in the post about Obama below, I got a wondefully well thought out comment from “bonnieschlitz”.<\/p>\n
I mean, I suppose she calls this thought. Witness:<\/p>\n
And Og:
\nIn your eloquent criticism of Senator Obama, you say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the only people this [Socialism] will benefit are the ruling elites (him and his brethren).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Obviously you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been taught by a Proper Pinko in an ideal, fully-funded public education institution. Because socialism does not reward the elite. In theory, it distributes wealth evenly among the people (hence the qualifier, SOCIAL). And socialism, as a viable alternative to capitalism, does not exist. (You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wave a magic wand and say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Presto! Socialism!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t become President and infect a country with it either.) So when you accuse Obama of playing to the elites, your fault lies in attempting to connect his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153socialism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153elitism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201cbecause you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have both. Either he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for the people, or he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for the elite. Which one is it? The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153elitist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d label doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t jive here either. But interestingly, if you wiki \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fascism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find this:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153a term used to describe authoritarian nationalist political ideologies or mass movements that are concerned with notions of cultural decline or decadence and seek to achieve a millenarian national rebirth by exalting the nation or race and promoting cults of unity, strength, and purity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nHmmm\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6even more interesting when juxtaposed to the following quote from this blog post:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We dislike Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies and what he stands for because without exception, everything he stands for is bad for America, bad for America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people, and bad for the future of this great nation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nIn that quote I see every indicator of what qualifies as fascism (at least to wikipedia)\u00e2\u20ac\u201cnationalistic chest-pounding, an exalted purity of tradition, and a paranoid fear of cultural decline.
\nSo, Og, my fellow cultural theorist and political analyst, in the words of TBird, and that hip, hip Lefty from Galilee, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Physician, heal thyself!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nOn another point, in no way does Obama (nor the policies he indicates) imply he favors statism. In fact, a few weeks ago, in Zanesville, Ohio, he described a plan for intensifying (not oppressively expanding) Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faith-based and neighborhood-based initiatives. These organizations provide volunteer, charitable support for folks who, under the USUAL Lefty Entitlement Pattern, would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enabled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (in both senses) by welfare programs. The government assists these faith and community-based organizations through grants, and the org\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also benefit from donations by the private sector. Because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re relatively free of bureaucratic bullshit, and staffed by people who WANT to help, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more efficient and more cost-effective than any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153socialist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d entitlement program ever could be.
\nAnd, just to end my little rant here, in case you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t noticed, over the past 8 years (at least) the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153little people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d HAVE been paid lip service, industry HAS been crushed, and jobs HAVE disappeared. All while on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conservative,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pro-capitalist, neoliberal, big industry time clock.
\nLuckily, I can still teach\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6for now. <\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe ivory tower ignorance drips forth like a fine, truffle laden gravy from a standing rib roast. <\/p>\n
I may fisk this later, but at present I have a busy day ahead. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to expose the demonstrable fallacy in everything Bonnie says, from the mind numbing ignorance required to believe that Obama is incapable of attempting to impose socialism while playing to the elites (which is provably, demonstrably true for anyone with even a publik skool edumakation) to the media guided notion that the world is a faar worse place today because of evil Bushitlerchimpymchalliburton. <\/p>\n
Sorry, Bonnie. You’ve drank so much of the Kool-Ade you have no idea you’re soaking in it. Try getting a job in the real world and seeing how life works. You know, where your “funding” depends on how good you are at your job. <\/p>\n
As for this:<\/p>\n
Luckily, I can still teach\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6for now<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You’ve certainly taught me that my preconception of the abilities of the average public school teacher is…. well, it’s accurate as hell.<\/p>\n
Fisk in comments or on your own blog. Pascal, I expect you to step up to the plate on this one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
in the post about Obama below, I got a wondefully well thought out comment from “bonnieschlitz”. I mean, I suppose she calls this thought. Witness: And Og: In your eloquent criticism of Senator Obama, you say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the only people this [Socialism] will benefit are the ruling elites (him and his brethren).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Obviously you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}