To: John Oliver, this month’s Rachel Maddow
From: Mitch Berg, ND Native
Re: Anger
Mr. Oliver,
The other night, during your largely erroneous segment on oil in North Dakota, you patronizingly told North Dakotans that they should “get angry”.
I was born there, and I’ve spent years watching our self-appointed “elites” – from Minnesota Public Radio to the documentary film industry to, now, you – go from calling for the entire Great Plains to be ceded back to nature, to sniffing down their aquiline noses at the notion of all those red-state rubes getting all that unseemly, unregulated, private-market prosperity. So while I’m not from there anymore, I spent 22 years there – so I’ll speak on its behalf if I want to.
I’m all about the help.
“Get mad!”, you say.
OK, John Oliver. I’m mad. Your segment, as Rob Port showed, was crap, and you are beggaring the notion of “journalism” in your snooty, condescending attack on my homeland.
So go f**k yourself.
There. I feel better.
That is all.
Mitch, there is an interesting split occurring in the DFL of northeastern Minnesota that echos this story. And not just in the opinions of the residents, but in organizations being formed. One side is the Iron Range. Mayors there are leading the effort to support mining, including Polymet.
On the other side…..Duluth has been gentrified. Like Vermont and Colorado being taken over by out-of-state leftists…..Duluth has been taken over by Prius driving liberals, elbowing out the blue collar Democrats. So the coffee shop and brewpub crowd (literally…see story in Duluth News Tribune) is organizing to stop mining.
In Wisconsin, it’s “Madison-Milwaukee, keeping Northern Wisconsin poor for 40 years”. In Minnesota it’s “Twin Cities-Duluth, keeping Iron Rangers out of work”.
Mergie,
Oliver is clever, funny and his writers FAR wittier than anything being trowelled out by the right. I think perhaps your anger is less from his fatuously (in your mind) maligning your state to the fact that so often, on so many issues, his arrows strike close to home and you don’t have any effective reply. It seems as if your vitriol is little more than you finally finding something you can be pissy about, and, true to form, you are.
The irony goes further in that I wonder how upset the folks at NPR will be at your slings and arrows… my guess, just about as upset as Oliver would be were he even aware of your existence. My read of the man is that he’d be glad to have made you mad because quite simply, you deserve to have your nose tweaked. He’d care less about your verbal temper-tantrum and much more about your conduct before-hand, because actions matter, not words.
Furthermore, Mergie, I think you know pretty well that Oliver is skewering red states for being hypocrties, bitching about people on the ‘dole, while, almost without exception, being the biggest recipients of federal largesse. But as that doesn’t fit with your meme, I guess that’s just going to be transmorgrified into some other argument because you don’t want to face down the one being made.
Observationally,
Prince
Um, Pen:
Mergie,
Name’s “Mitch”. “Mister Berg” if you’re nastay.
Oliver is clever, funny and his writers FAR wittier than anything being trowelled out by the right.
So?
I think perhaps your anger is less from his fatuously (in your mind) maligning your state to the fact that so often, on so many issues, his arrows strike close to home
Let’s make sure we’re clear on one point, here: you are never, ever qualified to tell me what is going on in my mind.
Nope. You’re wrong. More on that later – to the extent that it’s worth going into, because, let’s be honest, it’s all over your head.
and you don’t have any effective reply.
HAH!
No, I had a perfectly effective reply (courtesy of my friend Rob Port); everything he said was wrong. ND’s oilfield death and spill rates have decreased relative to the rate of production.
I know that’s a hard concept for lefties to grasp – real numbers and all – but eat some oatmeal, rest up and give it a try, m’kay?
The irony goes further in that I wonder how upset the folks at NPR will be at your slings and arrows… my guess, just about as upset as Oliver would be were he even aware of your existence.
NPR knows about my existence juuuust fine.
He’d care less about your verbal temper-tantrum and much more about your conduct before-hand, because actions matter, not words.
Do you even have the foggiest idea what you meant by that? Because I sure don’t.
Furthermore, Mergie, I think you know pretty well that Oliver is skewering red states for being hypocrties, bitching about people on the ‘dole,
Really? Where do you see that in Oliver’s story, or anywhere else?
Please be specific.
And bear in mind, North Dakotans don’t have much time to “bitch” about people “on the dole”, because there really aren’t many of them up there, because the unemployment rate is about half what it is here.
almost without exception, being the biggest recipients of federal largesse.
Now, Pen, you’ve been set straight on that before; it’s not true. It’s a Paul Krugman flight of fancy that included B-1 bombers in South Dakota, and every acre of federal land, as “largesse”. In other words, it’s a lie.
And anyone who actually deserves the right to vote knows it.
But as that doesn’t fit with your meme, I guess that’s just going to be transmorgrified into some other argument because you don’t want to face down the one being made.
Now you’re kinda raving.
I can “face” any argument that matters – and I’ll do it face to face with anyone, including that precious fop Oliver.
As I read PB/Penigma/PC this evening while eating dinner, I cannot help but solemnly raise my glass of wine to angryclown, in remembrance that he would often remain in the Comments arena and exchange barbs. On occasion, once you pushed through the snark, he would even provide substantive feedback and real sources.
I wish clownie would return; these squat and run jibes by Pen and Dog Gone are such thin gruel.
2 days late, but it looks like Pen downloaded a Thesaurus app to his Blackberry. Lots of big words in his comment.