Saturday, March 31, 2012

Idiot extraordinaire Rich Lowry attacks liberals over Trayvon Martin murder


In case you were wondering, National Review editor Rich Lowry, occasionally somewhat less insane than most on the right, is indeed a STUPID... FUCKING... IDIOT.

In a post at NRO today, he tries desperately to make the case that "the lives of young black people are cheap, unless they happen to fit the right agenda," specifically the right leftist agenda, as liberals ignore most of the violence against blacks and only bother to care when there are political points to be scored, as, he thinks, in the case of Trayvon Martin.

This is utterly ridiculous, of course.

Conservatives don't care about "the lives of young black people in communities beset by social disorder," and Lowry's fooling no one -- no one outside the conservative echo chamber, that is -- by mentioning murders other than Martin's as supposed examples of liberals not caring.

All Lowry is really doing is trying to score his own political points by suggesting that it's liberals and not conservatives who are the racists, while also trying to marginalize the Martin murder.

This is the sort of thing conservatives do in order to try to convince themselves that they're not a bunch of racists. (They may not be, but many of them are, and movement conservatism is steeped in racism.)

The implication of Lowry's "argument" is that Black America is a horrifically violent place and that White America is right to be fearful of it.

And in this case he actually says that the Martin murder has only become an issue (for liberals) because the killer isn't black: "There is no comparable epidemic of half-Hispanic neighborhood-watch volunteers like George Zimmerman shooting young black men. Nor is there an epidemic of cops doing the same."

In other words, it was a one-off. Nothing to see. No big deal. Move on. 

What are we to make of this nonsense?

Steve M. rips Lowry apart:

You know what's one huge difference is between the Zimmerman killing and every killing Lowry lists?

It's simple: In every case Lowry lists, everyone in America acknowledges that a crime has been committed. No one questions the notion that these killers should be arrested and tried. No one thinks the law protects the killers -- no one thinks the law ought to.

There's more beyond this. Liberals would like to see more economic opportunity for America's have-nots, and a reduction in easy access to guns. Liberals believe that personal responsibility plays a huge part, but that societal conditions do also.

But changing those conditions doesn't fit the right's agenda.

And Barbara O'Brien puts it bluntly: "If Trayvon Martin was killed for walking while black, I'd say Lowry is guilty of writing while stupid. And bigoted. And being a whiny self-absorbed wingnut.

Yup, that about sums it up.

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6 Comments:

  • Lowry reeks of passive aggressive hostility. His smile is more like the bearing of teeth by a hyena.

    By Blogger davemartin7777, at 11:41 PM  

  • Thanks, Michael. You saved me from having to say it.

    By Blogger ed waldo (Hart Williams), at 1:04 AM  

  • Agreed, Dave.

    My pleasure, Ed.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:24 AM  

  • It's just such a despicable piece of bullshit.

    Initially I had "reveals himself" in the title, but of course it wasn't a secret that he's an idiot.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:32 AM  

  • Ok, let me say it this way....

    If Zimmerman was not Hispanic, and was black, I'd (and I believe most conservatives like Lowry) would ask what the witnesses said they saw, take the fact that the black Zimmerman was neighborhood watch guy (we like those guys), and have the cops indicating he has a bloody face / head, and we'd have the same attitude.

    Now could it be that the cops are lying to America?

    Sure, I guess. Lord knows cops lie... public employees being what they are today.

    But, until we have the cops proven as liars, which is a whole other legal ball of wax, I'm not getting how you think race plays into this.

    Black Zimmerman should be walking free until it is proven he's guilty.

    And if in the rest of black America there are a bunch of black Zimmermans who are forced to go to jail after being neighborhood watch guy, calling 911, and ending up with a bloody face - then THAT is a horrible tragedy, and we should do something about it NOW.

    For conservatives, the first thing is somehow this became a thing for calling conservatives racists. Which is enough to force us to make sure no one is scoring points against our agenda which is paying less taxes, putting up with less noise from Democrats in general.

    The other thing is we're buying more guns and we're going to be keeping them - we want EVERYONE carrying a gun around - because well MAYBE YOU ARE RIGHT and public employee cops are bad, bad news.

    So for many conservatives, this is really about liking neighborhood watch gun carrying 911 calling guys - and not wanting that to go away.

    Last note, it's good you wrote about something you read on a conservative site - I found your article through memeorandum, and generally, libs write about stuff from lib sites, and conservatives do same, so kudos there.

    By Blogger Morgan Warstler, at 10:07 AM  

  • I love that when a conservative writes down some facts in a column, instead of having a rational, reasoned debate about the issue, he's called a bunch of hateful names. As soon as you do that, you lose the argument immediately.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:48 AM  

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