Exploitation, Hypocrisy, and Irresponsibility: The Second

NOTE: This is a school paper I just turned in for my writing class. So if you find the format a little strange, that's why ; )

I have to be completely honest. My friends and I never really talk about controversial issues. If we do, it’s because we agree on the topic. However, this isn’t to say that I don’t have hot topic discussions. On the contrary, this is practically a daily routine for me.  We’ll just say I know of a place full of ignorance and boy, do I have fun with them.

The most recent interaction I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in is the Arizona shooting/civility in politics/metaphor ban. We’ve got group A who are adamant that the shooting is all the fault of the rightwing media and Sarah Palin. Then there are the people in group B who say we should all just get along and that there shouldn’t be any political banter on either side. Finally, we have group C. Group C is just showing up to the scene saying that metaphors should be banned because the imagery is what caused Loughner, the shooter, to snap.

Personally I think Loughner was just a lunatic and placing blame on any political party, agenda, and so forth is as ridiculous as saying rock music inspired the Columbine incident.

While group A jumped on the “blame the conservatives” bandwagon before the victims even got to the hospital, I wanted to wait until some information a bit more substantial than the fact that the congresswoman that got shot had a “D” in front of her name surfaced. I have to admit, my heart sank when I found out she was a Democrat because I knew the repercussions that would soon follow… true to liberal form, they didn’t disappoint.

What the liberal media, liberal bloggers, and even the liberal sheriff, failed to take into consideration before proclaiming their condemnation from atop their ivory towers, is evidence. You can imagine my shock when I heard Sheriff Dupnik, A man of law in a land of innocent before proven guilty, admit he had no proof to substantiate his accusations against conservative talk radio and Sarah Palin. Nevertheless, the damage was done.

Still, the truth usually comes out and more and more information started coming through. Come to find out the shooter, Loughner, was described by his friends since high school as “left wing,” “a political radical,” “quite liberal,” and “a pot head.” With this in mind, If any fingers are to be pointed, they should be in the direction of Bill Maher. Did I, or do I need to mention his reading material? It’s not that big of a deal, just some light reading like “The Communist Manifesto” and Hitler's “Mein Kampf.”

Considering group B’s rantings, I can’t say I’m opposed to civility in politics. After all, many great institutions forbid the topic of politics to be discussed in order to promote companionship due to the nature of the discussion. However, people need to realize politics have never been civil. In fact, I would say we’ve come a long way since political arguments were settled with duels to the death.

A healthy debate and open discussion of politics is essential and what has made this country great. The problem here is, group B loves to play the role of ‘holier than thou’ and claim that all though the conservatives are the bad guys, we should all just stop. To which I must point out their total hypocrisy. Ann Coulter, I know I know, said it best when she said, “President ‘whose asses to kick’ Obama predicted ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with his political opponents and has made such remarks as ‘if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun’ -- making Obama the first American president to advocate gun fights since Andrew Jackson.”

Which leads me to my next group. Group C should take note and realize that Obama has been king of metaphors since his immaculation. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews has begun to desperately cling to this last resort after the burden of proof and evidence has been weighing on his shoulders making him look more and more like a fool for his premature judgments on air. After restating Palin’s statement, “We’re not retreating, we’re reloading,” Chris said, no I’m not making this up, “THAT’S not a metaphor.” Really buddy? Who did she shoot?

I can’t believe this is even a discussion right now. Do I really need to give a reason why banning metaphors is ridiculous? If a lunatic is going to take a picture of crosshairs on Sarah Palin’s website (keeping in mind the same imagery has been featured on many Liberal websites) literally, they would have done it anyways and blamed it on their bowl of Rice Crispies that morning.

Guns don’t kill people, video games don’t make people violent, spoons didn’t make Rosie O’Donnell fat, and (insert any other cliché here).  Exploiting a tragedy for political gain is beyond the pail and this is getting to be ludicrous. The solution isn’t to hold hands and sing “Kum Ba Yah” or further the “wussification” of America by becoming more politically correct by getting rid of metaphors. It’s time for liberals to grow up and stop pointing fingers at anything and anybody besides the shooter. Remember, these are the people who were adamant about not passing judgment on the Muslim community for terrorist acts but now they’re more than happy to throw conservatives under the bus and feel justified in doing so…

When I say “throw conservatives under the bus,” I don’t mean they actually are tossing conservatives under a large vehicle. That’s a metaphor, Chris.