still pissed off...

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:32:52 GMT

... or something.

On Friday, I saw the video clip of Mike Huckabee wishing for Americans to be forced, and I quote, "forced, at gun-point, no less" to listen to David Barton.

Didn't post about it, because I didn't want it to get lost in the April Fool stuff... and then didn't post about it later in the weekend because I got just so far into writing a rant and kind of shut down, couldn't think or write coherently. At the time, I chalked it up to disgust. But I think it's more that I'm kind of shell-shocked, just stunned and despairing.

[I got as far as:

Ponder that for a bit. Ignore, for the moment, that Barton holds no formal credentials in law OR history, earned a BA in religious education from Oral Roberts University (but no further degrees), and has been affiliated with a handful of organizations that promote a certain public Christianity (National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, promoting the same; the Providence Foundation, which promotes the idea that biblical law should be instituted in America). Ignore, for the moment, that Barton's books have consistently been discredited by scholars and that Barton cannot provide any references for a number of quotes he attributes to the founders of the country (quotes that can't be found in any public documents anywhere, and seem to be contrary to other well-documented examples of the founders' viewpoints).

and I stalled.]

I'm still stuck. Even if you take the "at gunpoint" bit as a joke (and I'm not sure I can), the idea that there *are* folks who would happily use force to spread (easily demonstrable) lies just boggles. (And there's the sneaking suspicion that if I ended up on the wrong end of one of those guns, they'd probably write me off as irredeemable and go ahead and pull the trigger - undoubtedly why I have trouble dismissing the statement as a joke.) And I'm further boggled by the idea that there are people in power who take zealots like Barton seriously, want to legitimize and codify the hate and prejudice he represents, truly believe the crap he makes up.

I look at Barton, look at the Tea Party, look at the illogic and untruth that underlies so much of the conservative platform, and I break. How do you combat such egregious lying? How do you combat such willful ignorance?

comments

psybelle

still pissed off...