Kindred Spirits

I read DovBear's blog pretty regularly. I'm actually not that interested in all the political issues he writes about, nor the pope-obsessed posts he inundated us with last week, but the other stuff he focuses on is more up my alley. Also, I need to be on the lookout in case he finds something stupid that I wrote and broadcasts to the whole world what a blathering idiot I am. I should only be so lucky. Anyway, I've always wondered why he devotes do much ink to showing how Republicans are a bunch of inconsistent hypocrites. He points out every instance he can where they misrepresent the truth, abuse their power, lie to their constituents, and of course how they tell everyone that it's the other side that is committing all these evils. Then I realized something: The way he feels about Republicans is the way I feel about chareidim!

What fuels both our fires is pretty much the same thing. It's the disgust with self-righteous despots who are successfully getting the masses to go along with them; autocrats who cover up their own blatant improprieties, who manipulate the truth, who put on a façade of selflessness and devotion to the public good, all in order to further their own political agenda. It's the frustration with people who refuse to look the facts in the eye and call a spade a spade; the apologists who continuously downplay the damage that is being done to our society by these imbeciles. It's the frequent inequities we see these groups perpetrate as they point out their opponents failings. And most of all, it's the fear of what sort of society we'll find ourselves living in if these fanatics are successful in instituting the changes they are agitating for.

We really seem to be very much alike. Except for the fact that I don't usually agree with his politics.