What Sarah Palin's Latest Meltdown Tells Us About Conservatives' Victimization Fantasies

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/what-sarah-palins-latest-meltdown-tells-us-about-conservatives-victimization

The year is a week old and already we have a contender for the dumbest culture war moment of 2015: Sarah Palin having one of her many paranoid meltdowns, this time over a stupid photo of her son standing on a dog, which she posted on her Facebook page with a suggestion that the moment was cute and admirable. When the inevitable criticism came, she freaked out and tried to turn the whole thing into a morality play about the supposed oppression of conservative Americans that has been the theme of her entire career. In fact, it’s the central claim of the entire right-wing movement, and the engine that keeps the money flowing both to politicians and to right-wing con artists like Palin, who make a living by lying to conservatives about how they’re under attack.

Many people were understandably put off by the photograph, which confirmed a lot of suspicions that Palin can’t be bothered to teach her children the basics, like respect for animals. But she zeroed in on PETA, because it was another opportunity for her to peddle a paranoid rant about how conservatives are under attack. “Did you go as crazy when your heroic Man-of-Your-Lifetime, Barack Obama, revealed he actually enjoyed eating dead dog meat?” she whined.

The implication of the rant was obvious: That liberal concern for animal welfare is not sincere, but merely a cover for the real motivation, which is attacking conservatives because of our hateful hearts. Never mind that PETA is not really a mainstream liberal organization, but is in fact routinely criticized by actual liberals all the time for siphoning money away from organizations that actually protect animals. And never mind that PETA does not actually worship Obama but instead has issued silly denunciations of him for that one time he killed a fly on camera. And never mind that the Palins have held themselves out as the arbiters of responsible parenting, which is all called into question by clear evidence that they, in reality, indulge childish misbehavior instead of teaching responsibility.

The narrative is that conservatives are under attack from liberals for no other reason than pure liberal evil, so the facts must be bent to suit that narrative.