They may be scared, but I don't think fear is fueling them. I think fear is making them hateful and hatred is fueling them. It's the Left that is scared. Their hatred serves as a unifying force for them, which is why all of the hypocracy that we constantly catch them in has no effect whatsoever on them. It's why they can resort to every "ends justifies the means" dirty trick without thinking that they are violating their own standards. I wish they were just afraid of the Left.
And not to stray too far off the subject, but I think that the Left has not taken seriously enough the idea that Iraq was simply about revenge. A large component of post 9/11 is simply that the Right can't understand why the Left doesn't hate as much as they do. They think that the Left is weak for it.
Posted by Unagidon at February 25, 2005 04:04 AMIt also seems that some of the right wing pundits are a little jealous. I mean sure some of them get on the NY Times bestseller list and sure they get on Fox News, but liberalism is poised to make a comeback via new means like the internet, and that's what scares them too.
They spent forty plus years starting think tanks and consolidating media into a right wing empire. Now they see their noise machine in jeporday. While it is still powerful and they do still continue to dominate the cable, broadcast and radio waves, they are seeing that as soon as the left starts to combat them we become a factor.
Air America is in it's infancy and already it's replacing some right wing talk in states throughout the country. The blogosphere and email have now become powerful organizing tools, resulting in action like stopsinclair.com and even the Gannon outsting.
I guess they have a right to be a little scared.
Posted by Jason Gooljar at February 25, 2005 05:29 AMI think there's another aspect to consider.
A lot of these folks who follow people like Rush and who believe the current administration word for word have either lost (or never learned) the ability to think critically.
This is a skill that, once practiced, can open the eyes of many Americans. Not everyone will listen but it's still worth checking out the web site below:
http://www.freeinquiry.com/critical-notes.html
Print this. Read it. Send it to some close-minded relatives (don't we all have at least one?). Ask them later if they read it. If they say they did, ask what they thought about it. Ask them if they saw value in this method. If they say yes, ask them how they could apply these techniques of analysis to current events. Remind them that critical thinking is the kind of thinking that has led to their living in an advanced society as opposed to the Dark Ages.
Remember, what you're trying to do here is plant a seed. It may germinate. It may not. It may germinate next year, or five years from now. The point is to get them to question things.
Questioning is the first step in their learning how to THINK CRITICALLY.
Don't throw up your hands and say , "Why bother?". It IS worth the time and effort. Using this method over the course of several months in 2004, I was able to demonstrate to my 70-year-old mother, a lifelong Republican, how terrible the current administration is.
In November, my mother voted for Kerry. I take credit for that.
Posted by warthogmandible at February 25, 2005 05:38 AMThere is nothing as scary to me as a close-to-majority that is 1) scared of the future, 2) uncritical of its leaders, and 3) willing to give its leaders complete power "to keep them safe." That way leads to fascism.
Posted by Dan at February 25, 2005 06:01 AMDid I mention that they aren't nerely as smart as they think they are?
I'm not saying they're stoopid, and they are clever or conniving or nasty little, oh, sorry, manipulators, but really, ever read lilacs, or nooner or concentration camp malkin? Not all that impressive.
Posted by Duckman GR at February 25, 2005 06:24 AMBasically they're a bunch of chickenshit assholes who are powered by greed and yuppie careerist striving who have never thought for themselves a single day in their pitiful fucking lives.
Oh yeah: and what a bunch of fucking LIARS they are!
Posted by The Fool at February 25, 2005 06:50 AMDid I mention that they aren't nerely as smart as they think they are?
Well, gotta watch out also for smart people, like that brilliant fellow in 2000 who said it would make no difference voting for George W. Bush or Al Gore, and all those high-IQ people who believed him.
Posted by Rob in Vermont at February 25, 2005 07:07 AMMy current summary is they believe in 1950 America as right and 1960 as not just wrong, evil. They have the simplicity of a grand unified theory of politics. Capitalism, America after WWII and Jesus. Women were not liberated, they were infected, Same for "the races". John Kerry was a non'started for these people since he was part of the infection. It is imotional and irrational, but it feels good to think America was once perfect. They have the power of the true believers of paradise.
I don't think we can educate them into a change, the only hope is they will eventually drowned in their own waste and corruption. Perhaps we should start buiding a Democratic Ark. :)
I think that, having gained all the power they have, they're having an "Alfie moment" -- is that all there is?
Why didn't it work? Why isn't the world better? Can't reality see that we won? If you can't see it, if you aren't going along with it, then it's ALL YOUR FAULT, you liberal commie fag-loving tree-hugging oh, oh, oh, you bully, you!
Ed
Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Emotion does.
I agree they're afraid... of pretty much everything. We live in a time where technological advances alone are mind-blowing. The world is a lot smaller than it was in the last century.
The online fascists are especially frightened because after twenty years of constant rightwing propaganda, they've suddenly become exposed to the fact that a significant portion of America vehemently objects to their rotten ideology. They're terrified.
Like all fearful people, they need enemies. They've balkanized America into the Godly Right and the Satanic Socialist Left, so it makes no difference what we as individuals do or don't do. They've turned America into a self-fulfilling prophesy of domestic emnity.
Joe Q. Republican down the hall may share a beer with you after work, but how different is he from the friendly Nazi next door who liked his Jewish neighbor - but not enough to hide him or help him escape slaughter? Americans like to think we're superhumans, but we're no different from Tutsis and Hutus slaughtering one another.
The American Fascist needs enemies and has created them. Unfortunately, we have little choice but to reciprocate. When attacked, it does no good to curl up in a little ball and wait for the beating to stop.
Posted by Arvin Hill at February 25, 2005 11:34 AMIt goes back to the "strict father" vs "nutruring mother" views of the right and left, respectively.
The right doesn't need or want to try to understand the world, as long as they have a strong "father" to protect them. The left on the other hand, having been nurtured and taught to talk and compromise, want to try to understand the world...not dominate it.
When scary things happen (i.e., 9/11) and our father was unable to protect us, it couldn't have been that our father was lacking or unable to protect us or even worse, acted in a way to contribute to the scary things (that would totally cause us to question our view of things ans we are just too comfortable living in our non-reality-based world.)
No, the scary things happened because we are hated by totally irrational people (because we live in a perfect non-reality-based world and they would have to be irrational to not want what we have) and some member of our family (the weak ones, the traitors, the cowards, the liberals) must have subverted the power of our father (because he is strong and infallible, so he can't be to blame) and made him unable to protect us.
So there is no need to try to understand why the "islamo-fascists" (as O'Really and the other Savage calls them) do what they do. They are jealous and hate our freedoms (although it has yet to be explained why they waited until 2001 to attack us and didn't attack in 1776 when we were still an infantile nation, 'cause afterall, their religion and way of life hasn't changed since then...they are still stuck in the dark ages.)
As long as daddy is there to tuck us in at night and tall us the bad guys are right outside the door, we will always want him there to protect us, even if he does things we don't like. Just like a woman in an abusive realtionship...we keep coming back for more, because, even though we are getting beat, he truly does love us.
(My apologies in advanced to any vicitm of domestic abuse that may have been offended by that last comment...it was an extreme comment used solely to make a point, not to minimize the plight of those in abusive relationships.)
Snds mr lk th lft s rnnng scrd n th fc f rvtlzd ppstn. dn't s th rght cwrng, n fct thy r tkng th nttv t rll bck slf dstrctv plcs grndd n lftst dlsns.
[Editor: ignore=off]Bendito,
You mean give more power to the government so we as individuals don't have to think for ourselves?make it a crime for those who question the government or want to live differently than the right dictates?
Posted by the professor at February 25, 2005 12:03 PMbendito illustrates the point quite well.
It's a little more subtle than that dude, it's the reptillian fear bubbling just below our subconscious that I refer to, unamed and unseen.
It's not the rabid foaming at the mouth Cujo roaming your backyard, or a real manifestation of Grendel lurking beneath your bed kind of fear, you silly boy.
It's the kind that puts you on edge, and leads you to lash out against imagined threats.
Oh, and I love your description of Social Security, as self destructive policies grounded in leftist delusions.
Nice touch there. That's just how I view the Social Safety Net that helped my Grandma after Gramps died.
Posted by Duckman GR at February 25, 2005 12:15 PM
Sounds more like the left is running scared in the face of a revitalized opposition.
Hey dummy, the right is in power, the left is the opposition.
How else can you explain the? The right controls political discourse in the country now; they own the White House, control the legislature and the courts, and are in a fair way to dominate the press. Yet, on and on and stronger than ever, Republicans fulminate over the imminent liberal takeover of all that is good and decent, always choosing pissant, chickenshit little battles over "Happy Holidays" or Million Dollar Baby or Buster the Bunny. Maybe this adoption of a siege mentality has become mere habit; maybe it's calculated policy. I think however that fear is the best explanation. There's nothing like fear to make a man resort to bluster and braggadocio, both of which are Republican mainstays.
One of the best items in Bowling for Columbine is the little cartoon mid-movie, a satirical precis of the history of Americans' love affair with the gun. We've come all this way from the colonial days yet we're still fearful, trumping up insignificant threats into world-shaking dangers that endanger the very life of the country. That's what the "War on Terra" is all about, in any case, throwing people into jail and bombing nations flat because there's a 0.001% chance they might think of plotting to prepare for killing some Americans.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud at this article. The hypocrisy is almost unbelievable. You say the right is obviously scared because they stereotype the Left and then attack the stereotype, but of course your stereotyping of the Right for the same means is right on. It isn't anything like those evil conservatives is it? A road raging guy with an I Love Jesus bumpersticker - classic! The state of political discussion in America is an Orwellean joke...
Posted by Tex at February 25, 2005 01:28 PMTex,
Glad you found it funny.
I think you've misunderstood me. The problems of the righties, and yes, it's a generalization, but it seems to fit for the examples I've cited, and those people are somehow or other leading "thinkers" for righties, but it isn't how they "stereotype" the left. It's how the view the world. Lefties got no dogs in that hunt, they do it themselves. LEfties are just an excuse for them to blame things on.
It's reality that seems to cause the problem, reality and all the complexities and unpredictableness of it.
That's what religion is, no, a way to control and rationalize the real world.
Posted by Duckman GR at February 25, 2005 01:46 PMThe question is, what is wrong with these people, these rightists, neo-cons, whatever. And not particularly the Names or Dwarf Stars, but the guy in the office down the hall with the NRO subscription, or the perfectly reasonable businessman who plasters dubya paraphernalia about his business, or the plumber driving to work in the #8 truck ....
I think they don't like the idea of the Democrats confiscating their money via tax legislation. Remember, 55% of the electorate makes over $50K, and they went for Bush in a landslide (56%-43%) in 2004.
Posted by muckdog at February 25, 2005 01:55 PMTwo questions:
1. Is it possible that people (on both sides) generally hold political views from intellectual and moral conviction?
2. Is it more helpful to our democracy to treat current debate as a principled contest, or as search for personal failings?
Posted by anonymous at February 25, 2005 02:37 PMI think they don't like the idea of the Democrats confiscating their money via tax legislation.
No. The fucks voted Terra and Anti-Gay. The idiot son took that to mean anti-tax. How could he not? They are so similar.
Posted by phidipides at February 25, 2005 02:48 PMDuckman,
I understood you, I guess I was just brief in my explanation. I think hardcore lefties view the world in very same way. Except instead of socialist commie liberals ruining the world, it's the close-minded ignorant conservatives ruining the world. You can't say that leftists aren't talking about how conservatives are going to ruin the economy or the American way of life anymore than ole righties are blaming the left guys.
The rhetoric about GW seems based largely in fear to me. Would you not agree? Maybe you just think it's "different" because this rhetoric is, of course, the gospel truth in your eyes. Exactly the same way the rightie rhetoric is true for him.
Your last comment seems off subject, but I’ll respond anyway. I don't think religion is this way for all people. It certainly isn't for me. But I would concede that some people in church use religion as a crutch. Some people use atheism in the same way. They don't have to worry about God if they can dismiss his existence. Some have thought it through and really don't believe in God. Just as many have thought it through and have a real belief in the God of the Bible (including myself). But I have digressed...
I hope you take an introspective look at your own beliefs instead of just demanding it from that those that disagree with your view of world. But I guess they are the "wrong" ones in need of conversion.
Very very similar.
Identical even.
Anony, you'ld have to ask the goppers about that principled contest one, seeing as how they don't seem to have any, aka Soc Sec phase out wall street types funding anti AARP groups.
muck, I suppose it's okay tho, when the gop does it, right, and spends it wantonly on corporate thieves like custer battles and on and on
Posted by Duckman GR at February 25, 2005 03:06 PMI'd go along with the terror and anti-gay motivation of the GOP if and only if the GOP was capturing the hearts and souls of voters who make less than $50K. Because moral values, you'd think, would matter most to those with little cash and lots of faith.
But since the GOP message plays well with the materialist ba$tard$ who make more than $50K, than I have to think that money is the motivation. Money is their religion. Glory to the almighty Greenback. Taxes-Schmaxes.
Posted by muckdog at February 25, 2005 04:22 PMNo conversion needed please.
And don't confuse Conservatives with GW and Co, because they are truly not the same thing.
Of course religion isn't that way for all people in how they respond to it. But for the James Dobson's, well maybe not him per se, but his followers, and that lovely Kansas family that rages against liberals and their heathen ways, at some levels it does become that safety blanket to explain away and comfort.
Nobody, certainly not me, is demanding anything except enlightenment. Sure, hardcore anybodies are, well, hardcore. The rhetoric about bush is not based on fear exactly, but on what he/they are doing to this country and the world.
Anti-abortion witchhunts in Kansas, demonization of those that would oppose their looting and pillaging, Vioxx, Custer Battles, the greed and lust that the big boys of bushco revel in is not a good thing, to say the least. That's where the rhetoric comes from.
My observation remains, a lot of goppers are scared. They don't know it, aren't introspective enough (that word again) if at all to understand it, and are flying high on the powerline trip to even bother to think about it.
Look at pat robertson, who's companies trade in essentially slave labor in the diamond mines, or tom delay, and tell me that these people aren't abusive and uncaring of their power and the damage it wrecks.
Missile defense, just another payoff to the M.I.C., not for our defense, just for profit. The thing doesn't work, and will never work the way they're going about it. Coincidence? I think not.
And fear underlies that. I'm a member of the reality based community, don't forget that.
Maintaining Hive order and authority is very important to people who have closed themselves off from the Free Thinkers. I think it's a DNA/Evolutionary thing; they are afraid to evolve.
Posted by Monica at February 25, 2005 05:57 PM