POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Subtlety [UPDATED]

Wolly takes Joy McCann, aka Little Miss Attila, to task for a supposedly raaaaacist contrast between the behavior of the Japanese in response to the earthquake and tsunami and that of some residents of New Orleans after Katrina. You mustn't comment on such things at all, because reality has a liberal bias.

The funniest thing about this whole kerfuffle, reported by one of Wolcott's minions and then posted on Vanity Fair, involves the layers and layers of fact checking that went into noticing that the piece quoted by Joy is in fact a parody.

Anyway, here's what Wolly has to say about the satirical news piece, so labelled at the site:

Yes, the Japanese people have conducted themselves admirably in a tremendous crisis. On that we can all agree.

But these tributes were thin envelopes for another, different, domestically-targeted message.

It wasn't a subtle message, because conservatives don't know how to be subtle; it requires too much tonal refinement and sensibility.

I think it's terribly cement-headed and rather racist of him not to have noticed that it's not an actual news piece. It reads a little bit like a Chris Rock bit.

So, yeah, Joy pwn3d herself a little bit, but Wolly double-pwn3d himself.

UPDATE: As per her comment below, and as per his post script to his post, both Joy and Wolly were aware that the original piece was satire.

I was led astray by the comments at Joy's post, which, by my gloss, didn't acknowledge that. Wolcott doesn't permit them.

However, if I were attempting to demonstrate the bias of an opponent, I'd point out that they deployed a satirical piece as though it were real, because it answered their prejudices. Wolly makes a good deal of the photograph. I might remind him that it's a photograph, and as far as we know unretouched. As a general rule, we imagine that such documents represent a slice of reality.

Does the document represent the whole story? No. Is the document invalid because it doesn't? No.

Here's a piece on that gang rape case from Cleveland, TX. The races of the accused and the victim are germane, how? The accused certainly seem to think they are.

So, let's return to the Duke lacrosse disaster. Was there a prejudicial profiling regarding the accused? I should think so. Was there insidious contrast? Why, yes.

Here's another case in point, the audio of Andre Carson lying to journalists about what happened when he crossed the Capitol grounds with other Black Caucus members prior to the signing of the HCR monstrosity. Democrats are still lying about ObamaCare, so why not?

Here's a piece on a piece claiming MN Republicans want to make it illegal for anyone on public assistance to have more than $20 in his pocket in any given month.

In a couple of these cases, there is actual bearing of false witness against the accused. In another, there's a comparison that someone finds offensive. I'm terribly sorry if I regard the bearing of false witness more offensive than the other.

In the instant case, involving Katrina, who was it that circulated the stories of cannibalism, because BOOOOOSH!? And why wasn't that much more offensively racist? Am I missing something here? Am I so blinkered?

Obama's lobbing cruise missiles into Libya, while making Soros-profiting oil deals in Brazil, where the US platform fleet will be able to perform some work offshore of what we are told is the most important ecosystem on the planet. Lots of for-real death threats are being thrown at lawmakers and even people who write newspaper letters to the editor in Wisconsin. Japan is reeling. New Zealand is still afflicted. Seriously, I don't know why Wolly bothers.

As regards the accusation that conservatives lack subtlety, I guess I could muster some folks outside of Chesterton, such as Dante, Ariosto, Shakespeare, Nashe, Samuel Daniels, Donne, Austen, Fielding, Sterne, Melville, Bierce, Flannery O'Connor, Flann O'Brien, and oddly enough Oscar Wilde, just for starters, as being in what some of us call the classical liberal tradition--or conservatism, if you prefer.

Ah, well. That's all stuff white people like.