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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject: The American Left's Silly Victim Complex: from Adbusters |
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Now, before you lefties start foaming and frothing, this article is from Adbusters. This article is a critique of the left, from the left.
http://www.adbusters.org/the_magazine/71/The_American_Lefts_Silly_Victim_Complex.html
I'm going to post my favorite parts, but the whole thing is an amazing read.
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At a time when someone should be organizing forcefully against the war in Iraq and engaging middle America on the alarming issue of big-business occupation of the Washington power process, the American left has turned into a skittish, hysterical old lady, one who defiantly insists on living in the past, is easily mesmerized by half-baked pseudo-intellectual nonsense, and quick to run from anything like real conflict or responsibility.
It shies away from hardcore economic issues but howls endlessly about anything that sounds like a free-speech controversy, shrieking about the notorious bugbears of the post-9/11 �police state� (the Patriot Act, Total Information Awareness, CARNIVORE, etc.) in a way that reveals unmistakably, to those who are paying close attention, a not-so-secret desire to be relevant and threatening enough to warrant the extralegal attention of the FBI. It sells scads of Che t-shirts ($20 at the International ANSWER online store) and has a perfected a high-handed tone of moralistic finger-wagging, but its organizational capacity is almost nil. It says a lot, but does very little.
This is another dirty little secret of the left � the fact that, at least when it comes to per-capita income, those interminable right-wing criticisms about liberals being �elitists� are actually true. According to a 2004 Pew report, Americans who self-identify as liberals have an average annual income of $71,000 � the highest-grossing political category in America. They�re also the best-educated class, with over one in four being post-graduates.
What makes the American left silly? Things that in a vacuum should be logical impossibilities are frighteningly common in lefty political scenes. The word �oppression� escaping, for any reason, the mouths of kids whose parents are paying 20 grand for them to go to private colleges. Academics in Priuses using the word �Amerika.� Ebonics, Fanetiks, and other such insane institutional manifestations of white guilt. Combat berets. Combat berets in conjunction with designer coffees. Combat berets in conjunction with designer coffees consumed at leisure in between conversational comparisons of America to Nazi Germany.
We all know where this stuff comes from. Anyone who�s ever been to a lefty political meeting knows the deal � the problem is the �spirit of inclusiveness� stretched to the limits of absurdity. The post-sixties dogma that everyone�s viewpoint is legitimate, everyone�s choice about anything (lifestyle, gender, ethnicity, even class) is valid, that�s now so totally ingrained that at every single meeting, every time some yutz gets up and starts rambling about anything, no matter how ridiculous, no one ever tells him to shut the *beep* up. Next thing you know, you�ve got guys on stilts wearing mime makeup and Cat-in-the-Hat striped top-hats leading a half-million people at an anti-war rally. Why is that guy there? Because no one told him that war is a matter of life and death and that he should leave his fucking stilts at home.
Then there�s the tone problem. A hell of a lot of what the left does these days is tediously lecture middle America about how wrong it is, loudly snorting at a stubbornly unchanging litany of Republican villains. There�s a weirdly indulgent tone to all of this Bush-bashing that goes on in lefty media, a tone that�s not only annoyingly predictable in its pervasiveness, but a turnoff to people who might have tuned in to that channel in search of something else.
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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There�s a weirdly indulgent tone to all of this Bush-bashing that goes on in lefty media, a tone that�s not only annoyingly predictable in its pervasiveness, but a turnoff to people who might have tuned in to that channel in search of something else.
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I agree with this piece. |
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riverboy
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Good read. I considered myself left wing untill my first year of university and I realised how many hysterical arseholes their were, and then I simply became dissillusioned. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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| When I went to anti-war protests, I too was wondering who let the dude dressed like a mime lead. Ahhhh, but if not for tolerance, what would be have? |
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reactionary
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Location: korreia
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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as a leftist myself, i'm constantly disturbed by alarmism, and more importantly (as you've bolded), the "champagne" liberals/leftists/socialists (depending on where you live). it really is akin to a PETA activist who eats nothing but steak.
check out the dead kennedys songs or lyrics sometimes, good left bashing from the extreme left. "kill the poor" ("Jane Fonda says that its okay) and "holiday in cambodia" (listen to ethnicy jazz and parade your schnazz on your five grand stereo...the slums got so much soul) |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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BJWD wrote:
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| According to a 2004 Pew report, Americans who self-identify as liberals have an average annual income of $71,000 � the highest-grossing political category in America. They�re also the best-educated class, with over one in four being post-graduates. |
Mahalo, bruddah, for posting this article, which says it all--and from a source within "the Movement." It demonstrates yet again just how ethically bankrupt the far Left actually is. But don't hold your breath waiting for keane/EFLT/Kucinich to respond on point. He's too busy rehearsing his "skittish, hysterical old lady" act.
Not only are most leftwingers above the masses they claim to represent but as another recent study by a liberal Ivy League professor showed, they don't even put their money where their big mouths are (i.e. they donate less on average to charity than conservatives).
Many moons ago I attended one of the most notorious leftwing universities in America. At that time I was a bonafide liberal (perish the thought) and fancied myself a moderate Leftist, whatever that meant. Now in reflection I just chuckle at how naive and arrogant I really was. I had tremendous book knowledge of history but my grip on reality was weak.
Every time I hear a self-styled Rebel Without a Clue lash out to seize the limelight I'm reminded of singer songwriter Stephen Stills admonition, "carrying signs, mostly saying hooray for our side." It's self-promotion foremost.
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| between conversational comparisons of America to Nazi Germany. |
This is for me the most offensive aspect of far Left rhetoric these days: the casual and widespread insinuation of Nazism whenever the Right does something they resent. They lack any sense of historical proportionality and in the process show a lack of sensitivity toward the Shoah and its survivors, cheapening the latter's horrific experiences during that dark period in human history. I shall never forget a now deceased Israeli woman from Haifa who I befriended a long time ago, whose son was a medical intern at my university and lived next door to me. She was one of the identical Jewish twins forced by Dr. Josef Mengele to assist in grisly human experiments at Aushwitz in Poland. Ironically, we were compelled to speak in German since I didn't speak Hebrew and she couldn't understand English. When I think of her stories I seriously wonder if those who toss out accusations of Nazi tactics have any clue what they're really implying.
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| The post-sixties dogma that everyone�s viewpoint is legitimate, everyone�s choice about anything (lifestyle, gender, ethnicity, even class) is valid |
This relativistic mindset, paradoxically, runs contrary to their continued assertions of far Left political advocates that only they understand what it is needed to bring about legitimate social justice. It led, by the way, to the values clarification movement of the 1970s, which was much more concerned with giving students a chance to clarifying their own views than place them in a socially responsible context.
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| Next thing you know, you�ve got guys on stilts wearing mime makeup and Cat-in-the-Hat striped top-hats leading a half-million people at an anti-war rally |
Yep, it's a circus atmosphere, diminishing the seriousness of the occasion. Many of these types get their jollies doing this--it's almost like their form of entertainment.
Last edited by stevemcgarrett on Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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OP: great link! Steve: Well said!
That's all I need say(feeling rather Calvin Coolidge-like today). |
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