Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Hypocrisy in Death


   Death has an odd effect on people. Both in the individual that died (an observation that I personally found hysterical for some reason), and the people that knew, or were aware of the person. Today Andrew Breitbart died. Yes, the jackass that screamed at a group of peacefully protesting Occupiers. Now, when you read that last sentence you more than likely had one of two reactions, especially if you were aware of Breitbart before his death and the whitewashing of his life that is sure to occur in the mainstream press: 1) you smiled slightly to yourself as you realized I also disliked Breitbart, or 2) thought me to be a horrendously callous and unfeeling individual to mock a man that died less than 24 hours ago.
   Now what if I had said the same thing after somebody like Obama died? Would you have had the same reaction? Maybe you had 1 when it came to Breitbart, yet reaction 2 when it came to Obama. You're probably telling yourself you would have had the same reaction, and I'm sure some of you could actually honestly say that (especially considering the likely readership of this blog, well other than nobody). But for the majority of people that merely divide themselves between the left and right rhetoric of this country, or, even worse, actually identify as a Democrat or Republican, you probably would be valiantly defending one's memory while denigrating the other.
   And you know what? That's fine with me. Sure, in the horrible world of politics many people have very clear cut allegiances and they will naturally defend and mock them accordingly. "But Derek," you may cry in terror and confusion at a monitor that in no way conveys this information to me, "where does hypocrisy come into all this?! Is the title of your blog misleading." I would, naturally, not actually answer you because I can't hear you (I assure you I am not rude enough to merely ignore you), but if you would please keep reading from this tangent I assure you the title will be appropriate very soon! The hypocrisy comes in when you little fuckers start bitching about the other side making fun of your side's fresh corpse while you would assuredly be doing the same to them in their situation.
   Just read some of the wonderful comments from conservatives on Matt Taibbi's blog about Breitbart's death. I particularly enjoy one user by the name of 'Gerard Van der Leun' who commented, "Die in a fire, Tabbi. Soon." Now, as I can only assume he was actually inviting Taibbi to die, and not a cat or somebody with the name Tabatha while using a nickname, I find this post absolutely hysterical. In response to Taibbi's mocking of Breitbart's death the user actually invites Taibbi to die! Other users, less hysterically, merely spoke about how disgusted they were with Taibbi. But I am sure most people complaining about any liberal criticism and joy that comes in the wake of Breitbart's death would most certainly be doing the same thing had a liberal equivalent just died. Hell, even Breitbart himself took part in this most wonderful traditions, insulting Ted Kennedy in his death.
   So let them have their fun. Sure, defend the decaying bastards if you truly think the criticism in unwarranted, but don't pretend to be above such a thing. If you hate a person in life, you should hate them in death. They are nothing more than the sum total of their lives, and now that it's over you are essentially guaranteed that you aren't going to magically like the person.  Are you a bastard for mocking a man in life and death? Eh, probably. But you know what? Andrew Brightbart lived as a fucking intolerable scum-fucker, and his death merely cemented him as a fucking intolerable scum-fucker for all eternity. If saying that makes me a bastard, then fuck it.