Same old lovemongers.... They can't help having an affinity for anyone who hates America.
Gagdad Bob | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 8:56 am | #

Don't miss in today's WSJ Anti-Americans on the March
A must-read - if I find it available without subscription I'll add a link.
Fausta | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 10:57 am | #

Im at a loss to see how you go on the offensive when the voices of the people in the Heartland are basically silenced by MSM. And what voices do get thru are chosen specifically for their "spinability" and ease of out of context rebuttal.

These media mouthpieces need to be taken apart economically one by one by the people of the Heartland speaking with just their wallets.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:05 am | #

Heres an interesting take i ran across on why intellectuals oppose capitalism.
http://babbcenter.blogs.com/babb...ter/philosophy/
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:09 am | #

Oh no! More Faux Liberal/Leftist "bashing".

I especially liked Dunn's statement to the effect that conspiracy theories are hegemonist.

What Faux Liberal groupist minions fail to understand is that they are in fact being manipulated by their own Leaders, who themselves are basically Communist/Dictatorial/Fascist/ Narcissist anti-free thought bigots.

These Leaders intend thoughts to be only tools in service of another agenda, thought control.

Thus, for example, the groupist-follower minions are told that they are "elite" or morally superior, which is convenient since the willing followers also seem to have a peculiar inability to examine their own thoughts, especially those involving the very items of the Conspiracies which are fed to them on an "as necessary" basis.

Conspiracy theories as a tool of hegemonists work because the willing groupist Faux Liberal minions simply don't need to disprove them. Thus they can't prove them either, and likewise find no need to do so.

While fearing being-controlled, the Faux Liberals we see all around us seem to need and desire being-controlled as a proxy for being unable to control their own thoughts. That is, they are either unable to think reflectively and rationally, or they have a disabling fear lack of faith in their own ability to do so. They prefer hegemony and even desire it.

Sorry, Faux Liberals, but I've seen too much of it and of you.
J. Peden | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:27 am | #

Not a single institution (with the professional military perhaps excepted) has been unaffected.

if you read CDR Salamander, you will soon come to know that the peace rot of Leftist activists, are indeed affecting the military. But only the military branches that do not see active combat and war on a regular basis. Hence, peace rot. It weakens the body and soul, allowing the disease of Leftism to take hold.
Ymarsakar | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 12:22 pm | #

During the Cold War, there were actually quite a few academics--including some pretty far to the left--who opposed totalitarianism in its Soviet form and understood the necessity for national defense. There seem to be a lot fewer of these people today. I suspect the tremendous expansion of the universities over recent decades has sucked a lot of people into academic careers who are in no way true intellectuals, however much they may posture as such.
david foster | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 12:32 pm | #

Let's not underestimate the role of vanity in left-think. The advocacy of big government in the name of undefinable, let alone unattainable, abstractions such as "social justice" and "sustainable economy" is the only virtue of the unaccomplished. (Government paychecks rarely count as accomplisment, guys; don't tell me how hard you work for your loot; it's still looted.)
Brett | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 1:04 pm | #

What we're seeing now is that the void left by the dumping of religious myths that "enslaved" our minds, is being replaced by a much more sinister secular myth, that enslaves our minds with no apparent moral baseline below which it can sink.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 1:35 pm | #

SteveH, that babbcenter philosophical article was well written, and interesting psychologically, too.

As an oversimplification, it seems that the observation-hypothesis is that "intellectuals" are susceptible to learning to think they are better, and so conclude they should get paid more relative to non-intellectual inferiors, while not doing much to actually earn what they think they deserve within the context of capitalism, which has in fact provided a large niche for them to begin with. Sounds like thanklessness narcissism to me.

And no wonder they hate Walmart. Even the "poor" can look just like them.
J. Peden | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 2:14 pm | #

The left simply has worked harder at this. The rest of us are busy enjoying the fruits of our free market and living our lives. The left seem to be like missionaries, dedicating their lives to making sure their message is heard over and over and over. We have to get control of our educational system. I cannot understand why moderates and conservatives continue to let the left run the univerisites. We contribute money, send our kids and pay tuition, some of us sit on the Boad of Regents, etc. But we don't seem to be able to break the stranglehold of the left. Do we just not care? I don't get it.
Donna Stadler | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 3:31 pm | #

You would think that, after all these years of capitalism providing ever higher living standards to those who embrace it, some of these socialistic/communistic types might take a second look and figure out that central planning and over-regulation don't work all that well.

Of course they always claim that the right levers weren't pulled or the right people weren't in charge. If collectivism were just done right it would work to provide everyone with perfect equality yada, yada, yada. And there it is.....they really, truly believe that egalitarianism and non-competetive lives will provide everyone with utopia.

Everyone of them should be forced to read "THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL" by DeSoto and "RICH NATIONS AND POOR NATIONS" by Barbara Ward. Then they ought to have to spend time studying Adam Smith's theories of free markets followed by a stint studying a successful corporation from bottom to top.

If they would just spend less time hating Capitalism and those unequal outcomes, and more time in mentoring people to provide the skills needed to succeed in a competitive environment, think how much richer we'd all be.
Jimmy J. | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 4:41 pm | #

Hate Gifting: Giving one leftist siamese twin a less expensive present than you give his brother.

Hate Shopping: Taking your Macy's packages by a homeless person.

Hate Sex: Any sex that results in a birth.

Hate Bowling: Using bowling pins painted to resemble cute little endangered penguins.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 8:26 pm | #

An apparently hopeful note of progress in the battle against the leftist infestation of higher ed....

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquir...al/ 16190303.htm

(if the link doesn't work, try RCP "A watershed event for education" by David Horowitz)
peterobinson | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 9:08 pm | #

"You would think that, after all these years of capitalism providing ever higher living standards to those who embrace it, some of these socialistic/communistic types might take a second look and figure out that central planning and over-regulation don't work all that well." -- Jimmy J. - 12.09.06 - 4:41 pm |

You would think.

But there's one problem. The Left is NOT a reality based movement. They live in a fantasy world, as the good Dr. has so often pointed out.

Being confronted with the truth only makes them more determined to prove it wrong. And, that will continue until the suffering they cause is unbearable, or just a small percentage of America wakes up before the next election (assuming the terrorists don't cause any major damage before then).
ytba | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 10:28 pm | #

Ytba -

The left, oddly enough, seems to require a certain amount of misery and deprivation in society. In order for them to get society to accept their social changes, there's got to be serious trouble, severe stratification and social unrest. If that trouble doesn't exist, it has to be created.

You want people dissatisfied with their lives - so they fight against Wal-Mart, because it pays above-union wages and employs a heck of a lot of folks - many more than any mom&pop stores they might replace in an area. It also provides large quantities of inexpensive consumer goods and wholesome (well, relatively) food in areas where the alternatives wouldn't be as inexpensive, high quality, or as plentiful. I went into a Wal-Mart once out in what felt like the middle of nowhere - they had peaches on sale for 89 cents a pound. And they were imported from South Africa. It was out of peach season in the US...

What's wrong with this, you might
ask?

To me - nothing. To the folks who want the misery shared - everything. Capitalism has supplied, with little government intervention, food and consumer goods enabling a lifestyle that'd be pretty much a fantasy forty years back, or only available to the very rich. TVs, cable TV, all sorts of consumer goods, DVDs, games, food imported from other continents very cheaply - what's not to like?

They're not supplied by the government. They're not paid for by the putative 'rich'. They're produced through capitalism, and thus aren't acceptable to the true believers.

In order for socialism or communism to be acceptable, a large group's got to be totally unhappy with the current setup. And capitalism keeps that from happening. So the thing to do is hamstring capitalism however possible - through massive taxation, through restrictive legislation, through any means fair or foul. Because someone with a job, who can buy the things he wants isn't going to willingly sacrifice his lifestyle for some pie in the sky promises from some loon promising equality for everyone. It works when you haven't got anything and don't see a chance for a good lifestyle - so that's what must be removed before the hard-core left have a chance...

J.
JLawson | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 10:54 pm | #

JLawson,
By George, I think you done broke the code! It's not envy, it's not compassion for victims, it's not a vision of a better system, it's not wanting a better life for the poor

No, it is: Hamstring capitalism however possible to create economic problems, which you can then promise to solve with big government programs. Which create more problems to be solved with more big government programs, etc. That's their plan to gain and maintain power and control.

I got it! Thanks.
Jimmy J. | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:42 pm | #

JLawson | 12.09.06 - 10:54 pm |

Yes.

Very nice overview of the topic, btw. If only more people could see it.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:54 pm | #

As the Dr. quotes James Dunn, "The Iraq War was a godsend for the American left, something they'd have had to invent if it hadn't happened on its own."

But, if you recall, it didn't happen "on it's own," because they nearly all voted for it. Then, after having lit the fuse, they ran away, waited for the explosion, screemed how they'd been deceived and pointed at conservatives and said "they did it." Disgusting slime little #$%&*'s!!!!!
ytba | Email | Homepage | 12.09.06 - 11:57 pm | #

Why dont we just hire Wal Mart to run the government. Couldnt you imagine buying your automobile tag for 10 bucks from a lady in a "how may i help you" vest? I want royalties for this brain stormer.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 12.10.06 - 12:15 am | #

All of these academics became crypto-Communists overnight, completely independently, in a process that had its beginnings at the height of the Cold War, with no money, help or encouragement from the USSR in an effort to undermine American will to continue fighting the Cold War.


Does it even pass the laugh test?
RS | Email | Homepage | 12.10.06 - 11:18 am | #

"It works when you haven't got anything and don't see a chance for a good lifestyle - so that's what must be removed before the hard-core left have a chance..." JLawson. Excellent comment J.

1977 was as close as they've gotten in my lifetime. Those were some dark days to be sure.
White Ringer | Email | Homepage | 12.10.06 - 3:29 pm | #

Hear, hear! Keep up the good work!
Cassandra | Email | Homepage | 12.10.06 - 5:16 pm | #

Why dont we just hire Wal Mart to run the government.
And outsource the WOT to the Chinese? Be a lot cheaper.

It's not envy, it's not compassion for victims, it's not a vision of a better system, it's not wanting a better life for the poor.. That's their plan to gain and maintain power and control.
You mean this “left” of which you speak are actually losers in the system who, in another time, might have broken out the pitchforks and torches and tossed the baron into the river?

I got sidetracked. My main point:

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you. On the other hand, it’s too bad Chomsky can’t seem to come up with anything better regarding ‘libertarian socialism’ than what the founding fathers had in mind over 200 years ago.

Libertarian socialism = management of the common good (socialism) in a manner that attempts to maximize the liberty of individuals and minimizes concentration of power or authority (libertarianism).

The founding father’s vision = any top predators would be kept busy competing with each other while the various ‘machines’ of society would be maintained by public servants who would keep being voted into power as long as they proved competent at problem solving outside of the internal predation thing (external enemies, acts of God, financial panics, resource management, technological goofs, etc.).

I say there’s good money in being Noam’s kind of “lefty.”
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 12.11.06 - 1:59 am | #

"I say there’s good money in being Noam’s kind of “lefty.”"

Yeah ... stolen from everyones pockets. What an idiotic concept. It never fails to amaze me that people continue to hail "socialism" in whatever form sounds best at the time when it's been proven time and time again that it doesn't work and eventually creates more, and worse problems then there were to begin with.

Bottom line ... if socialism is so great mankind would have embraced it centuries ago. It isn't, and we don't.
darwin | Email | Homepage | 12.11.06 - 8:59 am | #

I’m no expert, but I think Chomsky was involved in taking the ‘If Americans don’t keep power from consolidating they’ll be throwing tea parties for kings, again’ theme and either purposely or inadvertently influencing it’s morph into a ‘American values are evil’ theme.
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 12.11.06 - 4:31 pm | #

"All of these academics became crypto-Communists overnight, completely independently..." -- RS | 12.10.06 - 11:18 am |

What doesn't "pass the laugh test" is people who post what they believe without knowing what actually happened.

I've hilighted the "money" part of the excerpt below. And the rest of the article is even more informative.

"In the 1930s, the universities were the first German institutions to capitulate to Adolf Hitler. Martin Heidegger, Germany's greatest 20th century philosopher and the intellectual idol of American academics, hailed the advent of the Third Reich from the rectorship of Freiburg University. Fascism was an idea so messianic in its conception, so elitist in its attitudes, and so anti-capitalist in its social philosophy that intellectuals found it irresistible."
http:// www.discoverthenetwork.or...ampus_support=1

Apparently they have the same inability to resist other far-out ideologies, as well.

Many Profs are leftists because they are elitists. They think they are better, smarter and more important than everyone else. They preach to us based on misinterpreted or made-up "facts," and false assumptions, kind of like "RS" does.

They support whatever feeds their fantasy, and for some strange reason it almost always seems to be disasterous. The useful idiots don't have to be paid. The feeling of importance it gives them to be part of the "important" cause-de-jour blinds them to the evil they mistake for good.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 12.11.06 - 8:03 pm | #

americafirst | 12.11.06 - 4:31 pm | comments on Chomsky

As usual, I don't follow you. But, in case you are interrested, here's some information on him from a reliable source.

This piece exposes his dark side, while still giving the demon it's due.

"Any work about Chomsky must begin with linguistics, the field he remade so thoroughly by his scholarly work of the late 1950s that he was often compared to Einstein and other paradigm shifters. Those who admire this achievement but not his politics are at pains to explain what they take to be a disjunction between his work in linguistics and his sociopolitical ideas. They see the former [his linguistics scholarship] as so brilliant and compelling as to be unarguable -- in all a massive scientific achievement - and the latter as so venomous and counter-factual as to be emotionally disturbing."
http://www.discoverthenetwork.or....asp? indid=1232

In short, he's a linguistics sciences Dr. Jekyll, and a sociopolitical Mr. Hyde.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 12.11.06 - 8:23 pm | #

I can’t tell whether Chomsky is just an idiosyncratic professor who’s so wrapped around his political emotions that he winds up looking like (to many) a crackpot, or if he purposely takes advantage of the political emotions of others in order to leverage his own status while not really giving a shit.

America has had problems dealing with the power mad but they’ve been managed as well or better under it’s system than they have under virtually any other system. If he was the wizard his followers say he is then he’d be coming up with better ideas about what to do with these people instead of just whining all the time.
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 12.12.06 - 2:00 am | #

The greatest most noble country in the history of the world? Yikes! You really believe that? What's so great about incarcerating more humans than any other nation on the planet? What's so noble about leaving a third of the nation without adequate health care? And what's so noble about leaving hundreds of thousands of veterans out on the street without a roof over their head? What's so great about a nation that has killed nearly a million people in an unprovoked and illegal war? A nation that justifies the same torture techniques used by the Nazis? A nation that has democratic institutions and forms but no democratic outcome?

Yeah I would stop apologizing because it looks foolish to the rest of the world. Europeans look upon us as the biggest threat to world peace--not Iran. In the real world we are not the greatest nation; we are the greatest imperialist power and people resent that.

As for defeating the Left, you've been trying to do that for years. You have us arrested, killed, beaten, spied on, and basically make our life a living hell, but you can't beat us. A people united will never be defeated. You can win battles, but you'll never defeat us because the ideas we represent speak to the human soul.

dave
dave | Email | Homepage | 07.21.07 - 7:21 pm | #