[Pic From Here]
Yesterday I made some comments about the Republican National Convention and I was greeted this morning with a splendid rant from Robert Bee from New Jersey (whose SF criticism has been published in many places including IROSF and NYRSF) :
You are truly an idiot, Jonathan. McCain and Palin did not say the "world's problem was homosexuals getting married." That fact that smug liberals like yourself simplify the views of people who disagree with you is one of the things that makes you liberals such a despicable group of people. Furthermore, the real fascists are liberals like yourself who accuse anyone who disagrees with a pc position of being a fascist. If you're typical of liberals, then I have no respect for left-wing positions, and I sincerely hope you liberals lose the next few elections, and don't have a chance to run anything for, say, thirty years.
I particularly enjoyed the use of quotation marks around "world's problem was homosexuals getting married" as if to make it look like I actually said those words. Firstly, it's barely literate (there should be an 'only' or 'greatest' in there somewhere) and secondly it beautifully illustrates the misdirection and dishonesty coming out of US conservatism at the moment.
America and much of the rest of the world are facing a global recession, the Americans economy lost 650,000 jobs last year (while needing 150,000 more jobs a month to keep up with population expansion) and what gets the biggest cheers at the RNC? No to abortion! No to gay marriage! Yes to the values of small towns despite the fact that our party's economic policies have made life harder and harder for people living in those towns, the fact that many millions of Americans neither grew up in small towns nor live in small towns and the fact that small towns invariably represent a wide array of different opinions and ways of seeing the world!
If the convention speeches were an articulation of what the McCain campaign sees as the most pressing issues facing America then one thing is clear, for the Republicans, this election is not about issues.
At this point, the Conservative movement is a Zombie, a shambling husk without brain or thought. The foreign policies of the Neoconservatives have not only failed to unite the country (as predicted by Leo Strauss) but they've also made the world a far more dangerous place than it once was. Meanwhile the domestic policies of the traditional Conservatives have resulted in an economic climate that has just brought about one of the largest nationalisations in history. Even culturally, the Conservative movement has utterly failed as women across America continue having abortions and gay people (while still second class citizens) enjoy levels of social acceptance and visibility that would have been impossible when the modern Conservative movement took power 30-odd years ago.
So they are now reliant upon banging a drum for causes that energise the grass roots and which get discussed by a tame, toothless and un-critical media (Vonnegut used to say that TV was like the lead pipes that drove the Romans mad, I disagree it's just 24 Hour News Channels). They appeal to the worst in people's natures; the selfishness, the small-mindedness, the vindictive, the ignorant, the lazy, the hate-filled.
I called Palin's speech fascistic because it was fascistic. It drew on entirely fictitious nationalistic conceptions of the real America being that in small towns, it lambasted the enemy within thereby creating scapegoats and it did all of this under the pretence of American exceptionalism so as to obscure the real issues and the real problems facing the country. It's clear cut if you ask me, though I appreciate the attempt to invoke "political correctness" (which is always a sign of base stupidity) and to say that actually it's the people criticising the nationalistic, scape-goat summoning authoritarians who are the real fascists. I'd laugh if I didn't know that such arguments weren't common-place in American politics at the moment.
You are truly an idiot, Jonathan. McCain and Palin did not say the "world's problem was homosexuals getting married." That fact that smug liberals like yourself simplify the views of people who disagree with you is one of the things that makes you liberals such a despicable group of people. Furthermore, the real fascists are liberals like yourself who accuse anyone who disagrees with a pc position of being a fascist. If you're typical of liberals, then I have no respect for left-wing positions, and I sincerely hope you liberals lose the next few elections, and don't have a chance to run anything for, say, thirty years.
I particularly enjoyed the use of quotation marks around "world's problem was homosexuals getting married" as if to make it look like I actually said those words. Firstly, it's barely literate (there should be an 'only' or 'greatest' in there somewhere) and secondly it beautifully illustrates the misdirection and dishonesty coming out of US conservatism at the moment.
America and much of the rest of the world are facing a global recession, the Americans economy lost 650,000 jobs last year (while needing 150,000 more jobs a month to keep up with population expansion) and what gets the biggest cheers at the RNC? No to abortion! No to gay marriage! Yes to the values of small towns despite the fact that our party's economic policies have made life harder and harder for people living in those towns, the fact that many millions of Americans neither grew up in small towns nor live in small towns and the fact that small towns invariably represent a wide array of different opinions and ways of seeing the world!
If the convention speeches were an articulation of what the McCain campaign sees as the most pressing issues facing America then one thing is clear, for the Republicans, this election is not about issues.
At this point, the Conservative movement is a Zombie, a shambling husk without brain or thought. The foreign policies of the Neoconservatives have not only failed to unite the country (as predicted by Leo Strauss) but they've also made the world a far more dangerous place than it once was. Meanwhile the domestic policies of the traditional Conservatives have resulted in an economic climate that has just brought about one of the largest nationalisations in history. Even culturally, the Conservative movement has utterly failed as women across America continue having abortions and gay people (while still second class citizens) enjoy levels of social acceptance and visibility that would have been impossible when the modern Conservative movement took power 30-odd years ago.
So they are now reliant upon banging a drum for causes that energise the grass roots and which get discussed by a tame, toothless and un-critical media (Vonnegut used to say that TV was like the lead pipes that drove the Romans mad, I disagree it's just 24 Hour News Channels). They appeal to the worst in people's natures; the selfishness, the small-mindedness, the vindictive, the ignorant, the lazy, the hate-filled.
I called Palin's speech fascistic because it was fascistic. It drew on entirely fictitious nationalistic conceptions of the real America being that in small towns, it lambasted the enemy within thereby creating scapegoats and it did all of this under the pretence of American exceptionalism so as to obscure the real issues and the real problems facing the country. It's clear cut if you ask me, though I appreciate the attempt to invoke "political correctness" (which is always a sign of base stupidity) and to say that actually it's the people criticising the nationalistic, scape-goat summoning authoritarians who are the real fascists. I'd laugh if I didn't know that such arguments weren't common-place in American politics at the moment.
"Meanwhile the domestic policies of the traditional Conservatives have resulted in an economic climate that has just brought about one of the largest nationalisations in history."
I thought that it was sub-prime loans. Can we get back to the SF now? You're better at it.
I'm willing to read the blog of someone that I disagree with politically. But the caricature of all one's enemies as evil and stupid is bad thinking and bad blogging.
Posted by: Thras | September 10, 2008 at 03:28 PM
Sub-prime loans resulting from a totally unregulated marketplace in which banks and investors are encouraged to take bigger and bigger risks knowing full well that if and when it all goes tits up (which it just has) the tax-payer would be there to bail everyone out.
I'm not painting anyone as evil or stupid. I think that the Republicans are appealing to the worst in everyone's nature because they have, as a movement, utterly run out of ideas. They'll say anything at this point as long as it will get them re-elected.
Posted by: Jonathan M | September 10, 2008 at 03:38 PM
When did the Republicans get so thin-skinnned? When did listening to what the other side has to say and replying honestly become a sign on weakness or deviancy?
Also, does Mr Bee know that you're not an American? It might be that's why he called you a 'liberal', rather than a Democrat.
Can I say that I am plenty tired of the words 'smug' and 'elite' being used in any political context, especially as they're most often immediately followed by accusations that the speaker being referenced is over-simplifying the arguments of their opponent and implying that the speaker is trying to pull a fast one on the rhetorically unsophisticated authentic American?
Posted by: Evan | September 10, 2008 at 04:38 PM
All I can say is, "Bravo!"
I agree almost completely. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: SMD | September 10, 2008 at 07:31 PM