Letters to the Editor
Monty Johnston
Published Letters: 119 Editor's Choice: 9
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What happened that a smiley face scares you so much?
[Read the article: "We're all fascists now"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I started reading this I remembered when I first worked in Harvard psych hospitals and needed to learn to mostly ignore crazy peoples' delusional systems. I mean, really - liberal peaceniks as fascists? But since George W. Bush ushered in the era of ultra-conservatives calling us fascists, perhaps I better listen. I'm not so sure it was worth it, though Alex Koppelman was fine.
As soon get a definition of fascism from Mussolini as a definition of freedom from George W. Bush, who thinks freedom means people electing capitalists to make their government capitalistic, and so you the worker can be ordered around in all spheres by the dictatorship of capitalism. This, incidentally, is the generally-recognized definition of fascism. Because through incompetence Bush didn't succeed, he is no more than a proto-fascist.
The definition of fascism as unity is almost entirely careless. Do the followers give themselves up to unity because they hate themselves? which is fanaticism, and can be of any political, religious, or secular stripe. For certainly, a healthy person willingly experiencing unity with willing and healthy others is one of life's great meaningful experiences. And then he leaves out that fascism coerces people to be unified. How could undemocratic forcing be left out of fascism's definition?
There's something here like someone being against codependence who then says, "Oh, and by the way, I'm a drinking alcoholic." If you viscerally hate smiley faces, that's diagnostic of problems.
These national socialisms may talk about socialism taking over capitalism (which I've never heard before), but it's all capitalism and the rich and powerful taking over, comforting those who need to be told what to do (- this is socialism?), and the rest of us have our freedoms stolen.
Personal attacks aren't nice, I know, but when I read something that's wrong on many counts I wonder if the person is stupid, crazy, lying, or careless. Jonah Golberg says he'd like to talk to liberals who disagree with him. I volunteer, but he needs to be ready to spend as long as it takes.
Best,
(More, for free: google "Rabid Fanatic" +"Monty Johnston")
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Huckawannabee
[Read the article: Huckabee's radical religious friends]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you for this and the other Huckabee articles.
Bush 2 certainly softened America up with the unconstitutional intrusion of church into state. Before, a Huckabee couldn't have begun to reach the presidential starting blocks, and now he's actually in some kind of contention.
Since the 2006 Democratic win I've been expecting the tooling up of a radical conservative backlash, which I believe these articles signal. I thought this crowd could no longer recruit any possible candidate. But arch conservatives now view themselves as fighting for their lives, their backs are against the wall. Cornered rats, vicious lashing out, all that. Yesterday's South Carolina dirty tricks on McCain are a hint. The question is whether they can mount a credible surprise election win - since Bush, I'll never say it's over till it's over, and Huckabee's slick - or whether they will devolve into militias and terrorist bombings. All it took for militias and bombings to stop before was their political ascendancy in the form of Newt and W. A little more political descendancy and here we go again. Really, as other posters have said, more broadly than I would - Islamic fanatics and Christian fanatics are fanatics and behave like fanatics.
Best.
(More, for free: google "Rabid Fanatic" +"Monty Johnston")
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Busy Mom -
[Read the article: I'm a busy single mom and I just don't want to date]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary's answer is a good one and may be all you need to hear. I note, however, that you've gone to some lengths to write an advice columnist. I think you would agree that yours is not an open and shut case; that I may be hearing protesting too much, and some yearning tangling with justified resentment.
I remember reading AA's Big Book where it described the person who wanted to want to stop drinking, which was me. (I've stopped and am glad of it.) You sound like someone who wants to want to be with a good man.
It cannot be more invaluable for kids to be raised in the midst of functioning parental intimacy, even with its tugs and turmoil. But it can't be done for the kids. Making life better for kids this way is a consequence of, not a reason for, doing what makes your life more fulfilling for you.
If it is as much a fact as it appears from your letter that you may attract abusive and possibly addicted men, and that your helping others sometimes goes over the line into helping too much (doing for them what they should do for themselves so their ability to do for themselves doesn't develop or atrophies), and if you lapse into what might be called work/activity addiction, maybe take a look at Al-Anon. Try several meetings, as it sometimes takes a little hunting to find a healthy group. They can sometimes be less sure-fire than AA. Plus we're all bozos on this bus.
Any higher power stuff can be satisfied with secular egolessness.
But whatever - you're headed in the right direction.
Best -
(More, for free: google "Rabid Fanatic" +"Monty Johnston")