Pre-Occupied

I happened to look at the post at the bottom of this page, but since it’s going to bounce to the next page once I post this one, I’ll direct you to it from here. Written a little over a year ago, it concerns the rabid anti-intellectualism of the right. And it’s no less true today, as witnessed by recent events.

First is the lineup of GOP presidential candidates. I’m sorry that I’ve never tuned in to any of the debates, if only to be able to see them all spilling out of the clown car, but the post-game snippets are sufficiently entertaining. The amount of stupidity on display is truly staggering; it makes an Arizonan like me think back to the fun-filled days when Ev Mecham was governor. The fact that the only one with an ounce of intelligence, John Huntsman, is barely polling well enough to be included (and won’t be in the next one) says a lot about the Republican base’s priorities. And the fact that most take pride in not believing in evolution says it all.

Second, and most confounding to me, is the hostility of teabaggers to the Occupy movement. You’d think there’d be a degree of simpatico when it comes to standing up for the 99% against the super-rich, but no. Instead, occupiers are lambasted as spoiled kids and smelly hippies. Why? Because they’re largely college students, and we all know that college students are radical, atheistic, sexually deviant, and obviously socialists because they want to redistribute wealth. Oh, and did I mention educated? Just like a year ago, the unthinking masses are cowed into believing that wealth is a proud badge of American success that should be aspired to and not penalized – never mind the fact that their very homes and jobs are at the mercy of the banks.

Some say that the reason there’s no common ground between the two camps is that the occupiers want more taxation and government regulation (of the 1%), which the teabaggers of course decry. But I propose a more nuanced distinction between occupiers and teabaggers – one that carries an explanation of why the latter disdain the former. The occupiers’ form of protest is a classic sit-in, which was popularized back in the ’60s and doubtless gives older Americans the heebie-jeebies. They must have done something to provoke those policemen who were forced to use pepper spray, which when you think of the National Guard at Kent State was going pretty easy on them. Besides, all that sitting around just proves how lazy they are. On the other hand, the t.p.ers’ preferred style seems to be the good old fashioned march – and along with providing some much-needed exercise (an alternative to the mall), what could be more patriotic, especially when you’ve got a few participants in colonial garb? Plus, when the march is over you get to go home and use your own bathroom instead of bothering local businesses (where you never know who’s used it before you).

So even though you’d think the occupiers and teabaggers had a lot in common, it’s clear that the latter are preoccupied with seeing the former as the worthless scum they’ve been for fifty years. To think that their parents wasted their hard-earned money sending them to college. That more than anything proves that you can’t trust education.