Okay, plus one for consistency...

Okay, plus one for consistency...

...and minus several thousand for being lying twits.

Sarah Walin' got a lot of deserved flak even from the right wing for the rambling, almost incoherent speech she gave recently at the so-called Iowa Freedom Summit. Personally, this is the part I noted:

Really, it's kind of Orwellian, observing how that works, that rule of Saul Alinsky's, no doubt, that the left employs. Disgusting charges, from the left. Reverse them ... revealing that they are the ones who really discriminate and divide on color and class and sex. We call them out. We don’t let them get away with it.

Several years ago I started collecting what I called "The Rules," or, more completely, "The Right-Wing's Rules for (Avoiding) Debate." The last time I updated them, four years ago, there were 17 such rules, ranging from "Deny, deny, deny" and "Attack, attack, attack" (Rules 1 and 2, respectively) to "Seize control of the Clock of History. Insist that all events outside the time frame most advantageous to your argument are irrelevant and must not be considered" (Rule 15).

Palin just reminded me of how little has changed in these four years:

Rule #10: Accuse the accuser. As appropriate, use "You're being intolerant!" or "You're the real racist!" If something you said is challenged as bigoted or otherwise wrongful, decry the "suppression" of your "free speech."

Rule #17 - Insist, even in the absence of any foundation, that any criticism of your methods or tactics actually applies to your opponent. For example, if someone notes you're avoiding a debate, insist "You're the one who won't debate!" Faced with examples of right-wingers lying, reply "That fits you lefties to a T!"

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Except for the "change part." It actually just stays the same.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/25/sarah-palin-iowa-speech_n_6543762.html http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/01/rules-all-of-them-so-far.html