Alaska News

Hating haters costs Bristol 'likers'; her mom, dignity

For a mere attosecond, as Bristol Palin prepared to cha-cha her heart out for the top spot on "Dancing with the Stars," it was difficult not to empathize with her, a rank amateur struggling in the deep end of the pool. Not to wonder at the crass mix of presidential politics and what passes for entertainment nowadays. Not to think, "Go for it, kid," and wish her well.

Then, she proved she is her mother's daughter. "Going out there and winning this would mean a lot," she said. "It would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there who hate my mom and hate me."

Bristol stumbled into the finals dead last.

"There's lots of haters out there that are waiting for me to fail," she said.

At the wrenching end of the weeks-long contest that captured America's imagination, she did fail. Bristol Palin finished a miserable third behind real talent on a TV show too many of us watched on the off chance her paranoid, delusional, wack-job mom would be, well, a paranoid, delusional wack-job.

When Bristol alerted us that haters again were at work, I was, like, all OMG. I knew it was true. They're back, I thought. Stinkin' haters. Working to thwart decent, God-fearing Palinbots, who, some allege, stuffed the "Dancing" ballot box to keep Bristol, with a string of mediocre performances and low judges' scores, in the competition.

In the Palins' strange world, haters lurk always just in the shadows, enemies of all that is decent. They are out to sink Bristol's boat, to make her mother's struggling television show even more boring than it is -- the high point so far was Bristol's aggravated battery on a halibut -- and to sideline mom's political aspirations, and not necessarily in that order. (As a matter of full disclosure, I have a "Haters" T-shirt and am wearing it as I write this, but I know haters, and I'm no hater. It takes too much energy. I'm more of a cranky disliker.)

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The spotlight focused on Bristol because haters in the media got bored and her mother is -- her mother. With the elections over and Joe Miller apparently reduced to political dreck, suing, stalling, working to screw up Sen. Lisa Murkowski's seniority -- Hey, would that help her tea party crackpot nemesis, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint? -- they turned their bloodshot, cynical eyes to the lovely Bristol P.

That, despite the possibility of war in Korea or the TSA's airport grope-fests -- "We are now free to move about your pants," says one bumper sticker -- or the economy.

Bristol's problems on "Dancing," her supporters will say, had nothing to do with the fact that she dances like a -- well, let's just say her critics were unkind. No, fans are quick to point out, all her problems were caused by awful haters.

It seems to me that "hater," used by the lovely Sarah P. as a blunt instrument on people she has issues with, is an ugly word. In fact, in the "Somalian-to-Norwegian Dictionary and Cooking Guide," a hater is defined as somebody who disagrees or questions Sarah Palin about virtually anything -- or who does not like lutefisk. There is even a picture of her and a pot of fish. I'm not kidding.

To the Palins, using the term immunizes them from criticism. You disagree, you're a hater; your opinion, your point of view, means nothing. That's too bad. Hiding behind "hater" is a childish, transparent and fearful self-defense gambit that signals intellectual weakness and a lack of backbone; an inability to defend an idea or principle. It insulates its user to end discourse. It forecloses on compromise, and labeling someone a "hater" is the first step in dismissing and, eventually, dehumanizing them. It's not me; it's you.

Palin's persistent use of the term now has been embraced by her daughter. For Bristol, one can only hope such insanity will pass; that she will see her life should be more than hating haters; that sometimes our worst enemies can be our best friends; that not all critics deserve "a big middle finger." But for the lovely Sarah P., a woman toying with the notion of being president of the United States, it may be too late.

Her world is very black and very white. I just hate that.

Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

PAUL JENKINS

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Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins is a former Associated Press reporter, managing editor of the Anchorage Times, an editor of the Voice of the Times and former editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

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