That sound you're hearing is the sound of wingnut heads exploding at the news of Paul Krugman's Nobel Prize in Economics. Here is real live wingnut "thinking" in action:
- Obama is a Marxist/Socialist
- The Nobel committee gives its prizes to Marxist/Socialists like Al Gore
- So it's no surprise that they gave a prize to a Marxist/Socialsit like Paul Krugman.
"Krugman" and "Socialist" in the same message... bwahahaha! The man made his bones touting free trade and conservative government. Indeed, his biggest beef with the Busheviks has been their budget deficits within good economic times, which had the effect of pouring gasoline onto the fire of the housing bubble.
Calling a centrist Democrat whose web site is full of free market solutions to various problems a "Socialist/Marxist": Priceless. What next, a Wingnut conspiracy theory that tells me that Obama is a tentacle monster from the planet Arcturus come to earth to peform tentacle rape upon all our nubile young virgins, and his external visage is just a mask he's wearing?
I await my multi-tentacled alien overlord. Heh.
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Jules Crittenden has been unraveling in a big way since Krugman's win.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can come up with a new mental disorder: Krugman Derangement Syndrome.
Are you taking the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in vain?
ReplyDeleteThey call Obama Marxist because that way they do not have to tell people the real reason they are not voting for him.
ReplyDeleteWhat, you're expecting logic from these people? Ideological consistency? They couldn't define what a socialist is if they were on "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader." But they know that "socialist" is bad, and anyone who goes against their cult leader is bad, so call him a bad word -- "socialist."
ReplyDeleteYou're a smarter-than-5th-gradey penguin. You know it's just factionalism. Any good action done by someone from the other tribe is EEEEEEVIL! They hate who they hate because they hate him. Simple as that. Simple as them.
The good thing is that people who are that ignorant don't have much clout. You need a certain amount of smarts to get a large amount of money and power in this complex world. They'll have neither.
There's an inverse correlation between ignorance and functionality. People who spout that crap aren't going to be smart enough to make a political difference except in certain backwards areas like Alabama and southern Indiana, where they have critical mass. And those will be the bumfuck bits that don't drive forward any national progress. They will be dragged into the future, with their heels dug in to slow things. I'd estimate they don't represent more than 25% of the American population, and I don't think that's enough to turn back the clock.
(On the other hand, I don't discount the possibility that I'm wrong. Which is why I'm happy to be pontificating from a distance.)
The morons might have prospered somewhat in the good times, but they're going to get flattened by the economic steamroller that's upon America. They may blame the wrong people for screwing them, but they'll still be screwed, and even less influential on an economic and political level. So they'll count for nothing, except as braying voices in an incohate mob.
The bad thing is, all it takes is for a small prcentage of them to pick up a gun, or some of the high explosives they stole while they were in the U.S. military, to do damage on a localised level. They won't change the system any more than Timothy McVeigh or Robert Eric Rudolph, but they'll cause a lot of pain to the poor people who are in their paths.
Timothy McVeigh destroyed the separatist militia movement when he blew up the Oklahoma City courthouse. It could not survive the photos of those poor dead babies being dragged out of the rubble. There are still a few compounds here and there with some nutcases, but nobody pays them any attention anymore, most of the people who were involved with the movement looked at each other and said, "y'know, I don't think I want to be involved with this anymore, this is nuts."
ReplyDeleteThat should have taught everybody a lesson that violence as a mechanism of change does not work well here in America. Unfortunately, 9/11 gave us the exact opposite message, because it worked well indeed at achieving Osama bin Laden's objective of bogging down the U.S. in the Middle East and bankrupting the nation as a result... so maybe you're right. But I'd hope that the majority of Americans would react as they did to McVeigh's crime, with revulsion and disgust, rather than embrace that sort of violence. We shall see, I suppose...
- Badtux the Pensive Penguin
Good point about how McVeigh destroyed, rather than encouraged, the militia movement as he expected in his "Turner Diaries" fantasy. just like Paul Hill, the Christofreak who murdered the abortion doctor in Pensacola, smeared more blood on the "pro-life" movement than any amount of fake foetal (as it's spelt here)blood that they spread on heir protest signs.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I dislike Americans (when I hear someone speaking with my accent, I cringe) I think the vast majority are decent. Dumb, but basically decent. I often fear that American politicians like KKKarl Rove will emulate Slobodan Milosevic, and try to cling to power by stirring social divisions, even if it means violence. But the conflicts in Yugoslavia were longer and deeper than any racial/regional/religious divides in America. (I get a lot of patients from various parts of ex-Yug, since there was a high immigration level to Oz, and some have spoken of the Chetnik/Ustashe butchery in WW II -- the horror, the horror...)
One big difference will be the American media. The sheeple will do what the glowing box tells them. With Faux the possible exception, media people are establisment bourgeois. Their corporate masters aren't going to want to upset the money train by stoking unrest. So if there is any widespread move toward violence, expect a media campaign to "negativise" it.
So maybe there's hope. I can't believe I'm saying that. Because just when you have hope, the bastards dash it...