The hard left in action: the ends justifies the means
The hard core left is pragmatic about truth, but you don’t often see that fact revealed as honestly as it was in a comment I found at TNR, made by “Virginia Centrist” at 10:17 AM on 01/12/2011, in response to Jonathan Chait’s surprising defense of Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” to describe the attacks on her after the Tucson shooting:
Good lord, Jon! Who cares if it’s intellectually dishonest to attack her and pin this on her. I admire your honestly and lack of cynicism here, but the teaparty has crossed the line of good taste in their vile and violence-laced attacks and rhetoric aimed towards politicians in BOTH PARTIES. I should think that all elites would agree that they deserve this and that this will calm them down and reinforce the temporarily forgotten social norm that over the top rhetoric is inappropriate.
If you’re trying to argue that this won’t work, then you’re wrong. John Boehner has every incentive in the world to quiet these nuts down before a presidential election. Their usefulness is limited to base turnout elections (midterms).
Most Americans will buy these attacks on Palin, by the way, regardless of the facts. Why? Because they don’t like her.
Not everyone on the left acts this way; Chait, for example, certainly didn’t. But many do. I’m just surprised to see someone—even an anonymous commenter—admit it so openly.
The part I like best is “…all elites would agree…”
Who self-identifies as an “elite” in the USA? Obviously not anybody who has a scintilla of understanding for the Founding and the very idea of what the USA is.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Exactly. We know that’s how so many of them think. Thanks to this guy for being honest.
Funny part is, their dishonesty does work. What are all of the, “vile and violent-laced attacks?” this guy alludes to? I don’t recall any teabaggers kicking in windows, beating people senseless or anything else. But, in this commenter’s mind, there have been multiple instances of teabagger violence and attacks.
They live in a world where they are not truthful to themselves so why admit the truth to others? They are the good people, conservatives are bad so however they can discredit conservatives it doesn’t matter.
Neo, you and me both finally saw the real truth. I think more and more people will see what’s really going on. Eventually.
Neo, I saw the comment of Virginia “Centrist” (!) too, and had the same reaction.
My favorite line was …
Crossed the line of good taste…. crossed the line of good taste….
I’m letting that one soak in. The hard-left is holding itself out as a paragon of taste, of all things? Good God.
Notice the condescension. The libs truly believe they are intellectually and morally superior, so if you disagree with them you are obviously stupid and evil, not to mention having bad taste.
Peggy Noonan weighs in. The Right blogosophereerupts in ten…nine…eight…
“ I’m just surprised to see someone–even an anonymous commenter–admit it so openly.”
An anonymous commenter called Virginia CENTRIST, no less. They can’t even be honest with themselves so we should have no expectation that they would be honest or show integrity to anyone else.
I too loved the “all elites would agree” line and thought it was the most revealing part of the whole comment. It’s clear the commenter thinks elites not only should be in charge of everyone else (the untermenschen), but that they should stack the rules so that they specifically cater to the elites and disregard everyone else.
Another instance of the truth of Jay Nordlinger’s bon mot: “Being on the left means never having to say you’re sorry.”
It’s tough to fight an honest …um… campaign against people who admit of no scruples. Kinda reminiscent of fighting communists – reading words such as those of that TNR commenter always looses echoes in my mind of the interrogator in “Darkness at Noon” calmly and patiently explaining to Rubashov why he should happily desire to be executed.
“If you want to make an omelette you gotta break some eggs” – I think it was Hannah Arendt who replied that you can break a lot of eggs without getting an omelette. One half of the political spectrum has yet to let that sink in.
The really interesting question is not why leftists hate Palin but why Palin drives them into a frenzy. Jennifer Rubin had some of it in a Commentary article some months back–a lot of it is class bias. For organized feminism, of course, Palin is a refutation of what they believe “true womanhood is.” But there’s something beyond this and maybe someone else has some ideas–but she really sparks a rage that seems inappropriate to the matter.
I am angry. These smug little self-esteem-filled idiots don’t have a clue. I just spoke with my brother, who got a birthday card yesterday from his schizophrenic son. He is now under outpatient care, but the heartache doesn’t go away. We were so close until I moved to Germany and he went off to college and got involved with drugs. I’ve seen relatives whose children have died because of other illnesses.
Oh, the commenters are so elite and they know so much more than conservatives. How many of them have encountered a women living in a house with rain coming through the ceiling who was scared to death that she had lung cancer and that her little children would have no one? Would they have spent time helping her build up courage to see a doctor? I did, and 6 months later after hospitalization in a TB facility, she came into my office. I can still see her face and her smile and her confidence. No, all of us conservatives are ignorant, unfeeling neanderthals stirring up trouble. I am not bowing to any of these jerks. I’ve seen 10 years of them mocking our country, bowing and apologizing to the tyrants and bon pensants of the rest of the world, and I have a right to be angry. Whatever one thinks about Sarah Palin’s prospects for the presidency, I’m pretty darned sure she would share her caribou stew with anyone who was starving. I’ve seen people like her do similar things. The smug idiots wouldn’t even talk to you if you were wearing the wrong brand of shoes.
Not too far removed from the reasoning the Nazis used to exterminate 6,000,000 Jews is it?
Alex Bensky: I wrote about Palin and the class war here, back in September of 2008.
“Not everyone on the left acts this way?” Yes, they do. They are all elitist, socialist, America-hating scum and need to be driven into the wilderness via the ballot box at every opportunity.
And, gs, a link to something that aging loon Peggy Noonan has to say? Why not link to someone’s Pet Rock? I have trouble following her because the sound “hiccup” occurs every four or five words. “Put down the vodka, Peggy, and step back slowly from the keyboard.” Peggy Noonan? HaHaHaHa! Who could possibly give a flying shiite what she has to say about anything?
Re: The TNR commentor: “Centrist,” is the new Progressive. Since they assume that Left-wing goals and policies deserve to be the norm, naturally it follows that they might want to describe themselves as “Centrist.” Liberal = Progressive = Centrist.
It’s a kind of a moving of the rhetorical goal posts, which I suspect in the case of this commentor was not really conscious. They are the reasonable “Centrists,” and the Right is ‘radical’ by definition. The Left’s elite knowingly use these types of unstated assumptions as a tool – on the level of the TNR commentor it is simply assumed.
And I think the TNR commentor’s more open assumption, that “most Americans” will “buy” the attack, could be projection or wishful thinking. This latest attack on Palin seemed to have had it’s credibility destroyed from the outset. Of course those that already hated her will take it as an article of faith that Palin is an accessory to the Tucson murders, only too happy to promote any slander against her.
By these attacks they elevate her unwillingly to the center of attention and then have the gall to turn around and deride her for being the center of attention. But perhaps the hypocrisy was a bit too obvious this time.
Leftists I know are putting venomous posts about Sarah on Facebook. It’s sickening. And scary.
When I was still on the Democrat reservation, I remember the viciousness of the attacks on Bush. Even then, it made me uncomfortable. But I was never a “leftist,” and at least I knew Communism was as evil as, and more successful than, Fascism.
In other words, I wasn’t a true Leftist Believer in the religious sense. These people all remind me of Donald Sutherland, shrieking at the normal human in the final scene of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
We are well off the map of human rationality, folks, and into the darkest woods of a certain kind of mob madness.
Liberal = Progressive = Centrist
Just as global warming was morphed into climate change and is now climate chaos. But still completely man made, don’t you know.
Here is a bit of news, utterly ignored as best I can tell:
By Reuters, 1/14: “The sheriff’s department said Loughner was carrying two 15-round magazines of ammunition, a knife, some money, a credit card and his Arizona driver’s license.”
Whatever happened about the claims by Rep. McCarthy and Sen. Lautenberg that he had 33-round mags, that these should be outlawed since there is no purpose to them other than to kill?
The purpose of any gun is to shoot a projectile, regardless of maggie size. Duh.
“With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid.”
I this Sarah Palin scares the left spitless. She is the first real representative of Codevilla’s “Country Party,” and she is not backing down.
I do worry that someone will do something stupid that starts an unstoppable chain of events.
I think Sarah… Sheesh!
It’s starting.
Shooting rampage victim arrested at ABC-TV town hall meeting
I wonder if the “Virginia Centrist” is for real, or is a parody. The sad thing: how can one tell?
Comment at the Ace of Spades thread about the Tucson shooting victim arrested for threatening a local Tea Party leader:
I must have read that 20 minutes ago and I still can’t stop laughing.
Palin hate is the new, stronger version of Bush hate, itself newer & stronger than Reagan hate.
After Nixon hate.
The liberal “Centrists” hate pro-life Republicans with the same kind of hate that Germans used to admit in their hatred of Jews. And they used Blood Libels, accusing innocent Jews of being responsible for various crimes.
Why? Because they don’t like her.
Not really her, but her pro-life, pro-Christian, pro-capitalism, pro-American views — and they hate anybody and everybody who doesn’t hate her.
I should think that all elites would agree
Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!