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How To Look Like a Jackass In Four Easy Steps, By Froma Harrop

Aug 5, 2011
By .
Irksome, Politics & Current Events

It's simple!

1. Be a syndicated columnist affiliated with a project called "Restoring Civility."

2. Write columns calling people "economic terrorists" and comparing them to "al-Qaida bombers" because you disapprove of what they say and how they vote in Congress.

3. When this incongruity is mentioned, issue a snippy and defensive blog post asserting that (1) they ARE terrorists, sort of, and (2) anyway, "incivility" doesn't mean calling people terrorists, it means "not letting other people speak their piece . . . . [i]t’s not about offering strong opinions. If someone’s opinion is fact-based, then it is permissible in civil discourse."

4. When people dissent in the comments to your blog post, delete the comments and close comments on the post, notwithstanding that you just said civility is letting other people speak their piece.

Froma, Froma, Froma.

Here's the thing, Froma. We all have a bug up our assess about some subject or other. We're all susceptible to accusations of hypocrisy sooner or later. When confronted with such an instance, we have three choices. One is to say "yes, you're right." Another is to go down fighting — to say "why, it's because FUCK YOU!" The third — the one you chose — is to engage in a desperate and pathetic effort to reconcile the irreconcilable things we've said on different occasions. The first option makes us sound principled, the second option makes us sound human, and the third makes us a subject of widespread justifiable ridicule.

Froma, I'm going to be civil with you. On your terms, that is. Feel free to come here and say your piece about this, Froma, but I think the facts show you are a shallow, unserious, self-aggrandizing twit.

Last 5 posts by Ken White

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19 Comments

  1. Mad Rocket Scientist  •  Aug 5, 2011 @4:10 pm

    Par for the course for most pundits.

  2. EH  •  Aug 5, 2011 @5:51 pm

    "Comments are closed" LOL

  3. Brian Smith  •  Aug 5, 2011 @6:37 pm

    It's hard to believe that she doesn't realize how stupid she looks by closing comments on a post where she claims incivility is not letting someone speak their piece.

  4. Dan Weber  •  Aug 5, 2011 @7:05 pm

    Is this old? I can swear I remember someone using "restoring civility" and then proceed to piss all over the couch a year ago.

  5. Doug  •  Aug 5, 2011 @7:50 pm

    shocked shocked at this

  6. Nowhere55  •  Aug 5, 2011 @10:47 pm

    It is hypocritical. Then again I am perfectly up front that I am civil to people who are not hypocrits. Calling for civility and then calling the tea party terrorists without calmly and rationally saying that you would be perfectly willing to be civil to the tea party as soon as they begin demand yo see Michelle Bachman's long form birth cerificate, for example would be consistent behavior. Scream about it of course, is not.

  7. Linus  •  Aug 6, 2011 @9:00 am

    Maybe it's just me, but when I hear "economic terrorists" and "shoot the hostages" and such, all I hear is "WAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAH" Somebody call the waaambulance. Big surprise then that one of the crybabies would then take her ball and go home.

    Although I do love the utter cluelessness in espousing the theory of "it's okay if I'm an asshole because MY opinions are TRUE." Reminds me of the asshole in college that was always saying rude things and then, when others took offense, saying "What? I'm just being honest!' Hey, buddy, I never said you weren't, I said you were being an asshole.

  8. A Conservative Teacher  •  Aug 6, 2011 @5:35 pm

    Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie. Hypocrisy is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one preaches- perhaps one advocates or preaches certain virtues but is unable to obtain those due to lack of self-control or strength or temperament- but rather, hypocrisy is play-acting or pretending to be something which you are not.

    Quote from post:
    http://aconservativeteacher.blogspot.com/2011/03/rand-paul-to-obama-officials-you-are.html

  9. Rick C  •  Aug 6, 2011 @6:42 pm

    "It’s hard to believe that she doesn’t realize how stupid she looks by closing comments on a post where she claims incivility is not letting someone speak their piece."

    Brian, all the people commenting and disagreeing with her aren't–in her mind–making fact-based arguments. Therefore–in her mind–it's not uncivil to deny them a chance to speak. QED.

  10. John David Galt  •  Aug 7, 2011 @10:23 am

    But remember, hypocrisy is only wrong if you're a conservative.

  11. Erm  •  Aug 7, 2011 @10:28 am

    John David Galt: And who are you, Mr. Rules-tracker? The Zeitgeist-litigator? Do you have anything but sarcasm to offer?

  12. Ranulfo  •  Aug 7, 2011 @12:29 pm

    Hotair has the comments from before they were deleted:

    http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/harrop.htm

    via
    http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/05/hypocrisy-irony-and-the-new-civility/

  13. Brian Smith  •  Aug 7, 2011 @6:08 pm

    Reading the comments provided by Hotair, I can see why the comments were removed. She clearly can dish it out, but she can't take it – like most liberals I know.

  14. EricHH  •  Aug 7, 2011 @7:53 pm

    This blog is like Talk Soup (when it used to be good about 10 years ago) but with balls. A froth of humor and disgust, laughter and tears. Amen!

  15. Anti Federalist  •  Aug 7, 2011 @8:13 pm

    WTF is a Froma Harrop?

    A side dish for Khav Kalash?

  16. Anti Federalist  •  Aug 7, 2011 @8:20 pm

    Oh, and one other thing.

    Calling somebody a "terrorist", considering what, in today's climate, could happen to a person if Leviathan chose to pursue the matter, borders on an "actionable" act of slander or libel.

  17. Rliyen  •  Aug 7, 2011 @11:30 pm

    So by this "Cobra-Commander-hanging-on-a-Trouble-Bubble-screeching-'RETREAT! RETREAT!'" maneuver by this pundit indicate that the "tea party terrorists" won?

    I'd like to think so.

  18. OH Krill  •  Aug 9, 2011 @12:20 pm

    I guess she just can't get enough attention: http://www.fromaharrop.com/?p=1100

  19. Rliyen  •  Aug 9, 2011 @1:53 pm

    So, she's reinforcing that she's a hypocrite. Gotcha.

    Yet another person who I'll ignore if they have anything to say.

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