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Flame » in reply to Garrison Keillor gets ripped a new one

Garrison Keillor is right.
ER — (archived)

The spectacle of these Hell's Angels wannabees wrapping themselves up in the flag and masturbating themselves into a patriotic orgasm is a disgrace, as are their pathetic Santa Claus exercises around Christmastime and the rest of the phony public relations gags that impose their noisy and jarring presence to any within earshot. There is nothing wrong with motorcycles or their riders, but can't anyone see the irony of those masquerading themselves as brutal highway outlaws appointing themselves the guardians of American patriotic values?

The parade strut of these and similar boors is just another goosestep, as repugnant a means of intimidating everyone into a nationalistic frenzy as anything we've witnessed at Nuremberg, or Red Square. And of course, if you object to their excess and bravado the implied threat of violence is there, as the responses of those posters perfectly illustrates, to everyone who dares not click their heels and perform the salutory right hand erection.

Patriotic holidays, and Memorial day in particular, should be times of quite and somber reflection, personal committment and respectful remembrance, not a public orgy of tribal self-congratulation and symbolic intimidation of those who have the audacity to feel soiled by this cheap display of strutting buffonery.

These clowns have a right to demonstrate all they want, bad taste and public swagger are not illegal, but I am happy that Garrison Keillor is brave enough to speak out on this, and I am proud to stand by him as he does so. he is my idea of a great American. My only regret is that I must do this under the cover of a pseudonym, lest I be exposed to the self-righteous vengeance of these self-appointed patriots.

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