History lesson — dissent is unamerican?

History lesson

by digby

I was looking around the internets this morning at the inevitable rightwing backlash against the marine who was injured in the Occupy Oakland crackdown got in the face of the NYPD at Occupy Wall Street. [Apologies for confusing this gentleman with the soldier who was wounded in Oakland…] You all knew they wouldn’t be able to tolerate this, didn’t you? Anyway, lots of loathing all around. (You can google the name Shamal Thomas if you’re interested.) Here’s a fairly typical comment:

Shamal Thomas is an a-hole for trying to promote a personal agenda WHILE HIDING BEHIND HIS SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY. He’s just another malcontent paraded by the leftists who want to destroy our country and traditions, and want what doesn’t belong to them. HE was the obnoxious bully at the scene, NOT the police. Now he’s not only been promoted to “General”, but he’s a Wall St. expert, as well. I agree with the blogger who said he believes there’s a tasing in this man’s near future. If only……..There are marchers in the streets advocating the overthrow of our country, and this sap joins them? ALL THE A-HOLE AMERICA HATERS NOW HAIL THIS CLOWN AS A HERO. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.

The usual.

But I love collecting conservative rationalizations and this one is just great:

Actually, this country was not founded on dissent. There were, however, colonists who dissented from the liberty-loving path the majority of Americans took. These dissenters remained loyal to the King of England. Most of the dissenters came around but some, such as Benedict Arnold, took their dissent to new depths.

Aren’t they cute?

By the way, I know it’s tempting to believe that these people are a minority and that their ideas are old and out of step, but recall that this happened only a few years ago:

Oh, and this is cute too:

“If you fuck with the cops they will beat your ass for being stupid. Like others here have said if they tell you to leave and you stand there — you need your ass beat.”

That was allegedly from one of the troops who fought for our “freedom” in Iraq…

Update: