Anatomy of a Wingnut Lie

As he carriers out the mundane, work-a-day treachery and talking-point repetition upon which the entire depraved edifice of the Right depends, Mr. Warner Todd Huston -- one of Andrew Breitbart's stalwart local stooges, and sometimes-gofer for John Fund -- provides us with a small gem of an example of exactly how the basic bricks of Conservative dishonesty are trodden and baked.

First, find something genuinely stupid that someone somewhere on teevee said. In this case, The View's Joy Behar obliges:

The Republican Party hasn't been black friendly over the many centuries in this country.

Second, after lavishing a hundred times more dissection on the inaccuracy of this brief, irrelevant mistake by a morning talk show co-host than it ever deserved, Mr. Huston moves on to Wingnut Lie Propagation Step #2: broaden whatever nit you are dutifully picking today out into the Bigger Picture of Dastardly Liberal Perfidy (emphasis added):

The View yacker Joy Behar's blather is also indicative of the historical illiteracy of the far left in this country.

And then sell it with a kiss:

If it were up to Democrats in 1964 the Civil Rights Act would never have passed. Yet here is the uninformed Hollywood "entertainer" Joy Behar revealing her ignorance and trying get away with lies about the GOP once again.

You know, as much as I find Ms. Behar's comment silly and foolish, as a historically literate and fully-paid-up member of the "far left" (or "loony left" or "Committed Marxist Left" or whatever Fox-approved phrase wingnut beasts of burden like Mr. Huston will be tasked with upselling this week) I find Mr. Huston's reaction to it far more instructive, because every time I run across one of these goofs -- in civilian life on out on the internet frontier -- every single fucking time they decide to clamber up on top of Mount History to rage about how klan-friendly the Democrats are and how civil rights would have been DOA with the GOP, they always leave out the exactly same details.

Details like Truman integrating the Army.

Details like Franklin Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 8802.

But most importantly details like everything that happened after 1964, which is what made Mr. Huston's exhibition especially hilarious: the absolute zero level of self-awareness it demonstrated by embedding its standard-issue wingnut pious whining in a screed about historical illiteracy.

Seriously, because they never leave the Echo Chamber, this is how mentally flabby and morally hollow these clowns have become. They have no whiny, self-righteous, Liberal-stomping explanation for being a Conservative in the face of the last 40 ugly, racist and staggeringly well-documented years of their Movement's history...

...so they just pretend it never happened.

From the David Fucking Brooks lying about the Southern Strategy because it undermined the predicate for his entire career as well as his massive Conservative mancrush on Ronald Reagan (he was fired for that, right?) to Michelle Malkin lying about Jamil Hussein (remember him?) because it undermined her fellow warblogger's rabidly pro-Bush (but wait, the Teabaggers told me that no one on the Right was ever pro-Bush?) support for Dubya's Operation Iraqi Clusterfuck (she was fired for that, right?) to Sean Hannity lying about Terri Schiavo because having to tell the truth every now would undermine his career (he was fired for that, right?) being a Conservative has always meant never having to say you're sorry.

About being loudly and comprehensively wrong.

About everything.

Or, really, even pausing for breathe between the last lie and the next one.

Which is the single greatest advantage of being a Conservative: that you have an entire, well-funded multi-media infrastructure completely devoted to helping you and your millions of mouth-breathing fellow travelers pretend all sorts crazy shit that never happened is absolutely true...

...and that all sorts of crazy shit that is absolutely true really never happened.

Like grandma's nightgown, well-funded Conservative denialism is big enough to cover everything (that their Right-wing billionaire backers want to pay for), and the only unforgivable sin -- the one that will get you kicked out of the clubhouse -- is if you start getting fussy about some of the lies (or sudden , whiplash 180 degree reversals that occur the Brain Caste decides the Party Line needs to change) that may personally afflict or offend you.

Then, out you go.

But if you go along,

you will get along.

Because it is not one lie or two, it is thousands piled on thousands.

And it is not once or twice, but all day, every day.

Which is why Ms. Behar ignorant statement troubles me not in the slightest. Becayse it is quite possible that Ms. Behar is historically illiterate about this part of American history.

Many people are.

But there is a vast difference between being ignorant about the past, and being willfully and disgracefully dishonest about it in the service of a depraved ideology, as good little brownshirts like Mr. Huston so frequently are.

Fundraiser is on and the dough goes here!