The drumming-up of hatred against Republicans is escalating
The rhetoric from the left is becoming ever more dangerous and inflammatory. And it’s the left that says “words are violence” – if so, what shall we call this?:
Gen. Michael Hayden, the former head of the CIA and NSA, believes that you, dear readers, are more dangerous than ISIS, Communist China, and N. Korea — if you’re a Republican, that is. He said so explicitly in a retweet of a comment from Edward Luce, the blue-check assistant editor of the Financial Times, who wrote, “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
Let me add that Hayden and Luce are not the sort of people who used to be thought of as the far left – no radical long-haired hippies they, nor do they even resemble an old-fashioned Bernie Sanders type leftist, which makes them even more dangerous. Hayden is a 77-year-old retired 4-star US general who has the following resume:
…[F]ormer Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Hayden currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative. In 2017, Hayden became a national security analyst for CNN.
He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005. During his tenure as director, he oversaw the controversial NSA surveillance of technological communications between persons in the United States and alleged foreign terrorist groups, which resulted in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
On April 21, 2005, then Lt. Gen Hayden, was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and awarded his fourth star-making him “the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed forces”…
On May 8, 2006, Hayden was nominated for the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
A George Bush appointee who doesn’t seem to have been very concerned with protecting US citizens from federal surveillance, he backed Biden in 2020.
As for Luce, he’s a mere 54, a blue-blooded Brit who has been a journalist for his working career – for example, for the leftist Guardian – but whose family heritage is strongly conservative:
Luce is the son of Rose Helen (née Nicholson) and Richard Luce, Baron Luce. His father is the former Lord Chamberlain to the Queen (2000 to 2006), former Governor of Gibraltar, a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) (1971 to 1992), government minister, and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. His paternal grandfather is Sir William Luce, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Aden, Political Resident in the Gulf and Special Representative to the Foreign Secretary (Lord Home) for Gulf Affairs. His great-uncle is admiral Sir David Luce, First Sea Lord (1963–1966). His maternal great-grandfather is vice-admiral Sir Trevylyan Napier, who was the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station (1919–1920).
And the now-venerable (aged 77) James Carville, who always had a big mouth, jumps right in:
“People that believe that the election was stolen and have a right to storm the Capitol, which is a substantial number of people in the Republican Party, are evil. Our people are kind of silly. Their people are actually evil. Racism is evil. Alright. Misogyny is evil…yet the media is addicted to both-sidesism.”
…The problem the Republican Party has is they got really stupid people that vote in their primaries. And when you have that, you’re going to get in – really stupid people demand to have really stupid leaders. And that’s where the Republican Party is now. It’s not, you know, not all of it. There’s obviously some very high quality, you know, smart, patriotic Republicans. But they’re not in the majority. And they will tell you that themselves.”
Like Liz Cheney, no doubt.
If I retained the capacity to be shocked by this sort of thing – and I’m not so sure that I do – this would be highly shocking. These people have traditional credentials and, like so many others, seem to have swallowed not only the “Republicans are evil” line, but have no hesitation to say it right out in the open. The sentiment is now mainstream and non-controversial. The Hayden/Luce statement was posted on Twitter, by the way, which seems to have zero trouble with “hate speech” of the anti-right variety.
When Trump said that “they’re not after me, they’re after you, I’m just in the way,” he was completely correct. And it appears to be moving at warp speed.
I think this is happening for three reasons. The first is that leftism recently reached critical mass, a result of the decades-long leftward drift of the media and the educational system, as well as of other major institutions. The second is the amplification and dissemination afforded by the internet and especially by social media. And the third is that the left senses the growing popularity of anti-left sentiment, and they believe the best way to combat it is to demonize it.
James Carville is an evil man, who trades in lies. Unfortunately, he is very good at what he does.
In the post-Cold War era, a ruling class in the United States has congealed out of the previous mixture of elites, academics, bureaucrats, billionaires, and activists. Part wealth inequality, part social media, part corporatization of the Democratic Party, and partly the graying of the Baby Boomers and the loss of pre-Sexual Revolution, pre-Civil Rights, pre-Vietnam sense of societal order.
When he was a young man, I’d bet that Hayden saw himself as representative of the United States and felt the sense of duty and obligation that comes with that. Now, I’d bet Hayden is an old man who sees the United States as an extension of himself. He doesn’t think of himself as an equal citizen. He thinks of himself as a member of an enlightened aristocracy. The only concerns and problems which exist are his and those of people like him. The rest of us don’t matter. We’re not even real.
Another way to think of it is these people truly believe life is a movie and they are the star. Whenever a script rewrite happens they don’t like, they throw a fit like a Hollywood diva.
Mike
I’m stupid and evil. What do I need to make it a trifecta? (I do have a rosary, if that helps.)
Neo has probably seen Gregory Stanton’s chart of the Ten Stages of Genocide, but for readers who haven’t seen it, here it is:
https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages
Stanton makes the point that the stages do not occur in linear progression; two or more can occur simultaneously.
The accompanying videos do NOT, of course, include the hatred of Republicans and other conservatives that Neo mentions, but we can all fill in examples of it.
When are you going to comment on the https://the65project.com/ ?
Actually, what it’s indicative of is that some people’s reputations expand, like a gas, to fill the offices they’ve occupied. The statements of Luce and Hayden are manifestations of thorough disorientation one suspects derived from not interacting with anyone outside certain circles. Also, Hayden’s an old guy, so you might offer cognitive decay as a possible vector.
That a journalist says something stupid is a dog bites man story. That someone promoted nine separate times in the Air Force says something this crazy is quite disturbing.
I’m sure there must have been a cabinet level official of the W. Bush Administration who hasn’t turned out to be a class-A jack-wagon. Does anyone know who that is?
In the days of the Holy Roman Empire, there were men..all of noble birth..known as the Prince-Electors. They, and only they, got to vote on who the next Emperor would be.
I think we have people in America today who see their role as something similar…they may not get to make the final choice, but they should have (in their view) to decide who is and who is not eligible for consideration.
By some accounts, Hayden had a stroke in 2018. Suspect missing pieces.
Privately I think a lot of people are coming to quiet conclusions about this sort of thing, and a distance is growing between their beliefs and behaviors, and the Party Line. I don’t believe the Leftist Progressivism has ever been as big as they’ve always thought it is.
This is a good example, very short, 3 minutes – an Independent voter in Southern California has questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izq6wSsxbkg
With rhetoric as inflaming as this, and still amping up, it’s going to become more difficult for voters to believe this is a good message.
I swear they are trying their damnest to provoke the right into violence. That way the claims of “right wing extremists ” and a hard response will be justified.
It’s hard to resist the bait as they get more and more provocative.
Ray:
the65project is a crock of excrement that includes David Brock of MediaMatters
Leftists that only approve of the legal process when it is used to destroy America, all pretty smiling faces of many hues and genders, evil nonetheless.
You must not use legal means to challenge an election that the left has fortified for the correct outcome.
I’m reminded of an old “sowing the wind reaping the whirlwind” quote.
When you decide everyone not 100% with you is an enemy, don’t be shocked when they start acting like one.
First thing is there are no Generals who are stupid but a heck of a lot of them are crazy and most all of them are excellent butt-lickers who know how to work the system, especially for the past 77 years since the end of WWII.
For the past three decades nothing coming out of the military beauty schools has much to do with being a person who knows history and loves this nation and is willing to give their life to protect this nation, the professional officers do know how to find the offend within the ranks and how to avoid offending any person of higher rank. They have no idea what the ‘good old boys’ are thinking who make excellent rank and file Dog Face soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors don’t want any part of the New Military yet the media folk listen to what Flag Officers say when they are paid for their knowledgable opinion.
Lt. Gen Hayden’s resume reveals himself to be a deeply enmeshed member of the Deep State. Which effectively makes him a subversive traitor because the Deep State seeks to rule, rather than protect and serve.
Luce is a “useful idiot” and a metaphorical “eater of carrion”.
“the left senses the growing popularity of anti-left sentiment, and they believe the best way to combat it is to demonize it.” neo
Further demonizing 70+ million Americans is a truly stupid, self-defeating strategy.
It both increases the number of deplorables and exposes to the less aware deplorables the real nature of those demonizing them.
It also presupposes that, when push comes to shove, that armed thugs can intimidate millions of discharged combat veterans, who the military has spent the last 50 years training and educating in guerrilla warfare.
Evil always accuses and seeks to portray good of being evil. It’s their default position because evil cannot accept that other people at heart do not share their motivations. They see everyone as either gullible fools to be used or competitors.
Unfortunately, very unfortunately, I think physicsguy @ 6:13pm is right about a fourth reason, neo did not include in her list. This feels, looks and smells a lot like a color revolution operation. We’ve seen quite a few dominos already.
Be strong. Be resolute. Don’t let their abuses goad you into a reaction.
If you need encouragement, this piece by Kurt Schlichter will help:
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/08/18/cheneys-humiliating-defeat-is-another-sign-that-we-are-winning—p–n2611869?utm_source=schlichterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=b4a94f9a32d6803baf455e8b51387290f335ef4fdbc95b17b8c2b47959fd6999&pid=0efa6e01-06ed-4c83-a049-d710f35f59f6
Hayden is a fascist war criminal and he hates Republicans, eh? Almost makes me want to be a Republican, despite their weakness and fecklessness.
We continue to suffer from the eight year term of dim-witted George Bush. Many of us warned, via letters to our congressional delegation, that DHS and TSA were terrible ideas. Didn’t matter.
Hayden is another of his rotten choices.
contextualized it goes with the other thread, about debunking,
https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/18/ex-cia-chief-who-called-gop-most-dangerous-force-on-earth-is-on-board-of-left-wing-misinformation-group/
now these are mostly inept people, in their profession, but their incitements to violence can be dangerous, ask justice kavanaugh on the point,
John Kerry, Howard Dean, Sheldon Whitehouse all come from families that consider themselves prestigious, the lasts father was envoy in Laos,
I see lines like People that believe that the election was stolen and have a right to storm the Capitol… are evil, and think “Like the people who stormed the Capitol during the second set of Kavanaugh hearings?”
Apparently for Carville the excised clause from that quote, which is a substantial number of people in the Republican Party, isn’t merely descriptive of the ‘people’ in one instance but a determinative factor in evaluating their ‘evil’ quotient.
I’d like to call it fake outrage, but the outrage is real enough. It’s just that the outrage isn’t “How dare these tactics be used!” but instead “How dare you use these tactics!”
This feels, looks and smells a lot like a color revolution operation. We’ve seen quite a few dominos already.
No. A color revolution requires a mass mobilization that the security forces refuse to suppress. Palaeo / Unz types fancy they’re all organized by the CIA.
Geoffrey Britain : I believe they can intimidate seasoned combat veterans. Many of them got caught up in the January 6th chaos and face serious penalties. Some chose to plea bargain and take the best deal they can get. Others are languishing in what someone called the “Garland Archipelago”. That should give second thoughts to anyone.
These folks don’t seem to like diverse opinions derived from mere observations (such as the thousands of sworn affidavits of witnessed fraud, or Biden’s pedophile behavior). Just observations – consciousness. They don’t seem to like consciousness.
Emotions are another matter. They seem to be run almost entirely by their emotions. Their Trump hatred blots out reason entirely.
If you need encouragement, this piece by Kurt Schlichter will help:
Somewhat de trop. It is true the family’s wealth is a function of political connections and rent-seeking – papa Dick’s and his son-in-law’s as well. AFAIK, papa wasn’t wealthy until he had a tour as CEO of Halliburton, a job he landed no doubt because he had connections, he’d been Secretary of Defense, and Halliburton’s revenue comes from federal contracting. Philip Perry is a partner in a Washington BigLaw firm which has a ‘government relations’ practice.
You want a political economy where people make their money in business or (now and again) in professional practice, where political office – especially full time office – is an interlude in people’s lives, where senior civil servants retire at an ordinary time, and when quondam officials seldom make a buck in the connections business or working for government contractors. The Cheney-Perry family is pus.
Haydon has had a career in intelligence. That may lead to delusions and obsessions with some things. JJ Angleton was another one who had trouble differentiating between reality and delusions. He may well have been right about a mole but it destroyed his life,
Vice anything changing this will only end one way. Lots of blood and bodies. The people where I live are taking this very seriously.
We continue to suffer from the eight year term of dim-witted George Bush. Many of us warned, via letters to our congressional delegation, that DHS and TSA were terrible ideas. Didn’t matter.
George W. Bush is disgusting in his old age. Dim witted he is not. The DHS was and remains an assemblage of already existing agencies to which were added some intelligence tracking offices and the TSA. The functions the TSA performs were largely performed by local airports prior to 2002. They were vested in a federal agency because the Democrats insisted that unionized federal employees must confiscate your hand sanitizer.
One oddity about the formation of the DHS is that they left the Department of Justice largely intact, though it’s a department which assembles functions which are not typically conjoined at the state and local level. Almost as if the imperative in assembling the DHS was to broker a compromise between politicians fussing over the extent of their turf.
In refusing to come and testify (i.e. get crucified) before a Hearing of the House Oversight Committee, whose chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney, is pushing the idea that it is gun manufacturers who are responsible for a number of recent mass shootings, Smith & Wesson CEO mark Smith had this to say–
‘To be clear, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never assaulted a woman out for a late-night run in the city, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never carjacked an unsuspecting driver stopped at a traffic light.’
Smith said in a statement Monday that his company would ‘never back down in our defense of the Second Amendment’ and blamed politicians and the media for a recent spate in mass shootings.
“Some have had the audacity to suggest that after they have vilified, undermined and defunded law enforcement for years, supported prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable for their actions, overseen the decay of our country’s mental health infrastructure, and generally promoted a culture of lawlessness,’ Smith said in a statement. ‘They are the ones to blame for the surge in violence and lawlessness.”
See https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11124797/Smith-Wessons-CEO-slammed-refusing-appear-House-hearing-assault-rifles.html
But, huxley, I thought you said things were getting better.
Well, I did and they are.
Except I also said these people are desperate and we should expect the worst in the run-up to the mid-term elections. This is the dangerous time.
I believe that is the real reason for MAL and now all this — no sugar-coating it — horrific demonizing of the Right. It’s now less than three months out from the midterms and that’s what we are seeing — the worst.
_________________________
And after the sop Satan entered into [Judas],. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
–Matthew 13:27
_________________________
I’m not one for idling ascribing Satan to my enemies and I don’t really mean to go satanic on them, but it is practically that serious what we are seeing now.
Given that they won’t give up power nor will they accept the risks of justice if they lose the House, much less the White House in 2024, they have no choice but to dial it up to eleven.
That is what’s happening and it’s nothing new. It’s quite old and if we are sensible, we read the classics for understanding.
Nice one huxley. It hasn’t materialized yet, but the not so old ones that I’ve tried to pay attention to are the attempted or actualized dictatorial power grabs in Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
I regret that I put even a nickel in the pocket of Gen. M. Hayden by buying his stupid book about his time in the NSA. There was one point in the book (sorry for the lack of specificity) where he begins by saying that he is going to explain the bombshell of what really happened (without violating classified material laws I wondered?). He then throws around some vague and careless pejoratives and building to the punchline he makes some statement of inuendo masquerading as fact. That was the punchline?? In terms of facts, he said precisely nothing. He is effectively a liar, without precisely being a liar. (Assuming he actually knows how to write factual statements.)
Interesting about angleton in light of what happened after ames was caught there was a hunt for the 3rd mole that presumably in the company paul redmond head of the soviet division was entrapped when it was over we knew precious little of russian strategy except what litvinenkos increasingly crazy tales entailed we only knew of the chapman ring because their handler was a walkin
Thats the backstory to red sparrow with jeremy irons as the handler tretyakov defected around 1999, right before putins accesion then puteyev nearly 10 years later, strzok took the credit
“George W. Bush is disgusting in his old age. Dim witted he is not.”
W is not stupid. He lacks character. Both he and Trump are the sons of rich fathers but only one of them had the drive to make something of himself on his own. You can accuse Trump of having some bad character mixed in with the good but at least there’s something there. W is a void and too many people projected their own desires into that emptiness.
Mike
Art Deco:
The old money (?) in Halliburton comes from providing stuff (drilling mud and sundry chemicals, drill bits, downhole motors),services (directional drilling personnel (I was one), hydraulic fracking (personnel and equipment), cementing and completion of casing), as well as heavy construction through a subsidiary Kellog, Brown, and Root (KBR). Their competition in the oil patch includes Schlumberger, and Baker Hughes. A competitor in the construction side is Bechtel Corporation.
I was happy to be a little cog on the Big Red Halliburton drilling evil directional oil wells in North Dakota; wells that enriched native Americans (Sioux) and rural farmers and ranchers. It felt good to be doing productive work and to be flipping off the environmental faschists.
Hayden and Luce both believe that the government belongs to “people like us” and has to be run by “people like us.” In Hayden’s case it’s the CIA, the NSA, and the military. Hayden may be disoriented from his stroke, but judging from his bio, he is a dedicated security apparatchik, ferociously hostile to anyone who he sees as a threat to the security agencies. An outsider running for president has to be defeated or isolated, undercut and destroyed.
Luce has an idea of the “liberal world order” that basically comes down to the idea that governments should be run by people like himself for the convenience of people like himself. Luce is similar to other journalists and academics. They hate and fear Trump, but they don’t make it clear just how he actually threatens the “liberal world order” and don’t convince skeptics that they aren’t acting out of pique and hurt pride.
Talk about projecting.
Men and women were at war in a whole range of theatres from indonesia to north africa but the establishment deemed a very vocal violent insurgency that cost billions of dollars in damages and hundred if not thousands of lives totes fine that w’s call
This isnt hypothetical
https://americanmind.org/salvo/rogue-agency/
On Wednesday I read an opinion piece in the WaPo about Trump stealing classified papers. I took away from the article that accusing Trump of criminal behavior means he’s guilty. And it’s a puzzlement why he’s not doing time. The worst part was that I read the comments. There I learned that I hated women and thought them inferior, hated people who were a different skin color and was a white nationalist as well as a fascist. And stupid as well as evil. Reading the comments has really upset me and I’ve can’t stop thinking about them. I’ve been of the opinion that the people who were anti-Trump were misled and somewhat brainwashed by the media. I didn’t expect the level of savagery I saw. I don’t scare easily, but this frightened me. Now I know what people mean when they say a second civil war is coming.
Well that was your first mistake the post the times gannett ap reuters are likely to get it wrong on porpoise
Your three explanations are all very valid, Neo. Might I propose a fourth? They are trying to provoke right wing violence. Sure, a false flag is always a possibility; but the real thing is fifty-fold more effective. And quite possible. Who’s to say a genuine Trump supporter might not be pushed over the edge by the non stop barrage of hate from every corner of all our public institutions (and many private ones as well)? This is ultimately what the left wants, a convenient and plausible excuse to justify a harsh crackdown.
The left can scream about January 6 until they’re hoarse, but they cannot change the fact that: (A) none of these ‘violent insurrectionists’ brandished a gun and (B) the only people killed were Trump supporters (and a cop who died in an unrelated event). What they want, what the crave, is a genuinely violent, multi-fatality event, where the perpetrator is clearly a Trump supporter and clearly acted for political purposes.
Interesting. Just this evening as I was coming back online to read blogs I came across several article that were very vicious attacks on Rep. I thought to myself that the MidTerms have the Dems scared and they are starting to fight dirty or should I say dirtier. Seeing reports about Polls that the Dems are starting to pull ahead of Rep may be part of this.
Those that think that the Rep Red Wave is coming to town might want to think twice.
@ Aggie > “an Independent voter in Southern California has questions”
A very brave man to come out in the open on Tik Tok like that.
He’s elderly, so maybe he has no fear of being cancelled, doxxed, harassed, or murdered.
And yes, the Democrats are getting close to that last step – you can tell by the way they project onto Republicans their own propensities.
And besides, some of them have already threatened to do it.
And some have already tried.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/steve-scalise-baseball-shooting-thanks-god-heroes
June 14, 2022
https://scalise.house.gov/media/press-releases/scalise-reflects-shooting-five-years-later-previews-tonight-s-congressional
July 28, 2022
Something I didn’t know – Scalise remarks that God must have been looking out for him, because this man was on the field and knew exactly what to do to save his life.
Luce was a speech writer for larry summers at treasury no wonder hes certifiable
I thought it was worth expanding the LINK from PA+Cat: (their caps)
The problem with taking preventive measures in the earliest stages, as I see it, is that they are almost always necessarily pre-emptive, that is, they have to nip the problem in the bud, and a lot of people don’t understand that the coming flower would have been extremely toxic.
So, to avoid mistaken calumny and possible violence against themselves, those who see the problem coming are forced to wait until too late to stop the sequence from moving to the later stages — at which point you have to use a shovel to uproot the entire poisonous plant.
The Latter-day Saints are intimately familiar with the process as it operated in America in the 19th century, although I am not myself descended from any of the original pioneering founders of the Church.
Missouri made it all the way to IX before the Mormons escaped.
I chose Wikipedia over the plethora of LDS sources because it’s not known as a hotbed of religious supporters, and it gives a reasonably accurate report.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Extermination_Order
Students of the period can isolate each of the preceding eight steps, which happened not only in Missouri but other locations. Misinformation and misinterpretation, as “claimed” in the Order, were key to the fears stoked by anti-Mormons. (Sounds familiar…)
Only Boggs went to the extreme of formally mandating Step Nine.
Elsewhere, the population took the same steps informally, but no less lethally.
Not surprisingly, the list of Genocide Stages is remarkably similar to another familiar list often referenced when discussing Leftist activities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals#The_Rules
The Rules are not really easily boxed into the Stages, so I may have missed some of the connections.
@ Miguel > “This isnt hypothetical”
Julie Kelly is an actual investigative reporter.
That was an excellent report on the Fednapping of Whitmer, and the perfidy of the FBI.
Sadly, it’s not their only excursion into entrapment and persecution of innocent people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=fbi%20entrapment&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=1&ns0=1
A long list of articles, including many familiar cases and some I was not aware of.
It also includes explicitly fictional stories, as opposed to the real ones that are even more exotic than the films.
Related – Trump Derangement Syndrom exhibits all the symptoms Neo has covered on several posts.
But where is it coming from and why is it so rampant, especially among otherwise “normal” and decent people (we know why the hypocrites leading the Democrats are fomenting problems, but they may also be deranged as well as malevolent).
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2022/08/18/trump-derangement-syndrome-is-real-and-it-needs-to-be-studied-n613952
AesopFan–
I’m glad the link to Stanton’s site was useful to you. I came across Stanton about 10 years ago when I wrote a book on genocide at the request of a publisher of a set of books on serious subjects for high school students. It took a lot of research as well as long hours doing the actual writing, but I never forgot the long-term significance of the source material I collected. It’s worrisome to see the pattern resurfacing today.
As for persecution of the Mormons by mainstream nineteenth-century American society, the early Mormons may be an example of a group that retaliates in kind when pushed too far: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre_and_Mormon_theology.
(How did I get involved with Mormon theology? Long story, but it came about through researching the Mark Hofmann case, which you doubtless know about.)
I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine some small group of conservatives (define that term as seems best to you) resorting to vigilante action as per Ackler’s comment above, and setting off reprisal from the left. I don’t have any clear-cut recommendations to offer, only the observation that the historical record of genocide is a grim one and we ignore it at our peril.
Dehumanizing the opponents is the start of extermination
“yet the media is addicted to both-sidesism.”
And there it is, another boomer trying to sound cool with millennials. “How do you do fellow kids?”
gothamite, there’s intimidation…. and then there’s recognizing when a tactic no longer works, And it’s getting quite clear that you’re going to get the name of being a “terrorist” whether you are one or not. More and more people are likely to figure out “if I get the name, I might as well get the game.”
The Trump raid is part of a plan to move attention from failed D policies unto Trump. It’s a distraction and, sadly, it’s probably working. Suddenly R’s spend all of their time defending a guy who is not on the 2022 ballot and no time talking about inflation, education, crime and borders. If the D’s increase seats in the Senate, which I think they will do, they will pack the court, make DC a state and federalize elections. Notice the D’s dont talk about that publicly but among themselves, they know it. In other words, if the D’s gain in the Senate, it won’t matter who the Rs run in 2024. The D’s play the long game ruthlessly. The Rs worry about who is a RINO and who is a Trumpist. You need to get elected before you change policies. The D’s know how to get their people elected. The Rs, not so much.
Both he and Trump are the sons of rich fathers but only one of them had the drive to make something of himself on his own.
From financial statements George Bush the Elder had to issue in 1984 and from data on the sale price of Zapata Oil in 1963, it’s a reasonable inference that neither Marvin Pierce nor Prescott Bush bequeathed anything but memorabilia and token sums to their children. They may have received some capital or trust income when Dorothy Bush and Willa Pierce died. Dorothy Bush died in 1992, when her middle child was 66 years old. Willa Pierce outlived two of her stepchildren and the younger of the remainder was 75 years old at the time she died.
Prescott and Dorothy Bush were by all appearances generous with school tuitions; it’s a reasonable wager they supplied funds toward the medical and nursing care of at least two of their grandchildren. In addition, family members provided investment capital for George Bush the Elder’s businesses (which paid off for them). There were, however, definite limits to inter-generational transfers. When brother Jonathan wanted to establish himself as a stage actor, he was told he would be making rent from his earnings; he said he gave up the idea after a few years when he got tired of living in basement flats with water dripping from the ceiling.
I think if you looked at their period balance sheets, you’d discover that none of the Bush or Pierce scions had much in the way of assets until they were in middle age. One of the embarrassments the Democrats faced in 1984 was that the Zaccaros were discovered to have a net worth 80% larger than the Bushes.
Four of George and Barbara Bush’s children went into the business world. By all accounts, Marvin is quite wealthy from venture capital or some such and Jeb is at least mildly wealthy from banking and real estate. Neil has made a prosperous living for himself (though never enough for his 1st wife), but had pratfalls and some odd dealings during his years in Colorado which looked like people currying favor with the family. What was disconcerting about George W.’s years in the business world was the willingness of various parties to offer what looked like sweetheart deals, both during his time in the oil business and during his time in the baseball business.
Because rinos voted for austin mayorkas and garland what is dr oz focused on entrees at wegners that is relevant to no one.
Neils ignite investors gave us the nclb mind arson maybe a little lesuo blackmail to seal the deal.
Lefties giving each other pep talks to ramp up the “othering”.
James Carville has always been a nasty, vicious sleazeball. One of the worst of the Clintons’ henchmen.
Dehumanize, demonize, and destroy. Classic devil’s strategy. It worked against Jews, Indians, and Africans. Why not republicans? People never learn.
Luce actually removed all doubt when he elaborated
“Director of the NSA from 1999 to 2005…”
So, in other words, he was a Clinton appointee who Dubya kept on to be “bipartisan”. And this guy was totally blindsided by 9/11. Given that track record why in Hades was he sent to the CIA?
Part of me wants to say… Whatever. We think they’re evil, too. What’s funny to me is that they have no idea. They have no idea what kinds of horrible names we call them amongst ourselves because they have no idea what we think or what we say when we talk to each other. They don’t listen to us. We compare Democratic party stances to fascism and Nazism all the time. We think the federal bureaucracy has been taken over by morally bankrupt people determined to run the country into the ground.
The problem is, can a country survive when it’s divided into two camps who both think these things about each other?
Hello Aggie.
“This is a good example, very short, 3 minutes – an Independent voter in Southern California has questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izq6wSsxbkg”
Clicked on the link. YouTube has already made it disappear.
Hat tip to George Orwell.
“Dehumanize, demonize, and destroy. Classic devil’s strategy. It worked against Jews, Indians, and Africans. Why not republicans? People never learn.” joe smith
Republicans are armed versus none of the above.
shadow:
Who is this “we,” kemosabe?
I only think a small but influential minority of leftists are evil. Others condone evil but are not evil – they think they are fighting evil with necessary tools.
There’s talk in some circles on the left of the ‘benefits’ of implementing a digital currency system. Reportedly, it’s undergoing trials in Canada and Italy.
Trudeau already cut off access to the financial assets of the trucker protestors and donors. That was a trial run.
Trudeau is a WEF member and one of the first graduates of its “Young Leaders Program”.
Henry Kissinger was one of the 3 highly influential supporters at the formation of the WEF. Klaus Schwab was a student of Kissinger’s at Harvard.
“”Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people. Control money and food and you control the world.” Henry Kissinger
Note that in addition to the recent events in Sri Lanka and the Netherlands is this pertinent fact; “US strategy deliberately destroyed family farming in the US and abroad and led to 95% of all grain reserves in the world being under the control of six multinational agribusiness corporations.”
But there’s no need for concern, as they’ve assured us that their actions are in service of the ‘greater good’.
“What shall we do with all these useless people?” Yuval Noah Harari, lead advisor @ WEF
Food for thought; guns are not needed when with a push of a botton you can freeze deplorable’s bank accounts and credit and debit cards.
“Control money and food and you control the world.”
Luce irrationally has hated Trump since day one. He has had a hatched out to kill a snake – very irrational. Everyone else is innocent until proven guilty – but not Trump. A very irrational, biased man should not have his opinion take seriously, particularly, when there are so many suspect corruption issues about Joe Biden. He overlooks those completely.
Make America Great Again……..America First…….Nationalism….
If you want to see the great divide wear a bright red MAGA hat in any large city.
The divide isn’t just Republican vs Democrat– since a significant minority of Republicans are nearly as triggered by the concept. I think in most instances it just a reaction to lazy thinking or cognitive dissonance.
At it’s core, it’s Globalism vs Nationalism and the conflict has existed since God scattered the people at the Tower of Babel.
There is a looming third world debt crisis, and with the high debt loads of the developed nations, the response won’t be more debt load since that is now transparently inflationary. The reset will likely be a common digital currency to make it hard to hide assets.
@ PA Cat >
Amen to that.
Yes, I was well acquainted with the Mark Hofmann case back in the day, so far as it was in the newspapers and TV broadcasts, as we lived in Utah at the time.
The Mountain Meadows case is, at the very least, still a contentious matter even among Mormons. Like many historical controversies, I doubt the truth will ever be fully known on this earth.
I would not put over-much reliance on the Wikipedia article for a final determination, because it is too short to go into all of the current scholarship on the matter (and there is a LOT). However, it does have some interesting information about that rather fraught period in LDS history.
At least some of Wikipedia’s editors have been shown to be ideologically related to those at the NYT et. al., and there are ways to slip unverified accusations into posts by choosing how even undisputed facts are presented, much less disputed assertions.
“Mormon theology has long been thought to be one of the causes”
“According to rumors and accusations”
“Haight and/or Dame mighthave been involved” in a different instance of possible “frontier justice,” although in that case they “might” have been acting against previously-identified thieves.
“The sermons, blessings, and private counsel by Mormon leaders just prior to the Mountain Meadows Massacre can be understood as encouraging private individuals to execute God’s judgment against the wicked.”
“Mormon historian Thomas G. Alexander argues that most violent speech by LDS leaders was rhetorical in nature.”
The debate over what is an inciting command, and what is hyperbolic speechifying, is not a new one.
None of the alleged incitements to violence are, or have ever been, canonical; the distinction is fundamental to LDS theology and teaching. Diaries, sermons (such as The Journal of Discourses), and alleged reminiscences are not considered to be binding doctrine — for good reason.
“Mormons were [and are] taught to obey the orders of their priesthood leaders, as long as they coincided with [canonically established] LDS gospel principles.”
With the additional caveat that I have never in 50 years of membership been told to “obey” anyone’s “orders” — we are counseled to prayerfully consider requests by our leaders, and ask God if they are correct.
I hope you enjoyed your studies; at least there is a plethora of written material to consider, although we never will know what we don’t know.
Shadow,
Completely miss the important point in a desperate attempt to find equivalence.
Democrats think their opponents are evil simply for disagreeing with Democrats. Obviously, disagreeing about the rate of taxation, or welfare policy, or Covid restrictions doesn’t constitute evil. To think so is morally defective.
Republicans think Democrats are evil for a huge list of nasty, vicious, fascist actions that together clearly constitute evil.
Difference.
I find it interesting that there are 69 comments, and nobody has mentioned Krauthammer’s Law of American politics: “To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
? Charles Krauthammer, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics
I have no idea when Mr. Krauthammer first put forth that thought, but I know I first encountered it around 20 years ago. Which is to say, the belief by those on the Left that conservatives/Republicans (not even close to 100% the same group, but there is overlap) are evil is not new by any means.
What’s new is that they feel so free in to express it openly. You got glimpses of it before, going all the way back to Hillary’s “vast right wing conspiracy”, to Obama’s “bitter clingers”, and back to Hillary’s “deplorables.” Also expressed in calling conservatives racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobes, transphobes, Islamophobes, etc. And they borrowed some of the language of the GWoT about ‘Muslim extremists’ to come up with the term “right wing extremists” (which, as far as I can tell, is flexible enough to cover anyone to the right of Leon Trotsky), because, well, everyone knows extremists are bad, right? Except when they’re violent left wing extremists like Antifa. Those are fine.
Neo,
You wrote of many on the left that “…they think they are fighting evil with necessary tools.”
Isn’t that exactly what the vast majority of the members of the NSDAP thought they were doing?
And if so, doesn’t that make present day leftists the moral equivalents of Nazis?
Geoffrey Britain…”“Dehumanize, demonize, and destroy. Classic devil’s strategy. It worked against Jews, Indians, and Africans. Why not republicans? People never learn.” joe smith
“Republicans are armed versus none of the above.”
Indians were certainly armed, if ‘Indians’ here refers to American Indians, and for the most part they put up a pretty good fight, although they weren’t as well-armed as the government forces.
David Foster:
Nor are we the people as well-armed as the government forces.
David:
Actually, it makes the argument meaningless. Just about everyone thinks his or her position is correct and that they are fighting the bad guys. The right thinks it as well.
The question is who is closer to reality.
Vlad thought the Ukrainians would not fight or would fold. Our leftist betters may have their own equal misconceptions about we evil conservatives. They have never bothered to learn anything of us beyond a caricature, not so with us and them.
If they already have that mindset and those resources what do you think they will do with them
Try punctuation.
The establishment feels being under scrutiny, knows its own sins and is scared.
That’s all, combined with the entitlement they cultivate assiduously.
“Democracy” is the last of their thoughts.
To the extent conservatives are considered evil, is there a cohort on the left which thinks conservatives may/must be physically assaulted? It’s okay to punch a Nazi, right?
If so, the more the left demonizes the right, the more of such violence we will see. And then what?
To the extent there are some reasonable people on the left, not extreme left, would their putative concern for fairness, for goose/gander, for equal application of the law, be overcome by a concern for “taking care” of these evil people who pose such a terrible threat? You have to cut some corners in an emergency, right?
So I look at J6 and find my question answered.
Went to a discussion group where some of the folks were jut-jawed satisfied that Trump had been busted trying to steer a Secret Service vehicle, apparently to the Capitol. Got him now, by golly. When informed the SS was prepared to swear under oath no such thing had happened, their disappointment was obvious.