Torture and Conservative Pop Culture

I have been meaning to write about the conservative obsession over the show 24 since I saw a forum on the show and it's impact on national policy on CSPAN. I was disgusted as I watched members of the Heritage Foundation and similar groups fawn over the show and its characters. Rush was there making the usual insane comments. They made grand speeches about how wonderful the show is and then slipped into a delusional right wing fantasy land where Jack Bauer is an actual person who actually works for the actual government. At the peak of their proverbial climaxes, it seemed as if they were ready to give the fictional characters a medal of freedom.

I never got around to writing any of that. But, today I ran across a post from Arthur Silber at Power of Narrative called At the Bottom of the Abyss: 24 as the Basis of National Policy. It is definitely worth the read. Arthur is passionate as usual and does a great job of debunking the 24 mentality of the conservatives.

After you read Arthur's piece, check out this video:




I was unable to find video of the CSPAN forum, but I think this video displays the delusional aspects of 24's cult following pretty clearly:


[Warning: This video exposes you to the overly annoying Wolf Blitzer, some airheaded woman, and a number of mindless conservatives.]