fairly innocuous comment about George W. Bush and suddenly they were under vicious attack. Members of Congress who voted for the war also did so on the false information provided by the Bush administration. It's amazing how right-wingers, who always howl about responsibility, never assume any.

Another thing that irritates me is the tendency of right-wingers to use cute little labels like "libtard." It's amazingly insensitive in the first place. "Retard" is totally inappropriate to describe people with genuine mental handicaps. Studies also show that people on the left are more informed and more intelligent than right-wingers too, so the suggestion that right-wingers are more intelligent isn't grounded in reality. Name calling is the first resort of people who really can't defend their political philosophy and, Lord, conservatives would have a hard time defending a philosophy that lied us into two wars, devastated the economy, and created record levels of poverty and inequality.

THE CALLOUS DISREGARD OF CONSERVATIVES

There was a letter in today's Fresno Bee that irritated me sufficiently for a comment. The writer is your typical sanctimonious holier-than-thou right-winger who wants to "correct" another letter writer.

This guy revealed himself early when he called the recent despicable pepper spraying incident at UC Berkeley "innocuous." I would like to see some of these right-wingers line up and demonstrate for us how "innocuous" it is to get pepper sprayed or water boarded. If it's no big deal, they shouldn't mind at all demonstrating that for us.

He also goes on to claim that fascism is a form of "socialism." That would probably surprise political scientists. Fascism is the diametric opposite of socialism. At its core fascism is an alliance between big business and the government and the best historical examples are in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler. We've seen a steady progression in this country toward fascism as big business calls more and more of the shots even when it's to the detriment of our population as a whole.

Conservatives have a hard time defending their philosophy when they have to adhere strictly to the facts, so that's why we see such a constant stream of revisionism and distortion. True conservatism means vast inequality, attacks on civil liberties, contempt for the environment, hatred of minorities, and anything and everything for the very rich. That's a hard sell when it's down to the basics.