Letters to the Editor
Anarcissie
Published Letters: 54
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Deep calleth unto deep
[Read the article: Rush Limbaugh was right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The New Yorker cover is obviously a send-up of some of the dumber myths that have been circulated by some of the dumber right-wingers about Obama, like the usual dumb crappola you occasionally see from anti-Semites, racists, homophobes, and so on, leaking up from the drains.
Subsequently, as we know, the media and blogosphere, especially on the soi-disant progressive end, especially the Obamabot fraternity, have erupted in absolute horror, and thousands and thousands of people have torn their hair out all over the Net. Almost invariably, they say, "_I_ know that this is satire, but the frightful knuckledragging dumb people out in the hinterlands will take it seriously!"
So far, though, I haven't seen a single message from a knuckledragger taking it seriously. Maybe they're too dumb to type? Maybe their copy of the _New_Yorker_ didn't arrive in the mail yet? They _are_ way out there in flyover country.... But for the moment, there is no evidence that knuckledraggers have started taking cartoon covers of the _New_Yorker_ as gospel along with the Weekly World News and Rush Limbaugh. I admit I did see one knuckledragger in a blog on the LA Times complain that the cover was satirizing the real, honest truth, but even he knew it was a joke. Really.
Anyway, this event has at least enlightened me about a substantial portion of the Democratic Party. They think people are really, _really_ dumb. It's no wonder they're fond of welfare programs: people who are as dumb as they imagine would have trouble walking and talking, much less working. An army of bureaucrats would be needed just to tell people to put one foot in front of the other! However, if people are as dumb as these Democrats think, then they did the very worst thing about the cartoon they could have: they became hysterical in public. If there's anything that sets off the livestock, it's hysteria.
Too late now, I guess. Deep calleth unto deep.
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What makes you think this is a democracy?
[Read the article: Rendering public opinion irrelevant ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's too bad most of the comments here have gone off into the Israel-Palestine thing. The general question is much more interesting, although I would phrase it differently: What makes you think public opinion is relevant? What makes you think this (the United States of America) is a democracy? Clockwork Smurf may not be able to spell, but I think he, she or it got the dominant political philosophy right, and it's one which most of the folk seem to go along with, one in which the public is at a far remove from meaningful political power.
Otherwise we would see a different sort of politics taking place -- obviously.
One might ask as well why the American ruling class is so fond of Israel, since that example was brought up. I have never seen a completely satisfactory explanation of that one. But for sure it is not because of American public opinion, nor is it because Israel is a "democracy" and therefore beloved by the said ruling class -- democracy is only interesting to them as a flavor of propaganda.
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Think of something else
[Read the article: Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]timothy3: '... But we can work, at the local and federal Congressional levels, to bring forward progressive candidates who actually value human decency, fairness and equity....'
A lot of people have been doing that for a long time. Meanwhile, things have gotten worse and the hero of the current moment has already turned in his lance.
Maybe most people don't want governors who value human decency, fairness and equity -- maybe they want a police state and plutocracy. That's the way they vote, and their chosen representatives have faithfully represented their will.
The minority who want something else need to think of something besides bringing forward progressive candidates who will either be defeated or turned. A new society, a new culture, built from the ground up in the shell of the old. If you can't do it help someone who can.
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You are slaves of your machines
[Read the article: Hang up and drive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, the problem isn't cell phones. It's driving. We've evolved to a point where most people have to pilot a ton or two of metal around at high speeds to get to the most ordinary chores and amusements. Naturally, any distraction, however minor, from this high-pressure task can have serious, indeed, fatal consequences.
You are slaves of your machines.
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One difference....
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]S&M is voluntary.
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Conservatives purging quote conservatives unquote?
[Read the article: Let's give "Blue Dogs" the boot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Democratic Party is a conservative party, as Adlai Stevenson noted back in the 1950s, so if you kick the conservatives out, you would have almost no one left. But that isn't going to happen anyway, precisely because the Democratic Party is conservative. The way for the Democrats to win, as Obama seems to understand, is to carefully and conservatively point out that the Republicans are (a) radicals, (b) right-wing and (c) mostly crazy or pretending to be crazy. Winning is not the same as progressing; in fact, it's more or less the contrary. But if you're progressing off a cliff, I suppose it's best to do so as conservatively as possible.
Anyway, forget about the Purge, comrades; after the revolution, we will love strawberries!
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Some terminological tedium
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The economic scheme of things in contemporary America is not "free market". It is not "socialist", either -- it is quite capitalist, in the sense of "means of production in private (and elite) hands." (Socialism is "means of production in the hands of the workers or the people in general" and you certainly don't see much of that around.) We have an economy that is strongly manipulated and often directly controlled in a centralized manner by the State, in service to empire and world domination.
Okay, who cares what you call things? But in fact we can't talk about things or think about them much without using words, and words with some kind of sensible definitions at that.