Paging Dr. Freud
Somewhere in America, a psychology graduate student is doubtless preparing the definitive thesis of the modern conservative mindset. After all, the Bush years produced a cottage industry of analyses on the roots of Dubya's "dead or alive, bring 'em on" macho talk. And now that Sarah Palin has added "impotent" and "limp" to a right-wing vernacular replete with over-sexualized and even homoerotic terms like "bend over" and "ram down our throats," it's clear that the leading lights of the Republican Party could use a little couch time with Dr. Freud.
As authors including Tom Frank (What's the Matter with Kansas?) and Rick Perlstein (Nixonland) among others have thoroughly documented, the conservative narrative of victimization, violation and persecution by coastal liberals and Ivy League elites - even when Republicans are in power - long predates the likes of Sarah Palin and even Richard Nixon. But in recent years, the not-too-thinly veiled innuendo of the new vulgarians on the right has descended to appalling new levels.
Even before the election of Barack Obama, right-wing radio host and Viagra enthusiast Rush Limbaugh debuted "bend over" as a Republican talking point. Before regularly using terms like "man-child" and "little boy" to describe the first African-American president, Limbaugh declared "Democrats will bend over, grab the ankles, and say, 'Have your way with me'" to black and progressive voters. (In case listeners had any lingering confusion about his metaphor, he later added "anal poisoning" to his repertoire.) After Obama's inauguration, Limbaugh announced ""We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president." And in August 2009, Limbaugh coughed up this metaphorical two-fer:
"You people are out calling us Nazis, saying we're running around with Swastikas. We get tarred and feathered as Nazis because we don't just bend over, grab the ankles and let you guys ram whatever down our throats you want."
As he made clear during the 2008 election, among the "we" was Sarah Palin. Her Troopergate scandal, Limbaugh insisted, was just "pure sexism in Alaska on the part of these old boys trying to get rid of Sarah Palin, and she didn't put up with it, and she didn't bend over and let them have their way."
By now, references to and imagery of Barack Obama "raping America" is standard fare for the GOP's amen corner. But for the political party obsessed with the biblical admonition that it is better to give than receive, another orifice has come to dominate conservative rhetoric. And it lies at, so to speak, the other end of the spectrum.
On virtually every issue from the stimulus to health care and so much more, Republicans claim that Democrats are "jamming" or "cramming it down our throats."
Before she introduced cojones, impotent and limp into political oratory, Sarah Palin was already one of the Republicans protesting that Democratic policies were tough to swallow. In January, Palin warned about "the big growth of government and health care takeover measures that it seems Capitol Hill wants to cram down our throats today." During a single March appearance with Sean Hannity, Palin three times used some variant of the "shoved down our throats" sound bite. In November, as Politico reported, the half-term Governor blasted President Obama's policies as "back assward":
Palin then criticized the president for "punishing [small businesses] by forcing health care reform down their throats, by forcing an energy policy down their throats that ultimately will tax them more and cost them more to stay in business."
Of course, Palin was just mouthing the party line amplified by her Fox News colleagues.
In January, Glenn Beck, too, cautioned Democrats about biting off more than they could chew, warning, "they see the response to health care and the debacle that they're jamming down our throats [and] they are becoming desperate." A month earlier, Sean Hannity lectured guest Lanny Davis about the health care reform bill "your Democratic friends keep ramming it down America's throat." And when his mind isn't on getting a nice loofah rub or writing soft core porn, Bill O'Reilly is also complaining about the members of the Democratic Party and the left:
"I, and many other white journalists, now don't do nearly as many reports on African Americans or their problems because we don't want to be put in a situation where our opinion is taken out of contest, rammed down our throat as Media Matters and all these other sleazeoids do."
And it's not just the media mouthpieces of the Republican Party. When they aren't fretting about President Obama wanting to "ram it through" Congress, the brain trust of the GOP is screaming about Democrats "jamming it down the throats of the American people."
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso made that point repeatedly, even on the floor of the Senate. Appearing on Fox News with Liz Cheney last month, Barrasso blasted the Affordable Care Act, insisting again:
"This was passed, this health care law was passed with people yelling and screaming, do not force this down our throats, we don't want this!"
Of course, Barrasso was just taking his cue from the Republican leadership in the Senate. Earlier this year, John Cornyn (R-TX) joins the ranks of Republicans choking on health care reform, claiming the American people "want their country back" and "don't want the elites here in Washington deciding what's best for them and then trying to jam it down their throat whether they like it or not.", Minority Leader Mitch McConnell mouthed his opposition on Fox News:
"But the American people who are already quite angry about the effort to jam this down their throats are going to be even angrier...But I think the fundamental point I want to make is the arrogance of all of this. You know, they [Democrats] are saying, 'Ignore the wishes of the American people. We know more about this than you do. And we're going to jam it down your throats no matter what.'"
And now, the Tea Party, too, is getting in on the hot, opposition action. And for a political movement founded on "tea bagging" as metaphor, they are very in your face about it.
Take, for example, Matt Kibbe of Freedomworks, the right-wing money machine helping fund the ersatz grassroots Tea Party movement. Democrats, Kibbe declared, "jammed the stimulus bill down our throats" and "this health care bill down our throats." As Huffington Post reported, Tea Party favorite Rand Paul wrapped his lips around the same expression when defending coal mine operators:
Paul claimed Obama "cares nothing about Kentucky and cares even less about Kentucky coal."
"We have a president who is forcing the EPA down our throats."
And so it goes.
In recent years, a growing number of studies have revealed the conservative mind to be uncomfortable with uncertainty and often immune to empirical evidence contradicting its most deeply held beliefs. In The Political Brain, Drew Westen suggests that this is due in part to the neurology and emotional processing of the brain. Given their sexually-laden rhetoric, today's Republicans clearly need help from Sigmund Freud's successors. Because if their words are any indication, conservatives have something besides politics on their minds.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
Dr. Freud's into diddling pages?
Maybe a cigar isn't always just a cigar...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Very uplifting post.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daWt7cQc4lg
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I had to stop reading, it was getting uncomfortable.
on lies.
Not one comment from these delusional wingnuts about two wars/endless occupations getting "jammed down our throats"??
But things that actually might help people instead of kill people are just so ??????????????
"You people are out calling us Nazis, saying we're running around with Swastikas. We get tarred and feathered as Nazis because we don't just bend over, grab the ankles and let you guys ram whatever down our throats you want."
You can tell he never studied anatomy.
Generally you don't have to bend over and grab your ankles to fellate anything
That's the position for anal sex.
I'm sure becky has the Gold Bond for lubrikink.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
very unnerving and uncomfortable. There's something very wrong with these people that they have sexual violence seared on the brain like this.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
...there are studies to suggest that the more sexually repressed a culture is, the more likely it is that sexuality within that culture will be expressed in dysfunctional ways or even as physical violence.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Dysfunctional is a great description of the once Republican party.
Keep them away from my children and my government.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
You're right, it shouldn't be a surprise that they are this way, but sometimes I still can't help but be amazed in a totally bad way.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
Who is, herself, just a chippy of the old block. Oops! Mea Culpa.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The GOP is dangerously close to a Tom of Finland comic.
.....a convention of pate' de foie gras farmers.......or a "gaggle" of sodomites.
'Talk to the hand'
.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Shot your whole wad with that comment.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for posting a comment on the wrong thread.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Massive tax cuts for the rich
Massive budget deficits during times of prosperity
The war in Iraq
Reckless deregulation
The dismantling of the social safety net
I have reached a "Point" and I can't take it anymore.
The above is not only sexual. It speaks to the so-called grown Republican Party acting like they are on the back of a school bus "kicking it" with their friends. They need to grow up.
Joseph
Calling the Right Nazis is unfair -- to the Nazis. The Nazis ran things well and kept track of what they did.
It's more appropriate to label the Right Stalinists.
some very talented ladies (and probably guys too) are getting all worked up to work...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Teh Reich haz it. We've seen it almost daily.
No new surprises here. I just wish someone in the MSM wuold shine a spotlight on this.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." -- Robert E. Howard
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bo...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the deep throats of a new century.
Limpdong Blimpbanger to speak for me. I have felt like a total retard after the SM spazzed out over excessive offenses with adam's apple allusions and had to chap our hides about the prison you know what references.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Sarah's naughtiest fantasy involves being bent over Obama's knee and being spanked with a rolled up copy of Utne Reader.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X0SWf347zA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...but when I was a kid the phrase was used to metaphorically imply forced feeding. You know, as in forcing them to swallow something like food or medicine they don't want to ingest. Limbuagh's bend-over-and-grab-your-ankles is a clearly sexual image, but if Republicans were thinking in a sexual manner, I doubt "forced down our throats" would be getting so much use. Wanda Sykes is a dirty comedienne--in addition to being a liberal--so of course she'd think of fellatio.
But group think demands everybody treat their preferred interpretation as the only valid one.
They crack me up!
I guess the family values thing is over?
lol
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
to show up for this post.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
...and who received it at a university in the Northeast (where the course material is often heavily based on Freud), I've been saying for many years now that Freud would have a field day with the average conservative. Especially in recent years, based on the trends I've observed in their speech patterns combined with their behavioral choices, I'm forced to conclude that the Freudian defense mechanism of projection is at practically pandemic levels among neoconservatives -- which suggests that without being consciously aware of it (since most defense mechanisms are not intentional and lie outside of conscious awareness), it is the neoconservatives and not their opponents who secretly fantasize about forcing their agenda on the people as a whole in much the same way that a rapist forces himself on a victim. After all, rape is about control rather than sex...and as far as I can tell, the desire for virtually limitless control and power is the underlying principle of neoconservative politics.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Conservatives always accuse their enemies of the shit they routinely perpetrate. Then they play the victim. Kind of like a child with a major behavior problem.
...is that I'm not entirely convinced that this is deliberate. Freud believed that defense mechanisms exist in order to keep the conscious mind (the "ego") blind to the more savage and self-absorbed aspects of the person's own psyche (the "id"). Personally, I think at least some -- possibly even many -- neoconservatives genuinely believe that it is not they but their opponents who desire to enforce their will over other people through force, because recognizing and acknowledging this aspect within themselves would inevitably mean that they're not really quite as good as they purport to be and tell themselves they are. After all, you aren't justified in claiming control over other people in the name of moral authority when you're just as guilty of transgressing as they are...can you? That's what projection is -- an unconscious perception of yourself as the victim of greed and hostility which you are unconsciously rejecting within your own psyche and falsely assigning to someone else so that you don't have to acknowledge your own faults or change your behavior.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
I never quite understood his superego, is that god, society at large, what exactly?
Personally I think his id and ego has already been replaced with the limbic system and the cerebral, which are more biological rather than speculative.
And Jung beat him in the way out department with his Collective Unconscious and Archetypes; his version of the Akashic and the Tarot imagery.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...the "superego" can take different forms to different people. For some, it's God and/or the church -- for others, it could be the state in the form of the police and/or society at large. I agree that there's some virtue in attributing the id and the ego to our instinctive animal brains vs. higher cognitive reasoning...but you have to admit that Freud deserves a great deal of credit for coming up with a fairly good explanation for human behavior at a time when scientists knew much less than they do now about how the brain works and what purposes the various structures serve.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
I'm not so sure of how much credit he deserves. Like Darwin he could've been anticipating future developments (where is that new Darwin movie by the way?)
But Freaud wasn't working in a vacuum. I was reading somewhere, I think commentaries on the Sepher Yetzirah, where they explain God and Devil, Creation and Destruction as a candle. The candle itself was the physical world; the flame was enlightenment and of God; the smoke the soul rising to God, and the sperms of melted tallow or wax and the ash as the Devil and Lilith.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/yetzirah.htm
But when you think of it primarily as the candle, the flame (smoke is a part of the flame) and the waste you arrive at three features.
This is similar to the Greeks (probably Pythagoreanism) of Allilon (Unity), Dyo (Opposition), Tria (Mediation), which became in Paulist Christianity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://up...
In Hegelianism it became Thesis/Antithesis/Synthesis (which sounds rather similar to the Socratic Dialectic which influenced those of the Enlightenment, such as our Founding Fathers),
Which in turn became the Marxist struggle between the Bourgeoisie, the Proletariat and the Communist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfq5kju627c
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Here in Texas no one wants to get into a conversation with me.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
This is so damn stupid.
Yeah, a Republican said 'tar & feather' and 'rammed down our throats'. Must be because he's secretly racist and gay. Good work, aspect-of-liberals-that-I-absolutely-fucking-hate.
Just understand that your counterparts on the other side of the aisle are people who say things like 'Obama recited a MUSLIM prayer. How would he be able to just pull that from memory unless he's secretly a Muslim himself?"
No, a Republican that has been arrested for having a phony Viagra script while returning from a vacation in a country notorious for hosting sexual holidays said it.
Sometimes a cigar is a phallus.
"Some people say."
I've yet to see what you even *like* about liberals as every comment is a kvetch about what you don't like about liberals. Geez.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
So much fro their argument that Republicans have 'character'
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Does Limbaugh know you can still get fucked in the ass without grabbing your ankles?
likely can't grab his ankles
Or find them...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Sounds as if Drugbo is admitting his head is up his arse. Why else would you have to bend over and grab your ankles to get something 'rammed down your throat?'
me-oww!
These people talk big to make up for smaller things. They want to control what you do sexually to begin with, it's no surprise they would be hung up on this sort of imagery.
When angry, count four, when very angry, swear.
-Mark Twain-
.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
ram everything they can down our throats. There is no debate. Just anal rape. If we protest they just call us a bunch of pussies. I say when we are in power we should just ram things down their throats.
In the kinder, gentler America of Teabagging, things are dangled down throats, not rammed.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I don't think that the phrase "ram down our throats" is homoerotic in origin so much as it was originally misogynistic and then later homophobic, but I wondering if anyone will agree with me.
what's implied, a lot of the time with homophobia there's misogyny closely related, so I agree.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
Is rand paul wearing eye liner?
I wonder how he likes his name tattooed in such big letters on that one goober's neck?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Democrats want us to choke on the colossal heath care wiener!
"Somewhere in America, a psychology graduate student is doubtless preparing the definitive thesis of the modern conservative mindset."
Well, here are my observations, and they are gathered from many hours spent with family members and friends, and a period of high stress earlier this year.
Keep in mind that this doesn't apply to those whose actions and beliefs are consistent with being financially conservative. It does apply to right wing authoritarians, which have controlled the party since the 60s, and think the answer to everything is war and conflict (for those who don't agree with them).
Those who we think of as rabid conservatives/authoritarians live in fear and have lived in fear so long that they have adrenaline poisoning. Basically they have PTSD, where the stress was not at an extreme level, but was too high for too long. They now think they are in a permanent war, if they could only figure out who the enemy is. Unfortunately, the enemy becomes anyone who thinks differently, acts differently, or somehow excites their sense of adrenaline...which is pretty much anything.
Their logic part of the brain no longer functions, and they can't understand why everyone else doesn't see the threats they see. That's why there is no logical discussion with them- they are no longer capable of it.
Their entire agenda is about promoting fear (for the leaders), or reacting to fear (for the fearful followers).
Do you think it's a coincidence that so many military people follow the conservative direction?
In reality, it is no longer conservativism...it is authoritarianism. They honestly believe that someone should tell us what to do, and some of them want to be the ones to do it.
They just know that gay people will turn everyone gay, that other countries want to kill us because they are jealous of our freedom, that the crime rate is higher now than ever before.
In reality, we live in a paradise, but like a barking dog, we are too busy barking at passing joggers (who are not a threat), that we don't see how beautiful it is.
Do you also think that it's a coincidence that conservative big business doesn't care about the environment? Business is war, as some say, so who cares about leaving a clean planet to our children. The destruction of our only planet is an actual threat, but is not an immediate threat, so their adrenaline is not fired up by it. If they find themselves in a situation where environmental problems do constitute an immediate threat, they will spring into action, but not from a place of logic, but a place of fear, which means that their plans won't be appropriate.
Do you think it's a coincidence that the Republican Party has no plan to offer as an alternative? They can't think clearly enough to put one together.
Do you think it's a coincidence that so called conservative people favor a simpler society, and are uncomfortable with the complex society we live in? Adrenaline poisoning restructures our brains so that subtleties are either invisible or not understood. Things that are not understood are imagined as threats, therefore to be eliminated.
Conservative people see the world as evolving, but in a way that frightens them. Why do you think we got George Bush after Bill Clinton? It really seemed that we were beginning to make progress on the national debt, with peace and prosperity in the US in the 90s. A world without strife and in economic harmony is a threat to people who addicted to fear and the spreaders of fear. We needed a quick injection of fear and strife, which is what we got.
Does this mean we should hate them? No. I personally feel sad about it, and that for a million reasons this happened to them. We are in a particularly stressful period, so we are all easier to be set off by small things.
I realized this earlier this year during a stressful period for me...I started to feel good about having more stress, and my wife helped me see how stressed out I was. Upon reflection, the concept of adrenaline poisoning became clear to me. That is why I feel compassion.
It's also why I no longer accept what right wing authoritarians are trying to do, their lack of respect for the good of society and their greed. We must all stand up and say no more...how much worse do we want things to get?
If I could be so bold as to suggest a first step in a solution to reduce fear in our society, I would suggest we turn off the TV, and be discerning about what we read, at least for one year.
If possible, give up sugar as much as possible, because sugar sets off the adrenal glands to produce more adrenaline and it's addicting.
Perhaps we cold also be kind, yet firm with an authoritarian/conservative, and maybe over time they will return to sensible conservatives, which we had more of before the 80s.
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