Fancy Store-Bought Dirt

On "Gloating"

"It's time to prepare for three weeks of gloating from the hawks before they realize that nothing has really changed [...]"
--seen here

I think it's a sign of how poisoned these debates can become that the very thought of celebrating good news gets spun as "gloating."

Imagine some particular welfare program that I deeply opposed, perhaps because (in addition to opposing it on principle as socialistic) I thought was counterproductive, and had good reason to think that. Now imagine that, for all its warts, that program happened to make a huge positive difference in the lives of a lot of particular beneficiaries. Of course the people who supported the program would very openly celebrate this good news, and I'd like to think I'd be above accusing them of gloating.

Anyhow, take a close look at the sort of person who spins things this way. No, I'm not even making a holier-than-thou Left-Right distinction; rather, it's the people who owe their lives and livelihood to partisan rancor who say things as classless as that. After all, the more bitter and contentious these debates remain, the more hits their web sites get and the more appearance fees they rake in as cable news show talking heads.

Meanwhile, of course there are the total nutjobs (scroll to the "Democratic Underground" quote). I'm wary of scornful links to DU because for every idiotic thing said there I'm sure there's an idiotic thing said on Free Republic. Even so, this particular quote was very ironic, so much so that I'm tempted to call shenanigans and attribute it to a troll.