Sunday, June 14, 2009

Glenn Beck Show - James Von Brunn was Left Wing.



Only on Glenn Beck's show could this shit actually be said as if it was real. He has actually brought on a guest to argue that James Von Brunn was a left winger.

BINSWANGER: This Von Brunn's culture is a tribe of racist, anti-Jewish, anti-negro, anti-immigrant, everything. Therefore, he is a phenomenon of the left, because racism is a form of collectivism; the right wing is individualist, believes in individual rights, freedom, the dignity of each individual life. Because the left wing... You know, Hitler was National Socialism, right? It's a leftist phenomenon.

BECK: How did it happen that you look at people who are Nazis and you say that those are right wing? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Are you following that deranged logic? Racism is a collective phenomenon, and Republicans believe in individualism, therefore no Republican could ever be a racist.

Of course, anyone who watched the Republican party goose-stepping in whatever direction Bush and Cheney insisted they follow, would have serious doubts that we were not witnessing a collective phenomenon.
The "Republican base" has become virtually monolithic and easily recognizable -- it is the swooning crowds cheering for torture and a doubling of Guantanamo, threatening war with Iran, urging still more surveillance and limitless government power in the name of the All-Consuming, All-Important Glorious War with the Scary, Dangerous, Never-Before-Seen Muslim Terrorists. Anyone who opposes that vision -- The Bush Vision -- is not considered to be a Republican at all, let alone a "conservative." Just ask the tax-opposing, spending-hating, small-government-advocating Ron Paul. Or Bruce Fein. Or Andrew Sullivan.
Individualists? That's just a sick joke.

4 comments:

rtaylortitle said...

I'm not sure from what perspective you are coming from. While it's true there are right-wingers who hate Jews, Blacks, gays, etc., there are as many (if not more) left-wingers who HATE conservatives, Christians, etc. There's a plethora of hate on BOTH sides...it's just that the so-called "left" gets a huge pass on their hatreds because the mass-media itself sits on the left.
I would be classified as a right-wing libertarian, although I think the old left-right needs to be replaced by up-down with authoritarianism cum dictatorship in a downwards vector and freedom, libery, individualism, Constitutionalism in an upward vector.
I advocate total separation of economy & state as I do with church & state. We've never had true laissez-faire capitalism because politics has ALWAYS been mixed with business (licensing, subsidies, grants, bailouts, graft, kick-backs, I.R.S., the Fed) in one way or another.
No sane person can witness what Obama is doing and not comprehend we are now in (and moving more) a Mussolini-style fascist state, i.e. corporatism...a merger of business with the government which means more and more and more regulation and less and less liberty.
The Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the soon-to-be Pakistan War and Irani War...all undeclared with "false-flag" emergencies, similiar to what Hitler did with the Weimer government. There was no actual Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraq had nothing to do with 911 (always been curious about all those bombs and explosions going off in both Towers basements and the small hole at the Pentagon not allowing for a 747's wing's to fit through). As Eisenhower warned, beware of the military-industrial complex.
Obama, like his predessors, is a fool playing community organizer with a whole nation and economy. I only hope enough liberals will wake up (as some conservatives are doing) and realize that more and more freedoms are being surrendered to czars.
Robert Taylor/Horseshoe Bay, TX

Kel said...

I'm not sure from what perspective you are coming from. While it's true there are right-wingers who hate Jews, Blacks, gays, etc., there are as many (if not more) left-wingers who HATE conservatives, Christians, etc.

I'm saying that it is ludicrous to say that James Von Brunn was a left winger based on some silly notion that right wingers favour individualism and that he, therefore, can't be right wing.

I would be classified as a right-wing libertarian, although I think the old left-right needs to be replaced by up-down with authoritarianism cum dictatorship in a downwards vector and freedom, libery, individualism, Constitutionalism in an upward vector.

I agree that the left/right paradigm needs to be reviewed although I would put authoritarianism on the right side of the spectrum. Certainly, under Bush, the Republicans appeared to be falling over themselves to defend his excesses. The party that claimed to believe small government was good government watched as the government swelled in size and spied on it's own citizens with no checks and balances of any kind, all enthusiastically defended because it was Bush doing the spying. The Republicans revealed an authoritarian mindset which was the opposite of what they say they believe in.

No sane person can witness what Obama is doing and not comprehend we are now in (and moving more) a Mussolini-style fascist state, i.e. corporatism...a merger of business with the government which means more and more and more regulation and less and less liberty.

No sane person can look at where we are now without realising that Obama had to step in to stop utter economic collapse caused by the very lack of regulations which the Republicans always favoured.

The Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the soon-to-be Pakistan War and Irani War...all undeclared with "false-flag" emergencies, similiar to what Hitler did with the Weimer government. There was no actual Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraq had nothing to do with 911 (always been curious about all those bombs and explosions going off in both Towers basements and the small hole at the Pentagon not allowing for a 747's wing's to fit through). As Eisenhower warned, beware of the military-industrial complex.

I agree we should beware the military-industrial complex, but I think wars with Pakistan and Iran are much less likely now that Obama is in power.

daveawayfromhome said...

I think the "hate" of the Right is different from the "hate" of the Left (and I'll agree that those two terms are over-simple and more tribal than descriptive): the Right tends to vilify any who do not agree with them, while the Left tends to vilify any who try to deny them them their right to their beliefs. Both tend to extreme statements in the pursuit of gaining or retaining power, but the I think (and I'll admit bias) that the Left tends to condemn the thinking (with exceptions, such as Karl Rove), whereas the Right tends to condemn the thinker (with few exceptions).

As for a seperation of state and economics, that's as ridiculous as a separation of roads and state. One of the purposes of the American government is to protect the weak from abuses by the strong (I cannot say this is true of government in general), and abuses by the economically strong are encouraged by the kind of free-for-all, lasse-faire economics championed by the Republican Party. People and Business should be free to go where they will, but, like the roads, rules are required (and honest policemen) to ensure that people are not hurt by reckless, indifferent or malicious behavior.

Kel said...

the Right tends to vilify any who do not agree with them, while the Left tends to vilify any who try to deny them them their right to their beliefs.

Dave, I'm with you on this one. The nutters on the right, people like Malkin, seem to insist that their theories are correct even in the midst of a financial crisis which is undermining everything which they believe in.

And, as far as the American left are concerned, I feel they are always trying to play to the midle ground whilst the Republicans are way to the right on a whole host of issues, especially speaking as a European where some of the American right's positions - on abortion, gay marriage etc - would render them to the loony wing of European politics.