"I might add that some of the released tape place him in a very good light."
I guess you are referring to his stance with respect to gays. I think Smirk is honest with respect to his religion. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe he is cynically manipulating that part of his life. That might be the only part of his life he isn't cynical about, though...
It wasn't the gay thing although that surprised me. It was his general attitude about certain issues which made him seem like a man of reason. For an example, he sees the evangelicals for what they are..........that hate motivates them.......or when he talks about the concept of power corrupting.....he has his wife to keep him in check. However, his comments present a person that, in theory, looks pretty good, but, in practice, has turned out to be a much different person.
Nor do I think he is evil incarnate. I do think he is intellectually lazy. That, combined with a belief that he has some higher calling might make it difficult to tell the difference from the former. He is definitely a "shoot first and ask questions later" type of guy.
Yeah, intellectually lazy is right.........I am not sure about the evil thing. If its not him, then I think there are those around him who are. He certainly has had no difficulty ignoring the rule of international law, the Geneva Conventions, etc. Those instruments were put in place to keep the level of human evilness to a low roar.
As far as Wead betraying him, that is part of life. My suspicions are that Wead has been under pressure by True Believers who are challenging him on what he has said.
Who are True Believers? And why not release just the tape that is relevent to the book....why release the other tapes that have no bearing to the book at all?
While he is an admirer of Dubya, he doesn't make him out as a demi-god. That is consistent with Wead's religion, humans are, well, human. To portray them as anything else is wrong. For Wead to gloss over these aspects of Smirk's personality would betray his faith. So he isn't really betraying him in Wead's mind. Now whether or not it is betrayal in the minds of those with more fascist tendencies is another question.
Bush thought they were friends. Bush clearly talks to him as a confidant. Confidants usually keep their mouths shut unless something is done which pisses them off and they decide to yap. Either that, or they are not very good people from the beginning.
This is one of the few aspects of fundies I don't have a problem with. They can separate human traits from the god-like. In this respect, the True Believers are worse, they easily ascribe god-like traits to mere humans. That is a recipe for fascism.
Never heard of these True Believers. Have a feeling I am going to regret hearing the name. ;~)
ted |
