In case anyone's missed it, Sarah Palin is McCain's running mate.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

You mean the maids who are actually interns?


"The Family" - kinda reminiscent of Charles Manson's Family, innit?

I'd say that was being rather generous..... of Manson's family-- C-street power-brokers are much, much worse than Manson ever was---- moreover, Manson was far more honest in his insanity.

[pieces o nine]

One of my personal checkpoints to prevent all-out-partisanship is the mirror test. You know, how would I react if the *exact same* legislation / scandal / agenda / coup / what-have-you occurred on the opposite side of the aisle?  (If my gut reaction is to start making justifications instead of sneering, then I'm probably being blindly partisan. If my gut reaction is to sneer rather than approve, then I'm probably being blindly partisan. Conclusion: avoid ideological hypocrisy.)

What escapes me in all the incredible mess being generated by the Faux Nation, Neocon war-without-end, down-with-the-papists-and-up-with-our-own-theocracy, 'patriot' teabaggers is that *none* of the people I know who blindly support that crap would tolerate a *hint* of the same behaviour from someone self identifying as a moderate, progressive, or liberal. On some level, they must know this, yet it seems to have absolutely no inhibitory effect on their thinking, speech or actions.

Conversely, *none* of the people I know who self identify as moderate, progressive, or liberal react with anything other than disgust and revulsion if and when one of their own is plausibly implicated -- let alone cheerfully proclaiming -- association with ugliness and true scandal.

It seems to me that the greater a person's need is to divide the world into clear, manageable dichotomies, the less his/her ability to think and act rationally.



~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I'm back -- had to rummage for a bit to reloacte these ~10 minute clips again. Ironic, no? Perhaps even ... dangerous ... SUBVERSIVE ... maybe even ... PROGRESSIVE REDISTRIBUTIONARY LIBERAL FASCIO-SOCIALIST!!!      

Despotism 1946         Democracy 1945

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

The book I linked to here:

I read a book

(which is called American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges) discusses all of that, Pieces.

[pieces o nine]

Thanks, Scrib.

I pulled that book link up on another tab while rummaging for the old patriotic clips. It looks quite promising, and I've added it to my acquire list. Maybe some 'deviant art' is in the making from the topic?

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Peeeerhaps. I was planning to incorporate parts of it into an essay I've been contemplating about the strange alliance of the working class and Neo Cons. And it's pretty damn good, though it will induce paranoia.


_{edited for spellings}

[Swatopluk]

There is a frontal view of a topless little girl in the Democracy clip. How could such smut ever have been allowed to be shown to Americans?

Seriously, there is one clearly misleading claim in the clip. Aristotle despised democracy (as did, at least in the direct form, most of the founding fathers), so to quote either as pro middle class implying them to be automatically pro democracy as a result does not pass the best practices test.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

IMO all extreme ideologies will overlook hypocrisy because they are Machiavellian in the academic sense, that is, their goals justify the means to achieve those goals.

To be fair, we all have a bias and are likely to overlook or minimize certain actions mostly on an emotional level, but I am convinced that a extreme ideology is more prone to be hypocritic (and in a more flagrant way) than none.
---
Those videos are awesome, and certainly "pinko-subversive" nowadays, which in itself is a very worrisome sign.