Schlussel's Loathing

FrontPage Magazine, David Horowitz's generally repugnant ego-stroke neo-con propaganda mag (of course, we here at The AntiCentenarian have no stroking of egos or injection of ideological perspective, we are pure and objective) has printed one of Debbie Schlussel's asinine diatribes of loathing, her current target the recently killed Iraqi aid worker Marla Ruzicka. She begins:

When The New York Times, “Nightline,” and CNN nominate a young blonde for sainthood ahead of the Pope, it’s time for a reality check.

Especially when that blonde, Marla Ruzicka’s sole purpose is to legitimize our enemies, cause problems for U.S. troops already in harm's way, and morally equate dead terrorists with victims of 9/11.

Jane Fonda lite—but without having been spat upon by right-thinking veterans.

The recent death of Ruzicka, an American “activist” in Iraq, elicited an orgy of gush—everywhere from Time Magazine to The Guardian of London to Al-Jazeera.

Once again, I refer you to the photo of Debbie Schlussel: Blond, decked out in tight sexed leathers, engaged in the current slew of Ann Coulter-ish conservative female hipocracy: condemning any sense of beauty or sex in liberal women while flashing all the leg and glinty-eyed sexed charm they can to sell their own diatribes, all done with a lack of self-awareness or irony.

Schlussel's hate of Ruzicka comes from the intense media coverage of her death as much as from an "examination" of Ruzicka's past [Dear sweet Jesus, a stint at the Ultra-Horrible Liberal Human Rights Watch? Keep her away from the kids!] as a liberal activist.

Schlussel hates the fact that this amount of coverage has been dedicated to an aid worker as much as anything else- she refuses to accept the tragedy in the irony when someone's intense desire to actively improve the world in which she lives ultimately claims her own life. Schlussel refutes not that Ruzicka's death deserved the coverage, but symbolically, whether any aid worker deserves this coverage- whether anybody with a vivacious approach and the bombastic attitude of individual action for global betterment, deserves anything less than a smear campaign and a full-fledged discrediting. Schlussel, it seems, hates aid and activism itself, she hates the fact that people find ways to imprint their fingertips in the world in a way that helps others in any number of ways.

What the hell is wrong with finding out the true count of Iraqi civilians killed in the war? What the hell is wrong with actually attempting to empathize and understand the culture you're trying to help? What in the hell is wrong with you?

Actually, I already know what is wrong with you. You're trying to claim the Coulter Mantle, you want the distorted, spider-legged Time cover and the massaging article that goes with it. You don't want to set foot somewhere to make positive change, you have no desire to do that. You've got your way already figured out.

Much of Schlussel's article is devoted to uncovering Ruzicka's sordid past with a variety of (admittedly) controversial activist organizations such as Code Pink. But what Schlussel fails to comprehend is that Ruzicka spent her life in active pursuit of a higher good in controversial times, just as Schlussel believes herself to be doing. The difference is that Ruzicka spent her time, feet on the ground, hands in the soil, working for a better world. Debbie, however, aims her mad rants and occasional legal diatribes.

Keep flashing that develish smile. There are people who, despite you and your hate, seek to make tangible real impacts on the world.

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Salon has a great response here