A right-wing confession.
By on Mar 22nd, 2006 at 1:34 pm
A right-wing confession.
“One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of [Americans] that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure.” — National Review’s John Derbyshire. (Via AS)
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Boehner
Bush
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
DADT
Economy
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Global Warming
Graham
Guantanamo
Hannity
Health Care
International Relations
Iran
Iraq
Justice
LGBT
Limbaugh
Liz Cheney
McCain
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Rove
Sanford
Sotomayor
Steele
Supreme Court
Terrorism
ThinkProgress
Tiller
Torture
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
John Derbyshire kneeling before the scimitar of an executioner in Baghdad is a spectacle that I find I can contemplate over a bowl of popcorn.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:37 pm.
I hate to say it, but I cant help feeling the same some times.
YEAH RIGHT!
These are not terrorists being killed here, they are citizens. Children. They did nothing to deserve it. Actually we did it to them.
R2K
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:38 pmCan JD contemplate Abortion with calm composure?
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:39 pminhumane...does that mean 'death' is ok as long as it isn't me?
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:40 pmI wanna puke...
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:41 pmTrying to associate himself with kissinger...
I'll bet he giggled to himself when he wrote it. Bush laughs at death of others, too.
I think it makes them evil(or at the very least, unChristian).
But I'll take it a step further. I look at Muslims and Christians killing eachother with calm composure.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:47 pm"The present situation is an utter disgrace. A THWTH is always, I think, and must necessarily be, angry about lax immigration enforcement. Yes, we do want much enhanced port security. Above all, we want to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, or at least slow it down until Fukuyama’s “last man†emerges from history’s slow unfoldings. This is not an easy thing to do, and is an impossible thing to be consistent about, as the recent discussion about India showed. However, we want, at a minimum, to prevent hostile and irrational nations from going nuclear."
More hypocritical republican cant; he doesn't spare one word in this lengthy column for the idea of increasing enforcement of employers who hire illegals. Yes the ports are porous, but what about tracking undocumented people? Is this not equally important? But this would conflict with their ability to exploit illegals for profit, and so their paid flack Derbyshire ignores it entirely.
Another victim of Ironic Blinder Syndrome.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:51 pm... and this is a compassionate christian response? God save us from your followers!
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:52 pmIf Derbyshire enjoys Muslims killing Muslims, then the rational of the neocon invasion really doesn't hold water. Are we there to free the oppressed peoples(yeah right) or kill them? Which is it?
I don't understand the reasoning behind people who still support this shit. Since most supporters really don't give a damn about the Muslim people, then why are we paying with the lives of Americans to help them instead of people in our country? Hypocrisy shouldn't be suprising coming from neocon ass-clowns.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:54 pmgeez-o-pete ... did anyone read the entire "column" (using that word oh-so-loosely) ... it's so rambling and uncohesive, I swear he found it in the bottom of a scotch glass ...
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:55 pmDerbyshire is part of an anachronistic acronym: AHOLE - American History of Latent Egomaniacs.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:57 pmOh my Higher Diety.
I normally don't like to use derogatory words when describing someone, after all, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But, man, what an ass.
We don’t at all mind using raw military power in pursuit of geostrategic objectives, and actually favor using it rather more than the average American
Unless of course, it's us going. Then to hell with war, let's negotiate.
Soldiers are trained to war, and war is a fierce, brisk, and terrible business.
Terrible, check. Fierce, check. Which part of the Iraq War is the 'brisk' part?
I suspect that rather a lot of Americans, when they see footage of GIs handing out candy to children in some occupied place, think: “What a good nation we are! Surely the enemy will see our goodness and cast down his arms!â€
I suspect that rather a lot of Americans, when they footage of GIs abusing their power in prison camps and torturing prisoners, think: "What a bunch of arseholes we are! Surely the enemy will see our abuse and pick up more arms!"
Third, we are respectful of the differences that exist between peoples.
Except when they are different from us. If two groups are different from each other, that's fine. But if they are different from Americans, they've got it coming!
We don’t particularly care whether the Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds of Iraq put down their arms. We only want them to put down their arms against us.
So, we start the war, but they get to finish it?
One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of THWTHs (and a lot of other Americans, too) that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure.
I'm sure the Middle Eastern Muslims you are wishing death upon feel the same way about you. Of course, if THEY want to kill YOU, that's not okay. That deserves an invasion of their country. That deserves occupation and permanent military bases.
But it's okay if we want them to kill themselves. Kinda reminds me of the way America treated Native Americans. We want what they have (land) so let's either kill them, force them from their homes, or let them kill each other.
Now, apply it to Iraq. We want what they have (oil) so let's either kill them (check), force them from their homes (check), or let them kill each other (check).
We should like our national government to exercise much more scrutiny of and control over foreigners entering our country. The present situation is an utter disgrace.
That's it! Put up a giant wall! Call the fence guy. Aren't these the same people who are trying to allow American industry to go offshore in order to allow for a free global market? That's okay, right? So, we can some kid in Taiwan $.20/hour for your Wal-Mart bought toilet seat, but if he tries to come to this country he's gotta get over our giant wall first.
The real lesson of Afghanistan is the need for vigilance, and for action against terrorist breeding-grounds like pre-9/11 Afghanistan — action well beyond the feeble fly-swattings of the Clinton era.
Right. Let's invade everyone first. Before they get to us. Good plan.
To run a policy like that, of course, we need good intelligence, and intelligence has been the most dire of our national failures this past few years.
Psssst... that's your guy running the show. Careful, your phone will be wiretapped if you keep going down this road.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:59 pmThe Republicans are bringing back a new 3/5ths compromise. One Muslim is worth about 3/5ths of a unborn fetus. These hypocrites amaze me, almost as much as the retards who follow them.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:00 pmI don't want to be accused of being inhuman, but really I am. I just don't want to be accused of it.
Also, I went to a fertility clinic and adopted a hundred frozen embryos, and I am declaring each one a dependant for tax purposes.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:03 pmThe whole article is nauseating, it reads as though IRI wrote it.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:07 pmHoly sh*t, this idiot is stone-cold.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:08 pmI wonder if Christ is up there looking down upon this shenanigans pondering the timing for his return and wondering to himself, "Why bother?"
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:11 pm# 12 ...
You missed my favorite one (from a purely historical perspective, at any rate):
THWTHs are more inclined to the old British-imperialist notion that up to a fairly distant point (suttee and thuggee being beyond that point) peoples in foreign parts should be left alone to practice their own disgusting folkways, so long as they did not impinge on our interests.
actually, the British-imperialist notion was to make the world British, not "oh, just let the wogs do what they want if it doesn't bother us" ...
The Derb can't even be bothered to be intellectually HONEST, much less compassionate ...
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:11 pmI wouldn't want them to die, but a nice fistfight between bush and cheney, would be very entertaining. On fox LIVE..of course. Popcorn anyone?
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:12 pmThose innocent women and children were asking for it. Serves 'em right for being in the wrong country at the wrong time. If they were smart, they'd, you know, walk to Yurp or something, where they could be rounded up and deported like honest Islamofascists.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:13 pmRead the passage with a German accent, it's so much more fitting.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:13 pmNot just for him, but for any neo-con literature.
It's easy to talk tough about the suffering of others, but the karmic consequences of this kind of talk are dangerous. It's the job of us progressives to make this danger real for these fools. We must get IN THEIR FACE, HARD!
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:17 pmthis is the right wing/conservative/republican paradigm in a nutshell: the lack of recognition of much of humanity (including everyone not just like them) as being human. Ergo, they find it easy to accept/justify/rationalize all manner of inhuman activity.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:20 pm.
Or a Darth Vader accent.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:22 pmYo Seth, Dave Chappell is the only one who can use the N word.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm@12, Bobcat_grad:
Terrible, check. Fierce, check. Which part of the Iraq War is the ‘brisk’ part?
Oh, you missed it? Unilever donated a bunch of LIPTON (tm) brand iced tea to our men and women in Iraq. Rumor has it that they're planning an ad where a fresh-faced grunt rolls jeep while evading an IED, dives out and guns down a dozen insurgents, then turns to the camera, cracks open a can, and says, "That's brisk, baby!"
Or maybe I just dreamed that.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:33 pmI cannot believe that I am the first to say that John Derbyshire DOES NOT speak for me.
Speaking only for myself, I find "the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I ... contemplate with" bone-chilling horror.
It is especially so, when I further consider that the entire chaotic mess is perpetuated by our self-serving antagonization.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:39 pm[...] Via Think Progress, John Derbyshire: “One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of [Americans] that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure.†[...]
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:41 pmDid any one bother to tell John that the people who he claims to have such disdain for that he can state; that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure, live in amongst the center of the oil production that his bosses pray to. Wonder what his composure will be if they decide to destroy the oil infrastructure instead of each other? Might his palms get sweaty at that thought, might he squirm in his seat at the thought of the underpinnings of his way of life being blown up by the very same people who he cares not a twit if they kill each other. Might he call for intervention to save the oil wells and refineries from those horrible people who wouldn't just stick to his smug script and become the human versions of the neutron bomb where we eliminate the people but keep the goods. Wonder how he'd take the violence spilling over into the Saudi kingdom and causing serious harm to the infrastructure of that country. Might he actually call for a full scale "corporate rescue mission" to keep the oil flowing? His arrogance is as inpalpable and his humanity is lacking
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:55 pmWow. That's outrageous even by NRO standards. In a way it almost gives Lowry an excuse to fire Derbyshire, though I suspect Lowry is more pissed at how the Derb effectively shot down Lowry's latest justification for "staying the course."
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:56 pmWell, it's not like they're Christians or anything.
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:56 pm"The spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other" sure sounds like a CIVIL WAR to me.
Bush continues to deny the violence in Iraq is or can be a civil war.
When he finally has to admit he's brought Iraq a civil war and not FREEDOM he'll say, “nobody could have foreseen....blah, blah, blah".
You know the drill.
After that where does he go?
He goes where this scumbag already is. Watching his murderous handiwork with "calm composure" and not caring one shit.
I DO NOT FOR ONE SECOND BELIEVE EITHER OF THESE PSYCHOPATHS HAVE FOR A SINGLE SECOND ACTUALLY "CONTEMPLATED" APON THE SUBJECT!
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:06 pmSickening....what is the Republican OBSESSION WITH DEATH
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:27 pm#10 mmmm... - tha's not scotch, what an insult; that's rotgut speaking...
and 15 mark - agreed - i could see iris with his teeny-tiny hardon reading it...
my comments: 1. "First, THWTHs are hawks. We are not pacifists or isolationists." - uh, no shit... 2. how does he square this: "we are respectful of the differences that exist between peoples", with this: "peoples in foreign parts should be left alone to practice their own disgusting folkways"?... 3. "we are not distressed by the misfortunes of people who hate us" - and oblivious to the fact that the hatred is fueled by that insensitivity and calousness...
but, yea, that money quote - "the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other..." - is exceptionally astounding and crude...
something in the past days made me able to put together a thought that i've been tossing around all these years...remember the acusations of racism when the ports deal came up? well, it is my belief that it was racism and bigotry that fueled this war more than anything; that ignorant and racist peoples would be ecstatic about going "over there" to waste away all the "sand n*****s" and "rag heads" that have the nerve to come to this country and "take over our businesses and colleges and wealth...these are brown people, after all...it's just not right".......it's been a long time comin'...
sickening...shameful...
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:28 pmVia Think Progress, John Derbyshire: “One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness;
Why do conservatives think that talking like an old British drag queen will make people think they have brains?
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:33 pm.
“One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness," Derbyshire said, in between devouring giant mouthfuls of an infant corpse. "But I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of [Americans] that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find [sexually arousing].â€
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:57 pm"Love your neighbor as yourself." Only the radical religious right qualify as "neighbor.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:00 pmI wonder what happens to the "calm composure " if the Iraqis get the notion that the best way to unite their country might be to turn on the foreign occupiers instead of killing each other.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:00 pmWell so much for any claims he might have to being a huminatarian.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:03 pmI'm sure OBL contemplated the spectacle of thousands of Americans dying on 9/11 with calm composure. Nice company you keep there, Derb.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:07 pmLook, I will put my anti-Derbyshire credentials against anyone, especially when it comes to his complete ignorance and sophistry in economics and fiscal policy.
However....
....I don't see how his position is any different from those who would stand idly by while this kind of stuff happens in the Middle East, Africa, and SE Asia WITHOUT our intervention. I mean, he is saying a LOT more than "I love watching Arabs kill each other." He articulates his foreign policy position, which is more of a Hamiltonian/Jeffersonian position, with a smattering of Jacksonianism mixed in. Part of that is the notion that "as long as our interests, our borders, and foreign service professionals are ok, I really don't care if these people fight amongst themselves all day long." Now, one might take issue with the notion that we cannot be secure if there is rampant stability, but that is a different issue than the one you all are taking with Derbyshire.
Essentially, this kind of murder was what Saddam was doing prior to our invasion, and none of my liberal friends were screaming about stopping that kind of genocide, or stopping the situation in Burma or any of the many African countries in which this happens every day. So, in that sense, "inhuman callousness" is a charge that can be spread around to everyone.
There are lots of problems with the administration's lead-up to war and their management of the situation after the war. There are many things to point out that the numbskulls at NRO have said all along the way. Picking on this one is a bit of a stretch.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:31 pmI think we just got an inside look at Neoconman's brain, folks.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:32 pmThis is the shit that 'makes them tick'.
They are the 'ol KKK in present tense, still getting their rocks
off watching people of color die while they count the money they
made on the weapons stock they inherited.
Now you know how they think...
aren't you glad you're not one of them?
NO INCUMBANTS IN '06!
Every once in a while one of them slips up and says what they all think. No surprise at all.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:35 pmok. I'll say it.
John Derbyshire is inhumanly callous.
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:40 pm#14 redneck, I went to a fertility clinic and adopted a hundred frozen embryos, and I am declaring each one a dependant for tax purposes.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:11 pmI have been making the same point - if they claim a cluster of cells is a "child" and abortion is murder, then they will have to allow for tax deductions as soon as the test strip comes back positive.
That is an outrageous comment by Derbyshire. Perhaps, the suggestion by #1 GMT is in order.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:18 pmHow incredibly callous and cold - Derbyshire is even too dumb to keep his ignorance behind a closed mouth.
Family values? Betcha he goes to church and prays real loud too!
I’m sure OBL contemplated the spectacle of thousands of Americans dying on 9/11 with calm composure. Nice company you keep there, Derb.
Comment by renato — March 22, 2006 @ 4:07 pm
Exactly!
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:25 pmEssentially, this kind of murder was what Saddam was doing prior to our invasion, and none of my liberal friends were screaming about stopping that kind of genocide, or stopping the situation in Burma or any of the many African countries in which this happens every day. So, in that sense, “inhuman callousness†is a charge that can be spread around to everyone.
If they are doing it to themselves while we have been minding our own business... that is one thing. Doing it after we stired up the pot that is quit another.
In the first instance we can (as a good christian country) encourage the people to stop the insanity. If we feel that evil is being commited before our eyes (like the south with their slaves) then we might even get involved with force to stop the fighting.
In the second instance America wanted something and a civil war that resulted in the deaths of many many innocent was not going to stand in our way. We will just lie about our modivations so that we do not have to feel guilty and so that we can "save face" as we are called out at home by our fellow Americans.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:31 pmOh Great.
Blood Cult [pro-Israeli] Neo-Cons teamed up with Blood Cult blow you up Christianity [Falwell, North, Robertson]
and this is what you get. Some Seriously confused, and deluded Chicken Hawk War Mongers
[whom Love Blood and Wars yet won't fight in them]
A World of Theocratic Idiot-centrists to be sure.
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:31 pmSo Gerald Gibson you are basically saying Psychological Parasitic Pathogens infect every one? Clearly, Conservatives have way more cooties than liberals.
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:36 pmJohn Derbyshire. How much did they pay for the last vestigial remnants of your humanity?
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 pmI tend to flatter myself by thinking my reading and comprehension skills are just a bit above "average". But I must admit, I am stumped. Did he have an actual point? Was he comparing his two groups to see who was the more morally repugnant between them? It looked to me to just be a loooooooong rambling "bowel movement" that he views as being articulate and insightful. What a waste of time. Jerk.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:24 pmAlways remember: Derbyshire called for the murder of Chelsea Clinton. Just because.
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:16 amSadistic pig. I can contemplate an unhappy afterlife for him.
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:34 amWe must never forget what John Derbyshire said about Chelsea Clinton:
For more quotes from right wingers who want liberals to die because of our beliefs, click here.
Carolyn Kay
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:43 amMakeThemAccountable.com
Put this asshat on the list of people to round up and hang after this bad dream is over. He should be there with Kristol, Cheney, Gingrich, et. al.
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:30 am#57 and others, it makes me nervous to type it, but I have a book by Derbyshire on my shelf. It has nothing to do with politics but is instead a semi-popular treatment of a rather abstruse mathematical subject: what is known as the Riemann Hypothesis. The book is titled Prime Obsession and is ... excellent.
At times, I don't know, I think we all need to look in the mirror. I include myself, of course. What is one to do with Derbyshire, who has said the (at least!) scurrilous thing above but who is by no means a boob of the kind who haunts this forum with mis-spelled accusations of "treason" and so forth. A similarly haunting case is that of James Lileks, a humorist from Minneapolis whose various websites I found uncomplicatedly side-splitting ... until I found out that he, too was a winger.
Some of them "over there" /do/ have brains. In a way it makes it WORSE.
Me, I'd file Derbyshire's asinine confession under my own growing pile of stuff demonstrating just how little we have evolved since our lizard brains started getting crusted over with cortex. We /like/ violence, or some of us do, at least as long as it's happening to The Other Guy, and particularly if our perception of The Other Guy is that he's someone who would LOOOVVVEE to have our heads on plates.
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:44 pm