Following up on my post from yesterday regarding the extremism and violence-inciting rhetoric among the "mainstream" right-wing blogs, I want to highlight two superb posts today on this topic. This one is from Dave Neiwert, who explores some of the reasons why they have come to rely so heavily on this such rhetoric and the broader purposes it serves.
This post, from the Great Society, elaborates on the media's obsession with, and incessant criticism of, petty attributes of the liberal blogosphere, as contrasted with their studious efforts to ignore the authoritarian impulses, and extremist and dangerous rhetoric -- much of it directed at them -- emanating literally on a daily basis from right-wing blogs.
Shining light on the extremist impulses and authoritarian mindset of the pro-Bush movement is, for reasons I've explained here, one of the most important (and effective) weapons against it. John Dean's new book is resonating so well, I believe, because it documents these authoritarian attributes and describes just how un-conservative, pro-government-power, and follower-dependent the Bush movement is. And just as anyone who criticizes their ultimate Leader, the Commander-in-Chief, is attacked with full force, so, too, will criticizing their online leaders subject one to all sorts of bitter personal invective, impotent attempts to research one's background, juvenile name-calling -- all of which is promoted and encouraged on an almost daily basis by their wounded leader. Dean's preface is devoted to detailing some of the most amazing personal assaults aimed at him once he spoke out against the new "conservative" movement.
But that is how all bullies and authoritarian movements behave -- by collectively swarming to demonize anyone who criticizes it as the Enemy, a mentally ill liar, etc. etc. Ask Richard Clarke, or Joe Wilson, or Howard Dean, or Jack Murtha, or Al Gore, or the anti-war Generals -- or any of the other mentally ill, seditious traitors and liars who have criticized the Commander-in-Chief and who oppose his movement. It is simply par for the course. And the more wounded and threatened they feel from the criticisms, the more intense will be their insults and name-calling tantrums and efforts to attack personally. It is one of the hallmarks of a dying movement that knows it is dying an ignominious death, and it is grounded in great weakness.
The rightwing projection syndrome is seen in the bizarre "Islamofascist" trope (no such things, debunked time and again) and secondarily in the clearly tongue-in-cheek, but similarly functioning "Blogofascist".
ReplyDeleteI am expecting to see soon condemnations of "Mexicanofascists", "Gayofascists", and "Peaceofascists".
prunes writes:The rightwing projection syndrome is seen in the bizarre "Islamofascist" trope
ReplyDeleteI know most here disagree with me, but I've previously documented why the term "Islamofascist" is respectable and accurately identifies a movement from an anthropological/sociological perspective. That said, the reason I don't employ the word much any longer, is because of those who predominantly do and what it means to them.
Another example would be the word "cult." It is a perfectly valid term with a sociological meaning; in common parlance, however, it simply means "a new religion I don't like and wish to demonize." So, I don't use the word unless I go through the cumbersome hoops of explaining how I employ it.
But to Glenn's larger point: I am revolted by -- but not surprise at -- the juvenile, truly degraded level of attack on him as a person coming from those who apparently have no adult response with which to defend the phenomena he documents and highlights. The filth and smears coming from their ranks are all, just, you know "hyperbole" or "jokes" requring "context."
Were Glenn not such a fool he would realize that, so we will put up pictures of him with silly hats on his head. That will show him. [eyes rolling]
I think you've really gotten under Glenn Reynolds' skin. He's now linking to every single post by any random unhinged blogger who happens to be attacking you, and in doing so, he's making a joke of his own blog. Sooner or later, his readership is going to be indistinguishable from Michelle Malkin's. I don't see why intelligent, balanced people would continue to look to him for interesting links when he keeps sending them to posts that are nothing more than poorly-written, substance-free invective from small-minded idiots.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
HYPATIA: I know most here disagree with me, but I've previously documented why the term "Islamofascist" is respectable and accurately identifies a movement from an anthropological/sociological perspective.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the use of the word "fascist" as applied to Islamic movements as I do as applied to extremist domestic groups. Islamic extremism is oppressive, violent, inhumane and horrendously suffocating - why get bogged down in semantic bickering about whether the highly inflammatory term "fascist" is exactly accurate or not (a term which is, independently, now so overused and manipulated that it is impoverished of real meaning)?
AL: I think you've really gotten under Glenn Reynolds' skin. He's now linking to every single post by any random unhinged blogger who happens to be attacking you, and in doing so, he's making a joke of his own blog.
And by doing that, he encourages them to write more of those unbelievably juvenile attacks, in the hope that he will link to it, which, like clockwork, he does. As you observe, I would think that readers of his blog are tired of clicking on his links only to find yet more photoshopped pictures of me with tin foil on my head and more posts fascinatingly calling me a "duechebag" or talking about my cases from 7 years ago - but he doesn't seem able to stop himself.
It is one of the hallmarks of a dying movement that knows it is dying an ignominious death, and it is grounded in great weakness.
ReplyDeleteF-in' A. Maybe that's why a Coulter fundariser in CO netted $0 for her "benefactor".
Heh.
I find, suddenly this week and for the first time in several years, that rants about internal enemies in the mainstream news media, the need to jail the traitors at the New York Times, or the fact that the war in Iraq is going really well and people only think it isn't because left-wing reporters and politicians have hidden the truth... Well, they just make me feel tired. Suddenly I can't even summon the energy to be angry at this idiocy, anymore.
ReplyDeleteTheir time has passed. Their argument has died on the vine. And they have nothing else to offer.
And I think you're right, here: They know it. Hence the exponential increase in shrillness.
Glenn writes: I feel the same way about the use of the word "fascist" as applied to Islamic movements as I do as applied to extremist domestic groups. Islamic extremism is oppressive, violent, inhumane and horrendously suffocating - why get bogged down in semantic bickering about whether the highly inflammatory term "fascist" is exactly accurate or not (a term which is, independently, now so overused and manipulated that it is impoverished of real meaning)?
ReplyDeleteLike the word "cult." I just don't use it unless I mean, and say I mean, a movement that fits within some sociological criteria such as those set forth decades ago by Robert J. Lifton.
In any event, I hope to soon have a platform in which to examine the whole "Islamofascist/clerical fascist" idea. It's misuse for hate purposes -- which is copiously found on pro-Bush blogs -- would be among my points.
If you believe the Corporate media and the Republican party have basically merged, through ideological and financial means, then you have to believe, that the reason they dont shine a light on the right wing blogs, is because they are so extreme, with their murderous rhetoric, and hypocracy, it wouldnt be in the media's interest to bite the hand that feeds them, through deregulation and tax breaks.
ReplyDeleteAnd the more wounded and threatened they feel from the criticisms, the more intense will be their insults and name-calling tantrums and efforts to attack personally. It is one of the hallmarks of a dying movement that knows it is dying an ignominious death, and it is grounded in great weakness.
ReplyDeleteVery true words. I call it the Rumpelstiltskin Syndrome.
Glenn is doing a superb job of exposing the right-wing blogosphere (with one glaring exception.)
ReplyDeleteTo keep things balanced, however, I will later post a very interesting article which explains how the left-wing blogosphere is increasingly being funded by the very billionaires that lefties and socialists profess to hate, and what's even more grating is that it's being done as a tax dodge....
The hypocrisy never ends.....
Here comes the "clown", "moron", "idiot" activist left brigade---they defer to nobody in resorting to ad hominem attacks and character assasination when you differ from them on even one point of their agenda...The only difference between them and the "right" is the left does it anonymously so nobody will be able to lay the blame right at their doorsteps.
Non-religious, non-partisan people would be better off keeping their mouths shut in this country.
I have noted for some time now that the neocon mindset and actions are those of a fascist movement. And I am not one who believes the word has been stripped of meaning. That would allow the Right to dictate etymology. I dont want to allow that. The other characteristic of the neocons I have noted is their blind obedience like religious cults. The word cult does have a definitive definition.
ReplyDelete"A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader"
A cult member has usually been brainwashed due to sleep depravation or food depravatin or both. Cult members will not be open to new information unless it comes from their leader. Cult members spout the party line no matter what. And the more you challenge them the harder they will fight you.
So I agree Glenn, as the right wing neocons seem to be fighting harder these days it is because I believe they have finally marginilized themselves by their refusal to accept reality.
Oh lookie…a bit of restraint and decency, in which John Podhoretz chastises Powerline and says it’s not right to compare the Democratic Party to Joseph Goebbels.
ReplyDeleteA New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding
ReplyDeleteDemocracy Alliance was formed last year with major backing from billionaires such as financier George Soros and Colorado software entrepreneur Tim Gill. The inspiration, according to founders, was a belief that Democrats became the minority party in part because liberals do not have a well-funded network of policy shops, watchdog groups and training centers for activists...
Made up of billionaires and millionaires who are accustomed to calling the shots, the group at times has gotten bogged down in disputes about its funding priorities and mission, participants said....
Pathetic. These kinds of tactics worked so well on the "right" in terms of what they did for this country.
Now the power elite inside crowd on the "right" and the "left" have joined hands to take away the last shreds of input about which direction this country is headed in from any rational, non-partisan, independent thinkers, you know, the "We the People" dinosaurs who have become obsolete in this $$$ Cayman Island/One Party Monster which gives tax breaks to charities, family trusts, religious organizations, and all the other deepest pocket "cronies" and funders of Big Brother.
Has any sincere person on the Left ever even asked himself: "Hey, where does all that money go anyway?"
Oh yeah. Katrina victims.
::Sigh::
Keep shining a light into the kitchen, Glenn. The roaches are getting nervous.
ReplyDeleteAll this extremism from the fascist element of the right is not only fatiguing, but massively irritating. I'm personally about at the "put up or shut up" limit for it. If you think that newspaper editors, dissenters from the party line, Bush critics of any stripe, talking heads on any station other than Fox, peaceniks, leftists, rich folks who aren't solely protecting their pile, etc. deserve violence, death, or deportation for exercising their Constitutional rights, then you are an enemy of the United States of America, and an enemy of mine. And you will reap what you sow.
Chris Bray; I know EXACTLY how you feel.
ReplyDeleteMelanie Morgan today on her radio program proceeded to mischaracterize what was written about her and KSFO in Salon by Joe Conason and of course miss the main point.
She then proceeded to get her facts about Gitmo wrong and call Joe Conason a hack.
I spent a lot of time getting her exact quote and exact time when she called for the hanging death of the media. If I was going to call her out for calling for the death of journalists, I wanted to get the chronology right. I wanted to prove to their advertisers that if they aren't violating the FCC guidelines for inciting violence at the very least they are spouting things that no decent advertiser would want to be associated with. Of course NOTHING happens to her. There are no consequences from the WSJ (a sponsor) for her calling for the death of there reporters.
Interestingly John Fund was on the air and she asked them about the article. He said that the WSJ article is different, it didn't reveal anything wrong and that once the NYTimes released the story that was it fine for them to do it. (of course I won't want to quote him wrong so I'll put the exact quote up on my blog)
But this nonsense is tiring because as Atrios says. There is nothing so terrible they can say that will get them in trouble.
Their KSFO ABC/Disney sales staff spends their time searching for my identity, creating a blog to out me and coming on my blog to say that they have contacted the FBI and they are going to sue me. So I'm sure when the address goes up then I'll get the death treats or maybe just the envelope filled with a powdery substance.
Meanwhile Morgan laughs with Coulter about execution methods of journalists.
But that is how all bullies and authoritarian movements behave -- by collectively swarming to demonize anyone who criticizes it as the Enemy, a mentally ill liar, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteWell this is certainly a true statement and can be seen in abundant evidence on the Left.
Notice how hysterical and vicious they get (throwing out epithets of racist, bigot, capitalist pig, fascist etc.) when someone dares to criticize their delusional socialist fantasies.
Some times I ask myself: Can these people really believe that higher taxes are going to go to any worthy causes, do they simply hate anyone richer than they are so much that they want to see them fleeced for programs like No Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid, or are they simply con artists looking for a little of the vig to come their way....
I favor the latter explanation.
$25 billion down the drain last year on another phony program. Add that to all the Liberty dollars thrown at billionaires and it's quite a party going on there in Washington, brought to you courtesy of those sweet, compassionate BIG GOVERNMENT con- artists on the Left.
But if you dare to make a peep about small government, they start foaming at the mouth and write MAKE IT STOP.
Apparently the right wingnuts in the blogosphere are preparing for some sort of defeat in Iraq, inventing their own Dolschstosslegende: blame the press for the defeat.
ReplyDeleteIn Germany following the defeat in WWI the right wingnuts blamed the Jews for the defeat. In the US, the right wingnuts are trying to blame the media.
--raj
Perhaps Eyes Wide Open should do exactly that. In case EWO has had his eyes tightly shut over the last six years, it is the Republicans who have had control of the federal treasury since then, not the bad ol' lib'ruls. Bush has not vetoed a single bill, including every spending bill brought before him since 2001. Both Congress and the Senate have been tightly controlled by the Rs, who have spent like drunken sailors dispensing the most egregious levels of pork not seen since Tammany Hall. This includes all the grant programs spent on agriculture EWO is apparently so fond of.
ReplyDeleteWere it only so that the Democats (many of whom are very fiscally conservative) ran the show. We might very well not be almost $10 trillion in the hole, but much less. (And that doesn't count the approximatly $2 trillion American taxpayers are going to spend on Bush's war in Iraq, which increasingly resembles a completely failed exercise in nation-building that Democrats and Lib'ruls are often blamed for.) Remember, for those who are fact-challenged, Clinton left an almost $300 billion surplus to Bush, who promptly changed that into a string of $300-400 billion annual deficits.
Now, who's the more fiscally responsibile politically party? Open your eyes, EWO. Your country needs you to face the truth, instead of hiding your head in the sand.
I feel the same way about the use of the word "fascist" as applied to Islamic movements as I do as applied to extremist domestic groups. Islamic extremism is oppressive, violent, inhumane and horrendously suffocating - why get bogged down in semantic bickering about whether the highly inflammatory term "fascist" is exactly accurate or not (a term which is, independently, now so overused and manipulated that it is impoverished of real meaning)?
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks to me like that parenthetical answers your own question. I hesitate to refer to Orwell because it's so easy to accuse anyone of sinning against his memory, but words mean something. If a political term is so emotionally charged and yet so vague, then the people using it aren't talking policy or principles, they're just having their Two Minutes Hate.
Words should mean something, at least. If war-mongerers were railing against Islam or Arabs in general, they'd be called bigots. If they were railing against theocracy, it would call a lot of attention to our own disproportionately powerful theocratic minority. And so on. But someone made up a trigger word just for this particular kind of bad person, a description for something that's perfectly safe to hate, so thinking about what principles guide us (if any) can happily be avoided.
At least, that's how it seems to me. Hypatia, can you link to your previous defenses of "Islamofascist"? I'm curious.
Cyrus:
ReplyDeleteHere, here, and especially here.
Well, I'm amused that the manifesto you linked to in your second comment defending the term "Islamofascism" did not use the term itself... but it seems I agree with you in the end. I think the term is a misnomer, at least when applied to non-state enemies, but that's not the point. Whether or not there really are "no such things" would be totally trivial, except for the fact that, as you put it: Granted, people employing the term “Islamofascist” do not generally do so in a heuristic fashion.
ReplyDeleteI don't care about the etymology of it. I care that it is, or at least it has become, a very big clue that a person using it it total seriousness belongs in the "glass parking lot" crowd.
Well, I'm amused that the manifesto you linked to in your second comment defending the term "Islamofascism" did not use the term itself... but it seems I agree with you in the end. I think the term is a misnomer, at least when applied to non-state enemies, but that's not the point. Whether or not there really are "no such things" would be totally trivial, except for the fact that, as you put it:
ReplyDeleteGranted, people employing the term “Islamofascist” do not generally do so in a heuristic fashion.
I don't care about the etymology of it. I care that it is a very big clue that a person using it in total seriousness belongs to the "glass parking lot" crowd.
hmm, sorry about the double post.
ReplyDeletePatterico-
ReplyDeleteYou've been duped, and you're far too full of yourself to realize it.
The fact that Sadly, No! put up a parody which you took seriously should be evidenced by the new contents of the store which read:
"Patterico. Pie. Face. Some Assembly Required."
Somehow, I suspect the 'subtlety' of this will be lost on the likes of you.
You've been duped, and you're far too full of yourself to realize it. The fact that Sadly, No! put up a parody which you took seriously should be evidenced by the *new* contents of the store (HELLO! THEY WEREN"T UP THERE WHEN HE ORIGINALLY POSTED) which read: "Patterico. Pie. Face. Some Assembly Required." Somehow, I suspect the 'subtlety' of this will be lost on the likes of you.
ReplyDeleteThis is almost unbearably funny given that this is EXACTLY the argument I made in my original post, when I said Glenn had exaggerated Mischa's Tree. Rope. Some Assembly required. into a "death call".
I even made that point again yesterday in my second post (i.e., no one seriously thought the T-shirts were a death threat - not even Patterico) But then apparently that subtlety was wasted on you, too. The point is that you can't have it both ways, making cliched sick jokes amongst yourselves but choosing to take them as "death threats" when someone on the right makes the very same joke.
You people have really got to get over yourselves. And develop some reading comprehension skills.
*sigh*
Wow. Testing.
ReplyDelete-Emperor of Icecream
Cassandra-
ReplyDeleteYes, calling for the hanging of 5 specific Supreme Court justices is exactly like calling for the hanging of all unidentified and unknown conservatives. Why didn't I think of that before?
You people have really got to get over yourselves. And develop some reading comprehension skills.