Alan Jacobson wrote:
<< >Not that I necessarily disagree with Taibbi, but what
>American political speech or address, let alone a
>convention speech, EVER would pass through that 1.0
>micron filter? >>
I was thinking the same thing as I read through the piece. Here's what I have left of the Gettysburg Address after applying the Taibbi Bullshit Standard:
Now we are engaged in a great civil war
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
That's it.
Now it's true that political rhetoric delivered to a mass audience is all but inevitably, when analyzed in any reasonably honest way, bullshit. (And novelists: They just make shit up! Journalists: So many of them write mean things--and it isn't even always correct!) But the effect is to let Kerry off the hook for a speech that truly was almost complete and utter bullshit under even a generous definition.
However, I liked reading *some* journalist attempt a funny and intelligent dissection of contemporary political claptrap. (Over the years, I've read plenty of pundits quoting Mencken's jabs at Warren G. Harding, but I can't remember any trying a similar thing themselves. Vidal used to; can't think of any others.) And Taibbi's taxonomy of the subspecies of American political bullshit could be really useful.
And even though he's an eXile alum (right?), Taibbi never once referred to Kerry as a "whiny fag."
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Alan Jacobson <alanjacobson at sbcglobal.net> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 08:14:43 -0700 (PDT)
>Not that I necessarily disagree with Taibbi, but what
>American political speech or address, let alone a
>convention speech, EVER would pass through that 1.0
>micron filter?
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