Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Stephen King's Patriotism Has Never Been Questioned...”

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May 7, 2008

Stephen King's Patriotism Has Never Been Questioned...

Hatched by Dafydd

Last month, Stephen King, famous author of bloated horror novels that run 800, 900, 1200 pages long, made this Kerryesque statement while talking to some kids about the importance of reading:

I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright.

Two days ago, King was called on the carpet by Noel Sheppard, American Thinker author and blogger at NewsBusters; Sheppard wondered why King, a former teacher, would bash the military (telling schoolchildren that the American Army is staffed with illiterates) during wartime.

"Shut up," King explained.

Oh, let's be fair; "shut up" is not his entire explanation, only part. To be perfectly fair to King -- much fairer than he was to Sheppard -- here is King's complete statement from his own website (scroll down to May 5th):

That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt. Noel Sheppard says, “Nice sentiment when the nation is at war, Stephen.” I guess he feels ignorance and illiteracy are OK when the country needs cannon-fodder. I guess he also feels that the war in Iraq has nationwide approval. Well, it doesn’t have mine. It is a waste of national resources... and that includes the youth and blood of the 4,000 American troops who have lost their lives there and for the tens of thousands who have been wounded. I live in a national guard town, and I support our troops [!], but I don’t support either the war or educational policies that limit the options of young men and women to any one career -- military or otherwise. If you agree, find Sheppard on the internet, and send him an email:

“Hi, Noel—Stephen King says to shut up and I agree.”

Steve

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," wrote Samuel Johnson in 1775 in a letter to Lord Chesterfield. He meant false patriotism, the blustery chest-thumping of a man who knows he has said something despicable, feels guilty about it, but is too narcissistic simply to apologize... so instead, he clumsily tries to "turn the tables" on those he sees as attacking him.

Heck, after a few days of self-congratulatory whining, he might even convince himself that he really is the aggrieved party; nobody knows the trouble Stephen King has seen. The liberal knack for self-delusion is little short of breathtaking.

So, did Sheppard impugn King's patriotism? Well, no, not really; in fact, the word never crossed his keyboard:

For those that can bear it, what follows is another in a long line of liberal media members bashing the military....

[King quote above]

Nice sentiment when the nation is at war, Stephen.

Ought he have impugned it? It certainly seems appropriate: King's original statement, like Kerry's, is in fact unpatriotic. He mocks and disparages America's military troops while we're at war, a fact I suppose he barely recognizes.

Stephen King is a good writer of horror fiction (at least he used to be; I haven't read his stuff in years); but he is also a doctrinaire liberal in the Arianna-Huffington mold. His "analysis" of the Iraq war is facile, uninformed, out of date, and historically illiterate (say, is he illiterate enough to join the Army?) From the Bangor Daily News article:

I guess [Sheppard] also feels that the war in Iraq has nationwide approval. Well, it doesn’t have mine. It is a waste of national resources... and that includes the youth and blood of the 4,000 American troops who have lost their lives there and for the tens of thousands who have been wounded.

Substitute a slightly smaller number in the statement above, and King could have made it at any time from 2003 on. He shows not the slightest awareness of the dramatic turnaround in the last year and a half, caused by switching strategies from attrition to counterinsurgency (of which he's also probably ignorant). Heck, it's almost a pull-quote from a Michael Moore interview. I wonder how many times he's watched his personal, autographed copy of Fahrenheit 911?

(But of course, he "support[s] our troops;" just not not their mission or the country that sent them.)

King's response to Sheppard's criticism was a perfect synthesis of all the qualities of contemporary liberalism: fear-mongering, know-nothingism, petulance, and utter disdain for freedom of speech: Note that he concludes by telling his readers to inundate Sheppard with e-mails telling him to "shut up" (which actually is his real explanation, after all).

Nice sentiment anent a fundamental right, Stephen.

It's tone-perfect liberalism: Free speech for me, but not for thee. Like his role models, the Dixie Chicks, Stephen King believes he has the unfettered right to dismiss the war and smear the troops without having to suffer the slings and arrows of other people's contrarian speech.

Don't you know who he is? He's a big man! He shouldn't have to be criticized -- especially not by some peon who hasn't had even a single New York Times bestseller.

Never in anything I have ever read by Mr. King -- I've read a lot but not much recently -- has he ever so much as hinted at any feeling of patriotism or love of country, or even that he thinks America is any better than any other nation randomly pulled out of a hat... Great Britain, Singapore, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Like everywhere else in King's atlas, America is a frightening place where horrible monsters roam. He's never claimed that we're worse than everybody else, as the most extreme liberals do; but he hasn't said we're any better, either.

In other words, I must agree: Stephen King's "patriotism" has never been questioned. So far as I know, it has never been mentioned.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, May 7, 2008, at the time of 4:44 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Geoman

Me thinks the lad doth protest too much.

What is the deal with liberals and their almost pathological fear of having their patriotism questioned? As near as I can tell, hardly anyone ever does it, yet the howls of pain the erupt at the slightest suggestion of unpatriotic behavior are just shy of absurd.

For example, with Obama and the flag pin - I am perfectly willing to accept an explanation that more or less goes "I believe that a true patriot wears his patriotism in his heart, and not on the lapel of his jacket." The problem is going a step further, and saying that criticism of our country is the highest form of patriotism. Perhaps, but it is not automatically so. Such criticism closely resembles the behavior of those that hate our country, which may excuse our occasional confusion.

I think it is more the martyr principal - every liberal secretly wishes he was at Kent State, or in the Weather Underground, or at least wore a black beret and smoked cigarettes listening to jazz and sticking it to the man. In short, it is nothing but a sad sort of cowardly narcissism. Act the part of the aggrieved cool hipster while sipping Sangria on your back deck. Disgusting.

It explains why liberals are so quick to attack those who won't do anything to them - the U.S. government, Bush, the military, etc., but are silent regarding real dangers to liberty, like the radical Islam or an expanding, grasping goverment. They all want the life of Bill Ayers, not Salmon Rushdie.

Just pitiful.

The above hissed in response by: Geoman at May 7, 2008 5:52 PM

The following hissed in response by: Navyvet

It is interesting that so many of those who denigrate the military have never served. Of course they can criticize. Everyone has the right to speak his mind, just as everyone has the right to be a fool. Perhaps if Mr. King spent a bit of time with our troops on a more personal level, his education would be significantly improved.

The above hissed in response by: Navyvet at May 8, 2008 4:44 AM

The following hissed in response by: hunter

Dayfydd,
You really really need to update the post with a recent photo of King.
He has been body snatched by an infamous Clinton-era figure, I kid you not.
That King, like so many other in our pampered, spoiled, uber-nuveau riche art-industrial complex feel entitled, nay, compelled, to dump on those who choose to serve in the military is not so much of a surprise. That they are such intellectual cowards that they cannot stand the slightest critique of their comments is no longer a surprise, but is still a never ending source of disgust.
The King magic is long gone, btw - his latest pathetic attempt at a movie, "The Mist" was a lousy, badly written, poorly conceived and worse executed heap of offal hiding on a reel of film.

The above hissed in response by: hunter at May 8, 2008 6:03 AM

The following hissed in response by: PPJ aka Jim

The only way to insure that people such as King receive their just deserts is to not buy their books, movies, songs, TV shows, etc.

That is a simple, inexpensive and effective way of sending a message.

The above hissed in response by: PPJ aka Jim at May 8, 2008 6:39 AM

The following hissed in response by: LarryD

What is the deal with liberals and their almost pathological fear of having their patriotism questioned? As near as I can tell, hardly anyone ever does it, yet the howls of pain the erupt at the slightest suggestion of unpatriotic behavior are just shy of absurd.

Narcissists can't take criticism, at all. And narcissism is rampant among the Left. And a lot of them don't love our country, even hate it, so they know that their patriotism is very questionable. Hence the preemptive strike.

The above hissed in response by: LarryD at May 8, 2008 7:16 AM

The following hissed in response by: dasbow

Sounds like someone's taken one too many vans to the head.

The above hissed in response by: dasbow at May 8, 2008 7:24 AM

The following hissed in response by: David M

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 05/08/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

The above hissed in response by: David M at May 8, 2008 8:25 AM

The following hissed in response by: Steven Den Beste

Dear Mr. Stephen King:

You are a patriot. You are also a jackass.

Sincerely, Steven Den Beste

The above hissed in response by: Steven Den Beste at May 8, 2008 8:33 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman

From time to time I see someone who could really use a gift. A Particular type of gift. Like the one I sent to the Mayor of Berkely. It's a small sticker 3 X 5 and says

Che is Dead

Get Over it.

I think Stephen King needs one. It's only $5 shipping and handling included in the total

Cheap enough to make a statement. ;-)

From trenblindado.com

The above hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman at May 8, 2008 4:00 PM

The following hissed in response by: Noocyte

King, Kerry and their irksome ilk feel compelled to impugn the wit of our military because it allows them to pursue their tiresome agendas, while striving, pathetically, to purge themselves of the collective stain of how they treated our Vietnam Vets in days of yore.

"Narcissistic" is a spot-on depiction of the pathology at the heart of the Left; their grandiose self-images are a thin, brittle crust over a profound vacuity. Like narcissistic children, they consume the fruits of their parent (-Nation), while raging against it...all the while whining about how it does not give them all they feel they deserve.

The question of whether they are patriotic is the ultimate straw man; the real question is not whether they are patriotic citizens, but whether they are psychologically well-adjusted human beings, capable of perceiving reality and adapting to it. Like individual narcissists, the denizens of Leftopia seem to be unable to see the world as it is, preferring to compare it constantly against an idealized image of what it is Supposed To Be. When it (inevitably!) falls short, they flip into devaluation, and pronounce it shite.

This is no way to have satisfying relationships, either with individuals or with one's Nation.

The above hissed in response by: Noocyte at May 14, 2008 9:18 AM