Monday, October 13, 2008

Althouse on racism, and the difference between youth and age...

Ann writes:

I agree about the media bias, but let's consider whether there may be some reason to tolerate more anger from the left than the right, especially if the lefties in question are young and the righties are old.

We're genetically programmed to weather the crying and tantrums of children. Teenagers sulk and shout, and we may grow impatient, but we understand the condition. We may well remember feeling the same way. Teenagers and young adults may annoy us, but we're not appalled. We think we can continue to speak calm reason and they will come around some day. But an angry older person sets off an alarm. Something is wrong here. Either there really is a problem or this person is unhinged. It gets our attention.
Indeed. One can easily brush off the myriad stupid, uninformed college brats railing against Bush, but when you see a good number of very angry old white men with gunracks railing against Obama and his "black agenda" you start to worry. You should start to worry.

The problem is also the silence of the McCain camp and the presumably non-racist rally-goers who sit quietly while their neighbors call for Obama's head. Geesh.

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