This. Is. Bullshit!
Published by Julia Volkovah under on 8:08 AMThere's a new right winger in town and his name is Frank Miller.
Usually, we can comfortably ignore overrated comic book artists who appeal primarily to 14-30 year-old zit-popping basement dwellers who never once took an action figure out of the box because, after all, who cares what they think? Their job is to momentarily entertain these perennial virgins once a month.
But Frank Miller deserves special treatment because of his recent screed against Occupy Wall Street, one that is so vituperative and over-the-top nasty I'm beginning to wonder if he's as blind as the Daredevil superhero that put him on the map back in the 70's. This is just a portion of what Miller said of Occupy Wall Street:
The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached - is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
Such pure, distilled wingnuttery would be envied by other OWS critics like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. And in Miller's case, when you think about his career, especially in the movies, such a hostile attitude toward a movement that enjoys the support of much of the country and had spread around the world isn't surprising.
Take a look at his propaganda piece, 300. On the face of it, 300 would seem to be a story of the Davids of Sparta taking on the awesome military juggernaut of the Persian empire, which numbered 100,000 or more. In spite of national and international consensus, the OWS movement really is the latter-day 300 compared to the monolithic size of Wall Street's HQs and their own financial juggernaut.
But a closer examination shows a romanticized, right wing version of the actual events of the standoff at Thermopylae, one that glosses over the fact that Sparta was actually one of the most brutal and oppressive slave states of the ancient world.
Gerard Butler's portrayal of Themistocles was somewhat more honest (if you subtract the airbrushed abs) in that his contempt, therefore Sparta's contempt, of the civilian populace was unmistakable. If you take away the swords, shields and spears of the Spartans and replaced them with iPads, iPhones and fountain pens you'd have Wall Street.
I guess, in Miller's addled mind, the Persians represent the 99%, who were summarily stalled for several days at Thermopylae's natural bottleneck until they found a goat herd trail revealed to them by a traitor from Sparta.
And only a wingnut like Miller would think that iPhones and iPads would be symbolic of the technologically-savvy OWS protestors and not the American public in general (who are, after all, represented by OWS).
He thinks OWS identifies with a Woodstock that was held almost 43 years ago, decades before most of these kids were even born. He insists, as do all right wingers, that OWS is comprised of the same cabal of filthy, out of work hippies and that they do not rotate in and out (a poll recently found that about 70% of the OWS protestors actually are employed, compared to just over 50% of Tea Baggers, which handily explains why they have to rotate in and out).
And, as always, making a token pretense of defending Wall Street is nothing more than a thinly-veiled opportunity to take potshots at liberals who are braving increasingly colder weather and police brutality not just for liberals but everyone. OWS does not fool itself into thinking the 99% are 100% liberals or even that this is a partisan political issue.
Yet right wingers like Miller insist on perpetuating this meme, including the one that started last week about OWS female protesters getting raped and then being advised by the movement to not report it. No such thing has happened.
As I said in my comment to Miller's rant:
What's ironic, Frank, is that the real-life Sin City that you thought you'd only created is a product not of the dirty hippie Commies of which you're ignorantly railing (the rape stories are just that- stories) but a product of Wall Street. Sin City is the price we pay for unregulated Capitalism.
Indeed, you look at his Sin City creation, which is Frank Capra's Pottersville on steroids, you'll see a pretty accurate glimpse of what the Republican Party has in store for America.
And I'm sorry, but even 1000 gyrating, bumping and grinding Jessica Albas would not even come close to making up for the Republican Party and their employers on Wall Street turning America into one massive Sin City from coast to coast.
As I've said, Frank Miller is a glorified comic book artist and historical revisionist who's not even half as good as Newt Gingrich on a bad day and we usually can comfortably afford to blow off the ignorant hind leg-chewing of cretins of his ilk. But just for today, I think I'll make Frank Miller a little more infamous.
(Historical reminder to Miller: The Persians, if they represent the 99%, eventually won.)