fucking animals

Over at L'Hôte we are reminded of the brute realities leading up to the 2003 Iraqi War. Not the marginalization and trivialization of dissent but something even more hideous.  

You know, I'm reading all of the Iraq mea culpas, some good, some bad. But they are all systematically ignoring one of the most obvious and salient aspects of the run up to the war: the incredible power of personal resentment against antiwar people, or what antiwar people were perceived to be. As someone who was involved in day-to-day antiwar activism at the time, the visceral hatred of those opposing the war, and particularly the activists, was impossible to miss. It wasn't opposition. It wasn't disagreement. It was pure, irrational hatred, frequently devolving into accusations of antiwar activists being effectively part of the enemy. Yet for as visible and important as this distaste was for the debate, it's missing from the postmortems. Why?

And if you're wondering if any of the hatred has abated just ask yourself if you remember any person in more recent times ever voicing absolute disgust, displaying direct anger even, as a reaction to the words "Occupy Wall Street." Or if you know of anyone who still displays an ever-so-thinly-disguised loathing for even a mention of supporting or organizing some obscure "lefty" activist cause, whether it be to Breakup The Banks, or to dissent with argue for a vote against the two-party system, or to End The War. Its still out there. People haven't gotten over it.