"I'm a worse victim than you are/I'm a worse victim than you"

This column is a very good, brief take on the victim posture of the hardcore rightwing generally, which (although he doesn't note this) applies in particular to the Christian Right and their claims that fundamentalist Christians are persecuted for their religion in America: Crying 'anti-Americanism' by Sean Gonsalves, WorkingforChange.com 07/11/05

The irony, of course, is that right-wing radio, Fox News and other conservative media is dominated by people crying victim over things that pale in comparison to what the world's downtrodden are surviving every day.

I mean, to listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, affluent, white, conservative Christian men have it worse than all historically oppressed groups in the world today... despite GOP control of the White House and Congress. ...

Kids working in sweat shops in foreign countries to produce cheap goods for Americans? They're just crying victim. What's really important is that we repeal the estate tax so that people like Bill Gates can leave his children a fortune worth a zillion dollars that they didn't have a damn thing to do with.

Never mind that Bill Gates' father joined with a thousand other rich Americans to protest Bush's repeal of the "death tax." ...

Undoubtedly, conservative pundits consider these kind of observations "anti-American," which is a code-word for any utterance that disagrees with the world view of white, conservative Christian men.

So because I don't gush over American ideals like some insecure teenager worried about what his friends will think of his acne, I get labeled "anti-American."

He's done a good job giving a brief description of how the poor-persecuted-white-guy rhetoric allows the Halliburton Republicans to pose as the defender of the ordinary (white) folks against those nasty "elites".

I think the line about gushing over American ideals like some insecure teenager is particularly inspired.

Tags: christian right, christianism