Losing with the talking

'Is there any evidence — anything at all — to suggest the Matheson nomination is related in any way to getting his brother's vote on health care? No. There's literally nothing.

Of course, there is evidence. The evidence is the need to persuade the congressman and the timing of the the nomination of the brother. It's not conclusive proof, but it is evidence. We need more evidence to answer our questions, but there is surely a basis of our questions.

But it's nevertheless the talk of the conservative world today....

And you know damned well it would be the talk of the liberal world if Bush were still President and... man, that point is tedious. But it's so apt! Politicos are so boring. Blech.'

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/03/reason-this-isnt-what-it-looks-like-is.html

Instapundit had a post the other day about the Popular Mechanics long, thorough debunking of the 9/11 Truther lies, basically saying it was a waste of time. I agree. Conspiracy theories are not by their nature disprovable. The people who love conspiracy theories are not engaged in a scientific debate about events that are part of the historical record. Conspiracy theories are a way of taking reality and molding and distorting it until it fits a priori beliefs about the 'way things really are'.

Which brings me back to this rather hilarious Ann Althouse post. The purpose of 95% of writing on the left is not the establishment of the true state of America, the best possible policy offerings, or an accurate characterisation of the issues of the day. The purpose is to fill the air, the newspaper and the tv screen with lefty noise, lefty opinion, lefty blather, lefty hate, lefty propaganda, lefty anything. It is to make sure that no matter where people go to college, no matter what TV network they watch, no matter what films they see, no matter what school they attend, their eyes and ears will be constantly bombarded with the lefty view of the world. That is all.

Taking each individual lefty smear, lefty ad hominem, lefty lie, lefty distortion, lefty inaccuracy on as if in some debating club and doing a point by point demolition of it is completely pointless (if fun). It is pointless because there is no intention for any individual piece of the omnipresent lefty tirade to be true, accurate or reasonable. As soon as a new item of bullshit has been emitted, it is forgotten, superseded by the next item. This is not an exercise in truth-seeking by dialectic- it is a bombardment with the ultimate goal of smashing lefty ideas into every atom of every person in America (and Britain, and Germany, and France etc).

In this particular instance, there is prima facie evidence of corrupt behaviour on the part of the President. Interest on the left? None. No newspaper of note will report it, no large TV network will broadcast it. But there however will be the repetitive drone of 'the Tea Partiers are extremist hate-mongers drifing towards inevitable violence'. And 'the Republicans are the party of No'. And 'the Stimulus worked'. Etc Etc.

I love people like Charles Krauthammer, whose fine forensic mind disentangles the strands of complex debates and makes sense of them. But at some point you have to look at the situation and say- this is not a real debate. There is no respect for, nor recognition of the facts by the left.

Many Republicans criticised the deal Obama made with the big insurance companies to facilitate his terrible 'health care' bills. It looked awfully like a backroom deal which was great for government, great for insurance companies but terrible for everybody else. But after transmogrification in the lefty lying machine, Republicans and tea partiers were accused of COLLUDING WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANIES AGAINST THE HEALTH CARE REFORMS. If you are willing to tell that lie, you are probably willing to lie about anything, no matter how absurdly preposterous.

We do not have a situation where two bodies of respectful, respectable scientifically minded honest folk can debate the issues and come to a reasoned judgement. We have one, and the lefties. And as the old schoolboy maxim runs, if you argue with fools it will be hard for people to tell the difference.

So what are the options? Stop engaging the political opposition? Send them to coventry? Only talk to conservatives and Tea Party members?

It may be that the only serious option is to recognise what the left is doing, and copy their tactics. Trumpet conservative and libertarian ideas and world-view through every possible medium at all times, infiltrate all forums of political and cultural expression, infiltrate education, the media, movies, TV, coffee houses, dinner theatres, hair salons- be everywhere all the time. Never speak to the left, never listen to their arguments, never take them on in a 'debate', never even recognise their existence. Talk straight to the people. Always and at all times.

The alternative is to allow the whole of our societies to become an echo chamber of lefty talking points, lefty bullshit history, and lefty ad hominem attacks. We don't have to lose. But we have to take on this enemy in a way which provides hope of eventual success.