No More Lies
I think it is clear that the cancerous growth of the right wing in this country is closely tied to the promulgation, by Republican leaders and other conservative spokesmen of a manufactured, totally dishonest world view, designed to justify any kind of violence or other criminality in pursuit of their self-serving ends.
I want to say that I have been following the development of this phenomenon since the sixties, when many of these preposterous claims were the province of small numbers of marginal people, such as the American Nazi Party, and the followers of the likes of the Rev. Carl McIntyre.
Normal Americans have almost totally dismissed these idiotic lies as utterly insignificant, assuming that no significant number of people could ever come to accept them as true. They were wrong. This is because right wingers like Rush Limbaugh understand something that most of the rest of us do not- that people believe lies, by and large, because it suits their purpose to do so, not because the lies are plausible. Thus, for example, all it took was for their elected leader Reagan to tell them that it was perfectly in accord with Christian principles to pursue your own self serving economic goals regardless of the suffering of anyone else, for these people to sign on to the deregulation that brought us to the edge of depression.
It is time, I believe, to recognize that this ghoulish, loathsome world view props up the anti-abortion fanatics, the tax haters, the racists, the "greed is good" people and all of the other malignant minions of what today is referred to as "conservatism." I believe that we must stop standing by passively when they continue to assert their self-serving nonsense, if we are to see an end to their malice, instead of watching it grow day by day.
The list of lies is a long one. Here are some of the hateful claims of conservative America, which we must no longer allow to be spoken unopposed. It was drawn up quickly, and I'm sure most of you could think of other things that need to be here:
Denying global warming
Denying evolution or (unbelievably) pretending to believe that the world is 6,000 years old
Claiming that Hitler, Mussolini and any other evil right winger is really on the left.
Denying or minimizing the evils perpetrated by Nazi Germany, against Jews and many others.
Blaming liberals for our country's near depression, instead of the conservative Reagan-Bush policies that let our economy go wild.
The related ludicrous claim that the New Deal didn't work.
Any of the pack of lies (e.g. Saddam's WMD's and links with Al Qaida) which manipulated the country into the Iraq war.
The claim that there is some kind of organized reverse racism that attacks Whites in this country, and the ludicrous self depiction of evangelicals as religious victims.
The preposterous, murderous lie that this country has the world's best health care system, and that government involvement in health care is inevitably a disaster.
The notion that evangelical "christianity" has anything at all to do with the real teachings of Christ.
The babbling lunacy that we are in the "end times" and that Jesus is about to return any day now.
Portrayal of the entire Muslim religion as totally represented by the beliefs and behavior of Wahabists like Al Qaida.
The malicious lie that Democrats are "weak on defense," rather than the reality that they are the ones whose non-reliance on belligerence as our sole foreign policy is really our nation's best defense.
The absurd "tax-and-spend" lie which portrays Democratic proposals, and all spending for the American people as a grotesque luxury, but utterly ignores Republican giveaways to the rich and useless defense spending, the real sources of our budget problems, as totally necessary.
The utterly false claim that there is any biblical justification for the notion that life begins at conception.
The claim that we were really winning in Vietnam, and that the liberals stabbed our army in the back.
The notion that conservative judges are somehow the ones that are following the will of the founding fathers when they enable the depredations of the wealthy, while liberal judges are trying to destroy the constitution.
Like the grotesque, fake, manichean world described by Hitler in Mein Kampf, this world view serves as the underpinning of all the malicious, hateful conduct of the right wing. Like Hitler in Mein Kampf, they have stated openly and proudly what they believe and what they intend to do. Like Hitler in Mein Kampf, the world has chosen to believe that they could not possibly believe anything so patently false and hateful.
This time, we must understand that they mean what they say, before it is too late.
I want to say that I have been following the development of this phenomenon since the sixties, when many of these preposterous claims were the province of small numbers of marginal people, such as the American Nazi Party, and the followers of the likes of the Rev. Carl McIntyre.
Normal Americans have almost totally dismissed these idiotic lies as utterly insignificant, assuming that no significant number of people could ever come to accept them as true. They were wrong. This is because right wingers like Rush Limbaugh understand something that most of the rest of us do not- that people believe lies, by and large, because it suits their purpose to do so, not because the lies are plausible. Thus, for example, all it took was for their elected leader Reagan to tell them that it was perfectly in accord with Christian principles to pursue your own self serving economic goals regardless of the suffering of anyone else, for these people to sign on to the deregulation that brought us to the edge of depression.
It is time, I believe, to recognize that this ghoulish, loathsome world view props up the anti-abortion fanatics, the tax haters, the racists, the "greed is good" people and all of the other malignant minions of what today is referred to as "conservatism." I believe that we must stop standing by passively when they continue to assert their self-serving nonsense, if we are to see an end to their malice, instead of watching it grow day by day.
The list of lies is a long one. Here are some of the hateful claims of conservative America, which we must no longer allow to be spoken unopposed. It was drawn up quickly, and I'm sure most of you could think of other things that need to be here:
Denying global warming
Denying evolution or (unbelievably) pretending to believe that the world is 6,000 years old
Claiming that Hitler, Mussolini and any other evil right winger is really on the left.
Denying or minimizing the evils perpetrated by Nazi Germany, against Jews and many others.
Blaming liberals for our country's near depression, instead of the conservative Reagan-Bush policies that let our economy go wild.
The related ludicrous claim that the New Deal didn't work.
Any of the pack of lies (e.g. Saddam's WMD's and links with Al Qaida) which manipulated the country into the Iraq war.
The claim that there is some kind of organized reverse racism that attacks Whites in this country, and the ludicrous self depiction of evangelicals as religious victims.
The preposterous, murderous lie that this country has the world's best health care system, and that government involvement in health care is inevitably a disaster.
The notion that evangelical "christianity" has anything at all to do with the real teachings of Christ.
The babbling lunacy that we are in the "end times" and that Jesus is about to return any day now.
Portrayal of the entire Muslim religion as totally represented by the beliefs and behavior of Wahabists like Al Qaida.
The malicious lie that Democrats are "weak on defense," rather than the reality that they are the ones whose non-reliance on belligerence as our sole foreign policy is really our nation's best defense.
The absurd "tax-and-spend" lie which portrays Democratic proposals, and all spending for the American people as a grotesque luxury, but utterly ignores Republican giveaways to the rich and useless defense spending, the real sources of our budget problems, as totally necessary.
The utterly false claim that there is any biblical justification for the notion that life begins at conception.
The claim that we were really winning in Vietnam, and that the liberals stabbed our army in the back.
The notion that conservative judges are somehow the ones that are following the will of the founding fathers when they enable the depredations of the wealthy, while liberal judges are trying to destroy the constitution.
Like the grotesque, fake, manichean world described by Hitler in Mein Kampf, this world view serves as the underpinning of all the malicious, hateful conduct of the right wing. Like Hitler in Mein Kampf, they have stated openly and proudly what they believe and what they intend to do. Like Hitler in Mein Kampf, the world has chosen to believe that they could not possibly believe anything so patently false and hateful.
This time, we must understand that they mean what they say, before it is too late.
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