the Maccabee effect (or pf8’s 1st dKos diary on the rec list)

A commenter in DemMarineVet’s diary today made an interesting point:

Take the jump…

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also posted at dKos

The wingnuts, NeoCons, rethugs, corporatists et al are very good at seeing our forest from those trees. 

But the point is this: It doesn’t matter what we say, write, or do… whether well-sourced, live-and-in-person facts, or CT theories in the form of questionable diaries. The spin machine, the powers that be, will double twist axle reverse spin with a dip any story any way it wants: John Kerry’s war record, Michael Fox’s Parkinson disease, down to John Edwards, the Breck Girl, politicizing his son’s death and wife’s cancer. I’m shaking my head even recalling this crap and yes, getting a little (well alot) angry.

But c’mon… to be alarmed that BushCo operatives are making fun of us or assailing our credibility is, well, like raging against a category bazillion hurricane. They do it with everything. To everything. To everyone outside of them. Macabees diary, which may be ludicrous, is no more fantastic in the telling than say remaking Max Clelland into the anti-Vietnam, anti-patriotic Vet.

In short, while it may be true that the wingnuts can tell the difference between the forest and the trees in our woods, they’d be hard-pressed to discern the stars from the galaxy in their own universe.

That said, for our own sanity, we need to heed these words by that commentor:

It might be helpful if we did more than just react to all the information flooding our brains every day. We need to sift through the data and assertions and predictions. We need to ask ourselves if what we are reading really makes sense.

There is too much at stake to rely entirely on emotional reactions driving our decision making. We all need to slow it down a notch. It’s difficult because it’s so easy to experience a constant low-level of anxiety about what is happening all around us… we feel out-of-control and all we have, sometimes, is our anger.

I think it was srkp23 who asked: have you staged a vigil to end the war yet? You don’t need 10s, 100s, or even 1000s of people. Go and stand in your neighborhood or on a roadside with a sign. You can research how to spend your money in a way that supports your philosophy of corporate behavior. You can send $5 to an environmental group… even to your local pet shelter.

What we do very well here is give you the 1000 reasons to be mad as hell. What’s hard to do, where we’re all lost at this moment, is how to stop the madness. This is new ground for us.

But there are things to do. Every journey of 1000 miles starts with one small step. Take that step.

Oh, and one more thing. Think. Question. Don’t stop asking questions. This is your country. It is up to you to do what you can to keep her safe.

Peace to all and happy Labor’s Day…

ps… some great comments in the diary AND will share some more colors for our tables…