Spreading the hate meme, liberal style

According to both BlogStreet and the TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem, Atrios is the third most influential blogger; his blog, Eschaton, is the ninth most popular link at Blogroller.[1]

That's scary. I try to convince myself he's not hypocritical, just ignorant and oblivious, when he rails at Republican moral bankruptcy or the the First Lady spitting on veterans for sport even as he thinks it's funny to play at being a pimp.

Yeah, yeah, the "Mars, my bitches" line comes from a skit by Dave Chapelle. Amazing, isn't it? A thousand different faces of black people, and Chapelle chose a pimp to represent "Black Bush." Black Bush, nigger Bush. 'Cause pimps and ho's are comical, good old-fashioned entertainment, like dancing on stage in blackface. Ho--not whore, to make sure we all understand we're talking about nigger pimps, even while we pretend to believe in equality.

The bitches, now, we want them in a variety of colors, and ages too--the younger the better. Like that thirteen-year-old teamed up with her mother, and that runaway whose father raped her.

Tell me the conservative elite aren't pleased by how well we do their job for them. Conflate "black man" with "pimp" and "woman" with "bitch" and "ho," and mock them. Keep that wedge between them and white men. Too bad Atrios can't figure this out for himself.

But no, he justifies his disparagement, "Tough times demand a little tough language."

No.

Tough times demand working together, and being smarter than the people who are trying to screw you over. Getting suckered into slurring the people who should be your allies isn't being tough--it's being stupid.

And it goes against the values of liberalism.

Or maybe I've been wrong all these years when I believed that to be liberal meant respecting the rights of others regardless of sex, age, color, religion, sexual preference, physical condition, or income level; meant working toward a common good; meant treating each other with the respect due every human being.

1 Rankings from Aug. 30, 2004