Nothing illustrates the collective cognitive dissonance of the citizens of Wingnuttistan quite so eloquently as the e-mails they share amongst themselves. You know the ones. You probably get them too.
This one has been around for a while, at least since 2003, says Snopes. But what good dittohead can resist hitting the Forward to All button when their prejudices are so mightily reinforced by the likes of this:
Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, is not sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths."
While this screed is unusual in the sense that it's true, and not cut out of whole cloth (with pinking shears), what is very unusual today is that someone on the receiving end actually stopped to "think" and to write some independent commentary and analysis, and use that other button, "Reply to All." But don't get your hopes up. In fact, prepare to be appalled.
Dear Pat, you sent this to 36 people, including people you don't even know, like me, so I assume you won't mind me sharing your "thoughts" with a reality-based community:
…
I use to work in a substance abuse program for years and I have asked former inmates why doesn't our government, any State, send the non-violent inmates to serve in the war. In return they will gain respect for themselves and the government can have their records expunged for their time served or parole them for good behavior. Every inmate I have asked this question have said the same thing, they would go in a heartbeat.
I am not pro-inmate and their treatment. They did the crime so they should do their time. But----there has got to be a solution to overcrowded prisons. When you lock up non-violent criminals with violent ones, the non-violent ones come out and are never the same. What they have lived through while being locked up to just survive will damage them for the rest of their lives.
…
Just my thoughts--Pat
On how many levels is this wrong?
Why don't we send non-violent inmates to serve in the war, Pat asks? Indeed. Why don't we conscript non-violent offenders to go do the mass violence that we don't care to do ourselves? Why don't we take people that are busted for possession of marijuana and send them to get their legs blown off so they'll learn a little respect for themselves? What a brilliant fucking idea, Pat.
Look, everyone: Pat is "not pro-inmate." Woo hoo! I bet y'all Pat is pro-life, though. You know, that special sort of pro-life hypocrite that believes we should use nonviolent offenders as cannon fodder in a senseless foreign occupation.
The second paragraph is absolutely spectacular in its reasoning. Nonviolent prisoners "come out and are never the same." "What they have lived through…will damage them for the rest of their lives." What glorious irony. You can't make this shit up. Yeah, right, Pat. I'm sure that when they come back from 15 months of watching their buddies get blown up in Iraq, they'll be all nice and peaceful and non-violent and even better people for the experience. Fighting this war for you chickenhawks would be such an uplifting experience compared to prison.