Right and wrong - do you know the difference 'Tween the right and the left...

So apparently...I slept in, so I missed a lot of it...apparently a few blogs on the right had a shitfit over a rumor that a surface-to-air missle was fired at an American domestic flight. Over New Jersey.

This does not, in fact, appear to be...oh what is that word...true. And TLA observes, in the post linked above:

So much of the "strength" of The Right relies on fear... They *love* being scared. They talk about 9/11 "changing everything" - without 9/11 their lives would be so boring and empty. 9/11 is a force that gives them meaning.

And I'm wondering why that should be. I mean, I understand why politicians on the right relied on fear and invoked 9/11 at any given opportunity: They were trying to preserve their power and popularity (if you'll forgive the alliteration).

But why "everyday people," even the people who voted for them, should feel the need to perpertuate it is not clear to me, and it's probably fruitless to even ask. The best guess I can come up with is: When you're scared, you don't have to think.

And as Bill Clinton said on The Daily Show during the '04 election, when people think, we--the left, or as close to it as the democrats pass these days-win. And folks on the right, I think, are going to be jumping at shadows in the next few years.

Because they're going to be grasping at any chance to "prove" that their worldview is the right one. Or more importantly--not the wrong one. This might be the most sympathetic thing you'll ever see me say about those on the right who voted for, and continue to support, the current administration:

I can understand why it would be galling to admit that you were that wrong about something this serious. I mean, this is not like being wrong about predicting the success of a TV show (I wouldn't have bet on "Desperate Housewives"), this is wrong on a scale that (mis)shaped the world.

If I had been that wrong, I probably wouldn't have wanted to admit it either. Even to myself. So I might create a world in which only the guy who drove us into the ditch can get us out again.

I saw the news last night
All illustrated with cartoons
So when they come with that opinion poll
They better not use words like
Ideology . . .
Or try to tell me 'bout the issues
Ideology . . .
Whose side are you on
We're talkin' 'bout

--Joe Jackson, "Right and Wrong"