People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Cruel_Sandwich
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/05
#0People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:33amExtreme pet peeve of mine. I'm just glad Hurricane Katrina didn't occur at this time LAST year, during the heat of election season. Ugh. I shudder to think what THAT would have been like.
#1re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:35am
Why is pointing out the INCREDIBLY SH*TTY job that the President and federal government have done in handling the crisis being political?
It is being truthful. End of story.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#2re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:39am
I think it's not AT ALL opportunistic to ask the question of our government.
When the Secretary of State (jurisdiction or not) has time to be spotted on 5th avenue buying shoes for 5 grand and the president has time to strum a guitar for a photo op while their own citizens, whom they are sworn to protect, are dying, I'd say it's a fair fu**in' trade-off to expect some righteous anger.
Cruel_Sandwich
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/05
#3re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:40am
It's fine to point that out (I agree with it, incidentally).
What I hate is when people go on telethons (which are meant to be ABOUT THE VICTIMS!!!!) to say "George Bush doesn't care about black people".
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#4re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:40am
The lie is that there is very much of anything in life that is not inherently political. Art. Theater. Music. Federal responses to disaster.
What Kanye did and hell, what Celine Dion apparently did on Larry King tonight, was so profoundly punk rock and seizing the moment and CUTTING through the bullcrap that I stand on my chair and I applaud them.
Maybe Joe Strummer's dead, but being heard against all odds is, apparently, not.
#5re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:42am...message boards.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#6re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:45am
Is pointing out the structural and political systems that allowed them to become victims not a valuable way to help the victims of the tragedy?
Additionally, if you are an artist who has always been political why would you change in this forum?
Art has been one of the single most important forums for Political expression since Sophocles. I am tired of the attempt to divide the inherent political nature out of art.
Cruel_Sandwich
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/05
#7re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:51am
That's not at all what I was saying. I'm saying when people use a TRAGEDY to push their OWN political viewpoints. For example, all of the right to life/die frenzy over Terri Schiavo when you were overlooking the simple fact that this woman was DYING. Almost as if she didn't even exist.
As well as all of the people who wanted to register people to vote FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE of voting Bush out of office. This is not really a tragedy, but shows what I am talking about. I'm not against political expression in art. Why would I be?
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#8re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:51amMeeeeeeeeeeeee tooooooooooooooooo.
#9re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:55amWhat political veiwpoints would they push? It is an extremely political situation, it is a tragedy but politics has made it worse. The idea that there is "right time" and a "wrong time" to speak out is what I am arguing against.
#10re: People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:59am
extreme pet peeve of mine, cruel........your constant ridiculous posts, of which THIS takes the cake........do you do ANYTHING other than sit at your computer and come up with this bunk?
ARRGH!
#11re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:10am
i have a pet peeve too: people named after characters in wicked.
i've had to kill 5 fiyeros, 2 nessaroses, a dillamond and more boqs than you can shake a broom at.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#12re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:17amElphaba, you've been making me look downright calm and reasonable these past couple of days, and you know that can't be a good thing.
#13re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:32am
And that's on top of Plum's BRILLIANT use of the word dumbf*ck!! 
Updated On: 9/4/05 at 01:32 AM
#14re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:36amwhat? who's on top of plum?
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#15re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:38am
This Administration is the one who set the precedent of using tragedy to advance its political agenda. They used 9/11, and the Bush Administration's response as a political tool. They preyed on America's fear to win an election. They used pictures of the dead in campaign ads. And, you can bet had they responded well to this nightmare, they would be strutting themselves up and down every single news outlet and to remind us all of how well they can handle tragedy.
Bush is the one who played up his ability to lead. When he and his Administration fails miserably, no one should be surprised that people hold him accountable.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#16re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:41am
Word, YouWantItWhen. Think about the Republican National Convention, "you're either with us or against us," and "if you don't do ___, then the terrorists will have won," and then talk to me about using tragedy to push policy.
Updated On: 9/4/05 at 01:41 AM
#17re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:48am
. . . nods in agreement with Plum . . .
Now, off to go get a stiff drink. I am already almost numb anyway. I might as well make it official.
Updated On: 9/4/05 at 01:48 AM
#18re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:51am
"This Administration is the one who set the precedent of using tragedy to advance its political agenda"
-two wrongs don't make a right. I just fail to see how this is a RACIAL issue, which a lot of people are making it out to be. By all means, discuss how the system has not responded in this way or that, but do we really have to make it all about race?
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#19re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:51amLet's thank the lord for small blessings. When W was kissing those two young women in Mississippi on the foreheads yesterday, near as I could tell he was not wearing a bulging codpiece.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#20re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:53amPinguin, from my perspective people aren't "making" it about race so much as pointing out how it's already about race.
#21re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:55amI understand that people feel that way, I just don't understand WHY :0)
#22re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:57am
Pinguin, you sit there and tell me that if it was white, middle-class and upper-class citizens that the response would have been the same.
You can choose not to believe it all you want.
You're just fooling yourself.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#23re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:59am
A big majority of those who were left behind were very poor people - regardless of their race - So, why are we so surprised that our country is not racing to the aid of it's poor? That's pretty much been our policy all along.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#24re: people using tragedy to push political viewpoints
Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:59am
Look at the people stuck in NOLA- the ones who didn't have cars or extended families in other states to take them in. They're mostly black, and mostly poor. And it's easy to come to the conclusion that governmental response time may have been at least partly affected by the skin color of who was left behind.
It's a corollary of the old "blonde white girls get the most attention when they're kidnapped" rule.
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