A Study in Self-Absorbed, Smug (and totally misplaced) Arrogance

I can't even remember what I was searching for on Google, but a link came up to an article on HuffPo from last April, and against my better judgement, I clicked on it.

It was an incoherent jet of verbal vomit by a self-proclaimed "infiltrator" who goes by Harmon Leon telling us all why he was disappointed in San Francisco for not, I don't know, doing what SEIU did in St. Louis? to a Tea Party Rally in San Francisco.

He vaguely compared them to the Klan, called them "Old", made some sort of issue about all the (*gasp!*) Red White and Blue, and seemed to have an issue with Russians comparing American Socialism to Soviet Socialism.  Hell, what would they know about it?

One thing he was absolutely certain of, was that we're a bunch of dumb hicks.  Imagine the stupidity it takes for someone to hold up a sign pointing to an infiltrator's stupid sign to point out that the infiltrator wasn't with us and it's not our stupid sign.  I mean, what Luddites we must be to recognize messages we don't agree with and denounce them!

But the last picture and the first comment was what really stuck out at me.  Apparently someone there had this sign (picture, left).  Now I don't know who.  For all we know it was an infiltrator.  Maybe it was even Harmon himself.  Or maybe it was a Tea Partier.  Let's assume it was a Tea Partier.

The first comment was this:

I absolutely LOVE the Charlie Chaplin-Barack Obama sign. I wonder how many of these "above average income, above average college degrees, above average post-graduate degrees" wingnuts would actually know that the guy on the left isn't Hitler? I would love to see someone carry that at one of their rallies with a camera hidden in their "Uncle Sam" hat and watch the reaction. I will bet that fewer than 1% actually notice the difference.

Although, for the Teabaggers, it wouldn't make any difference since Charlie Chaplin was a socialist in reality. But it would be really, really funny to see if they noticed and if they knew that he was a socialist, not a national socialist. Ooh! Thar I go, Splittin' librul hairs agin. A sochlist is a sochlist whethr he's a nashnulust sochlist or not. Thar all Commies.

I don't suppose it would ever have occurred to GrumpyGrandpa that perhaps the fact that the guy on the Left  (no irony there, eh?) isn't Hitler -- could have been the point of the sign (Only the Left could be that clever, I guess).  He even goes on to note that Charlie Chaplin was, in fact, a Socialist.  But the irony is still lost on him because he thinks even if we did know it was Charlie Chaplin and that he was a Socialist and the sign-holder was calling Obama a Socialist ... and Hitler was a different kind of Socialist ... that he was ... uh ... stupid because apparently GrumpyGrandpa knew for a fact that the sign holder must have meant Hitler.  After all, that's what the media says we do, and Lord knows nobody on the Left ever compared a president to Hitler.  Because, you know, Bush was all about Socialism ... right?

 

It's laughable that GrumpyGrandpa sees as a sign of stupidity that a sign not comparing Obama to Hitler and instead to another Socialist who wasn't a Nazi showed that Tea Partiers are too stupid to distinguish between two flavors of Socialism, but of course a sign directly comparing Bush to Hitler shows such brilliance because ... hell, I don't know, he lost me.

 

It's their self-assurance that they are the smart ones in this "debate" that is astounding. Ah, if it only were an actual debate where they'd  argue the issues instead of how old we are or how stupidly patriotic we are or what color we tend to be, or what religion most of us seem to profess, or how stupid we must be, because, after all we disagree with them because we think Socialism is bad and of course they love Obama who isn't a Socialist .... and ... damn, they lost me again.  Maybe I am stupid.  Or maybe they just don't make any sense.  Nah, clearly it's me.  The NYT says so.

 
In all seriousness, I can distinguish between the flavors of Socialism much like I can distinguish between different kinds of animal scat, but in the end I don't want any of it on my plate.  That doesn't mean I'm too stupid to distinguish them.  It means I don't waste my time distinguishing between them when somebody is holding one of them on a plate as a choice and asking me which I want for dinner.

"Do you want the steak, or the shit?"

"I don't know, what kind of shit is it?"

Apparently the sign of a sophisticated pallet.