Comments on: Creepy Authoritarianism

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:38:13 +0000

About the problem of authoritarianism…

“The Authoritarians” book on pdf for free is available here:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/ (or click link in my name, although it’s not my page – just a really great book I found)

This is a great book written by a researcher and in chapter 7 he even gives recommendations on what to do about the problem.

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By: The morality infalibility of the right wing blogers at Antony Loewenstein

The morality infalibility of the right wing blogers at Antony Loewenstein — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 02:45:44 +0000

[...] forbid should so called conservative blogs ever indulge in this kind of [...]

By: The Sanity Inspector

The Sanity Inspector — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:13:36 +0000

A transcript from his radio show of Hugh Hewitt getting his ass kicked by William Odom (a retired general for anyone whoâ€™s never heard of him.

Think what you will of Hewitt’s politics, but his show is no echo chamber. Thomas Ricks gave him an equally stout rally on his book tour for The Looming Tower.

By: liberal observor

liberal observor — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:18:38 +0000

Here we have many examples of those devotees of the “Foot and Mouth disease” solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism. They have convinced themselves that if there were no Islam there would be no Islamic terrorism. Of course the price we would pay for the elimination of Islam is more than rational people are willing to pay. But we are not dealing with rational people. We’re dealing with people who own a sledge hammer but not a fly swatter. Which means they do a lot of damage when they go to swatting flies. The fact is police work and diplomacy are better ways of dealing with terrorism than war.

By: Urban Sombrero

Urban Sombrero — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:07:36 +0000

Why are these conservatives helping the terrorists?

When the Iraqis hear that prominent Americans conservatives want all of them dead, the Iraqis are going to run to the arms of the terrorists.

Stupid ass conservatives are making the Iraqis hate us and helping out the terrorists.

By: VJB

VJB — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:04:41 +0000

Hate to admit it, but Glenn Reynolds has a genuine point. The ‘objectification of the “other”‘, call it xenophobia, fear, or something else, usually leads to something very, very ugly. We have to get over this, and listen to our ‘better angels’. Of course it hardly helps that the Right calls the rest of us names for having a heart. Why can’t we just get along? Makes me want to down a 40 ouncer chardonnay, scarf a quiche, and knock heads.

By: javaphil

javaphil — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:03:32 +0000

Wait a minuteâ€¦ Isnâ€™t that the plot of Orson Scott Cardâ€™s latest novel?

Sadly, yes.

By: Dan Someone

Dan Someone — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:11:35 +0000

Actually, having control of the armed forces, we strafe and bomb your convoy of Winnebagos and luxury SUVs.

You never make it to Washington.

We confiscate all your possessions and live a life of luxury forever. Mwahahahahaâ€¦

Wait a minute… Isn’t that the plot of Orson Scott Card’s latest novel?

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:59:35 +0000

That kid designated as the school joke and punching bag will grow up to be our next Karl Rove wannabe. Every single one on the right seems to either be an ashamed closet gay, pedophile, racist, perverted adulterer, wife beater, porn addict, former nerd or was constantly picked on by his or her classmates who grew up resenting the popular kids.

Actually, a large chunk of them seem to be the entitled-rich-kid-with-doting-parents-who-think-his-shit-don’t-stink paradigm, to me. Lots of these guys strike me as the sterotypical nasty popular kids: they were the bullies–or the toadies and enablers–and they got away with it, so they learned that this is correct social behavior.

It’s certainly true of the pundit class and consultant class. They’ve turned the entire political discussion into a high school clique war. Who can garner more support among the band nerds and science geeks? Who can get the goody-two-shoes groups behind them? Who can BS and dissemble enough to take the vote? Don’t worry about lying or contradicting yourself: no one has the attention span to remember, and you can count on the gossip brigade to confuse things anyway.

To me, this is where the whole obsessing about what a candidate wears and which candidate is more “likeable” comes from. Elections in high school were just a popularity contest, and the popular cliques didn’t need to have any redeeming features other than (perhaps) good looks and money. There’s no point worrying about any kind of “qualifications” or “consequences” because the class president doesn’t really do anything anyway. Looks and perception and being in the “in crowd” are all you need to succeed.

These people never got out of high school; they can’t survive in the adult world so they try to make the adult world a mirror of high school, or even junior high. Personally, high school sucked for me: I was very glad to get into the “real world” where, you know, actions have consequences and ability and intelligence counts for something.

And I’m royally pissed that these shallow assholes are trying to take over the grown up world, too, instead of just fading off into a drunken stupor and talking about the glory days like they’re supposed.

By: kiche

kiche — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:52:22 +0000

Why did Bosnia collapse into the worst slaughter in Europe since World War Two? In the thirty years before the meltdown, Bosnian Serbs had declined from 43 percent to 31 percent of the population, while Bosnian Muslims had increased from 26 percent to 44 percent. In a democratic age, you canâ€™t buck demographyâ€”except through civil war. The Serbs figured that outâ€”as other Continentals will in the years ahead: if you canâ€™t outbreed the enemy, cull â€™em. The problem that Europe faces is that Bosniaâ€™s demographic profile is now the model for the entire continent.

(sigh)

demographics for islam in europe:

France 7.0%
Netherlands 6.0%
Denmark 5.0%
Switzerland 4.3%
Austria 4.2%
Sweden 3.9%
Germany 3.6%
Belgium 3.4%
United Kingdom 2.7%
Greece 2.3-2.7%
Norway 2.5%
Italy 1.4%
Spain 1.1%
Portugal 0.5%
Ireland 0.5%
Finland 0.4%

hmmm… so france has the largest islamic population at a whopping 7%. compare that to american blacks who are at 19% of the american population and have a very low level of political, social and economic enfranchisement.

wankers.

By: midwestvoter

midwestvoter — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:30:59 +0000

After reading the attached rants, one can no longer ignore the societal affects of childhood bullying. Teach your kids to be nice to each other. That kid designated as the school joke and punching bag will grow up to be our next Karl Rove wannabe. Every single one on the right seems to either be an ashamed closet gay, pedophile, racist, perverted adulterer, wife beater, porn addict, former nerd or was constantly picked on by his or her classmates who grew up resenting the popular kids. They are disgusting backwash. Let’s try not to create any more of them.

By: prozacula

prozacula — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:00:13 +0000

what really shocks me is Lileks.

First of all, he is a mealy-mouthed nerd in huge glasses that admits he is sheepish (bleats?). His stories read like they were straight from the 1890’s, calm, peaceful little ditties about meaningless trips to walgreen’s and including his vacuous observations about how his mouthwash cleans the germs out of his mouth much like we should clean the muslim world or somesuch shit.

then, he openly admits that he has his own collection of 9/11 war-porn – a video he made his very own self that he sits down and watches whenever his pro-death-hardon starts to wain.

Seriously. Fucking LILEKS watches his 9/11 videos over and over again to maintain his mouth-frothing anger and war-hardon.

And he’s like the right’s marmaduke. Imagine what sort of war-porn people like Trevino watch.

ugh.

By: Nellieh

Nellieh — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:09:25 +0000

Tony Blankley’s suggestion was a hoot! You can tell he didn’t check with the White House before coming up with that one. After my comment he may be laughing at me but my take on the players in Iraq are; The Shia(he wants us to join with the Kurds) are aligned with Iran. The Sunni(who he wants the Shia and Kurds to oppose) are aligned with our “ally” Saudi Arabia and Syria and Jordan. We are in a maze that appears to have no solution other than gather at the perimeter, not let in other combatants and let the Iraqis resolve this. We are trying to referee a gun fight with guns. The Shia are shooting at Sunni and us. The Sunni are shooting at Shia and us. We are shooting at both. On top of that, we expect to win hearts and minds? We have long passed the definition of insanity.

By: spocko

spocko — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:44:04 +0000

Of course when I read this I’m not surprised. I also know what people hear on “Hot Talk” radio 560 am. The Disney/ABC station in San Francisco.

http://www.spockosbrain.com/LeeRogersIndonesiananotherEnemyMuslimNationKillMillions10252006H06M06.wma

And who hears this? People who DON’T read a lot and it normalizes and encourages (emboldens) those people’s worst self.

By: EL

EL — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:39:48 +0000

Funny thought occurred while reading through that depressing collection of wingnut philosophy: If a teacher found that sort of threatening rhetoric in a student’s notebook in your average U.S. elementary/middle/high school, the kid might well be suspended. Or expelled. Or at least sent in for counseling. I mean, that’s reality in post-Columbine America.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could hold right-wing commentators to the same standards of discourse we require for, oh, nine-year-olds?

By: kc

kc — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:08:16 +0000

Lawnguylander, thanks for that transcript. Made my day.

By: rzklkng

rzklkng — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:46:37 +0000

I’ve felt that this is their plan all along – it goes along with supply-side economics – so long as we have a population and/or productivity advantage, we win. Anything that threatens that must be destroyed. I would be suprised if a hot regional Middle East war to “thin the pack” isn’t on the table. It’s also probably why no one really paid much attention to Africa until recently – too many people, too great a threat is they became self-sufficient/effecient, that is until now when we realize we might need their raw materials and resources…

By: Moominpapa

Moominpapa — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:07:49 +0000

“So at the cost of 75,000 lives, not to mention the degradation of the British empire through concentration camps and inhumane treatment of the internees resulting in thousands of senseless deaths, the British defeated an enemy of their own creation, in part because of the gold and diamonds in the Boer areas. And greatly damaged their credibility and standing in the world.”

Yes, but Mafeking was relieved, hurrah! Oh, and Boy Scouts, too, don’t foget that beneficial side effect.

/snark