demagoguery and disseminating false information

It's interesting the way that things come together. Recently, I received an e-mail from a friend of mine. Among other topics,he briefly touched upon a book that he had read. I quote from his e-mail.

"I just finished reading “State of Fear” by Michael Crichton.  I know there are lots of reasons why we need to protect the environment, but the book pointed out what big business it is to be a non-profit organization receiving donations for ecology.  In the book a fictitious organization is involved in eco-terrorism, to try and improve the amounts of their donations.  He did his research showing how easy it is to manipulate the data to give it the perception of global warming, however if you step back and look at all the data you see only large cities are actually warming, most of the country side isn’t."

I do not want anyone to think that I take everything that Michael Crichton says as gospel.  However, in this case there is, or may be, an inkling of truth. Here is my reply to my friend.

"On the other hand, if the cities are getting warmer, you know that the atmospheric flows will adjust accordingly.  How much and in what directions I don't think we have any idea.  The whole problem was that the greenies (which I am to a degree) screwed themselves over by taking a theory and trying to pass it off as a postulate."

I hope it is obvious that I am against any demagoguery whether it be from the far left or the far right. The greenies stuck it to themselves in this case. They took a good topic, a vital one, and disseminated theories and explanations and claimed them to be gospel.

SPEAKING OF THE GOSPEL, now to the real subject of this post.

Recently, I extolled the virtues of David Brooks, a conservative op-ed contributor to the New York Times. His arguments, as I stated, are reasonable, although I seldom agree with his conclusion. Ross Douthat,on the other hand, often relies on demagoguery to press a point. In his most recent op ed piece, he decried the usurpation of Christmas by what he calls

Christmukkwanzaa multiculturalism

The use of the word "Christmukkwanzaa" is so full of racial and social bigotry that it defies the imagination to think that there are people who buy this bullshit. I can see Bubba at the breakfast table eating his cornflakes and drinking his moonshine, adjusting the chaw in his cheek, spitting on the floor, and drawling "them their commie pinko's are trying to take the baby Jesus from us." 

Now why they always pray to the baby Jesus, I don't know.   This reminds me of the dinner scene in Talladega Nights, where the family is arguing as to which Jesus they should pray to for the blessing. Somehow the baby Jesus always wins out. Now, as far as I am concerned, picking the Jesus that is crapping in his diaper, and mewling and spitting up is not that good a decision. If I wanted Jesus on my side I would pray to the Jesus that is pissed off and throwing out the moneylenders and moneychangers at the Temple.  Man, he was one bad MF that day. I wouldn't mess with him. Would you?

Be that as it may,Douthat totally ignores the point that 2000 years ago the Christians co-opted the feasts of many religions that celebrated the winter solstice, celebrating the hope of spring ahead. The Romans celebrated a several day holiday of Saturnalia. You can go back even further and study how many other cultures celebrated this event. Do your own research as to how this date was chosen.  Besides, I'm of Eastern European heritage and we celebrate the Epiphany, not the birthday.

Therefore Douthat is complaining that others are doing what the Christians did 2000 years ago. I don't know any other way to say that. It is demagoguery, and disseminating inaccurate and incomplete information, just to rile up Bubba against the  Christmukkwanzaa multiculturalism that permeates our country.  Well, not his and Sarah's country, but New York and California at the very least..

In another blog post, I intend to discuss why and how we fall for so easily for demagoguery. However until then happy Christmukkwanzaa.