Thuggy Projection
A couple of nights ago I wanted to read something not too taxing and reliably satisfying. I had a newish Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker handy, so that was the choice. I admire Parker's prolific output, his plots that do not get by on stereotypes and cliché, and it doesn't hurt that I can read his books faster than any others.
This passage caught my attention. Spenser has followed to a parking garage the body guard of a person of interest. He'd like to talk to the body guard, but the body guard's attitude gets in the way and needs adjusting first. Spenser obliges.
He tried to move past me to the elevator. I moved and blocked him again.
"How'd you happen to hook up with Alderson?" I said.
He took two handfuls of my jacket up near my neck.
"You gonna move, or am I gonna move you?" he said.
He was a big guy, bigger than I was., but jacket grabbing is an amateur move, and I suspected he'd gotten by much of his tough guy life on being big rather than skillful.
"Okay," I said, "Okay. I'll move."
He grunted and shoved me scornfully away and started past. I kicked both his ankles out from under him and he went down sideways and hard on the cement floor of the parking garage. I stepped back and waited. It took him a minute.
"You tripped me," he said. "You fucking sissy."
"Sort of," I said.
It took him a minute but he got his feet under him and got up and charged me. I moved a little and steered him past me and into the trunk of a car parked next to his. He grunted and steadied himself against the car. The impact had set off the car alarm and the horn began honking rhythmically.
"Stand still," he said. "You fight like a fucking girl."
"You think?" I said.
[Robert B. Parker, Now and Then (New York, G.P.Putnam's Sons, 2007, p. 157.]
Have you ever noticed how conservatives, religious fanatics, and other thugs tend to excuse their own shortcomings by accusing their opponents of the same thing?
Of course, with the current political-campaign season, this effect has been much on display, but it certainly isn't restricted to campaigning politicians.
It's been universally recognized, for instance, that as soon as the Bush Administration accuses some political opponent of doing something heinous, we know just what the Bush Administration has been up to. A ready example: Bob Wilson and Valerie Plame became traitors because the Bush Administration uncovered Plame's undercover status because Wilson irritated them. Saddam Hussein, waterboarding, global warming, election fraud–just a few of the phrases that bring to mind not-so-clever and not-so-subtle misdirection by the White House thugs.
The group whose antics seem most familiar to me, of course, are the religious-fanatic, anti-gay crowd. They have exceedingly vivid imaginations and are able to project a great many of their own shortcomings onto their gay targets. Intolerant? "Gay people," they say, "are intolerant of other viewpoints!" Puhlease. "Gay people recruit!" although said fanatics operate far more church "school" classes for the indoctrination of youngsters than gay people do. "Gay people want to destroy marriage!" Well, look at the maps to discover where divorce is most popular.
I'm not sure I understand the root cause of this thuggy projection technique, although I think it's probably a combination of 1) moral dissonance–the thugs usually seem aware of their own failings; and 2) a childish sort of cookie-jar defense–"I didn't break it! It fell and broke itself."
The sensible person's response to such misdirection, something like jaw-dropping stunned silence or else a cartoon-like "arrrggh!", doesn't really accomplish much, except maybe to amuse the thug. That's not terribly satisfying, nor terribly productive, but I don't have any good suggestions. Maybe Spenser exhibits some of the more useful tactics.
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on Sunday, 2 March 2008 at 16.01
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Yes, in more heated moments of outrage and frustration, the prospect of Bush & Co. being knocked to the pavement appeals, big time.
Proactive anti-gay people likely do have deepseated doubts and fears about inadequacies.
Do gays really recruit? Can a genuine heterosexual be recruited? I'm skeptical. Sounds like fearmongering to me.