What? Only Real Men stand by stupid opinions?
The thing is, I agree with TPM on their critique of Scarborough...he's generally a portrait (from what little I've seen) of a guy full of himself and full of hot air, and he bandies about traditional masculinity like it's nobody's business. And in this clip he clearly has no problem spouting off his opinions to his cohost (who happens to be a woman), but has more of a problem trying to assert his masculinity with Senator Webb on the line; but TPM buys into traditional masculinity by characterizing Scarborough-backing-down as having lost his testicles, and having lost his status in the hierarchy:
True, it looks like it was Veracifier that originally placed the comments in the video, but then TPM just keeps the traditional masculinity ball rolling by introducing the clip as having something to do with castration. There's plenty to criticize about Scarborough without resorting to the language of man-challenges.
2 comments:
I think most of the debates that take place on television, in particular the heated ones like Bill O'Reilly's show or Crossfire, are pretty abusive and nonconstructive ways of debating topics. They're full of unsubstantiated emotional claims framed around dichotomies. It's really just about who is the loudest in an effort to corner the other until he/she gives up. It's all about proving who is right instead of trying to get a more accurate, multi-dimensional perspective of the whole. Someone has to "win" the debate and which side you're on. It's all pretty lame if you ask me.
I agree with you on the nonconstructive front. My point was that people who I tend to agree with, in this case the folks at TPM, are reinforcing traditional masculinity in the form of criticism they're taking against this jerk. I would rather them focus on the fact that he's wrong, rather than the fact that some man metaphorically castrated him.
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