"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge"
--Daniel Boorstin, 1984 Librarian of Congress
Recently my attention was drawn to a post called, Facist America: Are We There Yet? by Sarah on Dave Niewart's blog, Ornicus.
(I'll wait here while you read it)
My first thought after reading this was "If insight were water, this would be a dirty puddle in the bottom of a swimming pool long neglected, at best." I would have left it at that, but it made my head go **asplode** to the point I find myself compelled to expound.
While it's certainly true to say that I'm attacking this blog in particular, the larger goal of the exercise is to attack the mindset from which these things spring in general. This post exactly represents the problem with most 'notable' Lib/Progs on the blogs and on the teevee. It's always the conservatives, the right-wing, etc, that is the source of all our ills. It's amazing how the tone of this post lines up in remarkable fashion with Obama's speech the other day and its "get out of the way so we can clean up this mess" rhetoric. Despite concrete actions by the current administration that serve to not only continue, but strengthen, the 'conservative' policies and actions of the past administration that helped bring us this 'mess' in the first place (invasions of Iraq/Afghanistan/Packistan and rampant worldwide militarism, The Drug War, War on Terror, etc.--to say nothing policies/actions of the last six decades, at least), this ilk of Lib/Prog continues to march forward with their "We intellectual educated adults are so beset by the racist and oh-so dangerous right-wing masses" narratives, ad nauseum.
A few notes concerning this Ornicus drivel, masquerading as analysis:
First--What the above referenced post refers to as "The Teabag Movement" actually began with smaller, more independent MeetUp groups getting together to throw copies of the 9/11 Commission Report into the harbor (or whatever body of water happened to be close) to denounce its utterly deceptive and false nature, and to call it out for what it was - a cover-up for The Establishment. The various groups referred to their protests as Tea Parties (these began kicking off on or around Dec. 2006 if you want to look). From there, they morphed into continued agitation for a real investigation into 9/11 as well as increasingly strong protests of The Fed, as knowledge of its true nature (private, for profit) became more widespread, and also included a certain amount of agitation for the impeachment of The Crawford Caligula. Over the last three years, the issue of The Fed has grown in importance to the point that it has overshadowed cries of protest with regard to 9/11, and THIS is the point where the 'conservative' movement of FOX/Fredomworks/Beck/etc. set their machinery in motion to co-opt these and turn them into a spectacle of ignorance and ugliness, with a great deal of enthusiastic help from their own psychologically enslaved partisan followers. The "Teabag" movement and the fake controversy surrounding it is a media establishment creation, and of course it seems "sudden" to people who only pay attention to the Respectable and Serious MSM/Teevee, because prior to the "Teabag" moment, any mention of the Tea Parties or their true intent was largely blacked out in those arenas. "Issues" typically only make it into these mainstream spaces when they can be spun into something partisan and divisive, where supposedly 'intellectual' partisan blogs pick it up and echo/flog it according to their specializations (in the case of Niewart's blog, it's raceRepublicansraceRepublicansraceRepublicansraceracerace).
(and no, I'm not excusing or encouraging whatever 'conservative' NGO shenanigans/mobs may be doing in any way, shape, or form. But anyone who can't see that these true believer mobs exist and are encouraged by a controlling superclass on both sides aren't paying attention and/or don't want to see--more on this later, if I can carve out the time.)
Second--The "Omigawd the dirty ignorant Republican mobs are harassing our noble, hard-working Democrats and our wonderful el Presidente, preventing them from doing their good work!" subtext of this post is a wholly steaming pile. When the Democrats took back control of Congress, did they launch impeachment (or, dare we utter the uncivil word "criminal") proceedings against GW and his evil, racist conservative minions? Did they cut off the funding for the multiple wars of aggression that have thus far resulted in the slaughter of well over a million people? Of course they didn't. To this very day they continue funding and promoting these travesties, along with scores upon scores of additional criminal enterprises, and continue to protect the criminals that design, launch, and manage these operations because they themselves are an indisputable part of what is now nothing more than a gang of corrupt lower-tier nation-state managers who are complicit in the same. But psychologically invested Lib/Progs dare not speak of these things, especially since, other than Iraq (tut-tuttedly referred to so often as being "regrettable"), Afghanistan/Pakistan/etc. are now "the good wars". Yet another example of this is how The War on Terror/Omigodz Terrerists rhetoric, during GW's reign, was decried by these as the most awful and baseless demonizing towards brown people and the civilian population in general (it was and is), driving us to fascism (it was and is), until their side took the baton of power, and now constant references to "terrorists" is just dandy, because now it's time for 'the grown-ups' to worry about those right-wing "domestic terrorists/extremists" (a group that also includes, per various DHS reports, among others, veterans and people who talk about The Constitution). So says the mighty Homeland Security, the organization these same Lib/Progs once upon a time referred to (and were correct in doing so) as the new Gestapo.
Which leads us finally to....
Third--"Every day that the conservatives in Congress, the right-wing talking heads, and their noisy minions are allowed to hold up our ability to govern the country is another day we're slowly creeping across the final line beyond which, history tells us, no country has ever been able to return."
"Our" ability to govern. Oh, that's rich.
This sentence is completely emblematic of the psychological enslavement exhibited by those trapped in the Left/Right quagmire. Devotees on each side are made to feel like they are somehow an integral part of the power structure, even though nothing could be further from the truth; they are merely willing cogs that reinforce and perpetuate a predatory power structure that is wholly non-partisan (Internationalist Corporatism--hot damn, an -ist and an -ism together!). This power structure in its modern form fully understands and has largely perfected the age old technique of Divide and Conquer/Rule, implemented through their various media proxies. Intelligence/COINTELPRO has long referred to those susceptible to these identity politics ("I'd sure like to clear some brush/have a beer/drive a truck with that guy cuz I'm a country boy like him"/"Look, he's black just like me! He must be good!"/"Yes We Can!" feel good slogans/etc.) as 'useful idiots', cynically herded into groups by a steady diet of PR-hackery fed through the teevee. These true believers are attentive at each and every puppet show, cheering and writing wildly, smugly self-assured that there are no strings, or that said strings only exist at that other 'crazy/racist/dangerous' puppet show on the opposite end of the partisan divide.
Such 'analysis' is nothing less than frenzied brass-polishing on the Titanic. The partisan situation as a whole is little more than mobs cheering on their respective figurehead captains as the two fight over a decorative steering wheel. Meanwhile, the ship continues to move all groups as one, straight on towards the devastating iceberg looming ever larger, never actually changing course, and only grudgingly giving the appearance of doing so every now and again.
Malcolm X spoke words worth keeping in mind while considering the supposedly 'insightful' Left/Right blogs and watching the misleading 'political analysis' and latest race-baiting Special Report on the teevee "news":
"There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes — they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food — what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house — quicker than the master would. If the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.You're human beings, goddammit. Your lives have value. Shut off your teevee, shut down your partisanship, and stop being the House Negroes your rulers expect and train you to be.
[...]
If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a "house nigger." And that's what we call them today, because we've still got some house niggers running around here."
