Jonah Goldberg's 'Liberal Fascism' fraud is now right-wing conventional wisdom
By David Neiwert Saturday Aug 29, 2009 4:00pm
One of the hallmarks of the American right's utter descent into complete wingnuttery is the increasing willingness of its footsoldiers to buy into palpably, provably false nonsense and embrace it as fact. This ranges from the Birthers' insistence that Barack Obama hasn't produced a birth certificate to the teabaggers' claims that health-care reform means we'll be euthanizing senior citizens.
One of the most persistent components of this is the right's ardent embrace of the fraudulent thesis of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism -- to wit, that "properly understood, fascism is not a phenomenon of the right at all. Instead, it is, and always has been, a phenomenon of the left." The embrace of this fraud as somehow truthful has produced those teabaggers' signs bearing swastikas (suggesting that health-care reform is fascist) and signs showing Barack Obama as Hitler and, moreover, the claims that Obama is marching the nation down the road to fascism.
It's been particularly embraced by movement conservatives in their efforts to whitewash from public view the existence of right-wing extremists among their ranks.
The impact of this embrace on our national discourse has been deeper than probably anyone suspected when the book was first published last year. Not only is Goldberg's thesis now taken as an article of faith by such right-wing talkers as Rush Limbaugh (who probably helped inspire Goldberg's thesis in any event), Glenn Beck, Michael Savage,, but also among the teabagging protesters whose ranks are increasingly filled by real right-wing extremists.
What's most noteworthy, perhaps, is that Goldberg's thesis is being used to attack anyone who points out the frequently violent and intimidating behavior of these extremists. It's not the right-wing protesters carrying open weapons, Obama=Hitler signs, and openly disrupting the discussion of health-care reform at town-hall sessions who are behaving like Brownshirts, they insist -- it's the liberals who show enough nerve to stand up to them!
We saw this a couple of weeks ago here in western Washington, where Rep. Brian Baird -- who had decried the ugly nature of the town-hall disruptions by in fact comparing some of these extremists to "Brownshirts," and then appearing on the Rachel Maddow show, where he compared them to Timothy McVeigh -- was attacked at his town-hall meeting on health care by a former Marine named David Hedrick who accused Baird and House Speaker of Nancy Pelosi of being the real Nazis.
Of course, this ensured him a guest slot on Fox News, and so Hedrick shortly thereafter appeared on Sean Hannity's program to explain his thinking. As you can see, he has absorbed and swallowed Goldberg's thesis whole:
Hannity: I read that one of the main reasons that you wanted to be there is because Congressman Baird had used the term "Brownshirts" to describe people showing up at the town halls. You confronted him on that. What happened?
Hedrick: I did confront him on that, and I don't think it's acceptable language that he is, you know, comparing us to Nazis. And it's -- Pelosi did this, he did this, now he's compared us to McVeigh, and talked about bombings there. And, uh, basically I called him on it, I said, 'You know what? If you want to call us Nazis, let's look at the Nazi doctrine. Let's look at National Socialism. And what is National Socialism? Since you let the cat out of the bag, we'll talk about it.
National Socialism is very much what we see today in this administration. It's a policy on what's line for line -- it's the same economic policy, it's the same political policy. And so if they want to talk about Nazis, then they better be careful about that conversation, because they might find that the swastika is on their own arm.
Of course, a little context for what provoked Hedrick's outrage might be useful. When Baird made his "Brownshirts" and "McVeigh" remarks, he clearly was referring to some of the tactics being used by some of the teabaggers. What he made clear shortly afterward was that in fact he and his office had been threatened by some of these teabaggers, who faxed death threats and made them by phone as well. One phone message from Aug. 10 said "You think Timothy McVeigh was bad, there is a Ryder Truck out there with your name on it" (according to Baird’s Vancouver district director).
Those are, indeed, classically fascist attempts at political intimidation. Not only was Baird right, but Hedrick's claim about "the real Nazis" is incredibly obtuse for someone from the Pacific Northwest.
Because anyone who has lived any length of time in this region is all too familiar with "the real Nazis." For the better part of two decades, one of the nation's most prominent neo-Nazi organizations plied its white-supremacist wares and spread its vicious poison right here in our backyards.
Most of us can still remember its strange fruit: from The Order to Buford Furrow to Shawna Forde's killer Minuteman gang, the ugly scars of the murderous violence they embrace are with us even today. We remember them all too well. Indeed, it was only a few years ago they were marching on the steps of our state Capitol.
We already know who "the real Nazis" are, and they are anything but liberals. Indeed, they are precisely its opposite: they are true right-wing extremists. And they always have been.
What people like Goldberg, in responding to this point, have always claimed is that there's nothing particularly right wing about the kookery of people like the Aryan Nations or the Posse Comitatus -- they're just kooks, plain and simple. So when James von Brunn shot up the Holocaust Museum this summer, Goldberg disingenuously went on Beck's program and tried to persuade us that Von Brunn wasn't a right-wing extremist -- just a garden-variety kook. Just like Dr. George Tiller's assassin, Scott Roeder.
But this is palpable nonsense. What makes these people right-wing extremists is that they not only adopt right-wing political positions, they take them to their most extreme logical (if that's the word for it) outcome:
- They not only oppose abortion, they believe abortion providers should be killed.
- They not only believe that liberal elites control the media and financial institutions, but that a conniving cabal of Jews is at the heart of this conspiracy to destroy America.
- They not only despise Big Government, they believe it is part of a New World Order plot to enslave us all.
- They not only defend gun rights avidly, they stockpile them out of fear that President Obama plans to send in U.N. troops to take them away from citizens.
- They not only oppose homosexuality as immoral, they believe gays and lesbians deserve the death penalty.
- They not only oppose civil-rights advances for minorities, they also believe a "race war" is imminent, necessary and desirable.
And on and on. Every part of the agenda of the agenda of right-wing extremists is essentially an extreme expression of conservative positions. And that, fundamentally, is why American fascism always has been and always will be, properly understood, an unmistakable phenomenon of the Right.
Of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg for what's wrong with the whole "liberal fascism" thesis. As I explored in some detail more recently, the historical record itself unequivocally repudiates Goldberg's thesis.
Now, Goldberg has tossed some sneering bon mots my way (in his book, I'm merely the "always comically inept David Neiwart [sic] at Crooks and Liars" (ahem), but he has never addressed this point, which I've raised numerous times. Goldberg tosses all kinds of anecdotal evidence our way in support of his fraudulent thesis, but he refuses to come clean on the bottom line: The historical record is irrevocably clear that fascism, not just in Germany and Italy but also in America, has always been a phenomenon of the Right.
He's not only profoundly misleading large numbers of the American reading public, he is in the process misshaping our national discourse. Because when large numbers of people believe crap that is simply and provably false, not only is our resulting discourse deeply irrational, but so are the democratic outcomes.
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...left= Communists; right= Fascists. They are polar opposites and hate each other.
That is correct. Was then and still is. No amount of lies will change the facts.
to have thought this up, or created any of the "reasons" or "Proofs" in his book. Some Right Wing Think Tanker wrote the book, and Loadpants re-wrote it. That idiot doesn't have a clue on any subject.
...sets of paired dualities.
Democratic vs Totalitarian for law/gov't
Communist vs Capitalist for finance
Socialist vs Fascist for wealth dist/economics
Did I miss something? There was this really hot girl in that class...
Was it...
...the Teacher?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGB4aKBDbfY
"...Got it bad, Got it bad, got it bad, I'm hot for teacheeeeeeer"
But you're obviously right, Communism/Capitalism is economic systems.
But there were some changes under the Leninists/Stalinists when they created the party as the so called Vanguard of the Revolution, in effect creating a new elite group.
w00t, got one right!
1st was refering to theory, not application. Personally I believe any of those taken to too much of an extreme is doomed to failure. Balance and mixing-it-up are the key.
2nd no, my polysci teacher was a griszeled ole geezer that made me think so hard it hurt. Now my junior english teacher could have stared in that video...
Communist Russia helped us to defeat Fascist Germany.
Or as many historians say, Communist Russia, and the Constitutional Monarchy of Great Britain defeated the Germans, and we defeated the Japanese.
The communist were in fact blamed for the REICHTAG FIRE as you can see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire
"The Reichstag fire (German: Der Reichstagsbrand) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on February 27 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.
At 21:25hrs (UTC +1), a Berlin fire station received an alarm call that the Reichstag building, the assembly location of the German Parliament, was ablaze. The fire started in the Session Chamber,[1] and by the time the police and firefighters had arrived, the main Chamber of Deputies was engulfed by flames.
Inside the building, a thorough search conducted by the police resulted in the finding of a naked Marinus van der Lubbe. Van der Lubbe was a Dutch insurrectionist, council communist and unemployed bricklayer who had recently arrived in Germany, ostensibly to carry out his political activities. The fire was used as evidence by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government. Van der Lubbe and four Communist leaders were subsequently arrested. Adolf Hitler, who had been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany four weeks before, on 30 January, urged President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter the "ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany".[citation needed] With civil liberties suspended, the government instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates. With them gone, and their seats empty, the Nazis went from being a plurality party to the majority; subsequent elections confirmed this position and thus allowed Hitler to consolidate his power."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party
The Nazi Party is generally described as being at the extreme or far right of the left-right political axis.[6] While the party incorporated elements from both left and right-wing politics, the Nazis formed most of their alliances on the right.[6]
"Masters of the Universe" working with Hitler's regime to defeat the communists/unionists before, during, and after WWII? BTW, most of those who did this were Republicans. C Street was fomented by these beliefs. Unions were evil, and whatever needed to be done to put them down was what their God wanted them to do. The conflict of interest concept raises its head again: part of the US government was funding and working with the Nazis and, at the same time, the US government was sending troops to Europe to fight the war. It is all so sordid. Yet, here we are repeating it all again.
Göring's commentary:William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich details how at Nuremberg, General Franz Halder stated in an affidavit that Hermann Göring had joked about setting the fire:
On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer's birthday in 1942, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears how Göring broke into the conversation and shouted: 'The only one who really knows about the Reichstag building is I, for I set fire to it.' And saying this he slapped his thigh.[16]
Is Dick copying Goring?
Actually that's one of Hitler's key arguments against the Jews, that they were both the bankers and lenders of Europe, to which Germany was in deep hock, as well as behind the Communist movement.
So intellectual inchoateness is nothing new.
certain buzz words. He never actually says anything. This is their weakness. This is how we have to attack them. With actual explanations about why they are, to coin a phrase, shooting blanks. All they do is repeat the same expressions. If Luntz had any brains, he would find people to use who understood what he was talking about. They would be able to explain their points. But they cannot, because there are no explanations. Empty drivel.
The success of our educational system's "dumbing down" is obvious in the number of people who cannot/will not think critically. They merely blurt out catchwords and phrases that are drilled into their heads.
To think that any argument can be won by using logic and (gasp!) truth is pretty far-fetched.
them, but they are not hearing from anyone else. I agree with you about critical thinking, because it is pretty much understood that it does not get taught until college, and not so much then, unless and until one pursues an advanced degree. That does not mean there are not people who hunger for a little intellectual encouragement. Don't you think? I think there are people out there who long for logic and truth. Honesty and integrity are important. I believe that, and I have an advanced degree in cynicism.
that the right-wing "troops" in the trenches don't think that deep. If Glenn or Sean or Jonah (Jonah? WTF)or the Weiner or Sarah or Michelle or any other MSM douche say it, it must be so. Hence we get Obama is a Communist Fascist. Contradiction, like hypocrisy is totally lost on them.
I have my dark, dark, days, too. But being a Kennedy Democrat, I bounce back.
140,000 Christian soldiers or Blackwater Contractors coming back to this country from Iraq.
Let's not forget guy's like this who will becoming back to our country who served in our own military.
Out of all those Christian Right wing warriors how many do you think we are going to have a problem with.
much. I have to ask, how many will be real Christians? I don't think we have to worry about them. More "fundamentalists?" There's a problem.
*INCREDIBLE*
Want to see a dog, cat, and mouse together out in public?
http://www.askbutwhy.com/2009/08/dog-cat-and-mouse-all-in-one-peace-sign.html
as long as poorly educated people like Goldberg Doughy Pantload and Hammity here are lionized by a loud strong group as a geniuses or as great thinkers and/or philosophers, we won't anywhere near that cooperation, respect and love.
White supremacists embrace Jewish guy's philosophy. Perfect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpRO-g0uVLQ&fe...
even with the word 'conventional' used as a qualifier, something belonging to the right wing with the word 'wisdom' attached just seems odd to me...
:D
Nothing 'conventional' or 'wise' about right-wing thinking.
poor deluded fool thinks that the centuries old piece of paper with scribbles on it (that some call the "Constitution") is a contract. Therefore, he has no basis for his points of view.
I'm not sure if they view the Constitution legal a legal contract or warrant, the so-called "Four Corners Rule,"
Or as Holy Writ to be approached with the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura.
And they HAAAAATTTEEE it when the police have to release someone with say a baggie of marijuana on an end table, because their warrant only covered some other crime for which they found no evidence.
Was it uncovered on the end table, or did it have a TV Guide over it?
the baggie, putting it in plain view.
It is unclear whether or not the bump was an accident. There may be reason to believe the bump was intentional.
?
The next time he is hosting "Hardball", I want to see Larry O'Donnell have this fruitloop on to explain how, as a so called "disabled veteran" and a recipient of rather good government run medical coverage, he can denounce a government-run healthcare plan for all. Yeah, I want to see this "marine" explain that.
Socialism brought to you by REPUBLICANS
Fascism again brought to you by the Republicans
HATRED Another by product endorsed and embraced by the Republican party
Intolerance for anything that is different from the way THEY see or perceive it REPUBLICAN.
INDIFFERENCE great REPUBLICAN attribute unless of course it serves the Republican Nazi Christian Party.
One can go on and on about these self loathing self hating Hate Mongers and Pedophiles Who love boinking any thing other than there wife. The DESTRUCTION of AMERICA and the IMPRISONMENT OF its CITIZENS is the only thing these HATE MONGERS want.
PRESIDENT OBAMA SCREW PARTISANSHIP Lets go it alone and BURY these MORONS they will react the same way as the stimulus, condemn it but ask for more and take credit for it. Lets kill the Republicans push through the PUBLIC OPTION then watch these GUTLESS,SPINELESS,COWARDS try to hog the show.
Bored. I'm not sure if it's the post or just growing tired of the whole Nazi/Socialism thing. Teabaggers got their 15 minutes now STFU. It's not working.
Who do they have with a personalty to run against Obama? IF we vote, we win. Make a list...
Jindal...has the speaking skills of a walrus.
I...buried...Paul...
Oh, their hopes for 2012 are pathetic, gump. At one point, I think it was on FOX(where else?), somebody floated the idea of a Gingrich/haley barbour ticket. Yeah, that's gonna fire up the youth of America alright. The Teabaggers are just getting desperate. The reichwing had it's chance to rule, and they fucked it up beyond all recognition. The dustbin of history awaits...
They're giving all appearances of intending to take everything down with them.
As for 2012, it's still early. Would you wanna be center stage right now if you were thinking of a presidential run for the GOP ticket in 2012? Or would you be sitting in the background gathering favors and secrets/blackmails for the run-up in late 2011?
Lots could happen in the next 24 months. Who had really heard of Obama in 2005?
Can you see Palin spending all her time trying to put out the VP's fires?
Theres no way she could run anything bigger than Wasilla, she failed at running Alaska so quit.
With 'Plank' 83 is the sad sorry magic number.
Pencils, cookies and dog decorations, that was the Conservatives bold vision for America.
They get all fired up over sending poor kids to war. They want to keep every dime of their trust funds. They couldn't care less about the environment or any other redeeming value. Why wouldn't they love "Professor Gingrich" and anyone else he'd drag along with him? I know that is stereotyping but everytime I see those jackass college republicans I can't see any good at all.
Sesame Street was having a special late night broadcast because of the election. Or he was auditioning for a place as a kind of Mr. Rogers replacement.
Its really a struggle for the leadership of the right. They seem to be putting out that its 'for America', but really its various types infighting amongst themselves for the supreme power.
Ok, seriously now. Who is David Hedrick? It seems everytime the GOP tries to trot out the "everyman", it turns out that they're some kind of GOP-connected operative. We saw it with Joe the (not)plumber, that Abrams chick who got taken down by Larry O'Donnell a few days ago on hardball, etc. Here's how the con (no pun intended )works: The GOP plants one of it's people in the audience at your typical town hall, plant causes a ruckus with his talking points, said ruckus is conveniently taped and forwarded to FOX where it goes into heavy rotation (especially on Hannity's show). LO and Behold! A new reichwing, "joe sixpack, working class American hero" is born. It's a scam, and the cut rate fascists at FOX are involved up to their necks.
I think he is one of those 'thinking' republicans who brought a loaded gun to the health care town halls.
Goldberg does a double disservice in his perverse reading of History.
He not only misinforms on a general level,he also(and much more seriously)purposely lies about who really slaughtered 6 million of his own people-for purely ideological reasons.That is just sick beyond reason or redemption.
Jonah Goldberg still nurses on his mother. You know, "Bitty, Mother." If you haven't seen "Little Britain" on BBC, just let your imagination go wild. I think his book is starting to slip a bit on the NYT's Best Seller List, so he has to gin up some more sales. Now he thinks he has a way to inspire lefties to buy it. I suggest that if you feel like possibly reading his book, hit yourself in the head with a rock until the urge goes away. Let his Mommy and Grover Norquist support him. He thinks he's an intellectual. I know, I laughed, too. I think he's a virgin.
Pantload is not the only one, try going on Amazon and looking up the Factually incorrect guides......Oops! I mean the Politically incorrect guides, tree corpses done up in a compleat idiots guide style. It's like conservapedia, the rights insane answer to Wikapedia.
I know it's unpatriotic to say so, but ex-Marines are the biggest douchebags in the country. Isn't there any way we can convince them to stay in the Marines?
.
they believe "Once a Marine, always a marine" so even though they've gotten their discharge, they don't go to camp or dress up anymore, as far as they're concerned, they're still in.
...so shut up!
Seriously, I know, "kill 'em all, let god sort' em out" and all that. I wonder when our soldiers fight for America, if they are fighting for a completely different America than I want to see.
I hear what you're saying, but I've known some decent guys who were ex-marines (served in Viet Nam) who didn't even talk about the Marines. It seems its the phony tough guys, the Sgt.Rock never were's, who did all the talking about "The Corp this... and the Corp that....Semper Fi this and Semper Fi that." If they loved the Corp so much, how come there not still in? Yeah, I knew a few of those guys too, and you know what? They all became cops in civilian life.
Is it better to have them in other countries slaughtering vast numbers of people or here contributing to the destruction of this country? Hmmmm ... My opinion is that it's better to have them here rather than shipping our overly-testosterone-laden problems overseas.
So I have to disagree with that.
He has some incredibly flawed personality traits (that probably partially relate to his combat experience), things which I've come to the conclusion will never change, and will be with him until the day he dies.
That said, deep down, he's a fundamentally good person who is incredibly honest, incredibly hard-working, and incredibly liberal.
The greatest right-wing idiot in my family is retired Airforce. The runner up is retired Navy. Airforce and National Guard have their share of them.
They are both older, and stockpiling away.
but.. my uncle is the only ex serviceman in the family and all he does is watch Fox and brag about his past escapades and his TR3 that he pines for. Hoards money and won't get the car of his dreams that he can well afford.
He is not smart enough not to bring up politics.
He gets beat up every time.
We do love him though.
Are from at least two or three separate camps, one lot are the Libertarian types who see conspiracy and an expanded growing gov.
Then theres the fundie christians who follow their own interpretation of the bible and see everybody else as sinful and worth of punishment and hellfire.
Then theres the old school racist types who can also overlap into the other two groups.
They are banding together in confused opposition to change and reform, and theres people behind the curtain pulling their strings.
If these humans would take the time to read about what they accuse, the Goldbergs of the world would be diffused.
Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology[1][2][3][4] and a corporatist economic ideology.....
You may now describe a conservative as being "to the right of Hitler." Go ahead, they love it!
Even though their arbitrary definition of fascism flies in the face of history, even though their claims are utter nonsense and they are impervious to and unaware of facts and reason, the right is winning in their one-sided war. That's the saddest thing.
Sean asked that he was injured, awkward paused because he realized that it was probably PTSD, considering the guy is obviously screwed up in the head, and then moved right along without asking him what happened or how he was 'injured'.
without revealing Hedrick's demented side.
i have seen no proof
i can show up at a townhall and say im a retired vet too
i dont believe this guy
and if he is a vet...and his disability is ptsd....im gonna dig up patton and have the general slap this coward silly
Death panels will decide who lives.
On July 16 Betsy Mccaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and darling of the right, said on Fred Thompson's radio show that "on page 425," "congress would make it mandatory … That every five years, people in medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition." Sarah Palin coined "death panels" in an Aug. 7 facebook post.
This lie springs from a provision in the house bill to have medicare cover optional counseling on end-of-life care for any senior who requests it. This means that any patient, terminally ill or not, can request a special consultation with his or her physician about ventilators, feeding tubes, and other measures. Thus the house bill expands medicare coverage, but without forcing anyone into end-of-life counseling.
The death-panels claim nevertheless got a new lease on life when Jim Towey, director of the White House office of faith-based initiatives under George W. Bush, claimed in an Aug. 18 Wall Street Journal op-ed that a 1997 workbook from the department of veterans affairs pushes vets to "hurry up and die." In fact, the thrust of the 51-page book, which the va pulled from circulation in 2007, is letting "loved ones" and "health care providers" "know your wishes." Readers are asked to decide what they believe, including that "life is sacred and has meaning, no matter what its quality," and that "my life should be prolonged as long as it can...using any means possible." But the workbook also asks if readers "believe there are some situations in which I would not want treatments to keep me alive." Opponents of health-care reform have selectively cited this passage as evidence the government wants to kill the old and the sick.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/214254
was institutionalised facism. communism has no leaders, all rank is equal, all property shared, any dictatorship is facism. It is institutionalised if the power passes peacefully, like the soviet union. communism has never happened, accept in communes in california and such. if there is a dictator, it is not communism.
They really are profoundly ignorant and , in many cases, profoundly stupid (Goldberg certainly is). They really believe that their ignorance is strength and they are rapidly destroying the republic with their insanity.
This guy is what is wrong with America! He is a dim witted,ignorant moron, without and sense of humanity or moral compass. I have been saying for a while now at first it was just a thought and now has become a proven fact. republicanism is a mental illness!
"Right-wing wisdom" is an oxymoron.
What is their objective? Why does Jonah Goldberg hate America? I really want to know. They know the truth, but being pathological liars, conservatives must have their own reasons for promoting this nonsense. It's like saying Democrat, they want to see how many will buy into their childish games and parrot their hateful crap, which is why I cringe when corporate talking heads slip and say it the wingnut way. This liberal fascism crap is like that, they want to twist and control language and ideas to benefit them. The myth of liberal media is another one they still promote. Damn conservative memes, that's what they are and we, Americans, can't let them spread them anymore.
He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about
The right is nothing more than an echo-chamber. Some idiot somewhere pens the latest propaganda and then has one of their many dummies write a book (tree corpses I call them), they then make the rounds on as many friendly shows as possible before the talking dummies begin to repeat the bullshit as if it were proven truth. There is nothing even remotely intelligent in what they do, diabolical yes, but not intelligent.
Their many lies are all so transparent and are all easy to disprove, but the dittiots do not have critical thinking skills and prefer to be spoon-feed their beliefs. Hitler himself could rise from the grave and call in to fat boys show saying megga dittos and congradulating him on a job well done and the dittiots would insist that it was just a liberal trick.
These people are just nucking futs.
Hannity calls it a showdown, when in fact, it's the typical dumb ass who repeats right wing lies (indoctrinating?) and propoganda. And that "town hall" guy is supposed to be some kind of expert because he's a Marine vet? My late father and brother are decorated combat veterans and the only time I ever heard my father use his military expertise was to point out the number of chicken hawks in the Bush administration and right wing radio and TV.
teh Google OR teh Wiki on the Intertubes if teh Stoo-peed only red the Old Testiclement, listen to Rush, and Boob-tube Faux? Jebus Hector Christos on a T-Rex, WTF is wrong with these sheeple?
Up == Down, Left == Right, Black == White, Wrong == Right, and Communist == Fascist. Oh and Saddam (secular) == Al Queda (religious fundamentalist), Saddam == 9/11, WMD == IED, Church == State, AND Corporate Oligarchy == American Populism. There ain't no cure for teh Stoo-Peed!
Purveyors and promoters of Reich-wing propaganda need to be held to account for incitement to maim, murder, and anarchy. At the very least it is sedition, and more rightfully treason. These are all dangerous domestic terrorists, who need to be treated just like the enemy combatants that they are.
Where in the hell is the Secret Service OR the FBI to enforce USA laws against murder, conspiracy-to-commit, terrorism, and aiding-and-abetting? -- Not to mention the US Patriot Act(s) and Military Commissions Act? These are tools that BushCo/Cheney used without either remorse or consideration for due process or Constitutionality. Let the Reich-Wingers try to test BushCo policy in the SCOTUS, if they dare.
Fuck them all, and the T-Rex they rode in on. Book 'em, Holder!
Once again class, David is a moron.
If you would all open your Webster's and look up the word fascist, you will see that today's republican party is the perfect definition of what a fascist organization is.
Fascist and socialist are mutually exclusive terms. Calling a liberal/socialist a fascist, is like calling a guy a lesbian.
Why are these stupid bastards allowed to get on television and radio and say shit that is by definition completely false?
No wonder we are a nation of morons. Where people shout out in public "keep your government hands off my Medicare."
At this point in time, I have heard all that I need from the GOP. My guess is that most here have. What do we want? To be perpetually pissed off all the time? F* the GOP! All we can do is exercise our power of the vote. Vote against ANYTHING red! The GOP covet ZERO of the values I covet. They are zeros. The GOP represent a dying breed of racist America who see war as an investment in our economy. I LOATH THE GOP!
Is this book the new Mein Kampf?
"Because when large numbers of people believe crap that is simply and provably false, not only is our resulting discourse deeply irrational, but so are the democratic outcomes."
Frankly, that is Goldberg's intent. It is also the intent of the entire right-wing-o-sphere media. In the "good" old days of Cronkite etc. the media was responsible enough not to give these fringe crackpots airtime to blow smoke. The truth or falsehood of a claim still meant something. The right-wing fringe was relegated pretty much to short-wave radio.
What's changed since those days is the fringe has been given corporate megaphones. The corporations that air Beck, Limbaugh, etc have essentially privately decided to discard journalism, and air agitprop instead. Right-wing media has had no trouble getting corporate sponsorship as it never attacks corporate power. Not only the owners of media outlets, but their numerous corporate sponsors are complicit in spreading disinformation and manipulating public opinion.
With the rise of Reagan and the so-called "Moral Majority", increasing numbers of reactionary working-class whites, upset with the civil rights struggle and the 60s in general were recruited to the Republican party by preying on their resentments. It was a strategy first used by Nixon, authored by Kevin Phillips, and called the "Southern Strategy". By Reagan's time an infrastructure of think-tanks (propaganda mills) and the beginnings of a right-wing media infrastructure were in place. This odd alliance of white working class voters and the historic representative of their class oppressor was made possible by focusing the resentments of their base on the numerous cultural cleavages made possible by our unique 'melting-pot' history. That's too long a subject to cover in a comment, but suffice to say violent conquest of a continent, slavery, wave after wave of immigration with each new immigrant group made to wear the goat-horns of society, evangelical Christianity, and so on are a goldmine for anyone wanting to create some "wedge" issues.
Up until recently, this base has played the role of "useful idiots" for the Republican Party at election time. The right-wing media played the part of mobilizers at election time and they kept the flames of resentment burning between elections. Until recently, they stopped short of playing the role of street agitators. Now it seems they've dropped that last taboo. This is a dangerous sign in my eyes. When corporations begin organizing and endorsing Brownshirt tactics, we have crossed a big line. Anyone with the barest knowledge of history can draw connections between what is happening now, and what went on in early 30s Germany. In the economic crisis of that time, the "respectable" Right in Germany increasingly embraced the radical right thinking they could keep them on a tight leash. That didn't work out so well.
How this can be dealt with is a hard question. I've got neighbors who watch Fox and listen to Rush and there is no talking to them. It's like dealing with someone in a cult. As mainstream right-wing news sources have completely abandoned journalistic standards, facts no longer matter to a distressingly large segment of the white population. This is corporate sponsored "information war" being waged on a large scale against the U.S. citizenry. Unfortunately it seems to have been successful with a significant portion of the white population who lap it up like mother's milk.
What to do? How can the cabal of private media empires polluting the public discourse be brought under democratic control so journalism can serve the populace rather than serve to mislead it?
As for Jonah Goldberg, I suggest for his next project he give his Liberal Fascism theory a real-life test. Let him address an Aryan Nations meeting, sing the praises of Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank, and then follow that up with selected readings from the Communist Manifesto. I am sure he will receive a warm reception and the experience would make a follow-up to "Liberal Fascism" a sure bestseller.
Great. This vet gets to use his service as a platform to spew his ass backwards view at a politician and then is a "high value guest" on vannity's Nazi network. Such a sick world we live in today.
I'm a disabled Vietnam vet. I "served my country" just as much as this butt head, but to go on and make a complete fool of myself regurgitating twisted lies from this propaganda machine as though it was something of value is a disgrace to the uniform and to his comrades that died for these worthless wars these politicians are responsible for sending us into.
Shame on him. He has a voice, as much as any other American. But don't disgrace your uniform by blabbering bull shit. YOU are an insult to your uniform.
Hannity says Rep. Baird has not apologized for the "brownshirts" comment. Why should he apologize for stating the truth :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlmGknvr_Pg&feature=PlayList&p=1969ECFD70B34DDA&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=22
for me, the best reaction is to chuckle
when i am called names, i chuckle
if i am bullied, i chuckle
because the person being rude doesn't know how to react because the response is unexpected. this may make the person more incensed and continue with the tirade, but with each calm response or chuckle at the silliness of the names or accusations, that person slowly cools down and engages in dialog or walks away never to bother me again. the trick is knowing that whatever words are said, i know who i am, or i know the facts behind the story, and then their behavior will never succeed.
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