Ignorance Isn't Anti-American
The wingnuts from the far right not only seem to be naive, or better yet selectively ignorant, when it comes to historical fact, but apparently have managed to develop super powers making them impervious to reality.
The teabaggers had their tea parties to protest rising taxes, claiming they were doing it in honor of the original Boston Tea Party, which had very little to do with taxes or any rise in taxes, but that doesn't seem to matter to people like Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin, who ginned viewers up to go out and make asses of themselves by throwing tea bags and calling themselves teabaggers.
The tea party was American and by gosh the Teabaggers are real Americans and they do what Americans do. Like come out in clusters, sometimes nearing double digits, which Fox News reported as "massive crowds." They carry signs that say "Welcome to France" and "Is Obama French?" as if we were approaching the end of western civilization. These signs were held by people who had never been to France. If they had they would have seen the throngs of topless women walking the beaches, cheese lined streets, and wine fountains on every corner. They also forget that without the French, around the time of the Boston Tea Party, they never would have won the right to carry semi automatic weapons to rallies.
Michelle Malkin appeared on Hannity last week, in part to pimp her new book, yapping about the "regal" democrats, hardball politics, and slam the government for making the same remarks she defended in past administrations.
Hannity, in his Fox Newsy unbiased, innocent, and dejected way asks Malkin, "Is this the first time in our life time we've ever seen the government really attack people like this?"
Malkin, dejected and aghast, responds with, "I think it is."
Really? She can't think of a single instance when the government accused people of being anti-American? Is her knowledge or account of history that skewed that she can't shed a glimmer of truth on anything? Would it really be too much to ask for a little journalistic integrity? That rather than counting on your viewers being complete and total rubes, you show them a little respect and inform and educate them?
A more accurate statement from Malkin would have been something along the lines of, "Yes John I do remember the government attacking people and I don't have to go to back to the dark ages of McCarthyism. Bush/Cheney did it all throughout the WMD fiasco. During WWII we had internment camps for people who ... well ... people who looked like me John. Michelle Bachman called all liberals anti- American on Hardball, and Palin's done it so many times it's not even worth mentioning. But usually they're attacking commies, tree huggers, and wimps. Not us and it hurts John. It really hurts."
Malkin and her buddies on the right are defending and even inciting people to protest a bill that could help tens of millions of people. American people who drop at a rate of 18,000 every year because they don't have health care. Many of the same people who are protesting the bill could benefit from it.
Malkin's right though, these people aren't un-American. They're uneducated, ignorant, and uninformed and that's completely American.
Follow Richard Zombeck on Twitter: www.twitter.com/capedshitheader
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Under stress, the weakest part of any organism, or organization, emerges to dominate attention. There can be no doubt there is genuine stress all across the nation, from a wide variety of sources, most of which most people don't really understand and don't really recognize. All the unfocussed anger is being marshalled by the right-wingers (as best they can through propaganda) in service of continuing to try to provide justification for a dictatorial, totalitarian police state, run openly (at least MORE openly) by the corporate oligarchy. This was one of the background perils duly noted by the Founders leading up to, during and after the Revolution, and which eventually led to the Constitutional forms of our government in the first place: separation of powers, frequent elections, and safeguards against totalitarianism, protection of the least among us from the powers of the state and from oligarchy/monarchy.
The Founders sought to "balance" a multitude of competing interests, recognizing such balance to be delicate indeed. Right-wingers, then as now, HATE the notion of balanced interests -- they truly believe THEIR interests should dominate, just as slave-holders believed they "always treated their slaves humanely." Never mind, of course, that they kept them SLAVES!
I love to read these posts. It shows how people on the left commiserate with each other. Everybody knows that the left prey and exploit the most vulnerable and uneducated people in the US for their support base. So sad, so very very sad.
i despise what fox stands for but give them credit. their viewership is double that of cnn and msnbc. why? because they know for a fact americans are the laziest people in the universe. they accept as fact every thing fox says. they would never take time out of their day to fact check. fox knows this and are aware that they can tell their viewers anything with out fear there lies will be found out. some one mentioned that if you only watched fox, your probably not aware thar michael jackson passed away a few weeks ago.
Fox knows these are the same people that keep re-electing the same incompetent group to Congress. There is money to be made. Outrage, spring break photos to follow. Simpsons at 8:00
Only in American could an attempt to bring some sanity into the cost of medical care be seen as a traitorous, socialist, evil plot to take over the world!
The irony of teabaggerswho didn't appear to be very affluent, protesting the slight increase in taxes for people making over a quarter million a year.
The shock of US senators raising their hands to show they don't believe in evolution.
The unmitigated gall of that European woman taking up the mantle of the birthers.
Senior citizens on Medicare protesting government intervention in health care.
People throwing around concepts like socialism, French, nazism, cap and trade, Boston Tea Party, etc. and have no idea what they're talking about.
It isn't the fact that so many are ignorant, it's that they're happy to wallow in it.
i still havent figured out what freedom they lost! waaaaaaaaaa
Here's an historical fact, socialism has failed everytime it has been tried..
Been to Scandanavia lately? Or Vietnam?
Or even, as Alice Cooper in Wayne's World points out, Milwaukee; the only major US city to have elected three socialist mayors. Matter of fact, during the last socialist mayor's THREE terms ... yep THREE successive terms, industry grew, the city doubled in size, and never had to borrow money. Now maybe that's socialism couched in democracy, but it sounds vaguely successful. BTW ... that was in the heart of the anti-socialism in the US.
or north korea or cuba?
Capitalism is working very well in Vietnam.
Yes, I was in Sweden, just outside Stockholm. The blond haired cab driver after much testing to find my political beliefs became relieved when I said I was voting for McCain. He said that "You don't want this". I said "I know". The cab driver had a PhD in engineering.
How about yourself, Star?
Well, you could also conjecture that no country has ever remained a superpower. Think of the Brits, the French, the Spanish, the Russians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Trojans, the Carthaginians, the Persians, the Japanese, the Aztecs, the Mayans, ...
The bigger question, is when you say failure, what does failure mean? If you mean morphing or even transmorgr
The fact is, what happens in history has cycles and waves. The issue ends up being not reducing history to a talking point, but understanding the richness and complexity of history.
A nuanced, thoughtful response to, I'm afraid, someone who thinks in absolutes.
I doubt you got through, but I appreciate your trying.
Here's a contemporary fact: Big Pharma and the Health insurance industry have been writing the rules for decades by lobbying complicit legislators, many of whom are more than willing to accept millions in donations of campaign contributions in return. They've ginned the system and stacked the deck and have reaped trillions of dollars in profits, all of which would be fine (well, at least we could look the other way)if they actually managed to provide affordable health care.
There are just some endeavors that a private sector, profit motive approach can't address.
We tried the -for profit, private sector military "contractors" and we got Blackwater.
We allow KBR, Haliburton and Parson access to multi-million dollar, no bid, cost plus contracts; we get service persons electrocuted in the shower, crumbling, half finish schools and police stations.
In the day, all of those projects would have been handled by military personnel or government agencies which likely would have been more efficient than the privates and which certainly would have cost less.
It's corporate welfare, or corporate socialism if you prefer, and judging by the fierceness of the opposition to any trace of real reform, it must be working---for them.
There is absolutely nothing factual in your comment, and you identify yourself as one the people described in the article above by making such an absurd comment.
No one in the US is shooting for Socialism though--just another socialist program, a feature that most developed and far more democratic nations have in abundance.
BTW, we have a few of those...bu
So has capitalism
As a fellow zoom can I ask a question? Do you have the same contempt for your fellow citizens expressed by many of these posts? I am pretty sure we are on opposite ends of the spectrum politically but I think you would admit that it is possible to have differing viewpoints without holding one or the other in contempt or chalking differing views up to ignorance or stupidity. Yes?
The first comment I read on this said "this is over-simplified and misleading". Hate to break it to you, but this is so painfully accurate it hurts. Malkin, Beck, Hannity, et al DELIBERATELY lie and propagandize to the Fox viewers, who then feel they are somehow part of an "elite" (sorry, wrong choice of words) group of smarty-pants. Isn't it sad? I mean, really really achingly sad? They will go through their whole entire lives believing some Fox/ Limbaugh revisionist crap because they probably skipped school the day the the Revolutionary War was discussed. Wait, let's check the history curriculum
Thank you, Mr. Zombeck... the article is right on.
A person that disagrees with your world view is not necessarily "ignorant". Your suggested history curriculum betrays your view of your country. And no you did not just read that Bible study will become mandatory in Texas. What you did read is that the state legislature in Texas made it mandatory for High Schools to offer a Bible Study Elective. So in a way you are correct in judging the article is right on in that you prove Richard's point with your post.
Jeez, you should strive for a little more self-education before you come to this forum to make bogus arguments.
Disagreement with my world view does not make one ignorant, but ignoring reality, in favor of ideology does.
TruGal suggested no curriculum, merely shined a light on the harm a steady diet of Beck/Malki
The fact that Texas has mandated that the Bible be taught, yet no other religious books. That seems to be less about education and more about indoctrination! It may be elective, but it will be pervasive and an end run around the School prayer issue.
http://www
However I will give you the benefit of the doubt and simply assume that you either misread her post, or simply misinterpreted it.
A person who disagrees with objectively verifiable facts, however, is ignorant.
Zombeck is correct...
"I'm proud to be stupid" seems to be the slogan of the teabaggers even though we will all benefit from a reformed health care system including a public option...
If we were all worried about offending the nanny states around the world, as you seem to be, we would not be the last remaining superpower. Freedom isn't always pretty or popular, get over it.
Being the last remaining superpower is a title that may be going away sooner than you think. China, by sheer numbers, in military, science, engineering, medicine, etc. will eventually catch the US. Depending upon alliances and political shifts, it's possible for Russia to rejoin those ranking too, although it will take Russia longer due to it's internal collapse and rebuilding ... i.e., it has to dig itself out of the hole before it ascends again.
Actually, freedom would HAVE to be popular by you assessment of America. While it may not be popular among the various governments of the world in competition with the US, it WOULD have to be popular among the PEOPLES of the world or else we just happen to be the kid on the street with the most money and the biggest stick ... and the America of the Founding Fathers was not built on being a superpower, but on the ideals of freedom. Remember that the Greeks also were a superpower at one time AND were the first true democracy in the world. How's that working for them? We've got to get past the idea that freedom and size alone sustain this country ... it's what we DO with that that will determine whether or not we are eventually part of an ebbing tide in history.
Dude--Reaganomics sold this country to China.
They call in their loans--the USA is toast.
Last remaining superpower? Hardly.
1. Why is it so important to please other nations?
2. Your view that the present way to reform health care is in the nations interest is debatable, even within the democratic party. If only the issue was as simplistic as you wish to make it....
3. The left's contempt for thier fellow countrymen is very sad indeed and Richard's words distill that contempt.
1, Because we live in this world and interact with other countries
2, How is it not in the country's best interests to look after it's citizens?
3, The right's constant portrayal of the left's contempt for and danger to America is now and always has been bunk. East Coast Liberals began this nation sparky! That is a cold hard fact.
Malkin/Bec
My 12 year old with 10 minutes and an internet connection can refute almost every talking point they are currently using. She also does that when Democrats talk out of both sides of their mouths, like our own Evan Bayh!
Roninroshi didn't say anything about PLEASING other nations. The statement was "America is the laughing stock of the world due to the "cowboy" mentality we portray
"I'm proud to be stupid" "
Certainly 8 years of the Bush administration proved that point.
I am absolutely contemptuous of a population that lets someone else do their thinking for them and mindlessly parrots the idiotic talking points of others.
I cannot fathom how the republican party can continue to convince people to vote against their own self interest by manipulating them with fear and hate. Unfortunately, as another poster here mentioned, all you need to do is watch reruns of Jaywalking.
This is over-simplified and misleading. No one on either side is suggesting that Healthcare NOT be reformed. Everyone agrees that we need to lower rates set by insurance companies, that no one should be denied coverage because of pre-existing condition and so on. The contention lies with the
"public option" which many (even on the left) believe shouldn't even be called an option. The government has failed this country when it comes to managing 'social' programs..
trust them to take on a new one, especially when the stakes are literally life and death. Don't just go along with whatever crap your fed, use your head. It is reasonable to want to see some results with other failing gov't programs before signing your life away.
The best way to refute the notion that "everybody" wants medical reform in this country is Rachel Maddow's 'pizza' analogy. It goes like this:
You want pizza?
Yeah!
Mushrooms? Nah! Pepperoni? Nah! Olives? Nah! Garlic? Nah! Just Cheese? Nah! Just sauce? Nah! Crust only? Nah!
But you want pizza, right??!!
Of course!
If you don't think a public option is a good idea for you, then don't opt for it. Stay with Blue Cross.
That's why they call it an option! :-)
The VA system has higher customer satisfaction and lower cost than industry standards. And it is RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT! UNBELIEVABLE!
I agree--don't just go along with whatever crap you're fed--especially if you get your news from Fox.
The Republicans had EIGHT YEARS in the White House and SIX YEARS of controlling both houses of Congress, and they did NOTHING to reform healthcare. They just listened to their handlers in the pharma and health insurance industry who give them orders. The Republicans did nothing at all - while Americans go bankrupt because they can't afford medical care. They got us bogged down in two unnecessary wars to the tune of thousands dead and 100s of billions of dollars wasted.
Republicans DO NOT care about the middle class Americans. Period.
You prove your full ignorance as you call Americans "teabaggers" which is a disrespectful term coined by the left.
Then you incorrectly state the reason for the "Tea Parties." Yes, they happened on April 15, but they were not about taxes. They were about the same issues then as the protests in town halls are now; an out of control government that needs to remember that it answers to We the People, not vice versa.
The rest of whatever you have to say is irrelevant, because you discredit yourself twice within your first two paragraphs.
Have a nice day.
Well...acc
And where were the marvelous and brave protesters when bush and cheney refused to listen to intelligence about bin laden, started two wars and knowingly lied about the reasons, ran up a trillion dollar deficit, refused to address global warming. allowed the elderly and children to die during Katrina from the simple lack of water, caused the total disintegration of America's character on the world stage?????
exactly where were these protesters then?
your post is so full of progressive claptrap that you prove Richards point only from the opposite point on the political spectrum.
How convenient that any further discussion is irrelevant because you do not agree with it.
That is a very Conservative concept.
The term did not start as a left wing smear, someone on Fox and friends used it, it was on signs that they were displaying. It is not the left's fault that the movement chose a double entendre as it's clarion...
And you are right, they were not only angry about taxes, they were angry about Socialism, Communism, Nazi-ism. They were against any governmental regulation at all, they were angry Obama was going to take their guns, and they were angry because he was black, and because he was President.
The signs were very clear, even in the FOX sponsored events, the signs the protesters carried said it all.
EDUCATION REFORM IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED IN THIS COUNTRY.
I'm glad I had a good education. I don't understand why people will be rallied to protest against their own interest. It's pitiful- Illteracy is a disease!!!! I
It is the Atwater/Rovian model.
For more than 28 years we have been told that ALL of our problems are caused by liberals, the poor and immigrants. Without them screwing everything up, we would be so much better off.....
That is the constant message. AM radio spouts it daily, certain cable stations propagate the lie, 24/7.
Even some churches tell their congregations that America's woe's are caused by gays, godless liberals, and immigrants
And look at America now, people that would benefit from a public option are railing against it with all their heart because if "Librulz want it, it must be bad!".
Co-sign. Gombe, what we need is not educational REFORM -- we just need EDUCATION!
That's right, ignorance is VERY American. After health care reform, let's tackle education reform.
Let's tackle GOVT REFORM before anything else. After all, that was the selling point of Obama's
campaign. New - Hope - Change washington. This healthcare plan ISN'T THAT change. Hillary and John Edwards were going to 'change' healthcare
Well, anyone who attacked the Bush administration in the early days of the Iraqi war was called "unAmerican" and said to be "helping the enemy." But like most who appear on Fox News, Hannity and Malkin have very short memories and, in truth, nothing but contempt for the intelligence of their audience or else they would not mislead them to such a degree.
BTW, where are all those war protesters from the left?
http://www
Cindy says the press has lost interest. I march against the war every year. You can't expect a war that goes on forever to retain the same measure of public outcry. We were lied into the war once and it is difficult to do it again.
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