Monday, June 09, 2008

Immune or Callous?

I guess I didn't overtly comment on all the thinly and not so thinly disguised racism and misogyny in the recent months of the Democratic primary because it was no surprise to me. It was completely to be expected. In my many years I have seen otherwise smart, decent and caring people fall into such behavior without warning and usually for something, at its root, that is trivial or otherwise meaningless in the big scheme of things. This is especially surprising on the progressive left where you would think us DFH's would be cleansed or at least self conscious of all the suppressed hate and fear such behavior symbolizes. Not true as is obvious by all the vitriol of the last few months. Some of it really cruel and hurtful and a lot of it coming out of the mouths of people from whom you would least suspect it. As usual Digby drags it all out from behind the door and flogs it about the room. She's talking about the Clinton campaign here but change a few words and the same applies to the Obama campaign.

From Digby:

Clinton’s campaign ripped open a hole in our culture and forced us to look inside. And what we found was a simmering cauldron of crude, sophomoric sexism and ugly misogyny that a lot of us knew existed but didn’t realize was still so socially acceptable that it could be broadcast on national television and garner nary a complaint from anybody but a few internet scolds like me. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

h/t Susie

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