The Mundane World

I feel like this article is an almost perfect case study for how the minds of radical, christian conservatives work.

1) “I didn’t feel like I was stealing signs at the time,” she said. “I just looked at it as picking up trash along the side of the road.”

First she tries to rationalize away that she was, if fact, breaking the law.  She changed the variables around in her head so that “stealing the property of others” was turned into “removing litter”.  This is something that is pretty typical of highly moral people.  Highly moral people are people who have a very specific, set list of thing that are right and things that are wrong.  When something lands in the “wrong” category, it is ok to attack and destroy it by any means necessary.

2) “Had I known it would be such a political issue, I wouldn’t have done it.”

There are two things to this.  She’s kind of admitting she’s a coward.  She wouldn’t have acted if she knew someone would do something about it.  Her cowardice explains the rationaization in point one.  If she was moral and brave, she would have removed the sign and have been down right proud of herself for doing the right thing.  But she was moral and a coward, so she tried to rationalize it away and trying to defend herself by essentially saying “I didn’t think it was a big deal and neither should you.”  That fact that she admits she wouldn’t have done it if knew she would have gotten in trouble kills me.  So much for the courage of her convictions.

She didn’t know it would be a political issue.  How?  Did it really miss your notice that you where changing the constitution of the state?  Did it really escape you that changing a law (generally done through political means) might be political?  Did you really not pick up on the fact that restricting rights to other Americas might be a hot button issue?  But to her it isn’t political.  If it was political, then she might feel obligated to consider the other side.  When things are political, that means there are various opinions on a specific topic, and all need to be weighed and considered for the best out come.  But to her, it isn’t political, it’s right and wrong.  There is no debating right and wrong.  That is all kind of deep rooted stuff.  It could be that she is so completely oblivious to everything that happens around her that she wouldn’t notice it was raining unless she got wet.  If she was alive during the Civil War I bet she’d wonder why all those funny colour people were unhappy.

3)  “We don’t weigh any favoritism one way or another in an investigation. We look at the evidence,” he said.

Thompson, however, disagrees. 

“I just think they’re making a statement out me,” she said.

Because she is always right, anyone who acts counter to her is obviously wrong.  She is also the center of the universe, so anything that happens to her is specifically about her.  And because conservatives have convinced themselves that they are the new oppressed minority, then her arrest is obviously because she is a white, middle aged, middle class christian that is standing on the side of truth and justice, and not for what it was really about, she broke the law and made her daughter do the work for her.

I do think it is sad and bullshit that someone stole her sign too.  Political expression should be protected and respected, not just by the law but in spirit too.  So one disagrees with you?  Tough shit, that’s their right.  What she did and what happened to here is a type of censor and should never be respected.  But I also believe that if you’re going to do something, anything, if you can’t embrace your own actions for what they really are then you are a coward.