Rising Hegemon
But that doesn't stop the media from treating them like a huge social movement.
Coverage bias was most pronounced during the Health Care Reform votes when several hundred teabaggers on the Capitol grounds got a great deal of coverage, while a pro-immigration reform march at the same time drew a much bigger crowd, well into the tens of thousands, received virtually none.
So let the teabags steep in their inflated numbers, thanks to Arizona, on very short notice, now you'll see what a real political protest looks like.
Protest organizers said on Wednesday outrage over the Arizona law -- which seeks to drive illegal immigrants out of the state bordering Mexico -- has galvanized Latinos and would translate into a higher turnout for May Day rallies in more than 70 U.S. cities.
Some of these rallies, like Los Angeles alone in 2006 may (just may, remember short notice) draw half-a-million. Suck.on.that. Arizona.
Not that you'll see much coverage. After all, some mid-50ish white woman from Knoxville is screaming and carrying a sign telling the federal government to stay out of her "soshal securitee" and demanding those socialists let her drink liquor when she's carrying her handgun. And that's damn-fine television.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]
4 comments:
How much you want to bet that any May Day rally in AZ will have police standing by, just in case there's any "suspicious activity"?
It's quite funny. AZ says, in effect, "we're an incredible bunch of assholes," and then, almost in the same breath, "but, it's not fair that you're going to avoid us because we're assholes. That's not right."
At the daily life level, the only effective response to assholes is to ignore them. The societal analogue to that is a boycott.
Of course the asshole wants to go on being an asshole. That's his metier. Of course he wants others to experience his assholery in all its splendiferous glory. Still, life's too short to give in to assholes.
In terms of huge rallies protesting right-wing policies being basically ignored by the press (wars, immigration, 2000 election, etc) we need to recognize the corollary to IOKIYAR. That would be IWIYAD: It's Wrong if You're a Democrat. Why pay attention to hundreds of thousands or millions of irrelevant crybaby whiners, when you could cover a few dozen patriotic American Teabaggers demanding that Obama prove he's not an alien android replicant or something (which he is, by the way. Shhh!)?
i savor their futility.
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