{"id":17,"date":"2008-02-22T16:52:27","date_gmt":"2008-02-23T00:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/cain\/the-common-failing-of-all-would-be-political-agitators\/"},"modified":"2008-02-22T16:52:27","modified_gmt":"2008-02-23T00:52:27","slug":"the-common-failing-of-all-would-be-political-agitators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/02\/22\/the-common-failing-of-all-would-be-political-agitators\/","title":{"rendered":"The common failing of all would-be political agitators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Centurion, why do they titter so?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just some…uh, Jewish joke, sir.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>
\n– The Life of Brian<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.<\/em>
\n– Voltaire<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve noticed something of a trend when it comes to politics.\u00c2\u00a0 And that is that people think they can use half-assed political slogans along with some pathetic emotional appeal to try and sway peoples opinions.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, look at the common refrain from the morons at Democratic Underground: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bush lied, people died.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

OK, it is pretty much true, as a trend.\u00c2\u00a0 If we take the name Bush to cover his administration appointments, including those in the Office of Special Plans (who doctored evidence in the run up to the Iraq war), you have a case.\u00c2\u00a0 But does just mindlessly shouting it across the political debating forums of the internet actually convince anyone to forego their support of the Administration?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d be very surprised if it did.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, it makes the supporters of the pro-abortion War Party look almost as mindless as the supporters of the anti-abortion War Party, which puts off any freethinking individual and reduces both sides to shouting pre-made soundbites at each other.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, really.\u00c2\u00a0 You could script robots to do this shit.<\/p>\n

And its not just in America.\u00c2\u00a0 Anywhere there is someone who is, on the face of it, is pretty much a complete and utter asshole, those who dislike them try to paint them as Satan incarnate.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if this is Hugo Chavez, Putin or Blair.\u00c2\u00a0 Same reasoning applies, show them to be powerful, yet utterly evil.<\/p>\n

Does anyone actually fall for that shit?\u00c2\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n

Because to me, it looks like those on the other side are just affirming the power of the person they hate, from an opposite direction.\u00c2\u00a0 Powerful people will always have vocal supporters, simply because being on side with those in power has many rewards.\u00c2\u00a0 The moral character, or lack of it, is rarely questioned along the entire political spectrum, what with people being convinced their own political ideology is the only moral one.<\/p>\n

Lets face it, if you really want to cut someone down to size, you have to make them a figure of fun.<\/p>\n

Its the only antidote to emotionally fuelled political debate, which is 90% of all debate nowadays.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of affirming the object of your dislike is powerful, you portray him as a bumbling fool.\u00c2\u00a0 You highlight the hilarious inconsistencies in their thinking, and you then convince people around you to laugh at them.\u00c2\u00a0 Never directly engage in so-called debates on the pros and cons of any given policy, instead concentrate on using those policies as ammunition against that person.<\/p>\n

I know what you’re going to say.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But people have already tried this Cain, and it hasn’t worked.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Well I disagree, they haven’t tried hard enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at those ridiculous Bushisms people, for example.\u00c2\u00a0 The book turned from halfway amusing into textual analysis of policy in about 10 pages.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no cutting edge to it, there was no satire.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just the idiotic sayings of a man who commanded the world’s most powerful military.\u00c2\u00a0 The world has seen Caligula’s before now.\u00c2\u00a0 The only way they laughed at them is in a helpless \u00e2\u20ac\u0153well, we’re fucked now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d way.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no opposition, no defiance.<\/p>\n

There is an old American proverb, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153use your wit as a shield, and not as a dagger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Its one I totally disagree with.\u00c2\u00a0 Use your wit precisely as you would a dagger.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in the bad old days of the Hashishin, an acolyte would be given only a dagger, to make a public execution of the cult’s enemies.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost always, they struck in the most public place possible, in the most public way possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Friday, outside the mosque, with everyone watching.<\/p>\n

That is exactly the attitude a competent political agitator should take.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t mock them to their face, perhaps you should take up a safer past time, like jogging?\u00c2\u00a0 Cut them down to size.\u00c2\u00a0 Make them a figure of ridicule.\u00c2\u00a0 Try to move outside party based bullshit, make their supporters look like idiots by association.<\/p>\n

A person who is widely considered a laughing stock is not going to command respect, regardless of how much power they have.\u00c2\u00a0 And in an age where substance is nothing and image is everything, in such an age, humour is king.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Centurion, why do they titter so?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just some…uh, Jewish joke, sir.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d – The Life of Brian I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it. – Voltaire I’ve noticed something of a trend when it comes to politics.\u00c2\u00a0 And that is … Continue reading The common failing of all would-be political agitators<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,34,15,41,52,56,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discordianism","category-humour","category-lulz","category-media-culture","category-politics","category-rant","category-satire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.principiadiscordia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}