Accountability Is Important, Sarah Palin
A lot of what I write about on this site can be boiled down to personal accountability. If you screw up, just admit you screwed up so we can all move on with our lives. Somehow, this simple idea has been completely lost on most people. The lengths to which people will go to duck accountability and responsibility are almost shocking, and this has to stop.
I'll have you know I place the blame for this firmly in the laps of the Media. I capitalized the M because I'm talking specifically about the huge media outlets like FOXNEWS, who go to great lengths to show you how everything that could be your fault is actually just another in a long line of tragic things to which you're simply a helpless victim. The Media has done such a good job of convincing us that we're not at fault, that most of us believe it.
Perhaps the best large scale example of this is alcoholism. Did you know that alcoholism is a disease? It is, in the same way that cutting yourself is a hobby. It's not a disease unless you can get time off work for it, so until someone manages to call in drunk and not get fired, it's not a disease no matter who says so. The only reason for labeling alcoholism a disease is because it takes responsibility away from the drunk asshole and puts it in the hands of cruel fate, which is fucking bullshit. You're an alcoholic because you drink, it's entirely your own fault, and fuck you for thinking otherwise.
But the Queen of avoiding accountability is Sarah Palin. In March 2010, she tweeted Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" Pls see my Facebook page. This was accompanied by the picture to the right. Couple that with extensive mention of "Second Amendment Remedies."
Nobody's ever said exactly what's meant by Second Amendment Remedies, but the second amendment is the right for Americans to keep and bear arms. The actual text specifies that it's for the purpose of forming a well regulated militia, because at the time there was serious concern that the English would try to reclaim the colony and they wanted to be able to defend themselves, but we'll ignore that for now. Through context it's fairly clear that anyone who talks about Second Amendment Remedies is tacitly calling for assassinations, and until Sarah Palin or Sharron Angle say otherwise that's what I'm going to assume it means, because that's the only fucking thing it can mean.
Then, on January 8, 2011, some crazy asshole shot up a political gathering in Tucson, Arizona, putting Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the hospital, killing a judge and a 9-year old girl and 4 others, putting a dozen or so in the hospital. Now read the list of names in Palin's crosshairs; that's right, Gabrielle Giffords is there. So the timeline so far is Palin tells people to take aim and reload, and talks about Second Amendment Remedies (assassination), and then some moron goes out and tries to kill one of the people she said to take aim at.
To her credit, Sarah Palin always said that this was all one convoluted metaphor for voting. At least, she's said that ever since the first time someone called her on it, which was almost immediately. There's also not been any evidence to suggest that the gunman was influenced by it. However, with the dots there, the media did what the media does, and talked about it. So what does Sarah Palin do now? Does she admit that her metaphor was fucking stupid and announce that she's going to stop using it to avoid possible confusion?
If you said yes, you clearly haven't been paying attention. Instead of doing that, which would have actually make sense, Sarah Palin quietly took the map down from SarahPAC.com as if it had never been there, and lashed out at the media for talking about the blatantly obvious connection. One of her staffers said in an interview with Tammy Bruce "We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights." Then Tammy Bruce (who is a Palin supporter) said "It's surveyor's symbols." First of all, no, it's not. And secondly, what the fuck did you think people would see it as?
Then, Sarah Palin said this:
Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.
I'm sorry, what the fuck? A blood libel is a very specific anti-semitic term with a very specific meaning. It refers to the false accusation that Jews were killing Christian babies to use their blood in religious rituals. Yet another example of Sarah Palin spewing shit from her mouth that she doesn't understand. It's clear that she meant it to mean a false accusation of culpability in murder, and just didn't know that it was already an actual thing. Easy to clear this up, just admit that you didn't realize it was already taken and that it was a poor choice of words, right?
Wrong. Instead, she came out with this gem on January 17:
Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands. In this case, that's exactly what was going on... Just two days before, an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal had that term in its title. And that term has been used for eons.
First of all, as a Christian who believes the Earth is only 17,000 years old, you're not allowed to believe in eons. Secondly, what the fuck!? It doesn't "obviously" mean being falsely accused of having blood on your hands, it "actually" means being accused as a Jew of murdering children to use their blood in religious rituals.
Now, after all that's happened with Sarah Palin and the shooting, I want you to consider something: Sarah Palin has always campaigned on a platform that can be summed up as "no more business-as-usual." Business as usual in Washington is when bad things start happening, those responsible cover their asses and try to dodge all responsibility. Now people are starting to talk about how Palin's antics bear a striking resemblance to this shooting, and what does she do? She immediately reaches for her asshole with both hands. So little miss No More Business As Usual is demonstrating that when push comes to shove, she is all about business as usual. What a fucking hypocrite.
Instead of saying "I made a bad choice a year ago, I'm going to correct it now before anything else bad happens," she's just trying to duck accountability like everyone else in Washington who she claims to be so different from. Because taking responsibility and being accountable are both bad things, right?
Wrong. A friend of mine has a coworker who's been trying to get her fired by recording everything she does and complaining about it to the higher-ups. This is a security company, so employee problems are far-reaching and have a significant impact on things in the area; lives could be in danger. Recently her boss talked to her about it. Here's what she told me:
It seems that my co-worker went a lot further than I thought with complaining about me. But here's the thing. I made a mistake, I owned up to it, I continued on. He wouldn't let that mistake go and nit-picked everything I did. Apparently he was sending these complaint e-mails to EVERYONE above me. [...] he made his intent obvious by doing this.
He is going to be moved to a different shift or facility. But he stepped on someone's toes. I saved my ass by just owning up to it and moving on.
Hear that, Palin? She made a mistake, owned up to it, and things are fine. She took accountability, and it was a good thing. The other guy tried to lay blame, and got his ass fired. Either take the fucking hint already, or fuck off; either way America wins.