Fascists and Communists
As you are all aware, Jonah Goldberg just published a book claiming that liberals are fascists.
At the same time, wingnuts on cable TV are claiming that liberals are “explicitly socialist” and “communist.”
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January 28th, 2008 @ 21:40
Aside from what they said you just have to look at the policies and beliefs of liberals to see that they are indeed Socialists.
January 28th, 2008 @ 21:56
>they are indeed Socialists.
Yeah, like how Hillary Clinton wants to abolish private property. And Barack Obama has been out there on the campaign trail calling for state ownership of the means of production.
January 29th, 2008 @ 13:24
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
“It’s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few … and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity.”
“(We) can’t just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people.”
“We have to build a political consensus, and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own … in order to create this common ground.”
“I certainly think the free market has failed.”
“I think it’s time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched.”
“It’s time to replace American society.”
“We must replace the ‘on your own’ society, with the ‘we are all in it together’ society. Because fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right governmental policies.”
“I’m going to take $10 billion from those corporations.”
All Hillary Clinton. Now lets match her up with someone.
“We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society. Source; fightthebias website, 2003
See: [“Comrades, we must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all.”- Nikita Khrushchev - Premier of the former USSR]
Dump, you commented on my article where I culled these from. Is your memory going?
PS: And buddy, how can you call out conservatives trying to scare people that liberals are communists and not mention LQ? I started calling liberals correctly that a decade ago.
January 29th, 2008 @ 13:37
Your context-free collection of random Hillary Clinton quotes was pretty good. You should have them made into Hitlery KKKlint00n Fortune Cookies — you’d get rich!
And yes, you’re right: Liberal Quicksand is the undisputed heavyweight champ of Internet Red-baiting. You were slapping COMMIE labels on anything to the left of Baseball, Bald Eagles Soaring, and Apple Pie long before it was fashionable to do so.
I’m surprised you haven’t had fun with Jonah Goldberg’s new “Liberal Fascism” yet. I expected you to take up that cause enthusiastically.
January 29th, 2008 @ 22:27
C’mon dump.
Do you think that Liberals are more of less inclined to let people keep more of what they earn or getting it the government’s coffers?
Do you think that Liberals are more or less inclined to favor letting private citizens own and carry concealed weapons in order to protect themselves?
You are correct in your statement about LQ’s stance on Bald Eagles. In fact we kill ‘em and grill ‘em on a regular basis. Tastes just like chicken.
January 29th, 2008 @ 23:22
Fourputt, if you want to argue that income tax is inherently Socialist, be my guest. If your own political compass is calibrated that far to the right, it’s unlikely we’ll agree on much of anything.
I will say that I think the Democratic Party is on the wrong side of the gun-control issue. I am a supporter of the Second Amendment. I believe that gun ownership is a fundamental right of every American citizen. But that doesn’t make any difference about this “Socialist” label… again, if you feel that gun control is inherently Socialist, I say have it your way. There’s no point in even trying to argue about it.
January 30th, 2008 @ 14:33
You’re right about the difficulty of discussing politics with people who call anything communist that is to the left of what I can only imagine is some kind of Utopian vision they have of a nation with a completely unregulated economy.
I think this is primarily a defensive strategy. Since they are talking about an imaginary place, there is nothing concrete they need to refer to or defend.
Also, in using the terms liberal, socialist, and communist in ways they are not normally used, they can avoid having any serious discussions with normal people. Average people simply are not going to understand what they are talking about.
I think of the movie Alphaville. In this depiction of a autocratic and distopian future, one way the government controls its citizens is by eliminating words until no subtlety exists and thinking becomes difficult. For our friends here, the words liberal, socialist, and communist have become one word, and their vocabulary and ability to think has suffered accordingly.
January 30th, 2008 @ 20:01
I think some remedial education is called for here, so I looked up a few words in the Yahoo Kid’s Dictionary:
Liberalism: A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.
Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
January 30th, 2008 @ 22:11
Dump,
I never said the Income tax was unconstitutional.
Having your income tax to go to some Senator’s pet project of the month is.
Having it go to finance someone’s payment on bad choices that they made is.
January 31st, 2008 @ 01:58
Reid, if this is Alphaville, I’m Lemmy Caution and Hank Dagny is “Alpha-60.”
January 31st, 2008 @ 02:03
Fourputt: I know you never said income tax was unconstitutional. I think you suggested that it was “socialist.”
Wesley Snipes and the Montana Freemen crowd (“Redeem your straw man“) think it’s unconstitutional.