Brendon Miniter suspects the American right is using the left’s playbook against them.
It’s hard to know when this began. But on a variety of fronts conservatives are using arguments and tactics heretofore under patent protection by the left, including pushing for activist judges (with four decades of liberal jurisprudence on the books, the left’s best hope is judges who respect precedent above all), using federal dollars to build political constituencies, filing lawsuits, launching boycotts, and arguing for free speech and “diversity” in education. The last has drawn a surprising amount of attention lately with a debate over evolution and “intelligent design”–the hypothesis that evolution isn’t random but rather the mechanism an intelligent being uses to change the universe.
President Bush pushed this debate well into the public spotlight by remarking that intelligent design should be taught in addition to random evolution. Whatever the merits of this debate, it’s interesting that the “religious right” is co-opting the arguments of the left. With “diversity” a worthy goal in education, why not present students with “both sides”? That way no one is left out and everyone is included.
The question alone has to be infuriating for the left. It’s nice to think that there was once a golden period in education when the pursuit of truth was paramount. But from the elementary curriculum to politics in college classrooms, education has always been determined by cultural and political movements. Many of the elite schools were themselves founded to sidestep one prevailing orthodoxy or another. So for years we’ve had a new god in education and he goes by the name of “diversity.” Not to be confused by the worthy goal of striking barriers to education once placed in the path of minority groups, this form of diversity has been the principal vehicle for a liberal intellectual agenda that wasn’t otherwise up to intellectual speed.
There is much for Canadian conservatives to learn from our more successful neighbors to the south. The process may have begun, though it’s clearly in its infancy – only recently, for example, have Christian groups begun to recognize and object to being cast as a political perjorative.
Before any measurable success can be attained on the broader fronts, however, conservatives must learn to use the leftist architecture of political correctness to their advantage. Put into place by an ideology that has enjoyed “having their cake, and eating it, too” when setting the boundaries of acceptable political debate, it is time to turn the machinery against them and start calling them on their double standard.
The Canadian left and their advocates in the media casually employ words like “redneck”, “bible-thumper”, and “knuckedragger” – often as thinly veiled synonyms for “Albertan” or “western” . Seldom is the tactic exposed for what it is – an attempt to pre-empt legitimate debate by dehumanizing those who hold opposing views.
Astonishingly, the typical response from conservative politicians when greeted with these epithets is to “defend” themselves with a “No, we’re not!” – fulfilling two objectives of the accuser at once, by retreating to the weaker, defensive position and renouncing a core constituancy they had no need to defend or apologize for in the first place!
The time is overdue that conservative politicians and strategists – especially those with a national media audience – get a firm grip on the handle of the pc weaponry. Begin the process by applying a good measure of linguistic intolerance of their own. Loudly condemn the use of any and all slurs against the right, Christians and rural Canadians each and every time they are used, with a demand that those guilty of using them renounce their cultural and intellectual bigotry.
Then, as the collective liberal jaws drop, invite them to explain to those “rednecks” – better known as rural, blue-collar, working Canadians – why they do not deserve a voice in the “diverse cultural mosaic of modern Canada”.
The great divide between left and right is based on the unshakeable belief by those on the left that the highest form of expression for any society is the government they choose. They believe that all individuals within that society should subjugate themselves entirely to that governing body. The worst enemy of these believers is the independent, free thinking individual who refuses to follow all the rules as laid down by this government. In their “holier than thou” way of thinking no restrictions on their ability to castigate the unbelievers should be tolerated, ergo anything goes if you are trying to herd these “cats” back into fold of the all powerful, all knowing and uninpeachable “Big Government”. The trouble is that it won’t work because “cats” can not be herded. Try reading some John Stuart Mill on the rights and responsibilities of an individual within a society and the rights and responsibilities of that society toward the individuals in it. This website gives a good introduction to his writings. http://www.bartelby.com/130/
The first step ro taking a right turn is getting honest with oneself. Soon you will be seeing the phonienss and foolishness of the Left’s thinking and join the real world … nice to seee you starting to fess up …… Dawg.
Dawg you suck. You’ve been exposed as the intolerant biggot you preach against. You may now return to preaching to those Ontario sheep about how the CPC is scary or something.
In more important matters however, I’m an Ontario conservative, and I must admit I am ashamed of my province. According to the Globe we are about to achieve have-not status, as Canada’s most populous province and being awash in natural resources and skilled labor. We deserve what we are getting by electing retards (yes, an insult, and I am not denying or taking it back) like McGuinty and Paul Martin.
I hope Alberta will stand its ground and continue threatening the rest of Canada (that is all the Liberals understand is threats – re Quebec separation), and not let itself be pushed around. Once Ontario understands that it’s equalization cheque comes from those bible-thumpers, than maybe they will be paying more attention to them.
“The great divide between left and right is based on the unshakeable belief by those on the left that the highest form of expression for any society is the government they choose.”
Where do you guys dig up these sonorous but meaningless bits of rhetoric?
I would have thought the highest form of expression for any society is its values. These get expressed in everyday life, and in art, in language, in gesture.
A government is just a government. Again, what’s the source of this bizarre observation? What is it based on?
dawg: it’s based on what a rationnal intelligent person would conclude based on the left’s behavior for the last 20 or 30 years.
Just a quick response to Dawg on my general policy here – I don’t typically engage in the comments section at SDA very much. (Indeed, I let some threads run without reading them at all.)
If I have an opinion on a topic, I prefer to say my piece, and let people run with it, moderating or adding clarification if I think it’s necessary. Only rarely to I engage fully in any followup debate – mostly because I don’t have time.
There is no middle ground here. Retire to your respective lines and fix bayonets. No surrender. No retreat. No prisoners.
Kate: “If I have an opinion on a topic, I prefer to say my piece, and let people run with it, moderating or adding clarification if I think it’s necessary. Only rarely to I engage fully in any followup debate – mostly because I don’t have time.”
Fair enough. I seem to have more than usual today. But don’t you think that writing a piece that is lacking a few of the floorboards is a little too much akin to Usenet trolling? [No need to answer that. :)]
Dawg wrote: “I would have thought the highest form of expression for any society is its values.”
Values? Please tell me you are kidding. I can’t even begin to list how far the Liberals have wandered from any concept of values. I laugh. Shattering the institution of marriage is a value? Stealing taxpayer money to keep itself in power is a value?
A government that rules by theft (….) will never have my “values” vote.
Good points Kate. However, I would note that anyone using those terms “Red Neck” “Bible Thumper” in the media in the US (now or in the past) would immediately be ostracized. So this begs the question–who is actually more civilized in public discourse and debate? The answer is Americans.
So I have taken to emphasizing the point among my friends and aquaintances this way. If they ever refer to anyone as a “Red Neck” or “Bible Thumper” I reply with “and does that make you a collectivist Commie bootlick that would turn your mother into the secret police for the glory of the party?”
They are usually completely stunned.
OT here is an absolute gem from Scrapple Face.
Leak: Draft of Bush Answer to Cindy Sheehan
What a fabulously entertaining thread this has been to fill my knuckle draggin’ red-necked, support for gay marriage (oops!) day. REally good stuff. Dr. Dawg, while I disagree with a large amount of what you say, I gotta respect your tenacity when you’re outnumbered and getting whacked with sledge hammers all day. Hang in there. At the very least you’ve encouraged a lot of thinking people to respond.
And Short Temper – you’ve got it right. The only thing to do is to call “them” on it every time, every occasion. MY hands get held to the fire when I say stupid or just plain incorrect things. Gotta grant the same to everyone else, in the name of diversity of course.
‘Nationalize the oil industry’ – wow; that essentially means to put it in the complete control of the Liberal-Cartel. Not the people of Canada – the Liberal-Cartel oligarchy. It would actually mean ‘taking it from the people of Canada’. This is a preview of the election agenda.
First, this individual defines profit as ‘immoral’. [UQAM, where this Liberal works, by the way, is a strong centre of Quebec separatism, though this doesn’t mean that this particular professor is a ‘separatiste’..but..I think this is a first arrow in the Liberal election tactics.
Why are profits immoral???? Without profits you can’t INVEST; you are doomed to live hand-to-mouth!
But, as has been pointed out, the election campaign has started. First the G-G selection, to show to Quebecers that the Liberals are, deep down, ‘genuine Quebecois’ and are, in their hearts of darkness, really really Quebecois.
Now – it will be to define the West, both to others and to Westerners, as ‘greedy’, ‘unCanadian’, immoral and so on. The Liberals have nothing to lose, they think, by setting up the Evil Ones in Canada, as the West. I think the Liberal tactic in this election will try to split the people of the West, into turning against themselves, with one group set up as ‘unCanadians’..who want to separate and who want their oil..and ‘Canadians’.
Dr. Dawg – I’m puzzled. I haven’t read through all posts carefully, but surely YOU aren’t saying ‘A government is just a government’. That’s a totally meaningless statement. An apple is an apple. A bird is a bird. Hmmm.
You know, the Attributes of that Government might, just might, differentiate governments from each other. I think that an oligarchy is different from a democracy. Don’t you? Or, are governments just governments…
I also strongly disagree with you that the values of a society..are ‘expressed in everyday life and in art, in language, in gesture’. That’s equally without meaning.
The values of a society will most certainly be expressed in its INFRASTRUCTURE – such as its economic system, its political system, its social infrastructures and so on. Is it a market economy or welfare state? Is it a democracy or oligarchy? And so on…
The secondary communicative systems, such as language, will just communicate those values embedded in the infrastructure. That’s all they do.
That’s why you can change your social values (e.g., from having a country run as a democracy to having a country run as a fascist dictatorship)..and still talk about those two different values using the SAME language!! Heck – you can even use the SAME gestures! And, gosh, you’ll even go to the same everyday life corner store! But- your social values will be dramatically different.
So- secondary systems..are just that. Secondary. I’d suggest that it’s the infrastructures that one should focus on to discover the real nature of a society.
Here’s a passage directly lifted from one of Dr. Dawg’s posts in this thread:
“Evans: ” ‘Incidentally, I challenge anyone to find phrases over at my place such as those mentioned in the article.’
“I did as you requested and proved you wrong. It didn’t take very long either. I didn’t have to do alot of digging.
“No, arguing about context won’t help because you didn’t cite ‘context’ within the posts in question.”
You searched my site, found no “red-neck,” no “Bible-basher,” and one instance of “knuckle-dragger” that was not directed at Westerners. I congratulate you on your research. It’s your conclusions that need a little more work.
Dawg is actually attempting to be manipulative here. He’s hoping that no one will take the time to seriously, critically examine his claims, allegations, accusations, taunts and attempts at baiting us for any subtle errors of logic or sly hair-splitting or any weakness at all. I believe that Dawg is an extraordinarily intelligent individual, actually. Wait, let me continue, please, as being intelligent doesn’t preclude one from being wrong or from lying or anything like that.
Dawg, while obviously possessing formidable debating skill and decent English writing command, also is extraordinarily arrogant, insofar as he sincerely believes he is right and we are wrong; that the “left” is right and good and the “right” is wrong and bad and that that is the nature of things. He also couldn’t care less to pursue truth and understand the real world (outside of imposed leftist dogmatic “reality”) and how things actually work and don’t work. Such is the nature of arrogance and dogmatism, traits which we know to belong to the “left” as slithery is a trait we know to belong to a snake.
He seeks out argument for argument’s sake; the longer the better– he simply wishes to taunt and belittle those who have a divergent point of view, namely us conservatives who refuse to be told what to think and how to live, into pursuing neverending, pointless, useless argument to the point we’ll either get dazzled enough to concede defeat when we’re not defeated or to put a stop to it, in which case we’ll be accused of forfeiting. He is clearly prejudiced against conservatives, who are independent enough to refuse to join his “liberal” apparatchik brethren. He’s galled that we dare say we won’t submit to assimilation into his collective, Borg-style, and will resist to the death (fortunately, we know resistance is NOT futile). We have had enough time now to realize the left has been lying to us all these years. The MSM is lying. The gov’t is lying. The courts are lying. All branches of the Liberal state apparatus are lying as part of the collective and cannot break out of this glassy-eyed, nonthinking state.
Guess what? WE DON’T HAVE TO PROVE ANYTHING TO DR DAWG. We already know the truth, and that’s all that matters. WE KNOW. We don’t have to worry about him any more than we have to worry about any other left-wing extremist. We’re not trying to convert left-wing extremists who haven’t the ability to think for themselves anyway. They’re going to remain in the “liberal” collective as it’s just too damn comfortable to leave and it’s the only life they’ve ever known. Ordinary folks will come to see the truth day by day and come join us on their own after thinking for themselves and exercising free will.
Oh, and as for the proof that Dawg has been caught wrong in the lifted passage above: he claims that SPECIFIC-TO-THE-ARTICLE words were not found, therefore Evans has not caught Dawg with his pants down. But Dawg apparently has his own ideas as to the definition of the word “such”. You see, if you look it up, and I did, it can mean “like” or “similar” and doesn’t necessarily mean “exact”, “identical”, “specific”, or “the same”. Evans indeed found such words as found in the article, therefore he’s right and Dawg’s wrong, but naturally will say some fancy crap to make it sound otherwise, as is his modus operandi. Probably learned it from “Slick Willy” Bill Clinton’s playbook. Remember the assinine implication he made that “is” has more than one meaning?
To close for the moment, the article provided by Kate and Kate’s subsequent comments in her original posting are eloquent words which say what I’ve been trying to elucidate these past few months since I first came onto SDA. We now understand that the left is wrong, is lying, is intolerant, cheats, bullies, and conspires as one huge network to hold onto and abuse power to enrich themselves at the expense of others. This is the sort of thing that historically has led to all kinds of revolutions. Ours will be political, social and democratic. We are the ones who understand from life and from history what works and how.
It’s our turn. Let’s roll!
um… to Dawg’s credit, he did admit that he was caught…
Ah, right. I forgot the little part where he did. Nevertheless, he was caught and at first tried to squirm his way out of it by splitting hairs. Not all “liberals” will admit to a screw-up.
Paule Martime is “playing” ‘El Presidento’ (PM of Canada) right now because his government was killed in the spring of 2005. The fact that MSM still gives him any credability is a bias in itself.
Economically, the money and the resources of this country belong to the people who PRODUCE (not included, as Duke has illistrated, are those who ‘go to work’ and shuffle papers or scheme ways to get their filthy hands on the money producers earn). In my opinion, 9/10 of government workers should be ‘let go’ so they can seek more meaningful employment. The obsessive use of government to regulate the production and the profits earned, in the economy , is a sure recipe for mass starvation. What will the ‘government(people)’ eat when they have robbed the producers of their will to produce? Is that, maybe, what these socialist people want?
Paul Martin is a multi-millionare and he does not pay Canadian taxes on the money he has in his offshore accounts, Jacko Layton live(d)? in subsidized housing for years. These people are “Robber Thugs” of the most egregous elitest nature. Dr. Dawg; Why do you vote for them? Why do you defend them? Why do you defend throwing farmers in jail for selling their own wheat yet defend a Liberano senator who refuses to pay rent on a publically owned building?
Wake up Dawg! The people you support would not support you were not useful to ‘them’. The Liberano insider multi millionares of this country do not use state medicare, do not pay taxes, do not drive ‘environment friendly cars’, do not ride on public transit, do not fly in 50 year old helecopters, do not invite you to dinner…..Dawg, you are at best a ‘hanger on’ and at worst a political pawn.
Conservatives don’t need a political cartoon of a man/woman to worship. We elect politicians to work for producers; solve trade disputes, maintain a strong military (to defend the property OWNED by citizens), maintain diplomates in forein countries (so we know what they are doing) etc. etc. We do not elect politicians to redistribute wealth or to dabble in social engineering. As for immigration we expect our politicians to screen people and accept only those who will be willing and able to get along with the laws supported by the people that have built this country. We don’t want ‘game playing’ with a color test or terrorist renegades. You can learn a lot here, Dawg, but you are probably being paid not to (learn anything). I hope that I am wrong on the last.
Thanks, Steven. Glad to know where to turn to when I need to figure things out since you “already know the truth and that’s all that matters”, “the left is wrong, is lying, is intolerant, cheats, bullies, and conspires as one huge network to hold onto and abuse power to enrich themselves at the expense of others” and since you are “are the ones who understand from life and from history what works and how”. I’m also glad to see you’ve taken a so very different tactic than what you accuse the left of taking. Your focus on put-downs and insults instead of substance is clearly so very different.
But as much as this group pile-on on whether or not Dr. Dawg in his hundreds of postings or thousands of comments over the last few years has used this bad word or that bad word or a similar bad word or an identical bad word, is mildly interesting bully tactics that Dawg may or may not have brought upon himself, I think the good Dr. Dawg had – way back at the beginning of this simple little dialog – a fairly basic question/point: where’s the proof?
Kate has said and many here have repeated and many conservatives repeat the mantra over and over that the mainstream media is biased against them. Kate here is specific: the “advocates in the media casually employ words like “redneck”, “bible-thumper” and “knuckledragger” – often as thinly veiled synonyms for “Albertan” or “western”.” In her follow-up clarification above she says these are repeated “every day”. So I was a little surprised when I flipped through my copy of the National Post, the Globe and Mail and the online version of the Toronto Star to find no such reference (even taking “such” to mean identical or similar, as the good Mr. McAllister is good to point out to us, I found nothing). A Google search was equally unfruitful. Sure the extreme left at rabble.ca are rabble rousers, but they are irrelevant, read only by similar minded and if you are focusing on them as your adversaries, well, the Liberals and the liberals of this land have little to fear from you. Besides, the crap spewed over there is certainly no less extreme or vitriolic than I’ve read over at the Shotgun and neither exactly counts as the mainstream media. Nor do left-wing bloggers who are no worse than the worst of the right-wing bloggers. So where is this evidence of this vast left wing conspiracy of redneck hatemongering in the media?
Now I don’t think everyone on the right is like Ezra Levant who thinks every utterance is somehow a slam against Alberta (eg., column last week where coverage of year-over-year 75% increases in crude prices is Alberta-bashing – hey, Ezra, it’s been the lead on FoxNews Special Report for months!), but still, it seems to me that this media conspiracy theory approach is pretty widely held by the extreme left (they’re corporate puppets) and the extreme right (they’re socialist swine) and their only evidence seems to be that the media doesn’t parrot their ideas.
TB
Cerberus
Hey John Crittenden: I can hardly wait to repost this on some Alberta and western separatist chat groups….now as I get this: a Quebec socialist is saying that Ottawa should “nationalize” ( read: steal) Alberta’s resources so Quebec can have cheap gas for the RVs/SUVs they buy with their public trough money while Alberta undergoes a second economic depression due to being forced to sell their resources below market value.
This is a scorcher….gotta post some of the commentary 😉
“Dr. Dawg – I’m puzzled. I haven’t read through all posts carefully, but surely YOU aren’t saying ‘A government is just a government’. That’s a totally meaningless statement. An apple is an apple. A bird is a bird. Hmmm.”
I’m saying that it is not “the highest expression of a society.” It’s a bunch of people elected (in Canada” through the bizarre FPTP system by diverse communities to legislate. Beethoven’s Fifth? No. MacBeth? Not even close. The hundreds of thousands of little gestures, many unconscious, and the words one uses every day in being social? Nope.
“You know, the Attributes of that Government might, just might, differentiate governments from each other. I think that an oligarchy is different from a democracy. Don’t you? Or, are governments just governments…”
I’m not saying there aren’t different governments and different forms of government. I’m saying that, when one looks at the “highest expressions of a society,” governments by comparison are actually pretty simple things.
“I also strongly disagree with you that the values of a society..are ‘expressed in everyday life and in art, in language, in gesture’. That’s equally without meaning.”
No, you’re wrong. That’s where the fundamental values of a society, in all of their complexity, are primarily expressed. You aren’t suggesting that (for example) Paul Martin in his public life somehow conveys more complexity than all the things I mentioned?
“The values of a society will most certainly be expressed in its INFRASTRUCTURE – such as its economic system, its political system, its social infrastructures and so on. Is it a market economy or welfare state? Is it a democracy or oligarchy? And so on…”
Well, sure, values of a society are expressed in these things. Or not. You wouldn’t argue, I’m sure, that Paul Martin (again, for example) represents in his public administration the values of our entire society–would you?
“But as much as this group pile-on on whether or not Dr. Dawg in his hundreds of postings or thousands of comments over the last few years has used this bad word or that bad word or a similar bad word or an identical bad word, is mildly interesting bully tactics that Dawg may or may not have brought upon himself.”
Oh, I did, I did. 🙂
Next time I’ll frame the context for such comments, if it doesn’t use up too much of Kate’s bandwidth. Sheesh. Live. Learn.
TB, you said:
“…(even taking “such” to mean identical or similar, as the good Mr. McAllister is good to point out to us,…”
Go back and read more carefully and slowly. I said:
“…if you look it up, and I did, it can mean “like” or “similar” and doesn’t necessarily mean “exact”, “identical”, “specific”, or “the same”.”
Hope that helps your understanding.
You also said:
“Your focus on put-downs and insults instead of substance is clearly so very different.”
I detected the sarcasm, of course. Well, you see, you are a left-winger, to whom I owe nothing, to whom ordinary conservative citizens owe nothing; people like you have taken from people like me for so long we sure as hell aren’t going to kiss your ass any longer. The big party’s over. Mommy and Daddy have come home early and seen for themselves the chaos, illegalities and damages you and your wild, intoxicated friends have wrought to the family home. Boy, are you ever going to learn a very, very important lesson! You’re not going to like it, but it’s your own fault for not thinking it through, not acknowledging possible consequences, and deriving selfish hedonism at the expense of others who have been nothing but good to you for so long. As the responsible adults in the household, it is our duty to lay down the law and force you to right the wrongs you’ve made and ensure you are motivated to never do wrong again. So if you think that tough love is a put-down or an insult, that makes us very sad and disappointed.
We don’t owe you any “substance”; why should we? We’ve put up with your forcibly imposed dogmatic ideals for far too long. You arrogantly told us to trust that you were right, while never proving that your ideals had substance. You adopted and screamed incessantly many slogans and soundbites and illogical pejoratives whenever we asked legitimate questions or protested your fascism.
No more Mr. Nice guy anymore for us. We know you are liars and we will no longer shut up and let you have everything every way you want it at our expense. We are breaking the shackles that are your intolerance of our differences.
We will make things work again, and for all good citizens, not just us. You don’t believe it right now, but someday you’ll see that we were right all along.
It’s our turn. Let’s roll!
Don’t know why you accuse me of all of those things. Everyone who doesn’t buy into the Vast Left-wing Media Conspiracy is a left-wing nutter, you know. But of course, so much easier to pigeon-hole.
Gotta love your rant though. Perfect meaningless, arrogant, sloganeering without any substance. You’ve taken Kate’s point to heart: use their tactics against them.
SM: “We will make things work again, and for all good citizens, not just us. You don’t believe it right now, but someday you’ll see that we were right all along.” Now where have I heard that before? On rabble? or was it somewhere in the centre of Europe circa 1933?
Pot meet kettle. Left meet your mirror-image.
TB
Cerberus
Stephen, I’m with you. It is our turn. Enough is enough. Liberals be gone.
TB, either you truly don’t understand what I was talking about, or you understand precisely and know it’s exactly what you’ve been doing lo so many years but, as is the wont of your sort, you now bluster and pejorate yet again to try to squirm out of the grip of those who only want you to admit to your selfish transgressions which you slyly sugarcoat with warm, fuzzy, beautiful, humanistic terminology.
The jig is up. We are sick and tired of working our asses off day in day out only to send a gargantuan slab of our rightful earnings to your overlords on the Hill only to see you throwing yourselves extravagant parties with it instead of providing the public goods and services as is your duty as administrators of the state, as you promised.
Hey, you in there! Have you yet shat? What? No?! Well, if you’re not gonna anyway, get off the pot; I’m prairie-dogging it here, fo’ fecksake! Get out now! You’ve been in there too damn long chokin’ yer scrawny li’l chicken while I wait and suffer! Now, dammit!
This is why I hate the CBC. Talented Canadians, unappreciated by the CBC, and ignored completely by non-content-producing private broadcasters, read the comments section at SDA, then head down to the States to write sitcoms lampooning abject stupidity and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to produce cultural media products that are then exported around the world. This here is a rich, fertile, loamy ground, in which unfathomably hilarious vacuity not only flourishes, but replicates sexually, asexually…or buds, or reproduces through parthenogenesis…or whatever you want to call it…and the CBC simply doesn’t recognise it.
We’re sitting on a gold mine, people!
The left-leaning defenders of the PC faith have missed the point.
The fact that the word “redneck” is used at all in formal media and by politicians validates my argument. If my case were not sound, this post would not have been necessary, for the words “redneck” or “knuckledragger” would produce such outrage from all sides that it would never be uttered in polite society.
You do not hear pundits on Question Period or CBC radio use “nigger” when referring to the culture that spawns gang violence in Toronto. You don’t see them use “chink” when speaking of the Chinese, You witnessed what happened when a Conservative MP referred to Japanese soldiers as “Japs”. One doesn’t hear talking heads use the word “kike” or “ragheads” when discussing problems in the middle east – and rightfully so. One can criticize cultural shortfallings without the use of dehumanizing terminology.
But you hear cultural slurs like “redneck” spouted in the mainstream media and by elected politicians with impunity, even though it’s used in an identical fashion as those aforementioned, officially forbidden, cultural perjoratives. The sole reason that sanctions do not exist for terms that smear conservative values is that they are highly useful to the left.
It’s really no more complicated than that.
TB, wrote: “Now where have I heard that before? On rabble? or was it somewhere in the centre of Europe circa 1933?”
There’s another example of your extreme, uncalled-for ad hominems which you pull out of your pants whenever you have been confronted with the steaming evidence of the stinking mess you just made.
Don’t try to distance yourself from the ultra-far left. You know you’re allied with them within the network of the sociopolitical left. You give them our tax dollars to keep them going and they, in turn, viciously slander and dehumanize us, your political counterparts and fellow Canadian citizens. We don’t deserve to be treated like a piece of what the neighbor’s dog deposited upon your beautifully-manicured lawns.
You just proved Kate right. You “Liberals”. Invoking one of history’s most terrible events of all for use against those who stand for truth and goodness and equality and fairness. You exploit the horrible suffering of millions of innocents for political gain. It is your sort today who has not learned from history, nor have you any respect for “Never again”. Maybe not you personally, but many members of your leftist brethren, as seen, for example, in Kristallnacht at Concordia. You persist in retaining membership within that network of loosely-allied but nevertheless conspiring anencephalic left-wing extremists and selfish “liberals”.
We owe you no apology. We owe you nothing. All we want is to have our equal rights again and to be treated fairly. We gave you your chance to keep your promises. You broke them.
Now we must take back the reins of this speeding-out-of-control couch and steady ‘er and get back on the trail to the better life. That’s what it’s about.
Let’s roll!
TB, wrote: “Now where have I heard that before? On rabble? or was it somewhere in the centre of Europe circa 1933?”
There’s another example of your extreme, uncalled-for ad hominems which you pull out of your pants whenever you have been confronted with the steaming evidence of the stinking mess you just made.
Don’t try to distance yourself from the ultra-far left. You know you’re allied with them within the network of the sociopolitical left. You give them our tax dollars to keep them going and they, in turn, viciously slander and dehumanize us, your political counterparts and fellow Canadian citizens. We don’t deserve to be treated like a piece of what the neighbor’s dog deposited upon your beautifully-manicured lawns.
You just proved Kate right. You “Liberals”. Invoking one of history’s most terrible events of all for use against those who stand for truth and goodness and equality and fairness. You exploit the horrible suffering of millions of innocents for political gain. It is your sort today who has not learned from history, nor have you any respect for “Never again”. Maybe not you personally, but many members of your leftist brethren, as seen, for example, in Kristallnacht at Concordia. You persist in retaining membership within that network of loosely-allied but nevertheless conspiring anencephalic left-wing extremists and selfish “liberals”.
We owe you no apology. We owe you nothing. All we want is to have our equal rights again and to be treated fairly. We gave you your chance to keep your promises. You broke them.
Now we must take back the reins of this speeding-out-of-control couch and steady ‘er and get back on the trail to the better life. That’s what it’s about.
Let’s roll!
Well, Kate, thanks for putting things back on track here–sort of.
“The fact that the word ‘redneck” is used at all in formal media and by politicians validates my argument.”
“But you hear cultural slurs like ‘redneck’ spouted in the mainstream media and by elected politicians with impunity”.
This is more than a little slippery. You produced Scott Brison. I challenged you to name those MSM commentators who throw around words like “redneck.” You said you didn’t have time. Now you’re back, combining the categories “politicans” and “mainstream media.”
What MSM commentators use the word “redneck,” Kate?
TB, wrote: “Now where have I heard that before? On rabble? or was it somewhere in the centre of Europe circa 1933?”
There’s another example of your extreme, uncalled-for ad hominems which you pull out of your pants whenever you have been confronted with the steaming evidence of the stinking mess you just made.
Don’t try to distance yourself from the ultra-far left. You know you’re allied with them within the network of the sociopolitical left. You give them our tax dollars to keep them going and they, in turn, viciously slander and dehumanize us, your political counterparts and fellow Canadian citizens. We don’t deserve to be treated like a piece of what the neighbor’s dog deposited upon your beautifully-manicured lawns.
You just proved Kate right. You “Liberals”. Invoking one of history’s most terrible events of all for use against those who stand for truth and goodness and equality and fairness. You exploit the horrible suffering of millions of innocents for political gain. It is your sort today who has not learned from history, nor have you any respect for “Never again”. Maybe not you personally, but many members of your leftist brethren, as seen, for example, in Kristallnacht at Concordia. You persist in retaining membership within that network of loosely-allied but nevertheless conspiring anencephalic left-wing extremists and selfish “liberals”.
We owe you no apology. We owe you nothing. All we want is to have our equal rights again and to be treated fairly. We gave you your chance to keep your promises. You broke them.
Now we must take back the reins of this speeding-out-of-control couch and steady ‘er and get back on the trail to the better life. That’s what it’s about.
Let’s roll!
Not fifteen minutes ago, my fifteen year old daughter referred to one of the boys in her school as a neonazi. I asked her why. She answered that he’s an American, living here with family while his mother and father are in Irag killing people. She goes to a school in Winnipeg School Division Number One. Even if we can battle the MSM to a draw, we are still faced with an education system that has control of our children from six to twenty-two counting university.
OOps! Sorry about the triple post, Kate, but what else could I do? I was trying to reset the thing as I thought there was a temporary drop in connection or whatever.
Talk about technical bloopers!
Not fifteen minutes ago, my fifteen year old daughter referred to one of the boys in her school as a neonazi. I asked her why. She answered that he’s an American, living here with family while his mother and father are in Irag killing people. She goes to a school in Winnipeg School Division Number One. Even if we can battle the MSM to a draw, we are still faced with an education system that has control of our children from six to twenty-two counting university.
Oh, that’s good. The Canadian parent worried about the “indoctrination” of his/her child when that child observes (rightly) that American imperialism and Nazism aren’t that far apart. And concerned about it past the point the child is no longer his/her child, but an adult (22 years), and no longer under his/her control.
And that’s of course, assuming this particular parent is telling the truth, which I doubt.
See? A couple of posts, and a couple of scripts for The Simpsons.
Let’s roll…*snick*
Michael Enright, Don Martin are two that I’ve personally taken to task, plus I’ve lost count of the complaints I’ve made to CBC radio (when I still listened to it) over their use of culturally derogatory characterizations of conservative western Canadians.
Don Martin replied and said he was misunderstood and that’s fair enough. But in so doing he too, acknowledged the phenomenon exists.
Frankly, I can’t believe anyone is genuinely trying to argue otherwise.
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/002008.html
Again, I sincerely apologize for the accidental triple post.
Dawg wants to know of Kate which specific MSM representatives use the word “redneck”.
Gimme a break. Doesn’t Dawg notice anything at all? We have all heard the term “redneck” used countless times by many in the MSM, so what’s the need to quote a bunch of specific people? Dawg knows Kate’s right, else Dawg is in denial. Maybe the newscasters are more judicious, but the people they have on to add to the story (for example, leftist professors from Osgoode Law School or Concordia (“Kristallnacht”) University or a representative of a special interest group such as EGALE) are given free rein to use anti-conservative pejoratives. If Dawg can’t notice that, then that’s what’s meant by “myopic”.
OK, McAllister, now we’ve had the froth, let’s have the beer. Name one MSM commentator who has used the word “redneck.”
The misogynistic “Ti-Guy” shamelessly, audaciously and with impunity writes:
“Oh, that’s good. The Canadian parent worried about the “indoctrination” of his/her child when that child observes (rightly) that American imperialism and Nazism aren’t that far apart. And concerned about it past the point the child is no longer his/her child, but an adult (22 years), and no longer under his/her control.”
Of course the “Liberal” state apparatus, via its apparatchik “teachers”, do indeed “indoctrinate” pupils in extreme, bizarre, unnecessary leftist dogma. Why teach children, for example, how to perform fellatio, cunnilingus or sodomy with either gender? Of what possible value are these irrelevant ADULT activities to the intellectual growth of children or even in preventing unwanted pregnancy and STDs? The left cannot defend this ludricrous imposition of the personal ideals of the special interest groups that believe fornication is the most important thing in life.
We also witness, in plain language in black and white, the rabid, prejudiced anti-Americanism of a typical left-wing extremist in that he claims it’s “rightful” to equate America’s self-defence and liberation of innocent human beings from a merciless, vicious tyrant in Iraq to Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Also, at 22, although legally free and supposedly able to think for themselves, how in the world can many people who are currently 22 possibly think for themselves if, at every turn, there’s a representative of the “liberal” state apparatus spewing forth dogmatic leftist propaganda and threatening the person with ostracization should they question or refuse to acquiesce to their verbal fascism?
I said Ti-Guy is misogynistic due to something he is on record as saying to Kate, including the use of the word, “Vibrolator”. I told him off at that point and, lo and behold, suddenly, after a long absence following that incident, he reappears and spews forth more hatred…
See, Dr. Dawg, here’s another of your brethren. Remember this, please, and allow a pattern to develop inside your mind of the ways of the members of the leftist network.
Dawg, you don’t seriously expect everyone to recall a specific personality as uttering the word “redneck”? This and other anti-conservative pejoratives have been uttered so often it doesn’t matter who said it; what matters is they’re part of the leftist network. For example, haven’t you encountered many, many left-wing politicians, celebrities and media personalities using words like redneck, racist, sexist, homophobe, bigot, intolerant, fascist, etc. etc.? Don’t pretend you haven’t. It would be quite disingenuous and completely unbelievable as you’re obviously a very aware, alert individual. Can the act. Don’t demand proof when you’ve seen it many, many times.
How about Carolyn Parrish? “Damn Americans; I hate the bastards”… “…war-like man…” How about Svend Robinson? I don’t even need to quote him; surely you’ve heard him utter some rather horrible and false terms against his political opponents? Not to mention his actions, such as supporting Milosevic, the ethnic cleanser of Muslims in Kosovo, Saddam, his trying to push by the IDF to support Arafat… How about Jean Chretien’s sexism towards Christina Lawand in suggesting she’s old and telling her to go have a baby and apply to his new social program… Doug Young’s calling Deb Grey a “side of bacon”… come on, you know it all. Don’t play innocent! It doesn’t have to be only a specific word. There’s all kinds of slurs coming from your people!
I’m afraid I must sign off for the night. Give others a chance to have at you with their rolled-up newspapers…
This is entertainment at it’s peak. Great button pushing and exchanges of ideas…
Now that Jackielay has set Martin adrift, do you suppose Paulie will do somehting stealthy to save his exposed, non-confidence hide?
He wouldn’t call a snap election,[Lib polls are up], before Harper can gather any polls momentum with those 4 new TV ads, would he?
Guess that move would slip the non-confidence risk and steamroll the Gomery Report all in one shot. Ouch! 73s TG
Ti-Guy: “…that child observes (rightly) that American imperialism and Nazism aren’t that far apart.”
Please provide facts to back up that assertion, keeping these things in mind:
1) The US has not recently waged wars of conquest that resulted in the incorporation of foreign territory into the state.
2) The US has a free media (do not ignore the Internet by talking about capitalist ownership) and free elections. Different parties win elections at different times, federally, in the states and locally.
3) The disabled are not mass-murdered by the governmentin the US.
4) Neither Jews nor Muslims are mass-murdered by the government in the US.
5) The US does not commit genocide abroad. Hell, the Vietnamese like them now.
6) The US encourages legal immigration and does not promote a mono-ethnic national identity. General Shalikashvili, born in Poland of Georgian parents, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1993�97). Let us know how you think Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice (or Martin Luther King Jr.) would have fared under a truly Nazi system.
6) The US civilian leadership does not wear uniforms.
6) The US is the world capital of pornography.
By the way, Hitler was anti-smoking and a vegetarian. Makes one think, what? Seems a Democratic rather than a Republican orientation.
Mark
Ottawa
Give him hell Stephen.
Wakeup people,Dr.Dawg is jealous and just wants you to click on his blog site for the traffic.He knows Kate is a Large Mammal in the TTLB ecosystem and he also knows that he is just a sniveling reptile.
Actually, although he could only be described as an “opponent”, politically, Dawg stands out among that crowd for being bright, and polite, and for his sticking to the points that are in play, and for avoiding ad hominems, except in a playful way.
Unfortunately, I suspect he’s a leftist.
Mark mentioned: “By the way, Hitler was anti-smoking and a vegetarian. Makes one think, what? Seems a Democratic rather than a Republican orientation.”
He was also a SOCIALIST, which is represented in the S in NSDAP, the German version of “NAZI”. Therefore, it wouldn’t be necessarily incorrect to label Hitler a “left-wing extremist”. He demonstrated so many of the traits as seen in today’s leftists. Wonder how many people have thought of that.
Today, the left advocates the persecution of the Jewish people on a daily basis and many of its more extreme apparatchiks actually engage in physical violence and vandalism against Jews and their property, just as did Nazis at the beginning of the Holocaust. Today, the left has aligned itself with not only the Nazis, but also with the Islamofascist terrorists, plus odds and ends of vicious, merciless tyrants such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Chavez of Venezuela, Castro of Cuba, etc., etc.
And the left still believes it’s correct and good? Talk about insanely delusional…
EBD’s right. Dawg is a refreshing exception to the leftists with whom we’re accustomed to dealing. Dawg is clearly quite intelligent and even possesses the ability to be convinced if he has made an error in logic, fact or judgement. That’s why he actually has the respect of Yours Truly. It’s like dealing with an equal but opposite counterpart, which is quite a change of pace, as we know most leftists to be big poopooheads, right?
“He knows Kate is a Large Mammal in the TTLB ecosystem and he also knows that he is just a sniveling reptile.”
Er…that’s “adorable little rodent.” For those of you who believe in evolution. 🙂
Rodent? I thought you were canine. Woof! 🙂
AS per earlier post, this thread is enormously entertaining, in particular because Dr. D is gnawing away like his namesake with a bone. Having said that, it’s far less entertaining when an outrageous statement equating Americans to Nazis is made (courtesy of Ti-Guy). This only makes it clearer to me. There is no way this argument can be won with people like that. They’re just flat wrong, as Mark pointed out in detailed fashion. (Saving me the trouble – Thaks) But I wonder if it is even worth the effort of knocking down that kind of opinion. Maybe even acknowledging a person like that is wrong. Hearts and minds, yeah, but not mindless hearts. Someone that backward thinking can never be convinced that he/she is off the deep end. Why waste the time?
Well, Axeman, I dealt with Ti-Guy as I saw it as an opportunity to use him as evidence of left-wing hate speech. He proved immensely useful. It’s not hard to encounter dishonest, malicious left-wing slurring of conservative-minded citizens. They pop up everywhere.
interesting how in the US, when the KKK runs a memeber for office, they invariably run as conservative republicans. wonder why that is?