Hey, buddy, you're full of *%#@!
October 4, 2008 6:22 PM Subscribe
In these final days the campaign,with the promise of more mudslinging looming large on the horizon, tempers flaring, political threads raging out of control, it's important to remember that religion and politics often make some people give way to ranting and raving and carrying on like emotional children...
...they either refuse to discuss it with reason or else they prefer argumentum ad hominem which is a Hell of a way to conduct a discussion.
Well anyhow...
Scott Beach's breathless 1976 treatise on the perils of heated discourse on two emotional subjects rings as true today as it ever has.
Dr. Demento Details
The YTMND treatment
A mashup with Napoleon XIV's They're Coming to Take me Away and a remix of Jan Svankmajer's Punch and Judy
Although listeners will detect a distinct bias, the lesson contained herein applies to all.
...they either refuse to discuss it with reason or else they prefer argumentum ad hominem which is a Hell of a way to conduct a discussion.
Well anyhow...
Scott Beach's breathless 1976 treatise on the perils of heated discourse on two emotional subjects rings as true today as it ever has.
Dr. Demento Details
The YTMND treatment
A mashup with Napoleon XIV's They're Coming to Take me Away and a remix of Jan Svankmajer's Punch and Judy
Although listeners will detect a distinct bias, the lesson contained herein applies to all.
So awesome. I almost want to set this as my voicemail message.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:03 PM on October 4, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:03 PM on October 4, 2008 [1 favorite]
I hadn't heard that before... and I enjoyed it. Thanks.
posted by defenestration at 7:25 PM on October 4, 2008
posted by defenestration at 7:25 PM on October 4, 2008
Oh how I remember way back in the seventies listening to Dr. Demento when this would come on and I got such a kick out of it that I tried very hard to acquire my own copy but nobody at any record store even the ones who were hip to the Doctor knew what I was talking about and I just got frustrated and purchased a Steve Martin record instead.
Now thirty years later we seem to be talking much more about politics yet it so often turns into the same kind of scene except someone jokingly says "Jane you ignorant slut" and somebody who just doesn't get it says "Nobody here is named Jane" and the whole subject changes to just how much SNL isn't as good as it used to be or how cool is it that Firefly had a guy in it named Jayne.
I love run-on sentences but I'll bet all of you at MetaFilter already knew that.
posted by wendell at 7:28 PM on October 4, 2008 [4 favorites]
Now thirty years later we seem to be talking much more about politics yet it so often turns into the same kind of scene except someone jokingly says "Jane you ignorant slut" and somebody who just doesn't get it says "Nobody here is named Jane" and the whole subject changes to just how much SNL isn't as good as it used to be or how cool is it that Firefly had a guy in it named Jayne.
I love run-on sentences but I'll bet all of you at MetaFilter already knew that.
posted by wendell at 7:28 PM on October 4, 2008 [4 favorites]
And anytime you quote "Religion and Politics" it shouldn't have any commas or other kinds of punctuation that break up the flow and especially for "hey buddy you're full of $#!+"
posted by wendell at 7:39 PM on October 4, 2008
posted by wendell at 7:39 PM on October 4, 2008
All I can say is, shaving cream. Be nice and clean.
Why do you mix my shaving cream fun with politics? I used to listen to Dr. Demento every Sunday night with anticipated glee on my AM/FM radio with 8-track player on the side. It was fun, it was my youth. I could even listen to UK stations at midnight in the cold, dark Maine winters, if I set my antenna right. My earlier HAM leanings, I guess. Technician class, before they made it easy.
Do not fuck with my Dr. Demento memories with your obsolete political leanings. I saw Nixon resign live on TV. I saw the Beatles split up. There is nothing worse than that, while you're listening to Uncle Albert on a 45, trust me. Piss off.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:53 PM on October 4, 2008
Why do you mix my shaving cream fun with politics? I used to listen to Dr. Demento every Sunday night with anticipated glee on my AM/FM radio with 8-track player on the side. It was fun, it was my youth. I could even listen to UK stations at midnight in the cold, dark Maine winters, if I set my antenna right. My earlier HAM leanings, I guess. Technician class, before they made it easy.
Do not fuck with my Dr. Demento memories with your obsolete political leanings. I saw Nixon resign live on TV. I saw the Beatles split up. There is nothing worse than that, while you're listening to Uncle Albert on a 45, trust me. Piss off.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:53 PM on October 4, 2008
All I can say is, shaving cream. Be nice and clean.
ftfy
posted by pyramid termite at 8:17 PM on October 4, 2008
ftfy
posted by pyramid termite at 8:17 PM on October 4, 2008
I love you LM, but this post seems kind of thin and to-the-choir preachy. Most of us Mefites already agree that "Go back to Communist (X) if you don't love America" is a shitty argument, and the ones who don't are chilling out in Bannistan.
I hereby call a Mefi scavenger hunt: the first person who remembers, or Googles up a similarly clear-headed rant from someone on the right wing, something that reminds us lefties to listen to the other side's points before we freak out and start screaming, will receive a handmade gift from me.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 8:35 PM on October 4, 2008
I hereby call a Mefi scavenger hunt: the first person who remembers, or Googles up a similarly clear-headed rant from someone on the right wing, something that reminds us lefties to listen to the other side's points before we freak out and start screaming, will receive a handmade gift from me.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 8:35 PM on October 4, 2008
All I can say is, shaving cream. Be nice and clean.
ftfy
And never a fix did I more welcome, nice, thank you. I always held it in my mind, the baby out the window and only saved by the chorus, lying in my bedroom in an old Cape Cod overlooking the lake, my dormer window splitting the glint of the full moon as it split the waves into hard, bitter diamonds at midnight while my mentally ill mother lay beneath me in her room, drugged beyond recognition by the local gp, calling for me to turn her over in bed, as she could not do it herself, being paralyzed by the Chlorapromazine. Thank for fixing that for me.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 9:01 PM on October 4, 2008
ftfy
And never a fix did I more welcome, nice, thank you. I always held it in my mind, the baby out the window and only saved by the chorus, lying in my bedroom in an old Cape Cod overlooking the lake, my dormer window splitting the glint of the full moon as it split the waves into hard, bitter diamonds at midnight while my mentally ill mother lay beneath me in her room, drugged beyond recognition by the local gp, calling for me to turn her over in bed, as she could not do it herself, being paralyzed by the Chlorapromazine. Thank for fixing that for me.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 9:01 PM on October 4, 2008
I think freshwater pr0n missed the point and the point being that anything chanted in 6/8 time is so much better than anything spoken in other ways that Presidential Debates should require it.
But let's get back into some Vintage Dementia (before Weird Al Yankovic)
Do you like Boobsalot? (Flash but surprisingly no real boobs were used in making the video)
Pico and (maybe) Sepulveda recorded back in the forties by some Big Band using an alias
Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes one of whom is really Bill "Billy" Mumy of Lost in Space and also Babylon 5.
I'm so glad I don't have to recite live what I'm writing here my lungs would likely collapse.
posted by wendell at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2008
But let's get back into some Vintage Dementia (before Weird Al Yankovic)
Do you like Boobsalot? (Flash but surprisingly no real boobs were used in making the video)
Pico and (maybe) Sepulveda recorded back in the forties by some Big Band using an alias
Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes one of whom is really Bill "Billy" Mumy of Lost in Space and also Babylon 5.
I'm so glad I don't have to recite live what I'm writing here my lungs would likely collapse.
posted by wendell at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2008
Well, if it tells you anything, it was a big hit on Dr. Demento.
It's not meant as a jab at conservatives, necessarily, and it's not really preachy. Though in the piece the antagonist is a stereotypical conservative blowhard, I can think of several liberals IRL and on the internet who regularly engage in the similar behavior - just saying their opponents are full of #*%@! without offering anything substantial to back it up except insults and hyperbole.
I was just stoked that it was on the internet, and thought it appropriate for election season. When I was a kid I thought it was hilarious and memorized the whole thing. Nostalgia for people who remember hanging out by the radio on Sunday nights, a new funny for people who didn't.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:17 PM on October 4, 2008
It's not meant as a jab at conservatives, necessarily, and it's not really preachy. Though in the piece the antagonist is a stereotypical conservative blowhard, I can think of several liberals IRL and on the internet who regularly engage in the similar behavior - just saying their opponents are full of #*%@! without offering anything substantial to back it up except insults and hyperbole.
I was just stoked that it was on the internet, and thought it appropriate for election season. When I was a kid I thought it was hilarious and memorized the whole thing. Nostalgia for people who remember hanging out by the radio on Sunday nights, a new funny for people who didn't.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:17 PM on October 4, 2008
I'm sorry if I'm cranky, I'm just really po'd tonight because they said Palin is coming to Maine. No ill intentions toward anyone here.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 9:21 PM on October 4, 2008
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 9:21 PM on October 4, 2008
No sweat. y'all. Wanna Boogie?
Also as long as we're into vintage Dementia - They're coming to take me away haahaaa...
posted by louche mustachio at 9:30 PM on October 4, 2008 [2 favorites]
Also as long as we're into vintage Dementia - They're coming to take me away haahaaa...
posted by louche mustachio at 9:30 PM on October 4, 2008 [2 favorites]
Do you really think that I missed the point? Do you really think, after listening to it and reading the lyrics that it wasn't a jab at/a full-on skewering of a certain kind of person?
I didn't promise to agree with the right's version of Scott Beach's piece. I'm just curious to see if it can be written. If you can find something similar and as level-headed from the right wing, then you win the scavenger hunt. I'm not hopeful.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 10:01 PM on October 4, 2008
I didn't promise to agree with the right's version of Scott Beach's piece. I'm just curious to see if it can be written. If you can find something similar and as level-headed from the right wing, then you win the scavenger hunt. I'm not hopeful.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 10:01 PM on October 4, 2008
I didn't promise to agree with the right's version of Scott Beach's piece. I'm just curious to see if it can be written. If you can find something similar and as level-headed from the right wing, then you win the scavenger hunt. I'm not hopeful.
Maybe this ted talk on the real difference between liberals and conservatives?
Not from the right wing, mind you, but it does the job of effectively considering the other side's view point.
If we're still on for that hand-made gift? Cause I was going to ask for a scarf.
posted by hellojed at 10:46 PM on October 4, 2008 [3 favorites]
Maybe this ted talk on the real difference between liberals and conservatives?
Not from the right wing, mind you, but it does the job of effectively considering the other side's view point.
If we're still on for that hand-made gift? Cause I was going to ask for a scarf.
posted by hellojed at 10:46 PM on October 4, 2008 [3 favorites]
Thanks for this. Hadn't heard it before, and sums up the situation quite nicely.
posted by telstar at 11:00 PM on October 4, 2008
posted by telstar at 11:00 PM on October 4, 2008
The TED talk from hellojed's comment is also very good. Jonathan Haidt's take on eastern religions with regards to the lib/con divide remind me of a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "the wise man laments neither for the living nor the dead".
posted by telstar at 11:24 PM on October 4, 2008
posted by telstar at 11:24 PM on October 4, 2008
Do you really think, after listening to it and reading the lyrics that it wasn't a jab at/a full-on skewering of a certain kind of person?
Sure it is. It's a very broad caricature - an ignorant, loutish, inarticulate meathead whose only argument revolves around calling his opponents Commies. Anyone looking to win the (unoubtedly awesome) prize would do wlll to look at equivalent caricatures of liberals - think of hippies with flies buzzing around them, beret wearing wanna-be revolutionaries, or sneering, bespectacled academics. I'm sure there are good pieces writen about them, but all that springs to mind are cartoons. Most of the conservatives I've enjoyed reading, while some are quite witty, don't relly work in this particular style.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:52 AM on October 5, 2008
Sure it is. It's a very broad caricature - an ignorant, loutish, inarticulate meathead whose only argument revolves around calling his opponents Commies. Anyone looking to win the (unoubtedly awesome) prize would do wlll to look at equivalent caricatures of liberals - think of hippies with flies buzzing around them, beret wearing wanna-be revolutionaries, or sneering, bespectacled academics. I'm sure there are good pieces writen about them, but all that springs to mind are cartoons. Most of the conservatives I've enjoyed reading, while some are quite witty, don't relly work in this particular style.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:52 AM on October 5, 2008
Wow thanks for this, its existence had fallen out of my brain. I absolutely loved it when I first heard it on Dr. Demento in the 80's.
It's funny how some things never change. A lot of people that are just getting into politics recently would do good to remember that it's always fucking been like this.
posted by cj_ at 1:00 AM on October 5, 2008
It's funny how some things never change. A lot of people that are just getting into politics recently would do good to remember that it's always fucking been like this.
posted by cj_ at 1:00 AM on October 5, 2008
Do you really think that I missed the point? Do you really think, after listening to it and reading the lyrics that it wasn't a jab at/a full-on skewering of a certain kind of person?
As a wise Nick Nolte said, "aw, hell I dunno!." Mr. Beat the Shit out of Those that Disagree With Him gets the punch line, but I'm not so sure about the moral high ground. The whole point of the rant is that no matter what one's high minded justifications for their political views they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell against the supremely human desire to set the man who disagrees with you on fire. World War Z is a great book an everyone should read it.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 2:54 AM on October 5, 2008
As a wise Nick Nolte said, "aw, hell I dunno!." Mr. Beat the Shit out of Those that Disagree With Him gets the punch line, but I'm not so sure about the moral high ground. The whole point of the rant is that no matter what one's high minded justifications for their political views they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell against the supremely human desire to set the man who disagrees with you on fire. World War Z is a great book an everyone should read it.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 2:54 AM on October 5, 2008
I'm just really po'd tonight because they said Palin is coming to Maine.
Are you sure she's not just coming for some moose huntin'?
posted by SteveInMaine at 4:35 AM on October 5, 2008
Are you sure she's not just coming for some moose huntin'?
posted by SteveInMaine at 4:35 AM on October 5, 2008
Dave Barry's instructions on how to win an argument
posted by Bitter soylent at 5:28 AM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Bitter soylent at 5:28 AM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
hellojed - That TED talk is excellent, thanks for posting the link to it.
posted by djeo at 8:36 AM on October 5, 2008
posted by djeo at 8:36 AM on October 5, 2008
« Older Akhenaten and Akhetaten | Making A Bad Movie Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by oddman at 6:36 PM on October 4, 2008