Roaring So Loudly

Roy Edroso discusses the latest plea for civility from the Assholosphere:

When we laughed at them before, they were roaring so loudly they couldn't hear us. Now they can't help but notice. And they want us to stop.

To me, this implies that people like Megan McArdle have managed to make a small but significant concession to reality. Which is why I'm forced to categorize it as wishful thinking.

In my view, McArdle's playing the civility card for the same reason her ideological brethren and cistern are calling for the use of tactical nukes against Iran: because the point of having a weapon is to use it. By the same token, every binding spell in the wingnut grimoire must be cast and recast, for the simple reason that the movement's sorcerers have nothing better to do.

That said, I do wonder whether the post-9/11 apotheosis of the warbloggers will turn out to be their version of the Summer of Love, by which I mean fodder for endless, maudlin anecdotes about how "we almost brought down the system, man!"

Just as many hippies' pursuit of their own enjoyment is retroactively ennobled by the fact that other people were engaged in a serious political struggle, to the extent that listening to Janis Joplin while stoned seems in hindsight to have been a Revolutionary Act, the warbloggers' brief, borrowed moment of quasi-relevance is likely to become ever more lustrous and exemplary as the years drag on (though to be fair, I'm sure they'll also Keep Hope Alive by supporting politicians who promise to end "entitlements"--veterans' benefits, for instance).

Considering what they deserve, they could have it a lot worse.

But God is merciful unto those who reverence Him, and it may well be that we'll suffer another spectacular terrorist attack, and everything silly will become serious again. At which point, we can expect street-fightin' men like Kim du Toit and Andrew Sullivan and Ace O'Spades to spurt arcs of "rancid ectoplasmic jissom" like the hanged men in Naked Lunch. Which is why, as I've said many times before, I'm less frightened of dying in a terrorist attack than I am of slipping in a reeking puddle of wingnut ejaculate afterwards, and breaking my neck.

Putting that bit of unpleasantness aside, I said pretty much everything I'd care to say about "civility" in this post.