Courtesy of Slate:
This week's "stupidest thing said on Fox News" is especially pathetic. Three teenagers in Oklahoma allegedly murdered an Australian student named Christopher Lane, for which they were arrested and charged with murder. The reason this is a "scandal" is because two of the teenagers were black and, as Tom Scocca at Gawker explains, racists figure it's their turn to be angry after feeling put upon by the heavy coverage of the George Zimmerman trial. Now everyone on the right, including anti-choicers, wants a chance to voice their outrage about murder suspects who were arrested and charged with murder. Non-priest and executive director of Priests for Life Janet Morana was asked on Fox News to diagnose what caused the boys to allegedly kill. Naturally, the answer is legal abortion.
"First of all, we have to start with the fact that since 1973.... These kids are survivors. They could have been aborted. And that's a fact. And people don't realize. They're post-Roe v Wade, and therefore there's a thing called "survivor syndrome." There's a psychiatrist up in Canada, Dr. Philip Ney, has studied this for decades and shown the effect. Just the fact that you could have been aborted can affect you as a survivor of Roe v Wade."
How a person's supposedly deep grief over embryos that didn't make it leads him to go shoot people is never explained.
Now I am admittedly a little late with this story (It was posted last Friday), however when it popped up over at Reddit I quite literally could not believe my ears.
I know that the Right Wing tries to blame just about EVERYTHING on our new permissive society, but to blame a cold blooded murder on women choosing to control their reproductive systems is quite a stretch.
"Survivor syndrome?" Over the fact that you were not aborted, and other embryos were? Now I have heard everything!
How dumb is that woman! Lots of abortions took place before 1973. In fact lots of abortions have taken place since time immemorial. And Janet Morano knows it.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
How does she explain the almost 100 million Americans who were born since January, 1973, who haven't killed or maimed anyone?
ReplyDeleteI was going to characterize the mentality of these crazies, but they're crazy like a fox. Benghazi -- Roe v. Wade; IRS -- Roe v. Wade.
Lyndon Johnson died on the exact day, January 23, 1973, that Roe v. Wade was announced. Do you think he killed himself because he didn't want to live in a world were abortion was legal? Wait for that to swim into the blogosphere....
That would make all of us liable to get this kind of guilt. And since we all come from Adam and Eve, and since in Adam's fall we sinned all, and A&E must have had survivors' guilt from being created at all, no WONDER WONDER WONDER!!! the world is such a mess.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear, I feel so guilty for being alive.
Actually, humor aside, the concept of survivor's guilt is one that comes from deeply tragic times. My own understanding of it came from Holocaust survivors, particularly those whose family members died. Many who lived felt an increased pressure not only to live their own lives as best they could, but to take on the burdens of their murdered friends and relatives.
Of course they co-op something from the Holocaust...why not? Tis is a new low (again) from the anti-abortion crowd. Somehow I doubt it ever occurred to those boys they they could have been aborted. Seriously. Teens are about as self-centered as the entire adult GOP population. Did it occur to Sarah Palin that she could have been aborted? Or her kids..oh wait, one of them was.
DeleteThe entire argument is nothing more than throwing out yet another bumper sticker phrase instead of finding out the truth. The GOP is lost. In the past. In Reagan myth land. In the Old Testament..wait..they all have survivor's guilt because Jesus died. Also too.
If it weren't for the Brooklyn accent I could have sworn that was Sarah Palin answering the question. It was one endless run on sentence just like the crazy assed answer about the economy in the Couric interview. What the hell is she talking about? She even said "Also, too" a couple of times! Whoever books people like this should be fired. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteA Fan From Chicago
I believe the research will show that Roe v. Wade was influential in the reduction of violent crime, not an increase (see Freakonomics).
ReplyDeletehttp://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/
ReplyDeleteI'm really getting sick of hearing Fox people blame the ills of society on blacks having children with no father in home. I think they better check all these white little girls having babies and not being married. All I see is white girls having babies. Seems nobody gets married today, not at least until they have had several children. Look around, see what your friend's kids are doing check out TV they all got kids and then maybe they will marry, after years. I got news for these people, the men ( sorry to say) so many nowadays are not breadwinners, live off of women, But- it's always the woman's fault every ill that happens. .
ReplyDeleteHey, just look at the Palins for inspiration.
DeleteThree generations of babies before marriage. And Bristol hasn't even bothered to get a real daddy for Tripp, despite opining that 'children need two parents' whenever she is asked for her opinion on anything.
"Now I have heard everything."
ReplyDeleteSorry, Gryphen, but give it a month or so and these assholes will come up with something even more ridiculous!
Like maybe checking girls for virginity?
You just KNOW one of those idiots is just foaming (and yes, I MEANT foaming!) at the mouth to suggest it. They would probably even go so far as to suggest that any who refuse examination or have lost their hymen should be refused school. Hey! It's another way they can destroy public schools, right? Not to mention helping women to be so totally ignorant that they CAN be shoved into the house and kept barefoot and pregnant!
And if they never learn to read, they won't be voting either. I swear, the GOP is the new Taliban, Nazi, and Communist Party all wrapped in one big flag carrying a Bible.
DeleteBeing Faux, they naturally fail to take certain FACTS into account:
ReplyDeleteTeenagers are prone to inexplicably stupid acts because the frontal cortex, which is the seat of impulse control, doesn't mature until you're in your twenties (if at all).
Teenage boys are particularly prone to stupid acts, and this increases exponentially when they are in a group. Note the famous last words of "Hey, guys, watch this!" and the popularity of the JackAss franchise.
One of the commenters above referenced the Holocaust and survivor's guilt. It is a verifiable phenomenon, but unless all three of these boys' mothers had multiple abortions, and constantly bemoaned those decisions in front of them, it's highly unlikely any of them suffer actual survivor's guilt.
To their credit, the boys are showing some remorse. One stated at the arraignment that "I pulled the trigger" at which point the judge cautioned him against saying anything.
Despite their allegedly saying "let's kill someone," they had one .22 between them. This is a pretty common weapon in most rural areas--I've used one myself to kill poisonous snakes. Not exactly the weapon of choice for blowing someone away, when most of the news stories talk about 9mm or AK-47s.
IMHO, this boils down to 3 teenage boys being impulsively stupid, not considering the consequences of their actions, and now 4 families lives are turned upside down. No winners, only losers.
And all the more reason to keep all guns out of the hands of anyone under 18 (or 24 or any male at any age.)
DeleteYeah... It must be the regulated, safe abortions.
ReplyDeleteIt could never be the fact that those kids are in areas with no public services, no security, nothing to do as the parks, public activities, the chance to earn money legally with a dignified job, anything resembling a modern society is absent.
Humans are social creatures. Have society abandon them, and they will make their own, with its own laws, rules, hierarchy and goals to strive for.
That is what is at the heart of the street gang phenomenon. An alternate society for those that have been disenfranchised.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/toppolitics/new-scathing-tell-all-book-about-rep-michele-bachmann
ReplyDeleteYup.Saw portions of this elsewhere. She is a piece of work, Ms. Christian Values Honest Lying Piece of Scum Bachmann.
DeleteAlways entertaining when fundamentalists randomly choose to believe in "science" when they think it's helping them make their point.
ReplyDeleteMore amazing than the fact this idiot said such a stupid thing is the fact that there are many people out there that are willing to believe such nonsense.
ReplyDeleteWell. good. At least they will feel guilt about something, since it doesn't bother them to take food from kids and the elderly, take unemployment away from adults looking for work, or take the money we paid into SS and Medicare away from all of us. Not to mention killing innocents in otehr countries, calling health care 'a benefit reserved for the wealthy' and all the other crap the GOP believes. Let them, for once in their greedy entitled lives, feel guilt.
DeleteNewsflash Faux Eejits: EVERY HUMAN BEING EVER BORN IN ANY TIME COULD HAVE BEEN ABORTED!!!!
ReplyDeletethese boys should have been aborted - the world would be a better place
ReplyDeleteThat Fox news droids would allow her to blurt out bullshit like that without challenging it is just beyond stupid.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about Ms Also Too , but I'm willing to bet that she's an evangelical Christian, with zero regard for anyone who's not in her particular cult
I remember Bob, who was going through a divorce and child support thing, saying that he wished that he had just jerked off on a rock. So, his boys survived the chance of a bruising fall, dehydration in the sun, and being blown away by the wind.
ReplyDeleteThe boys never killed anyone but they were repulsed by the thought of eating beef jerky.
RJ in Brownbackistan
hahaha, also a little gross
Deletebut, hahaha
Faux is proof that Christianity is a pile. No god who claimed to love justice would allow shit like this in his name.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for the blast from Australia! If ANYBODY is going to slam faux news, it will be them!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to get outraged at all of the shit that commentators spew on Fox *News* these days.
ReplyDeleteThis is so obviously just *made-up shit* that we ought to encourage the GOP Channel to continue with this strategy of using increasingly absurd, cockamamie theories to support their agenda. It's not exactly adding to the 'preponderance of evidence' that will often sway the opinion of reasonable persons who don't view politics as a personal religion to be defended at all costs despite the inconsistencies and mutually exclusive "truths" it exalts.
The only people that will believe anything so stupid are stupid themselves, and they will never listen to reason until someone pulls the teevee remote away from their cold, dead hands. Aside from the near-death devotees that make up 80% of Fox's primary daytime audience and 70+% of its prime time audience (the proportion of their audience outside the 25-54 demo), most do not work full-time anymore, live on fixed incomes and are hard to reach and therefore, hard to teach to think.
But the rest of Fox's viewing audience, those who merely lean to the right on economic or social issues, willl either be repulsed to hear the crap that's being reported as news or valid commentary from The Fair and Balanced GOP Headquarters OR they are part of the 5% that are just plain stupid, and these noisy idiots are going to insist on exercising their rights to be dumb, to say crazy shit, to hate eeleete edjuccatimed people, science, black people, Mexicans, Muslims, Arabs of any faith, and all furriners because ... Obama and their right to own guns and have a meth lab in their bathroom.
Gryphen, I have an idea that I'd like you to consider related to the Fox/RW nutter troll-baiting propaganda stuff. If you want to retain your sanity and energy level for later, you might try a different tact for a while with their fake news segments. Rather than being distracted by the Fox Noise Outrage Machine, just link to the stupidity with factual "He said..." commentary, and then repeat their talking points verbatim, always with attribution to Fox or whatever WingNut source is preaching the stupid to the stupid. Do the same with Pat Robertson and his senile talking points and the other nutters, always with attribution but with as little commentary or critique as possible. Save your wit and wisdom for the heavy lifting, and let the commenters take it away on the really crazy shit if the mood strikes. Some of us will either skim quickly or ignore the stupid stuff after an eye roll or two and then move on to the Sarah Crimes News Reporting Service articles or the other really important news and commentary on current topics of importance.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought that might save you time for the big issues of the day to put your writing skills and creative thrust into. Like lots of your readers, I can't consume every post and every comment in real time, but when I go back sometimes and read a post I skipped because I didn't have time to read or comment, I think to myself, "Damn, that was some great writing (amidst your usual typo or misspelled words that we forgive since you are the news gatherer and reporter, head writer, editor and publisher), but why didn't he use that energy on something "more important" like another article that you might've given short shrift because of time constraints.
Absurd as it sounds to ask a writer to "write about the shit I wanna read about" and leave that stupid stuff to the side, I can see where you might want us to read your thoughts and commentary on things that matter to more of us (and on Sarah & fellow criminals), with links and a blurb about the dumb-dick subjects that will humiliate my moderate Republican friends, who totally ignore the rage topics from the left or right. My argument is that these are the ones that you can speak to effectively by playing it straight when the nutters make themselves look so bad that our piling on seems unfair and unnecessary.
Because, now think about it--- when really hot topics or bad news is forthcoming, stupid, distracting topics are "inserted" or "leaked" into the newshole in order to divide the audience's attention by those running damage control.
I've got to get back to work. Because of your blog, I have to stay in the office an extra hour AT LEAST every damn day to get everything done. I'll be cursing you during happy hour again today, because of some stupid CEO's "No Drinking at Work" Policy, even after 5:00pm.
That doesn't mean I think I'm the boss of the blog. It just means I'm a loyal reader and would like a little more nuanced approach, because as sarcastic as you can be sometimes, your sarcasm really comes through when you say less about something you could write about for 24 hours straight if time allowed. Whatever. Just feedback & kudos for keeping it real.
This bit of news seems to be a much more likely reason for violence than Roe v Wade 'survivor's guilt':
ReplyDelete"In an interview with ABC, Shellie Zimmerman said that she had left her husband George the night before the shooting. If you don’t know anything about domestic violence statistics, this might not have set off any alarms. But I do, and suddenly the murder of Trayvon Martin makes so much more sense."
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/29/shellie-zimmerman-reveals-left-george-night-shooting.html
That is so retarded I can't believe someone even thought it let alone said it.
ReplyDeleteBeing a member of the "olds" I was born pre-Roe v Wade. But my mother could have still aborted me. She could have gone to a country where abortion was legal or she could have gone to a back alley butcher. It kills me how these anti-choicers think no woman had an abortion until 1973. Idiots.
DeleteI've seen survivors guilt in young adults treated for cancer. . When friends they have made in the hospital or clinic die but they are cured. It is rare or at least ratrely verbalized.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous to think 20 something men would even care about or know about their mother's obstetrical history.
And none of them would give a shit , perhaps a fleeting thought,but use it as an excuse to murder? Lol
Then again , Harvey Milk's killer had the Twinkie defense.
That's some seriously stupid bullshit. They watch porn, play violent video games etc etc and it's all because of Roe V Wade and their survivor's guilt over not being aborted? WTH? She's probably one of those parents who say things like "I put you on this earth and I can take you out" and "I wish you were never born" when one of her constantly interrogated teens act up despite coming from a two parent home.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what they have against Canada, but their choice of "expert psychologists" almost always come from Canada, that wasn't effected at all by the "Roe v Wade" survivor's guilt pandemic.
We have our own "Roe v Wade" experiment in our country, Bristol Palin, who comes from a two parent home, choses to give birth without benefit of marriage, and makes a career out of being an Abstinence Advocate.