quoting "exchange students" who warn us about small increments of socialism being what brought on communism in Vietnam. Of course Communism never did arise that way anywhere, but by armed revolution or invasion, nor did it grow from or replace socialism but rather corrupt feudalism or colonial fiefdom. The slippery slope argument they all share is a fallacy of course; an unsupported assumption or extrapolation designed to deceive and frighten, but it's one of the few things left to Obama haters and they continue to use it.The recent recrudescence of a fake quote by Nikita Kruschev that first appeared to the delight of wingnuts nearly 50 years ago is a perfect example. Titled "And so it begins!" the screed tells us that:
" We cannot expect Americans to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of Socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism"
That Kruschev never said it or anything like it and that extensive research supports the fact that it was cooked up by people who had private reasons to object to social security, minimum wages, welfare and unions, doesn't really matter. This is the USA and most of us are either ignorant, dishonest or both and a substantial number are barking mad and willing to believe anything that validates their obsessions, their fears and their greed.
I'm nearly convinced that the biggest problem facing our new administration is not terrorism, depression or climate change, but the enemy within; the enemy who disseminate viral e-mails, throw tantrums on AM radio, giggle and sneer on Fox News: the people who make stupid jokes and the people who pass them on and on and on.
Another famous quote that turns out to be pure male cow poop: "This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!"
ReplyDeleteThat quote is attributed to Adolf Hitler, but he never said it.
Why is the party of Ten Commandments always so quick to violate the one about lies?
As long as the Obama administration stays focused on the issues and can accomplish some positive things, this kind of silliness will simply vanish - poof!
ReplyDeleteSomeone had the nerve to insinuate that we were going to be a socialist state to my mother, a little old church going lady who lived through that horror we know as WWII and spent time trapped behind the iron curtain. She is also a stalwart Obama supporter. I'm sure he got a dose of her evil eye along with her acid tongue - poor dope probably never knew what hit him!
I think what we are reading and listening to from some of the radio and tv and blog crazies is the mainstreaming of the utterly utter in wingnut hogwash. Seems to me that for a number of decades this stuff was around just as it had been in the commie-bashing McCarthy days, but perhaps something like a discursive consensus kept it from being uttered too vociferously or broadly. But outlandish claims and conspiratorial lunacy have gone from being shameful to more or less normal, rather like the mainstreaming of pornography. This latter phenomenon really hit home for me when I was walking down the aisle of one of my classrooms a few years back and I noticed that on the laptop screen of a perfectly nice young lady was porno wallpaper featuring x-rated hall-of-famers in all their naked glory. So I thought, okay, I guess this is considered normal nowadays. Over time, what was all but unthinkable becomes thinkable, sayable, doable, even commonplace. It’s considered “normal” now to hold the nuttiest opinions—hopelessly irrational stuff that one would have kept to oneself years ago for fear of being ridiculed or ostracized. But I’m glad the majority of us rejected the hype this time around.
ReplyDeleteNot only did Hitler never say that, Germany disarmed its citizens before Hitler had anything to say about it.
ReplyDeletePeople with real knowledge of Communism don't buy this shinola, but
How many "real" Americans know anything about anything?
I blame the new 24 hour news media for part of making this crap mainstream. The fair and balanced scam only means that a large volume of lies, propaganda and worse drowns out the truth. Fact finding used to be the backbone of real journalism, it sure isn't these days.
Dino: Over time, what was all but unthinkable becomes thinkable, sayable, doable, even commonplace.
ReplyDeleteWith each passing decade, I have noticed standards of decorum and good taste getting pushed further and further into the wilderness. But something tells me we are not talking about taste and decorum anymore but standards of truth, which have become increasing relativistic depending upon who wields the bully-pulpit.
Fogg: Fact finding used to be the backbone of real journalism, it sure isn't these days.
We can all thank Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post for telling us that the press deals in facts, which is not always the same as the truth.
Maybe Bradlee’s remark was unintended sarcasm, but it gave public officials a license to lie with impunity knowing full well the press would be too cowed or too overwhelmed by the volume of political noise to expose the dissembling. That is how political lying came to be regarded as newsworthy events, which the press reports with matter-of-fact blandness.
However, mainstream media is no longer the sole power of the Fourth Estate. There is now the Internet, meaning folks like us. How ironic: The proletariat and the Internet have merged into one.
Yup, you're right, Fogg: The Commies ARE Coming, and we are the Commies. Viva la Revolucion!