transphobia or self-righteous?

[madmusic]

In the Outrage of the Month thread about the transgenger wanting an op to complete the process, there is the question of prejudice regarding the murderer wanting an operation. It is not transgender prejudice.

For one, she is ugly. Think that doesn't matter? A few posts say as much, but anyone who is honest about it would agree, and "Cute, White, Girls" are worth more and deserve more empathy.

Another factor is that the U.S. is more punitive than any other country in the world. Though the War on Drugs is a factor, it too is only a symtom of a more serious disease:

A Nation in Chains

Inside the Homeland, the state of Texas sets the pace, as you might imagine. During George W. Bush's tenure there as governor in the 1990s, Texas had the fastest growing prison population in the country, almost doubling the national rate, as the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports. In fact, by the time Dubya was translated to glory by Daddy's buddies on the Supreme Court, one out of every 20 adult Texans were "either in prison, jail, on probation or parole," the CJCJ notes; a level of "judicial control" that reached to one in three for African-American males. George also killed more convicts than any other governor in modern U.S. history as well – a nice warm-up for the valorous feats of mass slaughter yet to come.

But although the U.S. prison population has soared to record-breaking heights during George W. Bush's presidency, America's status as the most punitive nation on earth is by no means solely his doing. Bush is merely standing on the shoulders of giants – such as, say, Bill Clinton, who once created 50 brand-new federal offenses in a single draconian measure, and expanded the federal death penalty to 60 new offenses during his term. In fact, like the great cathedrals of old, the building of Fortress America has been the work of decades, with an entire society yoked to the common task. At each step, the promulgation of ever-more draconian punishments for ever-lesser offenses, and the criminalization of ever-broader swathes of ordinary human behavior, have been greeted with hosannahs from a public and press who seem to be insatiable gluttons for punishment – someone else's punishment, that is, and preferably someone of dusky hue.

The main engine of this mass incarceration has been the 35-year "war on drugs": a spurious battle against an abstract noun that provides an endless fount of profits, payoffs and power for the politically connected while only worsening the problem it purports to address – just like the "war on terror." The "war on drugs" has in fact been the most effective assault on an underclass since Stalin's campaign against the kulaks.

The War on Drugs is not the disease, and is only a blister on the surface. The real disease is the self-righteous attitude of the American people. The same attitude that gives us the right to invade countries, topple governments and implant capitalism. Without the punitive nature of the U.S. inside the country, punitive foreign policy could not have the power it has.

Kosilek is only one insignificant pawn that signals the death of liberalism. The bigger picture moves up from getting a 3rd strike for a victimless crime like drug possession, to the Federal mandatory sentencing laws, to the invasion of countries as the world's police. If we can treat our own citizens with that kind of callousness, why not invade countries and kill lesser men, women and children?