Deconstructing Flogger Ridicule

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
                                                                ~Oscar Wilde

One of the things I've enjoyed most about watching the flogger melt-down over the Virginia Flaggers I-95 project was the build-up of hate-bile they frequently spewed out disguised as questions like ... "Did the flaggers get a permit?" ... "Do they know how long the flags will last flying 24/7 in all kinds of weather, next to a busy roadway?"   Blah, blah, blah.

Floggers are so unsure of their own intelligence, they have to invent stupidity* and plaster it onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel intellectually superior to, and assuage their cognitive embarrassment.**

Floggers are so unsure of their own ethics, integrity and honor that they have to invent dishonor and corruption to plaster onto complete strangers, so they'll have somebody they can feel morally superior to, and assuage their guilt.

Floggers are so unsure of their own decency, caring and concern (and they should be unsure, since they never demonstrate [with very few exceptions] decency, caring and concern) that they have to invent meanness to plaster onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel righteously superior to, and assuage their shame.

Floggers are so devoid of the enjoyment of life, they have to invent sourness and plaster it onto complete strangers, so they can comfort themselves with the thought that people they hate are as miserable as they are.

So, they've picked the Virginia Flaggers to portray as incompetent, dishonorable, callous, and unhappy ... when this is actually the perfect description of floggers -- while the Virginia Flaggers are just the opposite.

Mackey's list of Virginia land-use requirements takes the cake, though. You don't start, build and own a successful specialized construction business in Virginia -- as one of the Flaggers has done -- without knowing the law, ya know? 

You'd think, the way the floggers pored over everything that appeared in online print and video about the flag project, they'd retain some of what they read. But if they did that -- or admitted to doing it -- they couldn't hurl the insults that give them such pleasure.

For example, that list of "land use" requirements.... I guess Mackey missed this in the Times Dispatch (or he's pretending he did): "Chesterfield spokesman Don Kappel said the county has no regulations or ordinances that would prohibit the planned display." And if there were state regulations that would prevent it, somebody would have used them much earlier -- in time to prevent the project. That lawyer, Cannon, maybe, who had the big US flag put on the construction equipment (which, of course, require no work on his part, as the construction company has already acquired all the necessary permits).

So you gotta wonder what Mackey gets out of that exercise in futility.

For another example, LibertyLip wants to know: "...what about this paranoid induced need for fencing, lights and … security cams? Who is going to pick up the electric bill for these big flood lights and 24 hour camera surveillance? How are they going to get the wiring done and make it weather proof?"

Big flood lights? Wiring? LibertyLip, who seems woefully technologically ignorant, apparently missed this quote from Susan Hathaway: "We definitely do plan on lighting her at night, most likely with solar lighting."

I can just hear the gears going in his head. Solar lighting? The sun shines in the day, you dipsticks! What's gonna light it at night, without wires and electricity?

Well, something like this, probably.

As for surveillance cameras, they can go solar, too, and transmit images wirelessly. Like this.

Wow, who'da thunk it? If an astute, with-it hip guy like LibertyLip doesn't know about solar power, who knew a bunch of people from VIRGINIA would know about it, huh.... 

But, hey, let the Floggers continue to think the Virginia Flaggers in particular, and Southern heritage folks in general, are a bunch of morons. It's good when your opponent underestimates you. That's why there's a flag flying beside the Interstate just outside of Richmond, Virginia, and LibertyLip, who wins against things like that -- always has and always will -- sits in defeat at the Crossroads comment thread.

Loser....

I must say, though, I'm still surprised Andy Hall stepped in such a big pile of intellectual crap. He saw the same pictures as everyone else. He saw how big the clearing was for the Dedication. He knows there is now just a perimeter of trees around the clearing -- thin enough to see chunks of the surrounding area -- and he knows there is still tree-cutting to be done, because he was told so. But he ignored that in favor of making that crack about "moving the overpass", because that sort of mean-spiritedness is what's in his heart, and that is much more important than acknowledging truth.

And he still  pretends the obsolete Google Earth pics showing a fully wooded lot are accurate.

Anybody who can concoct on-screen 3-D models like he does can follow and project the VDOT fenceline in the Dedication photos and see that most of the big trees still standing are on the private property side, not the right of way. He can see that most of the trees that need to be removed for visibility of the flag to northbound traffic have already been removed.

He can see it, but he can't admit to seeing it. Just like I'm sure he read this, in the Times Dispatch: "The flag will fly on a 50-foot pole, and will be visible from the northbound lane, said Susan Hathaway, founder of Virginia Flaggers,... Hathaway would not say where exactly the flag will be located, adding that it’s not yet clear if the flag will be visible from the southbound side of the highway."

I'm sure he also saw this quote from Susan, "Much of the site work will be by volunteers," and people who know anything about that understand that volunteers work on a project when they can -- but their primary responsibilities to family, job, school, church, etc., take priority.

But when you look at the photos of the Dedication, and see how much work has already been done clearing the site -- enough to get the truck in to set the pole, and accomodate the Dedication attendees -- that's quite a feat for volunteers to have accomplished in only a few weeks, particularly considering rain days, heat, humidity and other conditions to contend with.

But of course, when you hate (and hating is okay when it's GOOD hate, POSITIVE hate, and hurts people who DESERVE to be hurt, don't you know -- good hate like flogger hate) acknowledging such realities is not an option if it neutralizes the ridicule you're just dying to spew....





*This is why they only pay attention to a tiny handful of people who post at the SHPG.
**Most of the time, they do this in vast ignorance of the subject they're speaking about.