Meet Seth Swirsky: another jackass

[illusionofjoy]

A confession: I really don't have a crumb of tolerance for republicans anymore. If you've chatted with me via IM, you may have noticed that I rarely capitalise the name of the party or the names of their leaders. These aren't typos. I purposely put these proper nouns in lower case because I don't believe that the oppressors deserve the respect of having their signifiers denoted properly. And yes, I don't see modern republicans as individuals who simply have a different philosophy as to how the nation should be run, I see them as oppressors, for these are people who not only disagree with me as to how things should be, but actively want to force me into that way of living (and, sadly, seem to be doing a good job of it).

That said, I think the only think worse than a life-long republican is someone who betrays liberal and progressive ideals to become a neo-con shrill. Exhibit the latest entry into my list of those who make up that nebulous mass known as "the enemy" - Seth Swirsky.

Seth Swirsky, it would seem, is my polar opposite. He is a somewhat successful songwriter, having penned "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" for Al Green and "Tell It To My Heart" by Taylor Dayne. He also released a solo album a couple of years back which, according to his website, got good reviews. He is also an author and more recently, began writing articles for the Huffington Post. Apparently, Arianna Huffington is now trying to make her site bi-polar – I mean, bipartisan. Swirsky, it would seem, has a hard-on for Ann Coulter.

I happened upon one of his articles tonight, as I perused the op-ed section of Yahoo! News. The headline spelled out trouble immediately - Why I Left the Left - yet I still clicked on the link and began reading the article. Halfway through, my bullshit klaxon exploded and I gave it the one-star recommendation of "not at all."

To put it bluntly: this man does not know what he's talking about. I could dissect the inaccuracies, the folly of thought and outright flights of fancy, but I don't think I need to. Gentle reader, if you are a regular here, you are likely able to do all those things without my aid. You're also likely to be rolling your eyes and throwing up in your mouth a little after reading Swirsky's pen-vomit.

I'm tempted to think that the boy is finally rebelling. He says himself that in his youth, he was surrounded by liberalism. I know that I, as the child of two parents who thought Reagan was a great president, now carry a streak of rebellion that has yet to subside (but it's okay – it's just a "phase I'm going through"). I guess though, that the only thing worse than a life-long republican or a convert to the republican party, is a convert who wrote a couple of crappy pop songs, an obscure solo album and a few books who thinks he's hot shit. I'm sure he'll be touring college campuses in the near future, trying to push the right-wing agenda as the cool thing to do. If what I remember from my waning college days is any indicator, there is a percentage of sad, misguided individuals who will fall for it.