I will be selfish for one paragraph and whine about how the way-too-early death of Doghouse Riley has ruined my reading life. The only writer who comes close to him is Charlie Pierce, mostly because Pierce is not afraid to lob insults. Doghouse was (and always will be), my blogging Pole Star. His is the example I try to attain. I want my writing to "sound" like his. I want to be right about everything the way he was. I want to understand everything about the writing he leaves behind for us, because he nailed the blogging form down. Whether he had only a quick quip or a rambling, autobiographical revelation, he knew how to write so people would stop clicking.
Doghouse's great talent was in knowing what was so wrong about the right-wing and everything they say and do in the first place. Whenever Tom Friedman or David Brooks opened their mouths, their euphemisms and half-truths always sounded good, even if in the end I could just feel that their conclusions were dead wrong. But Doghouse always knew how to cut right through their bullshit. He knew what they were omitting, wrongly assuming, outright lying about, or reversing their opinions on without admitting they were wrong before.
And he had the moral courage to be pissed at these motherfuckers. When bullshit (also known as Iraq War Commentary) was broadcasted on international television and got thousands killed, it was Doghouse who held up their hands and said "Can't you motherfuckers see all the motherfucking blood all over these hands??!?!?!?!?" When the Emperor paraded down the street buck naked, it was Doghouse who howled with laughter at the Emperor's arrogance. And his subjects' cowardice.
Because Doghouse knew, and pointed out constantly, that these motherfuckers couldn't get anywhere near legislation, or even a podium, without the willing acquiescence of not just right-wingers everywhere, but everyone unwilling or unable to see through the bullshit. Sure, harping on racist politicians is fun. But someone needs to point out when that racism is by popular demand. Ripping a new one on a leader helping the rich get richer is easy. Attacking, brutally, our own smug assumptions of how our good livings indicate that we are better people is thankless. In right-wing land, even the poor believe in tax cuts for the wealthy because the wealthy have repeatedly told the poor that's the only way they'll get any job. And the poor have been unwilling to even try to contest it, mostly because it melds so well with their fear that somewhere, somehow, a black guy is living off of them. Someone needs to fucking tell the Emperor's subjects to laugh at the naked guy in the middle of the street. Because the Emperor only gets away with this bullshit because his subjects let him.
I'm going to blog more often. You can read or not.
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