You Are NOT Helping

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time probably knows that I'm not the biggest fan of Michelle Malkin.

Actually, that's an understatement. Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I loathe Michelle Malkin. Melissa refers to her as my "arch enemy." You're probably aware that I think she's one of the most poisonous figures on the right, a vicious, cruel person that displays a frightening lack of empathy for anyone who does not conform completely to her world view. This is a person who continually puts people at risk for their lives by publishing their personal information on the internet, indirectly encouraging her many followers, who can display a viciousness that even rivals Malkin's, to harass them. It should be noted that she does this even after moving her own family due to having her personal information posted on the internet. This is a person who wrote a book accusing "liberals" of being "unhinged," and felt this was an appropriate way to criticize another blogger. She and her readers are responsible for more organized attacks filled with hate and death threats (and "liberals" are unhinged?) than any other conservative blogger I can think of. I think Michelle Malkin is a very dangerous person.

And now, thanks to Keith Olbermann, I am put in the position of defending her, and I'm really not happy about it.

On his show this Tuesday, Olbermann apparently felt it was appropriate during his "Worst Person in the World" segment to describe Malkin thusly:
That was at 6:47 in the morning. By nighttime, Malkin and the lunatic fringe had decided Carney-Nunez was responsible for the song and whichever plot their fevered little paranoid minds saw behind it. She received death threats and hate-filled voice mails all thanks to the total mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic hatred, without which Michelle Malkin would just be a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it. Ms. Carney-Nunez had nothing to do with the song. By the way, the fringe is out protesting at the school again scaring the kids. You know, exactly the way that psychotic pastor protests at military funerals.
Ahem.

While the behavior of Malkin and her followers is indeed reprehensible, to describe her as a "big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it" is completely unacceptable. It is sexist, it is dehumanizing, which is a central strategy of racism, and it is not helping. It simply adds ammunition to Malkin's arsenal the next time she shrieks about "unhinged" attacks from the left, and Olbermann should know better. Sexism, dehumanization and racism are weapons that we do not use.

I've used words to describe Malkin in the past that I'm not all that proud of, and I have resolved never to do that again. But I'm just some bozo nobody on a blog. Keith Olbermann, for better or for worse, is one of the major media voices of opposition against the frenzied right wing, and sinking to their level is simply unnaceptable.

I would remind Mr. Olbermann that we defend Michelle Malkin against sexist smears not because we support her words, actions or politics, but because that's how feminism works.

Get with the fucking program.

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