Inspiring

Because more of the same, only harder, is kind of like change too.

(Viia Mojoblog. If you haven't seen the original, see here. And remember, "Your favorite candidate sucks" (via).

Comments

[Tonio]

Cite your sources, please. I'd really like to meet these militant, xenophobic lefties.

Would the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front count?

"Fascist! You will eat organically grown, fare trade tofu!"

When I saw the first Superman movie, here's what I thought I heard General Zod (Terence Stamp) say to Jor-El: "You will bow down before me! Both you and then one day, your ass!"

[Spalanzani]

Tonio: "Would the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front count?"

Maybe for millitancy, but how are they xenophobic?

[Tonio]

Maybe for millitancy, but how are they xenophobic?

Probably not at all, unless the ALF uses racist terms and imagery when it condemns dog-eating in places like Korea.

[Lee Ratner]

I should have been more clear. What I meant is not that leftists are xenophobic, all though the CCP under Mao and the East German government had tendencies in those directions, but that rigtists could make a hyberbolic argument that liberals and leftists want to kill bourgeoisie and the religious because of the actions like Communists just as Noah could accuse right-wingers of homicidal xenophobia because of the actions of the more extreme right-wing.

[Chris]

As for why the hard-assness among extreme Rightwingers, here's my idea of part of the reason: fear. Look at the blog of someone like that Adam Yoshida. They're positively terrified of people who aren't like them, so they try to deal with it via all those wonderful revenge fantasies about killing their evil bogeymen. And then they get even more terrified, because they project their genocidal fantasies on the bogeymen. And then they project their fear on the caring, touchy-feely, effeminate Left, too. Because no *real* men would feel afraid, right? (Saying this after I read an Islamophobic letter to the editor in a British newspaper, asking if the Left is so nice to Muslims because we fear them. Yeah, *we* fear Muslims...)

C.G. Jung was most certainly right when he described the concept of the Shadow, our projection of those qualities we don't want to see in ourselves. Think of how the Nazis and previous pogrom-mongers have dehumanised the Jews as a well-poisoning, genocidal conspiracy. Think of how Scientologists saw a conspiracy behind the February 10th demonstration outside their buildings, when they themselves are well known for underhanded smear campaigns against enemies.

[HollywdLiz]

Oh, God, I can't stop laughing! You made my day, Fred.

12008!

[Zombie Kid]

Three words: I like turtles.

(If you don't get that, see this.)

[Jon H]

The original pro-Obama video reminds me of the Over the Rhine song, "If a Song Could Be President".

[Zonko]

I agree with Tonio on the machismo theory. I had a fellow (who, IIRC, is joining the military soon) say he'd vote for McCain because McCain is, you know, tough, like, tough on gays and abortion and, you know, tough (that's about how eloquent his reasoning was). Not the only Republican I've met who had a similar thought process.

[J]

I'm with Noah, more or less and I don't agree with Lee's supposition that there are people "just as bad" on the left. Communists might dream about killing rich people. But there are no Communists left in America. By contrast, it's not "right wingers" who run on a "I'll kill a lot of people" platform, it's conservatives. Main stream, Main Street people, with a decent shot at winning the election and millions of dollars of campaign money and backing from think tanks and major industries.

That has increasingly seemed the substance of conservative philosophy and politics to me: Not limited government and devolution of decisionmaking to the individual but rather a bunch of old, fat men sitting down to decide--with the earnest but excited air of sitting down to a delicious dinner--whom must we torture, whom must we kill, whom must we kill after that.

I don't impute good faith to conservatives anymore. A vote for conservativism is a vote for pain and death.

[Ember Keelty]

McCain proves that there's only one way to make a republican be against torture.

When do we start?

Are you forgetting that, despite publicly declaring interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration, he has helped along clandestine legislation designed to allow those techniques to continue. In this case, as in most others, torture just didn't work.

[Tonio]

Michael Gerson normally comes across as an enabler or apologist for the religious right, but today he actually had a valid point:

Hillary's Unappealing Path

Though it is increasingly unlikely, Clinton may still have a path to the nomination -- and what a path it is. She merely has to puncture the balloon of Democratic idealism; sully the character of a good man; feed racial tensions within her party; then eke out a win with the support of unelected superdelegates, thwarting the hopes of millions of new voters who would see an inspiring young man defeated by backroom arm-twisting and arcane party rules.