Politics as usual

Or not as usual. Pretty Lady, in general, abhors politics, as her dear friends well know. But really. She just had to make a teensy-weensy little comment.

From Salon:

Edwards said, "I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word."

Pretty Lady's comment: Of course it was.

Really, people. Let it never be said that Pretty Lady does not Know People. She likes people, of course; she befriends a great number of them. She pays attention to her friends and acquaintances, closely, over periods of years, even decades. She asks them questions; she listens to the answers. Moreover, she pays attention to what is not said, and the unspoken implications of things that are said.

And it is her firm conclusion that these girls fully intended to malign people's faith. It is her position, moreover, that there is a large contingent of persons who consider themselves 'liberal, tolerant and open-minded,' whose tolerance stops short if the toleree is white, religious, and has an income above the poverty line.

Although Pretty Lady's income is, in fact, not above the poverty line, she has experienced the brunt end of this brand of liberal intolerance, upon more occasions than she can count. Well she knows and understands the Awkward Silences, the rolling of eyes, the rapid changing of the subject when Matters Spiritual arise. Well she recalls the acerbic comments, the desperate finagling, the Gaping Blind Spots in people's consciousness.

This sort of thing goes far beyond a mere lack of interest in religion, spirituality and the like. It goes beyond secular humanism; it goes beyond unhealed Wounds from Childhood. It goes beyond politics, beyond unconsidered, knee-jerk reactions. It is full-blown, active, wilful denial.

For if it were simply a matter of a difference of opinion, why would the subject be so utterly taboo to discuss? Why would a disinterested, attentive demeanor be so impossible to project? Why would questions never be asked? Why, instead, has Pretty Lady been subjected to decades of interruptions, angry outbursts, irrational rants, patronizing misunderstandings, and wilful re-casting of her most diffident comments, regarding the spiritual matters which are her center of narrative gravity?

Pretty Lady's theory is that her friends rather like her; they like her enough to wish not to actively malign her faith to her face. With faceless strangers, they feel no such constraint. There is simply no other explanation for it.