Glenn Greenwald sent me a copy of his newest book Great American Hypocrites, and I have to say that I liked it even more than his last one. It’s Glenn at his best—he never fails to muster the proper outrage at right wing behavior, even when lesser humans start to lose our ability to be outraged because it’s just so common. And his sense of humor is on full display, causing me to laugh pretty hard throughout the book.
The topic is hypocrisy, which is a rich source of material, because to condemn someone for a hypocrite doesn’t necessarily mean you are making a statement about what they’re hypocritical about. To say that Ted Haggard is a hypocrite because he condemns gay men while having gay sex doesn’t mean you disapprove of gay sex. In fact, you’re probably pro-gay to call out such a hypocrite in this instance. In this book, you have a buffet of hypocrite flavors. You have the conservatives preaching small government while driving the country’s economy into oblivion with overspending on war, and conservatives who claim they want the government to leave you alone while endorsing intensive spying on American citizens. Of course, you have your conservatives who talk about family values while being avid about trading down old model wives for new ones, visiting prostitutes, paying for abortions while condemning the right to have one, condemning adultery while being a big fan of it, having anonymous gay sex, and even more. And then you have chickenhawkery, which Glenn defines not just as agitating for wars you won’t fight in, but thinking that your penis gets two sizes bigger because you sit in your air conditioned home or office, promoting the war. Anyone who lays claim to the idea that starting or cheerleading for wars you won’t fight in is a sign of “toughness” is a chickenhawk.
It’s the chickenhawk thing that really inspires Greenwald’s definition of modern conservatism that makes this book so knee-slappingly funny: John Wayne conservatism. Wayne really was the model for so much modern wingnuttery. Wayne was able to become an icon of masculinity despite the fact (or perhaps in part because of it) that he was a coward and a degenerate who treated women like they were disposable, all because he looked gruff on camera and never met a war he wouldn’t champion other people to die for. Greenwald then launches into a gendered analysis that draws heavily on Stephen Ducat’s theories in The Wimp Factor, which thrilled me. Feminists like myself have insisted on this gendered analysis of why chickenhawkery is so prevalent for a long time now, and it’s great to see that finally get a wider audience. Glenn convincingly draws a picture of a conservative movement filled to the brim with men that are insecure with their soft, pampered lives and think that making other people go to war somehow absolves them of their own masculinity issues. He goes so far as to quote Jonah Goldberg condemning men who oppose the war as rumpled, emasculated, glasses-wearing, khaki-panted sorts that are soft around the waist (I’m paraphrasing) and then provides you a picture of Goldberg to drive home the point: He’s describing himself. And he hopes that the death of some 20-year-olds from the working class who enlisted because of the education opportunities will give him the manhood he craves.
Where do women fit into all this? Well, that’s an interesting question that Greenwald tackles in his section on how conservatives tout themselves as big family men with happy housewives, as opposed to those decadent liberals with our liberated women and sexifying ways. He then carefully details hows these “family men” are all too often wife-traders who alienate their own children (current nominee of the Republican party John McCain went years without his children from his first marriage speaking to him, they were so angry about the way he dumped his first wife to get a prettier, younger, richer model that fit his political aspirations more), adulterers, johns, and even closeted homosexuals. Greenwald notes that the Republicans coddled their own who stomp all over the women and children in their lives, but are willing to cut the strings on the outed gays, but to my mind this demonstrates a consistency that will always resonate with the anxious masculinity voters. Basically, the more adulteries and trophy wives, the more the gun humpers are going to think of these politicians as “family values” sorts, because “family values” is a code word for “male dominance”, or really, the patriarchy, because as the oppression of gay men shows, only certain kinds of men get to dominate. That John McCain talks about family values after trading his old wife for a younger, richer model is hypocrisy, true, but it’s also probably just going to make the sexists like him more. Still, they are wild hypocrites—after all, the official argument for the patriarchy is that it serves women’s interests to be second class, because we get male protection. The behavior of prominent conservatives shows how much a lie that really is.
The sections on the big government/small government bullshit should be mandatory reading, because it really demonstrates how casual lying has become so normalized for conservatives. Conservatives say they want “small government”, but they don’t tell you that the definition of “small government” is “a government that spends itself into huge debts letting corporate donors steal from the coffers and actively works to reinforce oppression, but certainly lets the very rich and powerful get away with murder without holding them accountable.” People vote for “small government”, thinking that means lower taxes and lower government interference for them, but actually it means higher levels of both for them, because someone has to pick up the slack now the the rich are above paying taxes or being responsible to society.
34 Responses to “Hypocritical pigs dissected”
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Glenn is sending me a copy of his book as well. Through his friend Amazon. Nice guy.
It is simply amazing that my Republican(hypocrite) friends have no idea of the hypocrisy they are living every single day.
The disconnect is awe-inspiring. “Elliot Spitzer! What a douche! David Vitter, Larry Craig, don’t know who you’r talking about…”
For those wanting to learn more, in addition to The Wimp Factor, John Dean’s “Conservatives without Conscience” slices and dices the conservative mindset quite nicely.
Dang, I really wish we could set a book-sharing thing through Pandagon. There are so many books I’d like to read that the libraries up here can’t (or won’t) carry, and I can’t afford to buy every book I want to read.
I’m sure this one will show up at the library.
Here’s hoping
Antigone, check to see if your library offers interlibrary loan services. I don’t know where you’re located, or ILL is available to you, but if it is, it’s a good way to get free (or very low fee) access to materials that aren’t held by your library. Including videos and DVDs.
Antigone, check to see if your library offers interlibrary loan services. ILL is usually free, and it’s a good way to get access to materials your library does not carry. You can even get video and DVDs via ILL.
(My apologies if this shows up twice. The anti-spam whatsit told me to reenter, after eating my comment.)
For most books I strongly recommend the library over Amazon. Not only does it save money and trees (we’ve all seek a lot of the Amazon packaging): library funding derives from circulation figures. The more books you borrow, the bigger the claim your library has on a central budget.
For those of us who can afford books, buying will endure. Sometimes we want to support an author with royalties, or just be able to hold onto a book longer. But if you have the time, it’s a good idea to add a round of library borrowing every month or so, whether you read the books or not.
Sorry, “seen” not “seek.”
If I remember HS biology class right, it’s easier to dissent pigs if you rinse off the formaldyhyde first and open the windows to remove the stench. Just trying to be helpful!
Seriously, looks like a very very good read.
Unree, I agree. But I’m a bit of a bibliophile. I find it difficult to read a book that I don’t own. My bookshelves runneth over. Also, I get a bit jittery when someone borrows a book for fear they won’t return it. Or that they will lay it down open ruining the spine or dog-earing the pages.
Of sourse the Reichwing is rife with hypocrisy. That’s been especially true for at least the last 40-years. So that’s not what’s interesting.
The interesting question is why RWA voters are not capable of seeing it, or pretend they don’t, and fail to hold Reichwing politicians accountable for it.
Long after our Chinese landlords have taken over the US and subjugated its people, some American Josephus will write the definitive history of this period and it will not look good when it’s shown that many Americans quite simply lost their minds…
Not only are they hypocrites, they’re hypocrites about their hypocrisy — watch how quickly a winger will claim that one of those “I’ve been forgiven by my family” speeches evens the slate completely and so that the Big Daddies can go out and sin some more.
TECHNOTES: Amanda, et al, some of the HTML tags seem DOA– fixable?
Also: enough people bitch about the kapcha that maybe a NOTE pointing out the if users register they don’t have to deal with the damn thing would be in order.
For most books I strongly recommend the library over Amazon.
*whine* But I have to give library books back… At least if I buy ‘em from Amazon, they’re mine…all mine…mine mine mine…ehe ehe ehe…
…er, uh, yeah, library books.
Does Greenwald actually get into how few right-wingers actually get the concept of hypocrisy? Pay attention to any comment board long enough when liberals are discussing it, and inevitably some wanker shows up and says, “But I thought you liebruls were pro-[fill in the blank]…” in tones of grievous woundy-facedness.
OT: Amanda, speaking of great books–I just got It’s A Jungle Out There by a certain Amanda Marcotte. In fact, my husband bought it for me. I can’t wait to read it. You are a wonderful writer.
Re John Wayne:
I do despise him, for the reaons you list.
And yet, like so many reactionaries of yesteryear, he documents the ongoing moral degeneration of the Right, because in his last years, he was calling Reagan to account on issues like the Panama Canal treaty IIRC–pathetically pointing out that Reagan et al were even looser with facts than he was.
It’s so hard for some of these righties to keep up sometimes.
This is what passes for integrity on the Right.
To me, John Wayne’s irretrievable low point was the movie Green Berets, a non-stop pro-Vietnam propaganda-fest from one end to the other.
If you’ve never seen it, and want to see what good old-fashioned American propaganda looks like (and trust me, we’ve created lots of it), that film is a great example.
Absolutely sickening…
I bet if he was still alive he’d be making some pro-Iraq turd to foist off on “real” Americans…
Interrobang,
did you see “Peanuts” today?
Does Greenwald touch on the obviously homoerotic quality of the chickenhawks’ fascination with virile, hard-muscled soldiers doing violent things?
Does Greenwald touch on the obviously homoerotic quality of the chickenhawks’ fascination with virile, hard-muscled soldiers doing violent things?
MikeEss–of course. If Wayne hadn’t been dying of cancer, very likely caused by breathing fallout from a nuclear test while filming _Ghengis Khan_, he might have had the energy to BigBrotherfullythink along with the rest of his circle and I’m sure he’d have contributed a la Stallone to the Reagan-era cheerleading. Instead he’s enshrined right up there with Barry Goldwater, who also had trouble toward the end keeping up with the thundering herd.
I’m reminded of how C.J. Cherryh’s regul would “go insane” and develop some imagination and vision on the point of death in the _Faded Sun_ stories.
Fantasy novelist Kit Whitfield has a great post about the John Wayne factor, Macho Sue:
IMHO this is why stories are important, even when everyone knows “it’s only TV, it’s only movies, it’s only video games” — but we need Persepolis, not Just Cause.
[1] And now, US foreign policy.
It’s true what Greenwald says about John Wayne, but you’ll have to pry Red River, They Were Expendable, and The Searchers from my cold, dead hands.
I don’t think you can compare Wayne to the wingnuts of today, as gung-ho wrong as he was. The man wasn’t stupid, and he did have some subtlety to his thinking, which was allowed in the days before cable news and Grover Norquist.
But not that subtle. John Wayne the icon: Bullshit. John Wayne the actor: damn good on occasion.
Amanda, thanks for the review. Things written here reminded me of something else I recently read, let me find it…..
It was a review of “Five Years of My Life:An Innocent Man in Guantanamo”, by Murat Karnaz,
Amazon
and the review was on dailykos.
Found it -
Here!
See the connection with movies, chickenhawks and pseudo-toughness?
Any thoughts to add? (Remember, Murat Karnaz has very good reasons for bitterness.)
Hamletta:
I see your “Red River,” and raise you “Rio Bravo” and “The Quiet Man.”
Man should’ve stuck with his day job.
Another three votes for The Quiet Man. My wife, my daughter, and me all love the goofy Irishness, the fiery Maureen O’Hara, and Wayne being all quiet manhood.
Fun movie - as long as you help your daughter understand the cliches and make sure she understands that world exists in a movie and not in (her) real life…
Uhm, “gunhumpers”?
I am frequently dismayed at the number of times rightwingers publish their latest nonsense without even performing a modicum of research on the topic they are bloviating on. Michael Medved’s rubbish of a few weeks ago, about how the Republic of Canada should be grateful that we haven’t been invaded by the U.S. We’re not a Republic, you nitwit; however it’s true we haven’t been invaded - since 1812! Gosh, thanks!
Anyway, your attention is drawn to Matt Barber’s trash in today’s Clownhall. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MattBarber/2008/04/14/darwins_kool-aid?page=1
In paragraph 3 he sullies his pen this way: “In his trademark deadpan fashion, Stein skillfully debunks the dogmatic neo-Darwinist programming we’ve all had relentlessly rammed down our throats ever since “Big Science” went bananas over that cute little Scopes Monkey.” Is it possible this tool actually believes there’s such a thing as a Scopes Monkey? I defy you to read the paragraph any other way. The mind boggles.
Final thought: next time you happen to be going point-counterpoint with a winger on the topic of evolution, and he starts harping about Darwin, ask him if he’s ever read Darwin…even a few pages. Here’s betting the silence will be deafening.
I think it should be pointed out loudly and often that if a prospective Democratic First Lady had Cindy McCain’s history that the “family values” crowd would be screaming about how we just can’t have a HOMEWRECKING WHORE taking the “position” once held by the living saint Nancy Reagan.
A fine review of a GREAT book!
Thanks.
What a metaphor for our own tangled existence, as Goldberg struggles and stumbles through this faint wacky veil of tears, always maintaining the fantasy of some dim image of what he once was, perhaps longing for the virginal innocence of his youth, such as it was, or the propped up illusions of grandeur his well meaning or delusional parents/teachers/pinhead friends foisted upon him, minus the rubber nose and funny big shoes. As the famous Doo-Wop song says, “You better think it over”. But just like every architect knows, whenever empty space is remodeled, shuffled, or even de-constructed, an image of what once was remains. The tarred roof of his leaking soul, bashed and nailed by the under-paid over-worked alienated “workers” of his fate and bad fortune, the scintilla of what affirmative self image managed to linger from a shattered and harrowing childhood is demolished like so much structural debris (don’t pick it up!) and decidedly “bent” nails, and don’t forget that once each separate fortification of his original persona has been removed through malevolence or ineptitude, there’s a blemish left in it’s place that could disturb and bamboozle unto perpetuity. His spirit was broken like the old Westinghouse four burner that gave up the ghost and died with a murmur not a bang, so the building custodian had it removed and dust lines of his sorrow remains from that neglected relocated appliance. The ancient ruins of his uniqueness and wholly realized pure self speak volumes of his former oneness. And Babs Streisand still warbles on the radio in the corner of how some fucking people are the luckiest people in the world. Last time I saw a mug like that it had a hook in it! Some people refer to Bab’s singing as an aural glimpse of the choir angelic. It’s my nightmare, even with the rubber nose. Nice rack though.
Maybe what’s needed in times like these are extended episodes of acute anti-retrograde amnesia without obvious loss of consciousness, brought on by the ingestion of alcohol or some other solvent based antagonist, combined with approximately 100 cc’s of tincture of extract of young adult Pineal gland, or joining a local band of “leaf people”.. Could Amsterdam be the next stop on this meandering Nova Express?
What a metaphor for our own tangled existence, as Goldberg struggles and stumbles through this faint wacky veil of tears, always maintaining the fantasy of some dim image of what he once was, perhaps longing for the virginal innocence of his youth, such as it was, or the propped up illusions of grandeur his well meaning or delusional parents/teachers/pinhead friends foisted upon him, minus the rubber nose and funny big shoes. As the famous Doo-Wop song says, “You better think it over”. But just like every architect knows, whenever empty space is remodeled, shuffled, or even de-constructed, an image of what once was remains. The tarred roof of his leaking soul, bashed and nailed by the under-paid over-worked alienated “workers” of his fate and bad fortune, the scintilla of what affirmative self image managed to linger from a shattered and harrowing childhood is demolished like so much structural debris (don’t pick it up!) and decidedly “bent” nails, and don’t forget that once each separate fortification of his original persona has been removed through malevolence or ineptitude, there’s a blemish left in it’s place that could disturb and bamboozle unto perpetuity. His spirit was broken like the old Westinghouse four burner that gave up the ghost and died with a murmur not a bang, so the building custodian had it removed and dust lines of his sorrow remains from that neglected relocated appliance. The ancient ruins of his uniqueness and wholly realized pure self speak volumes of his former oneness. And Babs Streisand still warbles on the radio in the corner of how some fucking people are the luckiest people in the world. Last time I saw a mug like that it had a hook in it! Some people refer to Bab’s singing as an aural glimpse of the choir angelic. It’s my nightmare, even with the rubber nose. Nice rack though.
Maybe what’s needed in times like these are extended episodes of acute anti-retrograde amnesia without obvious loss of consciousness, brought on by the ingestion of alcohol or some other solvent based antagonist, combined with approximately 100 cc’s of tincture of extract of young adult Pineal gland, or joining a local band of “leaf people”.. Could Amsterdam be the next stop on this meandering Nova Express?
I sent the above off to my Jungian analyst godson and after not
hearing from him I called about it. (Flash Gordon above ). He hung
up on me, so I need someone to translate it into vituperative English rather than Inuit introspeak. What is it about bullshit that you don’t understand, Carl? You should really be reading Mein Kampf rather than Ayn Rand. And of course, buying it instead of checking it out of your local library. You DO have a local library, don’t you? Maybe you can visit its religion section and sit in the stacks and read the book that talks about casting the first stone. It’s not in the geology section.
I am pretty sure that what Carl Gordon is trying to say in the above comment is that he has never ever been laid, not even once, and he’s just about given up hope.