Wednesday, February 09, 2011
A Bookface "friend" posted Wayne Allyn Root's wildly hysterical and generally insane ramble entitled Rules for Radicals: Obama's New Plan to Destroy America. Being in a silly mood, I followed the link.
I returned to Facebook, and stated simply that his link was "possibly the most vapid, under-researched, unfathomably misinformed and purposefully misdirectional piece of drooling slander I have ever wasted my time with, period. This article pretends to debate policy when all it really does it evoke Beck-esque conspiracy theorizing, which is especially hilarious when, on his own website, Root says "I am not a fan of conspiracy theories. I actually think that wild conspiracy theories detract and discredit any serious attempt to ask legitimate questions about the background of our President.""
I notice that I have been unfriended. This was probably for the best.
One of my favorite gems:
Why would Obama launch this all-out assault on capitalism, you ask? The answer is simple. He's an ideologue who hates America and believes the capitalistic system is destructive and exploitive (as do most of my Columbia classmates). Like Mao and Lenin, Obama sees himself as the "people's savior."That's pretty standard fare for, um, some ideologues who aren't fans of the President. But it's nothing new; hates America, blah blah, Stalin, blah blah, commie. Yawn.
The piece really hits its stride here:
Obama's new plan is brilliant. Act like you've learned a lesson. Compromise. Move to the center. Talk like a moderate conservative. Support tax cuts. Become a friend to business. Act supportive of repealing parts of your own Obamacare plan. Make nice to the Chamber of Commerce. Appoint business leaders to your management team. Talk about tort reform. Talk about the dangers of debt. Become "the jobs" President. Allow Bill O'Reilly to interview you and claim your new goal is to get spending under control. Spend your entire State of the Union praising America. You are now a patriot bleeding red, white and blue.This, in and of itself, is brilliant in its deviousness. And by brilliant, I mean massively, blazingly dim. And by deviousness, I mean purposeful misdirection.
Let's break it down:
Root just took everything that the President has done in the past month and a half, and listed it out as if it's a by-the-book "this is how you create plans to destroy countries" step by step process. Step 1, capitulate. Step 2, change your speech. Step 3, etc etc etc. No, Wayne. All you did was list 6 weeks worth of activity. It's how he writes that passage that makes it so bad. That everything the President has done is premeditated all the way back to Mao, as if Mao wrote somewhere that if you do these things, in this order, BAM! Despot 1; Nation 0.
That, folks, is fucking funny.
Ah, but we get some more fun:
Why would he commit this act of fraud and deception? One over-riding goal: Get re-elected in 2012.Wait, you mean getting re-elected is Obama's over-riding goal?? Noooooooo!!!! Wait. WAIT!! That was Bush's goal too?? And Clinton's??? AND VAN BUREN'S????
But why? WHY would Obama want to get re-elected?
Why is getting re-elected so important? Because then Obama has nothing standing in his way of completing the job he set out to do -- DESTROY AMERICA.Wait. What's...standing in his way...now? Does he need 4 years? Because if you ask Red State or O'Reilly, he's kinda already done it. So...what gives?
Two more years of patience and the keys to the kingdom...and the economy...and the Fed...and the United States Military...and the nuclear arsenal...all belong to Obama.Wait. Wait. Doesn't...doesn't he have the keys to all that stuff right now? And who might he nuke? Us?
Idiot feed for the idiots. Typical shock-jock radio nonsense geared towards the people who would actually believe it.
13 comments:
Even after being exposed to all kind of this stuff, I can still say that I am surprised that people believe this shit. Obama is far from perfect, and can be critiqued for plenty of things. Honestly, I think he is a decent person, is well intentioned, and really wants what is best for the country. That being said, I predict that he will be remembered as a somewhat middle of the ratings president.
He certainly doesn't deserve BS like this. Criticism should be grounded in reality, not wild-ass speculation.
Now I really want ot know who unfriended you (if I know them).
I now work in a world of these people. It sucks. Save me.
It was me, Bob.
Nobody in the system, Bob. No staffers or anything like that.
Yeah, steve, that's my thing; I can find some real policy areas I am not thrilled with, and many that I like a lot. But to suggest it's all some conspiracy to destroy America is hysterical, both in the "funny" sense and the "hysteria" sense.
If only Obama were a woman, you would have hit the trifecta of hysteria meanings.
The conspiracy stuff is just so hard to take. The president hates capitalism. How do we know? Because he is supporting it now. That can only mean that he actually hates it.
Or something.
But then again, I have a student who thinks that nullification is a good idea and not at all contradictory with what the founders thought.
I wonder if some of these people don't believe most of this stuff deep down...?
The thing is, there's rhetoric on the other side, too. I spend every day at work listening to how the Republicans are evil and destroying America, business and capitalism is evil and destroying the economy and America, and Republicans are destroying the environment to the extent that the world will end within the next 10 years. But the end-of-worlders saying the Mayans had it right are crackpots.
I think the reality of it is that there are loud extremists on either side and those are the ones that get the media attention. And there are armchair politicians on either side who don't fully understand everything about everything like they think they do. And there are people with good and bad ideas on both sides, and the do'ers with the good ideas will continue to work silently in the background while the inefficiency and bureaucracy slows things down enough so that all in all everything just plods along roughly down the middle.
Just my $.02.
Pete, maybe you can help me out here. For one, I don't hear people saying that capitalism is evil, but saying that we need to regulate capitalism.
Second, it is hard for me not to see Republicans as destroying the environment. They take pride in killing any climate change legislation and want to defund the EPA or deregulate industry at every step. I am not calling them evil, but I don't see them working to protect the environment, and all I seem to see them doing is protecting the very wealthy. Since we have adopted Republican ideas on the environment, the gap between rich and poor has exploded. Certainly not all of that is their fault, but shouldn't we address that?
Ah, the phantom spectre of both sides.
I spend every day at work listening to how the Republicans are evil and destroying America, business and capitalism is evil and destroying the economy and America, and Republicans are destroying the environment to the extent that the world will end within the next 10 years.
Yes, the specter of both sides... I would like some sort of support for this, as I have never actually heard anyone saying this.
Whenever I hear this sort of thing, I think about how children say "he/she did it too!".
This is no defense at all of foolish rhetoric. Whenever I actually engage a local Republican (who is almost certainly some form of Christian)I bring up the sin of bearing False Witness.
It doesn't matter who says what, a person of faith should never engage in knowingly false statements. And I also believe there is a responsibility to check stuff out before sending crazy emails and such along.
That would be my $.02 ;)
Yes, the specter of both sides... I would like some sort of support for this, as I have never actually heard anyone saying this.
Whenever I hear this sort of thing, I think about how children say "he/she did it too!".
Seriously, multiple coworkers think this. It goes beyond the normal poking fun of the stupid things Sarah Palin says or the latest retarded quote by some GOP mouthpiece. They search out on the Internet "crackpot" websites where people have ridiculous claims, religious beliefs, etc., and poke fun at the ridiculous nature of those people. It's like the concept of the Internet as the worlds largest Opinion page is news to them. No matter what everything that is wrong with things ties back to this massive GOP Christian movement and there couldn't possibly be any normal, rational members on That Side that might have one or two reasonable ideas about something, anything.
The thing is - I actually would consider myself fairly liberal minded, especially on social issues. I was and still am dismayed at a lot of the things that have happened and are happening due to things attributed to the "Right" side of the spectrum...but then again I'm annoyed at a lot of the stuff on the other side, too. I guess ultimately I want to argue with the guys at work for the sake or argument because it seems like they're zealots as much as those they criticize. Even though ultimately I probably agree with them on most things.
Heh, maybe I'm just annoyed at the "us vs them" rhetoric that is everywhere these days and the insistence that everyone must be slotted into one of two groups. I don't feel like my beliefs side with either main group completely and I would bet that's a case for the majority of those out there.
Haha, what am up to now, $.04?
Pete, I appreciate your comments and can see some of what you are saying. You are right that there are wing-nuts on the left. We know of many who blamed Bush for 9-11, and some who never ever would even consider Bush actually the President after the elections in 2000 and 2004.
But to be fair, the reason we often dismiss the "specter of both sides" is because those sentiments are fringe on the left. We are not convinced they are fringe on the right. And we believe that because we see those sentiments from elected Senators Cornyn (from Texas saying after a judge shooting that judges who make bad rulings might expect to be shot) or Grassley (who reiterated the death panel nonsense on the stump rather than be straight with his base). Dement from SC calls on the states to nullify laws they don't like, and we haven't even talked about elected Republicans in the House. Need I remind you of Balkmann, King and the others? People who routinely call the President a traitor, appeal to "birthers" and "tenthers" and others.
And while we have extremists on the left saying stupid stuff, we have an entire network on cable mainstreaming such accusations. Glenn Beck connects Islamic terrorists to liberals like myself, and accuses me of being in league with those who want to kill Americans. Sarah Palin, VP candidate and possible Presidential candidate continues to accuse the President of preferring our enemies to us, and still, to this day, defends the death penalty nonsense.
I will absolutely concede the wingnut factor on the left. But for many of us, the big difference is that our leadership doesn't encourage people to believe that Bush caused 9-11, or even to question the patriotism of people like Dick Cheney. But on the right? We are considered enemies by the wingnuts on the right wing blogs and those elected to congress alike.
Can you see where we are coming from?
Post a Comment