When one talks to supporters of President Barack Obama, one quickly learns that his actual policies and their relative success or failure are of no importance for many of them. Some have defected, many more are worried (even if they won’t admit it publicly) but might overcome their doubts and vote for him again.
The significant factor shaping their views is one of self-image. That’s why evidence and events have relatively little influence on them unless — which may be precisely what happens in America between now and November 2012 — these things become too big to ignore. “Too big to ignore!” Perhaps that should be a counter-slogan against “Too big to fail.”
To support Obama makes them smart, sophisticated, anti-racist, modern, members of an intellectual and social elite standing against the yahoos with the pitchforks out in the provinces. From the defenders of the downtrodden, the left has transformed itself into the well-financed aristocracy sneering at the peasantry.
That’s why the theme of portraying the opposition as greedy, rich, fat-cat, corporate chieftains and simultaneously hillbilly, gun-toting, religious fanatic racists who think Obama is a Muslim-born in Kenya and want to reinstitute slavery is so incredibly effective in shoring up its base of support.
Even the simplest points of fact — that the Tea Party is a group of people opposed to big government, high taxes, tight regulation, and large deficits — barely appear amidst the propaganda aimed at discrediting any opposition as illegitimate.
If you can persuade people that anyone is insane if they want to cut economically unproductive government spending and not raise taxes at a time of massive depression and growing deficits, then you have a pretty good propaganda machine.
The hardcore Obama supporter is not watching unemployment levels, the economy, the mess in Egypt and Libya, or the effectiveness of health care reform. His concern is that if he decides Obama is a terrible president it means he is one of “them.” This is a horror he can never accept. For the Jews among them — which explains their higher membership in this group — these factors are reinforced by the image of becoming the very Nazi Cossack Klu Klux Klan monster that is their worst nightmare.
The left isn’t doing this because it’s on the defensive or desperate. On the contrary, this is its main strategy. How else can you persuade about half the population, liberals and centrists, to support the most left-wing policy in American history? That’s why they need a strategy based on hate, fear, stereotyping, demonetization of the “other,” rejection of diversity, and all those other things that political correctness and multiculturalism supposedly oppose! What’s the response? I’m not going to tell you anything you don’t know, but it might be useful to have it all in one place:
1. Avoid playing into these stereotypes whenever possible. Once you lose your credibility by being too extreme or not being able to present facts, it is very hard to regain it in this atmosphere.
2. Word of mouth. Have the best arguments and point them out to people. Never doubt that no matter how confident many of these people appear to be they are having severe doubts about their policies and ideas working. Be able to argue on the other side’s own terms in order to show hypocrisy (see point in bold above).
3. Provide credible alternative sources of information. You’re reading one of the best ones, PJM, right now.
4. Don’t rant; don’t argue with those who cannot be persuaded; and don’t spend your time attacking people whose differences with you are relatively small. Focus on the large portion of the open-minded. Remember the purpose of communication is not to make yourself feel good but to make people on the other end feel that you’re right.
– we’ve had more than forty years of this strategy.
After the first decade of the “1950-2000 era”, it was NO LONGER TRUE that “spending resources [were] unlimited, schools [didn't] indoctrinate kids, universities [weren't] ideological institutes for producing intolerant left-wing activists, the media [was] still reasonably fair, and the United States [had] not yet passed the maximum burden of entitlements whose continued growth will destroy the country.”
No! The rot had already set in very badly during the Johnson administration.
I wouldn’t worry about the stereotypes. We need to embrace some of those stereotypes. I live in the South. I staunchly support the Second Amendment. I go to church. For that matter, my grandfather was an Appalachian coal miner. Those are not causes for shame.
We have allowed the socialist snobs to take over the agenda and to slur our backgrounds, our communities, and our way of life.
It’s long past time to stop letting the left set the terms of the debate.
And if someone calls us “racists” for opposing the failed policies of mass immigration, multiculturalism, and the welfare state, so what? Truth is truth, regardless of what anybody calls us!
I beg to differ. “… a strategy based on hate, fear, stereotyping, demon..ization of the “other,” rejection of diversity, and all those other things…” applies as well to both sides of the political spectrum.
The mess we are in at present can certainly be attributed in large part to the lack of proper regulation of the banking industry, the passage of a prescription drug benefit that was not funded, and very poorly handled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which cannot be blamed on Obama.
Additionally, vehement opposition to any sort of antigun regulation, abortion choice (even discussion of the subject), reasonable tax reforms and gay rights makes it very difficult for me to support the anti-Democratic (anti-democratic?) party.
Phil,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ………………….
Knee slapper, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ………………….
No sh*t. Hey, Phil, revisit article, read again (and again and again). You just made Barry Rubin’s point.
The mess we are in at present can certainly be attributed in large part to the lack of proper regulation of the banking industry, the passage of a prescription drug benefit that was not funded, and very poorly handled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all of which cannot be blamed on Obama.
But certainly on those who voted him into power.
Phil writes: “The mess we are in at present can certainly be attributed in large part to…abortion choice (even discussion of the subject)…”
Thanks, Phil, for providing an example making more clear one of Barry’s points for him. In the presence of a true-believer Obamaist certain subjects, and this isn’t the only subject[see John Kerry], MAY NOT even be discussed. The Left compels you!
I see that someone from Obama’s Office of the Director of Progressive Media and Online Response has stopped by.
You mean THIS dude?
Phillip
1) The repeal of glass steigel under Clinton allowed banks to profit off of Wall St
2) The Community Reinvestment Act was passed under Carter and Clinton placed strong enforcement rules. Essentially you could stop any merger if the bank couldn’t prove sufficient loans to inner city areas. This is where Acorn and several groups got their funding – millions
3)Chris Dodd – D and Barney Frank – D had oversight of the Senate Finance Committee and Banking Committees. Bush was shot down 17 times in requesting stronger oversight
4) Five major banks were allowed to raise leverage from 12 to 1 to 40 to 1
The cost of all 3 wars just exceeded 1 trillion last year. Under Democratic rule of the house and senate they spent almost 4 trillion. FYI teachers and unions were the big winners. Lay offs should have happened 2 years ago.
I’m a die hard conservative however i’d take a fiscal democrat willing to shrink government over a big spending republican anyday. What i can’t stand are the people who pass laws because they “feel good” rather than make any fiscal sense.
Explain how good it was to your grandkids when their quality of life will be in decline during their lifetimetaxation because of. In closing for all want the Bush tax cuts rolled back ? 75% of the new revenue will come from those making LESS than $250k. Hits families between $30-$60k the hardest
professional leftist
Must be easy to be a professional leftist. Just understand reality and what’s right in this country and state the exact opposite. Accuse conservatives of the same strategies leftists actively engage. Lie and cheat and act with no moral character – ends justify the means so whatever goes. Media is on your side.
it’s has got to be exhausting though
Point Number 4 people. Point number 4.
Philip! Abortion “choice” is more of an abortion ‘nudge’ as implemented by the Left’s hard-core base of eugenicists/’progessives’ founded by Margaret Sanger who made damned sure an abortion clinic/planned ‘parenthood’ was right around the bend for every poor minority neighborhood as well as some white impoverished neighborhoods as well.
Mr Charney
Your surely not serious. To take one quote because it is easy “opposition to any sort of antigun regulation”. When you can show me regulation that has been in anyway productive from crime or accidental shooting reduction standpoint I buy this.
Ted Kennedy who before even Obama felt entitled to be President (for life) by inheritance, once said (in paraphrased) what use is the 2nd Amendment in say Boston you can not hunt there. Surely they don’t think they can take on the government with shotguns.
Take on and win? Well maybe not, today we have no better chance then say those delusional fools at Concord bridge.
It doesn’t matter if we could win. The whole liberal antigun issue boils down to “Lets not take a chance. Confiscate”
The points you make are not on both sides of the political spectrum (assuming you mean both sides to mean D’s versus R’s), they are the same political spectrum regardless of a D or R implementation. There you have the real problem facing America–one group upset at the other group for not imposing socialism fast enough is not two sides of an opposing political spectrum.
Iraq and Afghanistan has been Obama’s responsibilty for 2 1/2 years. By the end of Obama’s first term (4 years), it will equal the time it took WWII to start, to become globally engaged, ending in a surrender of the axis that ushered in the atomic age and the jet age.
Four years is not enough time for Obama to settle matters? Coming at the end of Bushe’s 8 years of failure. Good thing these two were not President during WWII.
Sprechen sie deutsch?
While you are blaming the banks and Wall Street for the financial crisis (and they do deserve part of the blame), you might want to look at the role played by Fannie Mae and the Community Redevelopment Act, and the support that both of those received, and still receive, from dems. Dodd/Frank put huge stiffyling regulations on consumer credit, which had nothing to do with the financial crisis, while doing nothing about Fannie Mae and the Community Redevelopment Act, which were primary causes, so much for the dems cleaning up a repub mess.
And while you rant about repubs being controlled by Wall Street fat cats, you might wish to know that in most elections, especially 2008, Wall Street gave more money to dems than they did to repubs. The repub party is not the party of Wall Street, they are the party of small business.
From the defenders of the downtrodden, the left has transformed itself into the well-financed aristocracy sneering at the peasantry.
Not all the peasantry, obviously. The modern left (aka modern “liberalism”) is an explicitly and fervently anti-white movement. That’s what defines their self-image, far more than mere economic matters. Their economics are merely their anti-white agenda carried on by other means.
Exacto-rama! Whether defending the downtrodden or constituting an elite — the fact is that they are attacking normal human society from two directions at once. These people (Leftists), for varying reasons cannot adapt to normal society. In the US, this is WASP society: Christian religion, English language, NW European origin, normal sexuality, law-abiding, honest, marrying and child-raising, and all the other attributes that you will not find uniformly among Leftists.
Bingo! Where is the reporting of the black flash mobs attacking white Americans?
Philip
Who says that the Conservative movement agrees with the poor banking regulations, etc? Who stopped attempts to deal with the financial industry early the 00s?
clearly, given your stances, you are far outside the mainstream who will eventually vote conservative and conservatives are wasting their breath trying to reach you.
So who will you vote for or will you not vote at all?
I think you brought a good point that the Obambi see themselves as some sort of elite. That being the case rather than argue logic; that he is a national disaster wouldn’t it be a sounder strategy to appeal to their self-esteem and argue that he is now generally seen as a mediocre dresser? The mere suggestion of that may cause them to flee Obama’s banner. After all they seem indifferent to the fact he screwed up the US diplomatically,, militarily, economically, undermined our freedoms, undermined our sovereignty, betrayed our friends, encouraged and enabled our enemies, diminished our reputation, betrayed pro-democracy movements worldview, used race for the basis of the administration of justice and certainly a few other areas I overlooked.
Someone once said genius is the ability to decide what is important. Clearly we are dealing with a group whose horizons are limited. Convincing them that Obama is out of fashion may be something they can grasp. Scientist have recently discovered that amoebas, one celled microbes, can learn, so there may be a slim hope for a few Obambi.
You are going round and round and round. You want to criticize the Left. But
you use all of the Lefts vocabulary. You question none of the Lefts delusions.
Not really. Not once. The mantra of the Left is “Diversity is Our Strength”.
Anyone picking up a newspaper and reading the headlines day after day after day.
Jamaican Drug Lords in Alabama, Somali attempts to blow up Christmas tree
ceremony and kill hundreds in Oregon, Pakistani car bomber in Times Square,
Yemeni anchor baby born in New Mexico leads Al Queda, Muslims plot to kill
soldiers at Ft. Dix..Somali Sex Traffickers… and on and on. How can anyone
pretending to honesty repeat the chief lies of the Marxist Left..ie. “Diversity”
is the goal..and the Left needs to believe in it more sincerely.
Diversity is Chaos and America is unraveling under a relentless seige against its traditional culture, and this seige will not stop. A bit of honesty would
stop demanding that the LEft live up to its so called “ideals” and denounce the
whole rotten lie. But Rubin cant do it. He is a Liberal Jew who just wants
a little more consistency in his the daily spoon feeding of propaganda. THis substitution of Utopianism for reality is at the core of the Obama Era. And Rubin just does his bit to keep it going
Gee, hunter, I can’t agree with you. Read this sentence of Barry’s; you’ll feel better…or should feel better:
“If you can persuade people that anyone is insane if they want to cut economically unproductive government spending and not raise taxes at a time of massive depression and growing deficits, then you have a pretty good[Leftist] propaganda machine.”
Obama’s refused to render proper respect to the national anthem in two well-known photos. One is of him as a candidate, the other is of him as president.
The Dems need to have their faces rubbed in these photos. There’s a ton of other evidence of Obama’s being an outsider from his membership in Rev. “God damn America” Wright’s church (John Cone’s flagship church for his Black Liberation Theology) and his mentor relationship with a clandestine Moscow Communist operative to his friendship with admitted and convicted communist terrorists.
Did I mention his not being a natural born citizen? This fact seems to have escaped not a few.
That’s all intellectual stuff though. But the visual evidence is great. The pictures tell it all. There is NO way they can be spun as pictures of a man who loves the United States. NO high official can TWICE, at least, fail to show honor to the anthem and say that this country is one he holds dear. This man is a foreigners in his own land and its culture, laws, history, and traditions are utterly foreign to him. Except, of course, our traditional celebration of Iftar, which stretches back through the mists of time something like, oh, 10 or 15 years.
Not simultaneously. These are two distinct groups. The wealthy elite fund the Republican party’s books, newspapers, radio, press relations, and television ads. The ignorant masses do what they’re told and believe what they’re told to.
The Tea Party discredits itself as illegitimate. Here are two more simple points of fact: we have low taxes and weak regulation after forty years of free-market deregulatory policies by every executive from Nixon through Obama. There go two of the four points that the Tea Party is supposedly organizing against. It claims to be against big government but its members want to outlaw contraception, force your children to pray to their God, and end the legal protections against the abuse of police and military authority. They claim to be against deficits but they revere the deficit-makers Reagan and Bush II.
Their ideology is one contradiction after another. They have to be stupid to hold the views they have. They further prove how stupid they are by denying the evidence for evolution, the big bang, and the greenhouse effect, calling homosexuality a threat to America, demanding that Obama show his birth certificate again, and insisting that we found Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons. On top of that, they insult the memory of the American Revolution by adopting the name of a significant part of it, and they do it in a stupid way. This modern political group has nothing to do with the Boston Tea Party. There are no shared goals, methods, or situation.
There are intelligent and logically consistent low-tax, small-government groups. One is the Libertarian Party. They get no recognition because they are not as dangerously stupid or as well funded as the Tea Partiers are. There are also the Blue Dog Democrats. When was the last time you heard about them? There is no billionaire-funded PR machine behind them.
When the policy will kill a few hundred thousand grandmothers, the policy is insane.
The depression aside, a time of growing deficits is usually when a government should raise taxes. Especially if the taxes were just lowered to cause the deficit.
The author is not watching the left. The hardcore Democrat wants a government jobs program, protectionist trade policies, Obama impeached for the mess in Libya, and universal health care. For an example, see the policy statement that MoveOn recently released. The left grudgingly rallies around Obama because the Republican Party candidates are so awful and nobody else appears to be running. A sack of flour could get their vote if it keeps one of this generation’s Republicans out of office. If there are any hardcore Obama supporters remaining, the left despises them.
You’re joking, right? Reagan’s economic policy was to the left of Obama’s.
Where are the antitrust lawsuits? How many Wall Street speculators are in jail? Obama gave them loans instead. He is a business-friendly capitalist who picked up some leftist slogans in college.
That’s one way to increase revenues.
Galileo had evidence. The greenhouse effect deniers have checks from the oil and gas industry. If someone produces a mathematical model that better explains the data than the ones currently in use, scientists will accept it.
True enough, and so have the Bush and Reagan policies that the Republicans are campaigning on.
Uh-huh. Right. And 1 +1 = 3. More proof for Mr. Rubin.
Wow, talk about making the author’s point for him…
I was going to do a long post, rebutting nearly every point made… but then I reread the article, realized there was absolutely no point in it (and it would sound like a rant, too).
Thank you PJM! You just saved me 20 minutes of my life!
Dude, that was a totally awesome parody. You nailed all the cliche’d liberal talking points perfectly. Well done. I was rolling on the floor with laughter.
Ah, someone else from Obama’s Office of The Director of Progressive Media and Online Response has stopped by.
Don’t cry, Tanga, everything will come out all right. The Dems have placed a commie on the Super Duper Committee.
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/08/14/far-left-dem-rep-james-clyburn-says-he-will-use-seat-on-deficit-super-committee-to-push-for-wealth-redistribution/
They’re out in force today.
What happened?
Perry happened.
You got it. I almost feel sorry for them. Blame Bush is really all they have left, and it won’t work. Poor sods.
“He is a business-friendly capitalist who picked up some leftist slogans in college.”
Insofar as you did not notice how disappointing Obama was to your cause (and to the dashed hopes of tens of millions of Americans) until it was too late, YOU are to blame.
YOU and millions of other “progressives” like you pushed the Obama candidacy hard. You could have had Hillary, and had an 80% chance of having a more successful Dem administration. But you didn’t.
You don’t like Obama anymore? BUT YOU PUT HIM IN OFFICE.
Your personal credibility is shot.
Incredible post. The one that has the last word on the topic. Just look at the pathetic helpless responses to it. They have all been dumbfounded, broken and have nothing to hit back with. Bravo!
You lost all credibility with your hyperbole.
I am a non religious Tea Party Patriot, who along with millions of others believe:
* Constitutionally limited government
* Balanced budgets
* Free markets
* Personal responsibility
* Individual freedoms
What’s not to love?
Nana,
You have left nothing to love.
Two things:
1. In the first paragraph, it’s fairly easy for someone to say the exact same thing about the Left. And judging from the rest of the post, you’ve fallen or promulgated every stupid, asinine lie and propoganda point ever devised by the Left.
2. Nixon, deregulatory? Really? Are you insane? Mr. Price Control himself? In addition, since the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the EPA, and myriads of other regulatory agencies came into being during the time frame you’ve spouted, I’m just going to stop reading right there. Obviously you have no grasp of recent history, government scope, or reality itself.
Anyone who takes your rant seriously is a fool.
All of this is simply the last stand of people who are heavily involved in the idea that government should have a large role in society, despite the fact that the economics of the system indicate that this has failed.
Anyone on the wrong side of history, particularly if they are heavily invested in it, will scream and wail as the end comes.
I do find irony in the fact that the very same people who told you to “not have as many kids” (which took us from six people supporting every one person receiving benefits from the government to three and down to two in 15 years) and to “save the environment” (which locked off all of the heavy industries that made us rich in the first place) are the self same folks who will be completely penalized by the realignment of government.
I just wish we would get it over with sooner rather than later.
“If you can persuade people that anyone is insane if they want to cut economically unproductive government spending and not raise taxes at a time of massive depression and growing deficits, then you have a pretty good propaganda machine.”
And, as Rush put it the other day, a “wilfully stupid” group of people.
Ron Paul’s near-win in Iowa yesterday has given ME a plan of voting action. As one who voted for Obama in 2008, but a registered Reform Party member, I’m going to register Republican here in Florida and vote for Paul in the primary. If many independents (and Democrats!) do that, we get to help with solution to Republican Party’s determination to self-immolate by nominating Beckmann AND we guarantee a truly foundational, transformational debate between Obama and Ron Paul.
That’s worth staying optimistic about I think!!
I don’t like his foreign policy much…but as long as he disengages gracefully I’m all for him. Way better than the other candidates, plus I get the feeling he won’t cave and slime around like your typical pol.
Meant NO disrespect misspelling Bachmann’s name — just didn’t put my glasses on and sent email in half-dark room.
Sounds to me like you’ve been drinking.
All of this is just a smoke screen to take our eyes and focus off of what is really going on in our country and has been since 1992. Please search out the following:
Michael Shaw
UN Agenda 21
CAFTA
ICLEI
Communiterian Law
Cmmuniterianism
“For the Jews among them — which explains their higher membership in this group — these factors are reinforced by the image of becoming the very Nazi Cossack Klu [sic] Klux Klan monster that is their worst nightmare.”
Or worse. If he decides that Obama is a bad president, the secular Jew is talking and thinking like a Christian. And that is his worst nightmare.
What does religion have to do with it? How do you know about how many Jews support Obama? Have you also examined other religious groups? And how do you know about what you call “secular Jews”? Do you mean ones who are not observant or not very observant? I am a Jew who is not very observant, and I certainly do not support Obama – I think he is the worst president of the United States, except for John Tyler – who defected to the Confederacy, even worse than Jimmy Carter.
The bogey of religion is used by progressives to frighten secular Jews into running from Christian friends of Israel into the hostile camp.
All we need to do to educate ourselves in the way of Obama is to watch one of his former henchmen at work … I submit to you that listening to Van Jones and watching what he does will teach us a lot about what Obama used to do for a “living” and will also teach us about what Obama’s vision for our future is … and it ain’t pretty!!!!
The “Czars” are ALL cut from exactly the same cloth as our president.
As for the U.N. it’s full of the same kind of people … and nobody should be remotely surprised about Agenda 21 or the stealth mode in which it is being forced upon us. There is clear collaboration between entities here in order to accomplish the same goal. Members of the elite Club of Rome (American Chapter) are working with the U.N. for instance … it’s not difficult to find the info and it’s certainly not difficult to figure out how they’re implementing their Leftist plans for the U.S.A. They’re actually very “transparent” and yes; this IS the most “transparent” administration in the history of the U.S.A. Everything they’re doing is up-front and in our faces in every aspect of our nation’s governance and related policies, and it’s treated like it’s normal. The “czars” are but a small percentage of the people that are actually formulating the destructive mechanisms used to undermine our nation. How else could a sea of regulations and new controversies be promulgated on a daily basis??
Investigative reporting hasn’t yet begun.
“If you can persuade people that anyone is insane if they want to cut economically unproductive government spending and not raise taxes at a time of massive depression and growing deficits, then you have a pretty good propaganda machine.”
So true, but we have a secret weapon on our side. To paraphrase James Carville from the 1992 election, “It’s the economy, stupid.” There is no way Obama can hide unemployment that’s over 9% (roughly 16% if you include underemployment and all of the other people who have given up looking for a job) and an astronomical debt that we have almost no hope of paying off. And let’s not forget about the “stimulus” that stimulated nothing except even more debt and automotive “bailouts” that were designed not to help the American economy, but to keep his union buddies happy so that they would throw more cash his way during the next election. These are Jimmy Carter-like problems that nobody will be able to hide. And if we also want to look at all of the foreign policy disasters this guy is responsible for, with Libya being a shining example of what NOT to do as president, then I don’t think the Republican candidate will have much of a problem attacking Obama.
Then again, all the Republican candidate will have to say is, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” I’m sure that will do it.
Plus pointing out that Obama’s campaign has now copied the Carter theme: “Things are bad, but with the GOP they might get worse.”
Don’t forget that was John McShame’s basic campaign premise, and that’s why he lost. Oh God, what if he’d won, could there be something worse, waiting for us, than Obama down the road. I think we needed this wake up call because our entrenched RINOs are just as freaking bad. Hopefully we get a real candidate this time.
“Don’t argue with those that cannot be persuaded” True, but there are a lot of them that can never be persuaded that Obama and his far left ideas are failures!
Barry, here is a follow up on some history of NYT reporting: http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=233683
I rather doubt the
Left” will say a word as Assad assaults his major port city, allows Iran to build a military base not far from the port where they will supply Iran port facilities that received the Kharg. These two countries will also prepare a “surprise” for Israel following the coming debate on Palestinian-hood at the UN.
I would say that THAT development would warrant Israeli action as Turkey apparently has no balls of their own even as Sunni comrades are murdered along Turkey’s border.
Instead the J-Street crowd talks exclusively about the evils of Israeli settlements. Did you hear that Palestinians now say Arafat was murdered by Fatah. Hey, they’re passing the NYT……
Since the 2008 election cycle, Democrats have done nothing but use the Sal Alinsky tactics mentioned above! They used these means on every opponent they had. The mainstream media totally missed it all. And the Democrats had 5 years + of total control – and passed so many laws and travesties, they actually are the owners of this mess. Yes, decades of things are involved. But our national security is compromised daily, by a liberal administration which is clueless, and has no experience – Disaster there – economy and energy – same thing – the redistribution of resources has gone way too far. The whole package of the 5 years of total liberal control has brought the whole thing crashing. Had we passed cut,cap,balance – we may have kept our AAA for a bit longer until we could pass stronger measures at the debt! That is One Thing Bush passed on to Obama – The AAA Rating!
I’m not sure Leftist journos do realize how weak and ugly both Obama and his policies, and theirs too, really are. Some maybe, but not many. The vile comparison of the Normal People to islamist terrorists bespeaks a crazed fanaticism, not doubt. These second rate, semi-literates have staked their whole persona on omnipotent government, their terrible delusion of their superiority on this lie. Most can’t reject it.
I do find it strange that after trying to deflect criticism of islamist murderers the left now uses them as a base of insult against Normal People.
Don’t forget that Leftist journos in general are fervent believers that:
To support Obama makes them smart, sophisticated, anti-racist, modern, members of an intellectual and social elite standing against the yahoos with the pitchforks out in the provinces.
They are a self-identified aristocracy of ‘news and information’, programmed to transmit, not receive. Theirs is a community of religious belief, not skeptical inquiry and search for truth. Their life’s work is to ‘make a difference’, to preach their narrow Gospel over us dull and thoughtless multitudes.
Only some years of experience with the failures of leftist rule will gradually wean them from their unexamined beliefs. Rubin is right – you must frankly, friendly and and uncombatively point out facts, not arguments, and realize that it isn’t their first or second or tenth encounter with honest observations that will stem their misguided ‘intellectual’ momentum. Rather, it’s the sum of a long series of unthreatening counterfactuals, on top of their own observations of Obamafailures.
all your “unthreatening counterfactuals,” we’ll all be dead and buried.
Said counterfactuals have a cumulative effect on the fundamentalist Leftism of MSM journalists. Arguments have none. We may indeed die of old age waiting for reason to sink into them, but we may also die violently at the hands of their readers. Hence it’s better to do something with even a small effect than something with none.
Meanwhile, keep your powder dry, and hope that those counterfactuals reach and influence their readers more effectively than they do the ‘journalists’.
Excellent points, all; But I have to take issue with:
“……Remember the purpose of communication is not to make yourself feel good but to make people on the other end feel that you’re right.”
If you don’t make “them” FEEL GOOD, you fail. It’s visceral to them, not cognitive. If you attempt to convince “them” that you are “right”, it makes “them” reject ALL your reasoning.
I suggest fly fishing in the Dead Sea for more rewarding activity.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/08/14/3088971/american-jew-abducted-in-pakistan
Let’s see how media handles this one….
Tea Party did it.
Thanks for the essay. Anyone who has read Coulter’s “Demonic”, a history of mob mentality, from Russeau’s inspired mobs of the French revolution to today’s democratic party, the essay fits. A logical thinking person cannot communicate with a mob, as mobs are all about emotion.
Perhaps it’s all a right brain vs left brain physiology; it’s difficult for a person schooled in solving problems requiring left brain logical thinking to comprehend the legacy of the 1960′s radical movement, reflected in today’s politicians. That nihilism aims to destroy all of the past rules, including traditional family/moral values. It won’t end well, as these are the very values that enabled civilization and prosperity. (Hayek nailed it in “The Fatal Conceit”.)
A little perspective from a law enforcement point of view.
Who they truly are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5INFAuM1xI
Look at the damage the Daily Show and SNL have done. We need Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity as much as Krauthammer, Sowell and Will.
“The Left’s Very Anti-PC Strategy: Hate, Fear, Stereotype, and Treat Diversity as Evil”
So to paraphrase, they are sticking with the strategy they have used for the last 60 years.
I have relatives that still embrace this disaster and one has an Obama Biden bumper sticker on the refrigerator! Even if I had voted for them, which I did not, I would have said whow horsey, your destroying the United States, not reviving it. Comparisons to Ronald Reagan, remember his administration set up a separate corporation to dissolve the Savings and Loan mess and keeep it out of the hands of greedy hedge fund and bank execs, Remember when? And he put 1,500 of the S&L execs in jail. How many have Obama and Biden prosecuted, two or three? Then Newsweek puts a photo of Bachmann on the cover that looks horrible and some other media clown says, are you subserviant? Where is NOW? Are they idiots? The answer is in their silence.
An important tactic is to not to retaliate in kind or in anger. The Left has always tried to provoke a reaction from the Right as a way to alienate the middle. It’s urban guerrilla theater. Don’t fall for it.
Reagan was good at keeping a steady balance, and a sunny nature, and even a sense of humor. That contrasted nicely with Carter’s grimness. And it contrasts nicely with the grim, scowling humorlessness of so many on the Left these days. The only humor they know is sarcasm–bitter sarcasm. And they find it impossible to laugh at themselves.
Americans don’t want downbeat and jeremiads and doom and gloom. They have always been a hopeful people–so hopeful that they even embraced Obama’s “hope and change” mantra 3 years ago. With the Left now devoid of hope that Obama can bring European-style socialism to America, all they have left is fury and despair. Point out the contrast with what we’re proposing and the voters will figure out the rest.
“That’s why they need a strategy based on hate, fear, stereotyping, demonetization of the “other,” rejection of diversity, and all those other things that political correctness and multiculturalism supposedly oppose!”
wooow talk about projection! now that sounds so much like the right wing extremist of today. hate they do from likes of Robert Spencer + Horowitz, Right wing likudniks such as Kara to European extreme nationalists, the common thread of all is that they all hate Islam. they are fearful of Islam, so they are islamophobes.. they do a lot of stereotyping all muslims are guilty because they are muslims.. now, i think you mean demonization.. they demonize literally by saying their holy book is the work of satan.. Multiculturalism? the new extreme right thinks that is evil tool of the marxist ghosts whose goal is to demolish manliness of “western” man! A Pussification plot by the godless marxist ghosts!
how would you recognize a fascist?
a)he is an anti intellectual,
b)he is anti elitist to the point of being a populist,
c)he is a reductionist: he subscribes to a simple but symbolic explanation of even very complex social, economic phenomenon.
d)he is anti individualist; whenever there is a conflict between individual rights with the social, he sides with the social
e)worships state as the only mean survival
(Add yours)
He’s a Democrat.
Regarding Point #1 – avoid playing into their stereotypes: absolutely, that does immense harm. I think one of the things the Left does very well is they bait traps with some relatively minor cultural issue (but one they’ve presented in the most inflamatory style) and wait for conservatives to pounce on the bait, whereupon the Left then does a double-whammy: they get to portray conservatives as reactionary bigots/homophobes/puritans/etc, and they get to claim one more area for government control. We have to resist taking their bait.
(sinz54′s comment is along the same lines: An important tactic is to not to retaliate in kind or in anger. The Left has always tried to provoke a reaction from the Right as a way to alienate the middle. It’s urban guerrilla theater. Don’t fall for it. Exactly right – this is one of the biggest sections of the Leftist playbook – take some culturally obnoxious group, launch them into Street Theater, then play up the political reaction.)
Of course, regardless of how we behave, the Leftist Attack Machine will claim we are racists, bigots, homophobes, religious nutters, etc. We’ve got to let that be water off a ducks back to us, but we also can’t let a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t feeling take hold. We don’t want to say “Hell, they’re going to call me a racist whatever I do, so might as well join the Klan…”
I’d add a point 11, though it’s a tricky one that takes some care in doing right. That would be, subtly mock their ideas. Rubin is right, the people who vote for Leftists do it because it makes them feel superior. Finding ways to portray what they’re supporting as idiotic, something only unsophisticated rubes would do, will change their minds faster than most anything else.
forgot two important ones:
f)hates multiculturalism and diversity of any sort(maybe multiple diverse phenomena are too complex for our reductionist fascist,
g)believes in the superiority of an ethnicity or religion or culture so that minority races, religions or cultures can not be equal to his.
Ah yes..the very central thoughts of our founding fathers..that
America was to be built on a Western, European,and yes White ideal
are “facist” . But I notice you love to live in the fruits of the
political and economic success that came of those ideas now dont you?
You arent about to move to say Venezuela or South Africa the Rainbow
Nation are you? Not if it means doing without the wealth and achievements
that those fascist simple minded white men created..right?
Like I said, a Democrat. They simply cannot bring themselves to treat non-whites as fully human, and instead treat them as barely better than animals. Democrats do not believe non-whites are capable of being educated, so they herd them into schools that are little more than feeding pens, and never try to expect them to learn — or for the teachers to teach. Democrats don’t think non-whites are morally capable, so their every act is blamed on whites, who to the Democrats are the only group capable of conscious, self-responsible action. They do not believe non-whites are capable of intellectual creativity at the same level as whites, and so have elevated mediocrities and justifiably obscure figures rather than search for truly great and creative thinkers who just happen to not have pale skin.
The only government Democrats believe non-whites can deal with is despotism, an impulse that drives their foreign and domestic policy.
I’m sure you’re spitting mad and have a hundred “rebuttals” in your mind, but I’m looking at the behavior of Democrats. I’ve watched them all my life, and it will take forty years of them NOT acting like this to change my mind.
When being a neoLiberal ceases to be fashionable, then neoLiberalism will be dead. They are Liberal, because Liberal is “cool”. “It’s cool, therefore I am.” (Apologies to Renee DesCartes.)
The word “liberal” is being misused in this discussion. John Stuart Mill was a liberal, see On Liberty. The term has been misappropriated to mean “socialist.” (Socialism is not liberal.)
Read any objective bio of Mill. He was a freak. You can bet that any of his ideas eventually end up in the Hollywood, Detroit, or NYC of today.
Forget the 10 points. These are people who are genetically incompatible with normal American society. Eliminate them. I’m not opposed to expulsion, but you better get the Border Patrol beefed up, and declare all those expelled to be ‘outlaw’, and issue appropriate releases to all armed American citizens.
I would argue that their incompatibility with our once-civilized society is ideological and moral, not genetic. Calling it genetic lets wrongdoers off the hook for their evil behavior, and I refuse to do that!
See: Enoch Powell predicted dire consequences of mass immigration for Britain
I just learned that the new politically correct term for Liberals/Democrats/Progressives/Leftist is “Intellectually Disabled”!!!
AAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA
I like this article, it does do a good job in detailing how to deal with certain types of people quite well. the problem I have is that at this late in the game how many real fence riders can they be? We have toaccept the fact that the majority of the left especially ones in high authority have agendas. their goals and desires superceed any fact or peice of information. These are the ones in control. We have to deal with them in a strong forceful manner at some time. one our biggest problems as conservatives is that we have the truth on our side, but we express it in such a horrible weak tone that its a wonder we get anywhere at all. the tea party got attention not because they had the truth but because they were screaming the truth and forced the left to deal with us. but now that we are in more control we see to go back to the scared to offend conservatives. we need to be confrontational in a positive way. take control of the conversation. when someone calls us racist DO NOT LET IT GO! get into an argument back and stand your ground. suprisingly enough the saul alinski tactics used are brilliant. anyone wants to cry about it too bad..their plan worked. their plans worked beautifully with all the facts and info against them. imagine how powerful we would be come using their tactics AND the truth AGAINST THEM! but we must stop being 1 trick ponies and thinking only 1 wasy can be done. we are facing enemies that state and act openly that they can and will use ANY AND ALL MEANS TO WIN.if they are tha forceful with their lies and desire to destroy our way of life, how can we actually think we should be any less forceful and acomplish anything much less win? we need to have plan after plan after plan after plan…throug the gate, over the wall, parachute in, dig a tunnel and if that fails blow the wall up!
The Dems have been using this method for years. Obama and his thugs, has only improved this method.
I cam across this smart vid, although I doubt if the original 1960s band intended it this way. It seems to fit today…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM2MzlKURW8
“The hardcore Democrat wants a government jobs program, protectionist trade policies, Obama impeached for the mess in Libya, and universal health care.”
All lefties want the same thing: free handouts from the government.
Nothing else really counts.
They’d vote for Satan, if the horned guy promised them a bigger welfare check.
“Demonetization” means to take away the value or backing from some money, such as going off the gold standard. “Demonization” means to treat as if evil. Of course, Ann Coulter’s book “Demonic” shows that both sides engage in it; but perhaps she has tighter standards for her use of the term. (I haven’t read her book; I do read her column and find it often interesting and on point, sometimes not so.)
Human nature is human nature. Barry Rubin brilliantly has explained the strategy that has worked through-out time for tyrants and dictators. Western liberal sophisticates are no different than the Palestinian women who ridiculously throw rocks at the Jewish soldiers keeping the peace, rather than the government thugs responsible for their cess pool lives. It allows these foolish women to feel momentarily important – AND – they know the soldiers won’t fire back. The ability of the tyrant to exploit this aspect of human nature is, in my opinion, the reason that poverty is the usual condition of man.
Jewish law and Christianity teach law and morality, much in the same way that schools teach you to become educated. But today, rather than sitting in synagogues or church pews hearing the message of the 10 Commandments and Christian forgiveness, most of our society sits in front of a TV or professors who ask, “who can we blame?” Blame is a tyrant’s most effective tool in his toolbox. Only when the majority of people in a society are unwilling to fall for it, will peace and prosperity flourish.
How to rebut the cognitive dissonance of the left’s defense of President Obama’s failed policies and worldview.
You could just point them to this article or hand it to them…
Had enough yet, America?
“…most of our society sits in front of a TV or professors…”
You can get serious brain damage doing that.
The fact is that true liberals are hypocritical, judgmental bigots who believe in discriminating against decent, moral people. They want to restrict, for examples, the free speech rights of those opposed to abortion and homosexual activity (the latter under the guise of so-called “hate speech” laws). It’s going to be tough educating these Neanderthals and disabusing them of all their liberal prejudices, but it must be done if we are to have a decent, moral country.
Have you seen this?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20110815,00.html
Top blurb:
“How the Tea Party Hijacked America”
Draw your own conclusions. The war has begun.
–Adrian Reilly
Unemployment is the scrunch throwing people into poverty and destroying their self esteem. Neither politicians nor petty bureaucrats like Bernanke are lifting a finger to serve the middle class. So Rubin you disappoint. Ultra left and ultra right, liberals and conservatives are no-friends of the middle class. You are an expert on the Middle East. Not on the Middle Class. We are neither of the left nor of the right but all the contrary. Stick to what you know. Middle East yes, Middle Class no. Lengthy discussions about liberals and conservative, would be better served discussing means and ways to create jobs in America.
Well written article – Excellent work.