Shut-Up You Lowlife Nazi-Commie-Marxist-Fascist-Maoist-Satanist-Hippie!

The beauty of Trumps ignorance is more fun than I should admit. I have been obsessed lately with trying to understand how the far right have been so easily duped and how the rest of America has been so blind to it. When I realized that it is all so well constructed and implemented it made things seem hopeless. The spin doctors have become so adept at putting this all in place that it felt as if they would be able to sail through without enough people catching on to really make a difference. Then we got Trump. Because he so loves to be in the spotlight hearing himself speak and he, quite obviously, refuses to hear anyone tell him the proper way to run a campaign, he is out trumpeting the dog whistles which are supposed to be subtle and never given an opportunity for reflection in mainstream media and, thus, mainstream America.

If Trump were wise, which thankfully he isn't, he would hire someone like Kevin D Williamson of the National Review to advise him. This magazine holds esteem as being a reputable (ehem) conservative outlet for those on the right to get their talking points. In his article released yesterday, Williamson proved his proficiency in disseminating the garbage where he likened Bernie Sanders to a Nazi while informing his readers that Sanders is a Jewish descendant of those lost in the Holocaust. The title of the article is, "Bernie Sanders' Strange Brew of Nationalism and Socialism." No one from the right who reads the article will be remotely concerned with the historical inaccuracies. None will reflect on impossible manglings of ideologies which any intelligent audience would immediately condemn upon first glance. And none of them will be off put by the fact that actual Nazi propaganda techniques are used in the story, itself, to amplify disdain for Secretary Clinton by only referring to her as "Herself" (capital H) throughout and never having to tell the audience who is being referenced. Its not necessary, is it Kev? Your audience has already been conditioned. The audience also doesn't need to have the word 'socialist' redefined for them to offer a negative connotation linking it to Nazis and Communists, because that work has already been done successfully, too. As with Nazi propaganda, once the insinuations are implanted, their reminders need only be perpetuated. Often.

Of course, National Socialism is Nazism. National Socialism had nothing to do with actual socialism, but mindless parrots don't need (or want) to understand that. National Socialism began with something quite similar to our American Exceptionalism which is just a fuckered up way of telling the country they are superior to everyone else by twist-turning histories into heroism with mind-numbing celebrations of anti-intellectualism. Williamson neglected to advise his readers about any of this, however, lest they draw obvious ties to their own party. The offense of connecting Sanders to Nazism is disgusting on so many levels but the aspect hardest for me is the fact that there is an audience for this shit at all. Take a moment with the revelation that people exist who will accept such 'historical' references and laud those who make them.

The contrived ideologies begin with a comparison between Sanders and Communism, jokingly calling him "that weirdo socialist from Soviet Beninjerristan" (I bet both Ben AND Jerry know the difference between Communism and Nazism so they won't read the article and be misled). The audience on the right has already been made to understand that Nazism is socialism because the S (z in our translation) is for Socialist. Of course, for any person with no need to actually understand history or ideologies, that is quite enough information to have a discussion and feel confident in ones assertions. For those of us capable of critical thought and who paid attention in World History, however, it becomes uncomfortable to even have a conversation with these people without literally drifting off to wonder how they make it through life unattended 24/7.

I started this blog because I was absolutely stunned when I made my way to Twitter this year and realized there are people on the right who are so completely brainwashed that they will literally repeat every single thing they are told. They don't need facts. They don't need logic. They don't need to have history explained to them (or science. or the Bible). They willingly repeat whatever they're told, full of blatant contradictions and lies. The final straw for me, which precluded this complete 180 in my writing, was a man on Twitter who I was arguing with. He told me, quite sincerely, that I was a Nazi Communist Marxist Fascist Maoist Hippie. I didn't even know how to reply. I sat there with bulging eyes, jaw agape and thought, "this is a joke, right?" I finally had to ask, "Do you have any idea what any of those terms mean?" To which he replied, "Yes, dumbass, it means you're a Socialist." He then told me that because I contradicted his new interpretations of the Bible, I was obviously a Satanist, as well. Indeed.

I had to read this ridiculous Willamson article because of the title. My sincere fascination with conflation of ideas and history is so profound that sometimes it gets the better of me and I delve into things I ought not. This garbage will certainly be with me for a long time now and will drive me crazy because Americans are willfully ignorant to the political objectives of those on the right. It is all so contrived that they would rather not delve too deeply into something they are not really interested in anyway. Those of us who are passionate about the truths behind their objectives are dismissed because our tireless tirades become futile to an unwilling audience. And the right has the easiest objective of all. They can literally type anything, wrap it in hate and offer it to people who will gladly accept the messages as truths and pass them on.

Throughout the article, Williamson denounces those on the left for their ignorance, which is hysterical to me for all reasons outlined herein. He is counting on his audience being ignorant enough to nod and laugh while reading this shit and then pass it on to others. Meanwhile, this brilliant writer never even made a cohesive point. He opened by explaining to his audience that the socialist agenda was quite pervasive during the day he attended a Sanders rally in Iowa and he then dove into making comparisons of Sanders' ideals and those with Donald Trump. No factual historical connotations were needed and there was no obvious objective to even support the title of the article having had any relevance beyond his own excited joy in condemning a man with family members who escaped the Holocaust to being a Nazi.

He explains that Sanders is xenophobic because he believes that too many jobs are being sent overseas and we should buy things made in America. Right. Remember when that was a Regressive Party talking point? The writer wants us to only remember one of the Regressives who has ever said something similar: Donald J Trump. He tells us that Sanders and Trump are very similar in those they hold contempt for. We are now being offered condemnations of any who promote "economic patriotism" and led to believe that this is the type of thing that started the downward slope of both Russian and German societies about 100 years ago. But. Of. Course.

He also tells his audience (who will surely believe it) that he met with a young man who wondered aloud why the German welfare state (ehem) is so successful and we can't have such nice things. When urged to answer his own question, the young man realized that its because Germany is a mostly white nation where our diversity creates so many problems. He then reminds us that Trump has been saying racist things, too.

In their desperate need to remove themselves from the tirades of Trump and appeal to those their platform can't seem to get on board with their policies (those who fail to be white, male and 'Chrisitian'), they will tell their base that Trump is just like that POS socialist Sanders. And I promise you they will repeat it. Just like they tell us that the left are racists. And the left hates Jews. And the left hate women. And the left persecute people for their religion. And the left are warmongers.

The most absurd and obvious (again, only to those of us who are intelligent) revelation is an insistence that Bernie is beginning his Naziesque sojourn by trying to get rid of our most basic freedoms. (Those which impede an oligarchy)

And criminalizing things is very much on Bernie’s agenda, beginning with the criminalization of political dissent. At every event he swears to introduce a constitutional amendment reversing Supreme Court decisions that affirmed the free-speech protections of people and organizations filming documentaries, organizing Web campaigns, and airing television commercials in the hopes of influencing elections or public attitudes toward public issues. That this would amount to a repeal of the First Amendment does not trouble Bernie at all. If the First Amendment enables Them, then the First Amendment has got to go.

You have been warned. Their talking points never end. Their capacity to quickly rewrite narratives to adjust 'facts' for their voters will never cease. So be prepared for the next moron who tries to tell you that Trump is really just a socialist like Sanders and that they are both Nazi Communist Marxist Fascist Maoist Satanists.

Dear Media: Your Advertisers Want More Money

I had the most ridiculous conversation with my mom last night on the phone. I asked her if she had heard about the interview with the former Deputy Director of the CIA where he admitted that Dick Cheney lied when he said Iraq had reconstituted nuclear weapons. My mom didn't believe me. And do you want to know how she knew that I was not telling her the truth? She didn't want to hurt my feelings so she implied first that I must have misunderstood the interview, then she reasoned with me, and I quote, "Angie, if that happened, why wouldn't it have been on the news?" Great question mom! I don't know. I don't know why they don't bother to cover a lot of things that are newsworthy but find it necessary to open every hour with a story about a deflated football or some pseudo-patriotic bullshit that an asshole politician decided to say on their campaign today.

I find myself still exhausted by that call today. Of course, I am not the only American who is pissed. I am not the only one of your consumers who is being ignored daily. I have decided that this time I will forward my letter on to your biggest advertisers, too. It seems that you want us to constantly be mindful of the fact that you are a money making venture whose concern for the actual information you are meant to be relaying to us is secondary to the profits you can turn. (We can tell because of how much time you spend hyping and telling the same stories that are more worthy of tabloids than actual news coverage). So I will let your advertisers know that if you covered a story like this, you could certainly be making them a lot of money. People would tune in. More people. More than the ones you just want to come back every day, but the people who don't even watch the news.

Ewww... are you drooling? Wipe that. Now listen.

Two nights ago the former CIA Deputy Director, Michael Morrell, was on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Morrell admitted that, even though Cheney told America that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted nuclear weapons, this was not true. The information Cheney offered to finally get America behind going to war in Iraq, even though we knew that the attacks on 9/11 were from bin Laden, was a lie. This was not reported anywhere. Why? How?

The sad part is that last night when he closed his show, Matthews was actually upset, you could tell, by the fact that Cheney had lied. The rest of us were surprised to have heard it verified on live television, but no one who has been paying attention was really surprised that it was true. Matthews has such a sweet and pure heart. His love for politics and America is so sincere that he often doesn't see through the rhetoric a lot of us do. Because he is that type of person, it should have been even more important that this story be covered nationally. No one reporting on it (who is in a legitimate news organization) could question whether or not there was anything untoward about the story having come from Chris Matthews. And, lest you forget, you certainly have no problem relaying absolute nonsense you hear from the Fox cable channel with the word 'news' in its title.

America united after 9/11. We were one country. I stood behind my leadership and ignored the fact that they were of another party. I didn't care. I was an American. My country was attacked. And with that unity and with our excitement for retribution, our Vice President created information to take us into a war that would benefit he and the Bush family. And its only costs have ever been felt on the families of those lost and injured and the economy of the country that was so anxious to offer its misdirected trust.

Just think, not only could you let America know tonight that you had a story about how we fought a war that we are still paying for, and, more importantly offer the cost in the numbers of lives lost, because Dick Cheney told lies, but then you would have many night of follow up stories. The kinds of stories that are actually newsworthy. You would have real American stories to tell. About how Americans feel after having been betrayed. And about the myriad circumstances we now find ourselves because of those choices. You could go back to remind us about how Cheney commissioned a story to report on his lies. And then he offered those lies to Congress. There would be real goddamned substance in your reporting. It sounds glorious, doesn't it?

It is your job to bring the information to the country. It is your job to remind us of what we had been and help us to heal so we can find our way back there. At present, we have leaders who are trashing the name of America every day. They demand her exceptionalism while condemning the majority of Americans for not having met their very narrow definitions of those who are exceptional. You give them validity when you give them a voice. As was true in  2003, is true today, you are perpetually complicit in where we are finding ourselves. It is time to bring America back to a place that is unified and healthy. And it needs to start today.

American Exceptionalism?

The fact that politicians on the right are espousing a heartfelt belief in American exceptionalism and are bullying those on the left to prove they believe the same is, frankly, disturbing. Although my computer keeps trying to tell me that exceptionalism isn't a word, the concept has been around for a long time. Exceptionalism is a theory where one society, culture, country, etc. is extraordinary above all others, having something unique which makes it shine above the rest. That is ridiculous. Not only are we an adolescent in comparison to the nations they profess superiority over, but those who are making these demands actually behave like adolescents in regard to, and often in the presence of, those other countries.

Several years ago, the President was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism. He basically said that he believed in it the way that other countries believed that they were exceptional. That would be a pretty fair answer for an absurd question at a NATO summit, I would think. He went on to explain his answer in a thoughtful manner, full of words his detractors would have to look up before countering. Of course, they didn't need to counter his contentions, they had what they needed in that one little sound bite. So the far right had a new rallying cry against the President to say that he didn't love America. Most critical thinkers would have agreed with the President. Some might even think he was being generous. But the far right doesn't talk to critical thinkers. They are talking to people who don't want to be bothered to think for themselves. So they were given their talking points and sent on their way.

At present, we are being inundated by the right with their varied definitions of exceptionalism. Ted Cruz had a rather bizarre and, quite obviously, insincere revelation in March where he explained that his people, those who listen to country music, are superior because of the way that industry responded to 9/11. Before then, he explained, he had been a lover of classic rock & roll. But he was off-put by their response to the attacks on 9/11. Apparently the international fundraisers held in both September and October were not, you know, patriotic. Maybe because of his hasty conversion to country music he missed the new songs which came out about the attacks by classic rockers like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and John Mellencamp. Even Neil Young came out with a song that honored the heroes of flight 93. Cruz's attempts to garner supporters will have certainly fallen on deaf ears. No one who wasn't already going to vote for him would ever fall for that shit.

Mike Huckabee, too, has been all over the media, first promoting his book and now on his campaign for President, explaining that there is something quite ideal about the way they live in the south. Apparently he believes his constituency wants or needs to be pandered to. And, apparently, he believes they are not intelligent enough to realize that's what he's doing. His contention is that their superiority is defined by virtues only southern women possess, like not using birth control because they know how to control their libidos. And those women are also too classy to ever use a curse word like those trashy northern women (we know, Mike, but fuck you for noticing). Southerners are funny, where those outside of "Bubbaville" (I can't make this up) are of less humor. Those red, white & blue Bubbas are God-fearing, principled folk and the over-educated city slickers have had all principle taught right out of them. He is really big on reiterating those over-educated every time you hear him speak. It really is curious. How do southerners like having been condemned to being a comical, yet ignorant, bunch who cannot even reason through rhetoric and see that they are being mocked by the man who is professing their superiority? This is an American society. It cannot be defined by someone who is telling us any exceptionalism found in the society is a narrow subset who adhere to his prescribed ideals.

There is something inherently grotesque about the right demanding a moral or patriotic high ground. It is as if their followers, collectively, have such low self-esteem that they need to be told of their supremacy. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the idea of American exceptionalism makes him uncomfortable. I would think most thoughtful people would agree with that assertion for reasons outlined herein. However, the right jumped all over him suggesting that he and the Liberals don't love America and those on the right are more patriotic. Why do the people on the far right need to hear that? People with actual grace and moral standing don't need to be convinced of it. Nor do they need to be told that they're superior for having attained it.

I am an actual patriot. I don't prove it by putting a flag and an eagle and the Statue of Liberty in my avatar. I prove it by loving my country and my countrymen. I prove it by voting and volunteering in my community. I prove it by sincerely supporting our troops, in wanting them to only have to fight when it is necessary and make sure they are 100% taken care of when they get home. I prove my patriotism by wanting to protect America's land and natural resources. And educate her children. And feed her poor. I prove it by not only learning and understanding my country's history, but by promoting ideas of our improving on it. America cannot be a great society just because I wish it to be so. When my daughter was an adolescent, oftentimes she behaved like an ass. At those times I didn't clap my hands together and throw them in the air to proclaim, "Voila! Perfection!" I sighed, realized I still loved her more than anything and acknowledged I had more work yet to do. I am a patriot who loves my country and wants to see her progress toward something exceptional.

As America's history is short and relatively brutal, her stories of greatness would need to be promoted and her failures denied in order to really promote exceptionalism. And we cannot rewrite our own history in order to create a more appealing chronicle. Last year, however, the RNC resolved that the AP History tests, which had been updated to require critical thinking, as had been added to English and math, were focusing on too many negative aspects of our history. Then states began to follow with their own complaints about information that should be removed: slavery, internment camps, issues of equality, etc. Oklahoma tried to pass a bill that would stop funding of AP tests for their students because they wanted a stronger emphasis on positive aspects of history.

In Colorado, one teacher literally came out and demanded that the new testing was bashing America. As if any of the items given to prepare the students for the tests were created out of thin air or this was an attempt to make students less patriotic? The students in Colorado actually went on strike when they realized what was going on. They were, after all, the ones who would have to go to college having never learned about or been asked to consider the facts of our history. As such, these states were not even asking themselves to be accountable for the education of their children. As a mother and an American, that has to be about the most unexceptional thing I can think of. If the focus is to rewrite our own history to create our greatness, the mission has already denied the objective.

Historically, the civilizations that we exalt and remember as having been exceptional are those which have grown into something substantial and influential. Their history defines struggles and teaches a means of overcoming them. This gives all societies something to reflect on, learn from and grow toward. Those on the right who are presently trying to demand our exceptionalism are not only trying to negate the fact that we have not overcome the trials we have created and endured, but they are working very hard to go back to many of them as if they were never problems to begin with. As long as those same people continue to create a mangled present day narrative of hate, dependency, inequality and injustice, I'm not even convinced we can call ourselves a civilization. But I am quite certain that we are not exceptional.