Curtis Dahlgren
THE NEW TOTALITARIANS: this ain't your granddaddy's Democrat party
By Curtis Dahlgren
"The lesson of the Inquisition . . The fanged dogs of war, once turned loose upon the man who dared to think, have left as sole successor only a fat and harmless poodle, known as Social Ostracism." – author unknown
THE NEW INQUISITION IS STATE-OVER-CONSCIENCE. Recent court decisions are turning the "harmless poodle" into a fanged dragon. Rush Limbaugh says that there will be no "tolerance" (from the Left) until we cave in and shut up. A judge takes the "Redskins" trademark from the Redskins (a "takings" attempt by government, one of the worst we've seen yet), and the Pentagon may change the name of the Tomahawk missile. And in the face of this new Inquisition politicians and theologians tiptoe through the tulips rather than calling a spade a spade: "tyranny by any other name, churches under control of the State, is still tyranny no matter what you call it."
Rush highlighted the column-of-the-month: "The New Totalitarians" by Tom Nichols at the Federalist. He talks about the new breed of intelligentsia that demands your love even if it has to kill you to get it.
"Totalitarians are a different breed. These are the people who have a plan, who think they see the future more clearly than you . . . they serve History, or The People, or The Idea, or some other ideological totem [the Movement] that justifies their actions.
"They want obedience, of course. But even more, they want their rule, and their belief system, to be accepted and self-sustaining. And the only way to achieve that is to create a new society of people who share those beliefs, even if it means bludgeoning every last citizen into enlightenment."
As in Orwell's dystopian utopia, there are forbidden words – husband and wife, brother and sister – and words with Newspeak definitions ("tolerant" and "offensive"). And these are the same people who used to look for totalitarianism from the "Right"! In 1961 Gore Vidal wrote a LIFE magazine article about his greatest fear:
"I have often thought and written that if the United States were ever to have a Caesar, a true subverter of the state . . .
1) he would attract to himself all the true believers, the extremists . .
2) he would oversimplify some difficult but vital issue . .
3) he would not in the least resemble the folk idea of a dictator.
"He would not be a hysteric like Hitler . . he is exactly the sort of man whom no one would suspect of Caesarism, least of all himself."
VIDAL THOUGHT HE WAS DESCRIBING GOLDWATER! But those are "living" words (as is everything we put in print), and those words could be applied to more than one contemporary leader. Goldwater was a man considered a statesman by even many Democrat Senators in the 1970s, but the extreme Left is still looking so hard for a "right-wing" Caesar or "czar" that they can't see that left hook coming from even further left.
"We will bury you," said Nikita Khrushchev on September 17, 1959. Forty-nine years later – to the day – a financial crisis began in the U.S., and powers-that-be have not let it "go to waste." They have "oversimplified" it. They have pretended to have everything under control. They have "solved it."
The flaw in the slaw is that we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we pay on "debt service" (interest on the federal debt). Do the math! The next crisis will only be bigger. Do the math and think "Greece." Onto this stage steps Donald Trump.
Some people say he's not a serious candidate because of the things he says; I didn't think he was a serious candidate until he said the things he's been saying! And I talked to a neighbor the other day – a Reagan Democrat – and Trump is the first Republican he's liked in years. He that that "you may not always agree with him, but you have to love a man who calls a spade a spade." EXACTLY.
The New Totalitarians have taken "social ostracism" and put fangs in it through demagoguery, court decisions, and journalism. Ask the bakers and photographers and pastors who have to choose to obey God, not man. But the jig is up. You can't BS a BS-er. Maybe the tide, and the worm, has turned.
"If you do not counter lies with truth, the lies become the de facto 'truth.'" – Mark Belling
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophecy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and My people love to have it so." – Jeremiah
"An astonishing and filthy thing is becoming commonplace: the pundits tell lies, and the pastors believe that the ends justify the means. The uninformed love to have it that way . . but what will you do in the end thereof?" – a better translation
A few years ago, Timothy Geithner gave a speech in China and he said that our deficits are under control and that China's faith in our securities is well-placed. The audience laughed in his face. Russia is laughing at the West's "solutions" to the Greece crisis.
And the Establishment thinks that Donald Trump is crazy?
P.S. The Establishment should be so crazy.
PPS: Now that Bruce Jenner is a woman, will he change his mind?
© Curtis Dahlgren
July 11, 2015
"The lesson of the Inquisition . . The fanged dogs of war, once turned loose upon the man who dared to think, have left as sole successor only a fat and harmless poodle, known as Social Ostracism." – author unknown
THE NEW INQUISITION IS STATE-OVER-CONSCIENCE. Recent court decisions are turning the "harmless poodle" into a fanged dragon. Rush Limbaugh says that there will be no "tolerance" (from the Left) until we cave in and shut up. A judge takes the "Redskins" trademark from the Redskins (a "takings" attempt by government, one of the worst we've seen yet), and the Pentagon may change the name of the Tomahawk missile. And in the face of this new Inquisition politicians and theologians tiptoe through the tulips rather than calling a spade a spade: "tyranny by any other name, churches under control of the State, is still tyranny no matter what you call it."
Rush highlighted the column-of-the-month: "The New Totalitarians" by Tom Nichols at the Federalist. He talks about the new breed of intelligentsia that demands your love even if it has to kill you to get it.
"Totalitarians are a different breed. These are the people who have a plan, who think they see the future more clearly than you . . . they serve History, or The People, or The Idea, or some other ideological totem [the Movement] that justifies their actions.
"They want obedience, of course. But even more, they want their rule, and their belief system, to be accepted and self-sustaining. And the only way to achieve that is to create a new society of people who share those beliefs, even if it means bludgeoning every last citizen into enlightenment."
As in Orwell's dystopian utopia, there are forbidden words – husband and wife, brother and sister – and words with Newspeak definitions ("tolerant" and "offensive"). And these are the same people who used to look for totalitarianism from the "Right"! In 1961 Gore Vidal wrote a LIFE magazine article about his greatest fear:
"I have often thought and written that if the United States were ever to have a Caesar, a true subverter of the state . . .
1) he would attract to himself all the true believers, the extremists . .
2) he would oversimplify some difficult but vital issue . .
3) he would not in the least resemble the folk idea of a dictator.
"He would not be a hysteric like Hitler . . he is exactly the sort of man whom no one would suspect of Caesarism, least of all himself."
VIDAL THOUGHT HE WAS DESCRIBING GOLDWATER! But those are "living" words (as is everything we put in print), and those words could be applied to more than one contemporary leader. Goldwater was a man considered a statesman by even many Democrat Senators in the 1970s, but the extreme Left is still looking so hard for a "right-wing" Caesar or "czar" that they can't see that left hook coming from even further left.
"We will bury you," said Nikita Khrushchev on September 17, 1959. Forty-nine years later – to the day – a financial crisis began in the U.S., and powers-that-be have not let it "go to waste." They have "oversimplified" it. They have pretended to have everything under control. They have "solved it."
The flaw in the slaw is that we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we pay on "debt service" (interest on the federal debt). Do the math! The next crisis will only be bigger. Do the math and think "Greece." Onto this stage steps Donald Trump.
Some people say he's not a serious candidate because of the things he says; I didn't think he was a serious candidate until he said the things he's been saying! And I talked to a neighbor the other day – a Reagan Democrat – and Trump is the first Republican he's liked in years. He that that "you may not always agree with him, but you have to love a man who calls a spade a spade." EXACTLY.
The New Totalitarians have taken "social ostracism" and put fangs in it through demagoguery, court decisions, and journalism. Ask the bakers and photographers and pastors who have to choose to obey God, not man. But the jig is up. You can't BS a BS-er. Maybe the tide, and the worm, has turned.
"If you do not counter lies with truth, the lies become the de facto 'truth.'" – Mark Belling
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophecy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and My people love to have it so." – Jeremiah
"An astonishing and filthy thing is becoming commonplace: the pundits tell lies, and the pastors believe that the ends justify the means. The uninformed love to have it that way . . but what will you do in the end thereof?" – a better translation
A few years ago, Timothy Geithner gave a speech in China and he said that our deficits are under control and that China's faith in our securities is well-placed. The audience laughed in his face. Russia is laughing at the West's "solutions" to the Greece crisis.
And the Establishment thinks that Donald Trump is crazy?
P.S. The Establishment should be so crazy.
PPS: Now that Bruce Jenner is a woman, will he change his mind?
© Curtis Dahlgren
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