Liberal Genius
‘Puter’s liberal friends are at it again, blaming the Tucson massacre on conservatives. Specifically, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. Here’s the reasoned detailed analysis from ‘Puter’s friend, via Facebook:
On my way out of this determined-to-destroy itself country–and I’m not entirely ranting–I’ll stop by Palin’s and Bachmann’s and all the rest of the lunatic demagogues’ homes and show them the grisliest photos I can find of those killed and injured in Arizona today.
I cautiously agree with you concerning responsible political dialog. However, the guy’s favorite books according to his online ramblings were The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf, both leftist books. And, as noted above, the buy was bat-shit crazy. Not every tragedy is an excuse to vent on your political opponents.
His primary “viewpoint”–to the extent that he one through his insanity–seems to be profoundly anti-government, pro-violent resistance, pro-gold standard, and anti-immigrant. Again, I’m NOT seeking to establish causality, or paint him as an identifiable “follower” of any politician or public figure in particular. I simply wish, fervently, that our so-called leaders, especially those on the political right, would exercise their leadership and their right to free speech by erring on the side of civility. Cross-hairs, “don’t retreat, reload,” “take your country back,” “2nd amendment remedies,” “hellbent on ruining America,” etc. etc. ad literally nauseum suggest to me that they have chosen, instead, a strategy of inflaming and demonizing. Put that speech out into a culture that is absolutely bat-shit crazy about its citizen’s “rights” to own assault weapons, and you’ve added to a dangerous toxicity. And, for the record: Mein Kampf has traditionally been regarded as a far-right tract–at least until the same people I’m criticizing began throwing around terms like “Nazi” and “Socialist” as “Communist” and “Democrat” as if they were interchangeable, willfully ignorant of both history and potential consequences.
[Friend], you are blaming the Right for this. You cannot say in essence “The shooter holds Rightist views. By implication, it’s all the Right’s fault, especially talk radio. But, in an effort to put a polite veneer on my argument, both sides are to blame. Did I mention it’s the Right’s fault?” It tarnishes an otherwise worthy argument that political rhetoric on both sides is out of control.
Do you want me to run through the litany of highly placed liberals during the Bush years who tolerated Bush assassination talk? It was a joke then. Joe Manchin shooting Cap and Trade? You claim not to want to have the very discussion your words necessitate: who is more to blame for saying stupid, inflammatory things? Dems or Reps?
Believing in the Second Amendment and owning guns are not radical ideas in most areas of the country. I am an NRA member, and a concealed carry permit holder. I own many firearms, including big, scary what you would call assault weapons. I am no danger to you, my neighbors or the government.
Nazism and Communism are two sides of the same coin. I’ll send you a copy of Liberal Fascism, if you like, which debunks in a scholarly way the claim that Nazism is a rightist idea. It is a natural outflow of leftist ideas starting around the turn of the 20th century (big government knows best and should control everything) in an unholy marriage with eugenics, an almost exclusively leftist idea (Sanger, et al).
And, in the end, the guy is bat shit crazy. And crazy is not a political ideology.
[‘Puter], to be explicitly clear: yes, I am blaming the most extreme speakers on the Right for contributing to an atmosphere that is inflamed with ideas that we have experienced a non-Constitutional takeover in this country, that our current President and his party are deliberate enemies of American values, and that the federal government, particularly Democrats, are not to be trusted and always to be resisted, with violence if necessary.
NO, I am not blaming the right for this particular lunatic’s actions. I am asking them to be leaders, and to recognize that they have a tremendous amount of power to shape the entire spectrum of dissent–including its lunatic fringes. What would be wonderful in the wake of this tragedy is if people like Palin and Bachmann and Beck and others who’ve engaged in revolutionary rhetoric were to say: “We’re not responsible for this shooting. But we are responsible for coarsening the culture of our democracy. We’re going to repudiate the use of inflammatory language as much as we can as we go forward. Please join us.” Boehner came close to this in his statement yesterday. I want more. And OF COURSE I want it from both parties. The argument you’re making “Oh, the Dems have done it, too” is beneath you. Of course they have. Not as loudly, not as viciously, and not as recently. And I condemned it then. (I still garner the ire of many of my more lefty friends when I call them out on calling the GOP “Nazis”- I can’t stand that.)
And, yes, I think we’re an insane country for allowing any private citizen a weapon capable of firing multiple bullets into a crowd of people in a matter of seconds. There is no rational self-defense argument for needing to own such a weapon. But you and I have debated that for nearly 20 years, so let’s not do it again here.
I’m aware of the revisionist history of “Liberal Fascism,” and its rejection by most historians and political theorists, so you can hang on to your copy. There are nuances here, of course, but the primary absurdity of calling “Mein Kampf” a “leftist” book–when the entire book is Hitler’s view of the world’s two greatest evils, Communism and Judaism–is what I wished to draw attention to, along with the fact that we’re living in an age when politicians and political commentators feel they can throw around the labels for various distinct (and often opposed) historical political ideologies indistinguishably and indiscriminately as long as the main goal is achieved: paint the other guy as dangerously anti-American.
We will continue to agree to disagree on most everything, from the Second Amendment to the good faith of today’s academy.
I encourage you to reread your initial posting before you accuse me of injecting blame into this horrible crime (“theargument is beneath you”).
I read your post as saying: This crime is the direct result of conservative thought, speech and opinion. Therefore, I lay the blame squarely at the the feet of Ms. Palin and Ms. Bachman. I failed to see any liberal icons in the initial post. I’m not certain it is susceptible of any other reading. But, I will accept your statement that it was not your intent to attack only those with whom you disagree.
The one thing we agree on here is that this individual was batshit crazy.
Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.
’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.
The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.
His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.
He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.
Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.
‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.