The Liberals Thread

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The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:09 am

Has the Trump Shock finally wiped that insufferably smug smirk off their faces? Not a chance. As soon as they realise their salary & investments are still secure, they'll be back again in full superciliousness-mode.

So it's time to start a Liberals Thread. What, exactly, is wrong with them?

This is a devastatingly good article, published only two days ago. Robinson's critique focuses on one publication, but it applies equally well to The Daily Show and The Guardian and a thousand other liberal Explainers, online, in print and on the telly.

Explaining It All To You

The persistence of Vox

Nathan J. Robinson

Posted on November 6, 2016

http://editor.currentaffairs.org/2016/1 ... ng-it-all/


There are too many (well-chosen) embedded links in Robinson's piece to make it postable here in full without halving its impact, so please read it at the link.

Just a taster:

[...] If any merit-based criteria were operating in determining who gets to be a pundit, Yglesias would long ago have ceased to make a living putting words together. And yet he persists.

I once attended a public talk Yglesias gave on housing policy to promote on his (62-page) book The Rent Is Too Damn High. Yglesias was placed in conversation with Yale Law School professor Robert Ellickson, a bona fide expert on housing and zoning with approximately four decades of experience in the field. Goodness knows why anyone thought to pair the two up, as Ellickson is notoriously grumpy and does not suffer fools with much equanimity. The discussion was one of the most satisfying I have seen. Ellickson clearly had no idea who Yglesias was, and took pleasure in ripping Yglesias’ pamphlet to shreds for its basic economic ignorance. Ellickson practically pondered aloud why a frivolous 20-something blogger was being treated as an expert on housing, pointing out the numerous ways in which Yglesias’ arguments were flimsy and ill-considered.

But watching Ellickson flay Yglesias, I was most struck by the fact that Yglesias was completely unfazed. Far from being ashamed at his humiliating defeat, Yglesias did not even seem to acknowledge that he was even being defeated or humiliated. He didn’t attempt to defend himself. He just… kept talking, as if the numerous arguments that had been made proving him wrong simply didn’t exist. [...]

http://editor.currentaffairs.org/2016/1 ... ng-it-all/
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:33 am

Image

Image

After taking part in an unsuccessful revolution in Berlin, she was murdered in 1919 by a quasi-governmental militia and her body dumped in the Landwehr canal.

http://arhiva.dalje.com/en-world/myster ... urg/261734
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby RocketMan » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:11 am

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... CMP=fb_cif

Donald Trump is moving to the White House, and liberals put him there

She was the Democratic candidate because it was her turn and because a Clinton victory would have moved every Democrat in Washington up a notch. Whether or not she would win was always a secondary matter, something that was taken for granted. Had winning been the party’s number one concern, several more suitable candidates were ready to go. There was Joe Biden, with his powerful plainspoken style, and there was Bernie Sanders, an inspiring and largely scandal-free figure. Each of them would probably have beaten Trump, but neither of them would really have served the interests of the party insiders.

And so Democratic leaders made Hillary their candidate even though they knew about her closeness to the banks, her fondness for war, and her unique vulnerability on the trade issue – each of which Trump exploited to the fullest. They chose Hillary even though they knew about her private email server. They chose her even though some of those who studied the Clinton Foundation suspected it was a sketchy proposition.

To try to put over such a nominee while screaming that the Republican is a rightwing monster is to court disbelief. If Trump is a fascist, as liberals often said, Democrats should have put in their strongest player to stop him, not a party hack they’d chosen because it was her turn.
Choosing her indicated either that Democrats didn’t mean what they said about Trump’s riskiness, that their opportunism took precedence over the country’s well-being, or maybe both.

[...]

The American white-collar class just spent the year rallying around a super-competent professional (who really wasn’t all that competent) and either insulting or silencing everyone who didn’t accept their assessment. And then they lost. Maybe it’s time to consider whether there’s something about shrill self-righteousness, shouted from a position of high social status, that turns people away.

The even larger problem is that there is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone – except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman. The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the “last thing standing” between us and the end of the world. It is a liberalism of the rich, it has failed the middle class, and now it has failed on its own terms of electability.
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby coffin_dodger » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:17 am

^^^
...and either insulting or silencing everyone who didn’t accept their assessment. And then they lost. Maybe it’s time to consider whether there’s something about shrill self-righteousness, shouted from a position of high social status, that turns people away.
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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:28 am

^^Thomas Frank. :clapping:

And take a look at the top-rated comments (sorted by "Recommendations"). They're all in agreement with Frank, and the Guardian is getting its arse handed to it on a plate.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 9:33 am

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

Phil Ochs, 1966

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
And I'm glad the commies were thrown out
Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
As long as they don't move next door

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter? Don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

Yes, I read New Republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the Democratic Party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I attend all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
And I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

Sure once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
Ah, but I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in

So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal

Introducing the song on the live album, Ochs said:

Phil Ochs wrote:In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects, ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic.


[...]

According to Ochs' biographer Michael Schumacher, "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" would evoke "a strange mixture of laughter, from nervous tittering from those who recognized themselves in Phil's indictment, to open roars of approval from the radical factions in the audience."[7] Eric Alterman describes "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" as "a scorching indictment of liberal cowardice by a bitter adversary, not the good-natured ribbing one might expect from an affectionate ally".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Me,_I%27m_a_Liberal
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby RocketMan » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:10 am

Wow. Got to get to know Ochs better.
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby dada » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:26 am

mm. The left will organize over the next few years, exciting possibilities will open up, and the liberals will fight it.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:36 am

Damn, this guy Nathan Robinson is really good - and really quick. From his post-election analysis, today:

The weakness was obvious even in the differing campaign slogans. “I’m With Her” is about the interests of the candidate. “Make America Great Again” is about the voters. Let’s learn an important lesson here: do not run a widely-despised ruling-class candidate who has open contempt for the white working class. That is a recipe for electoral catastrophe.

http://editor.currentaffairs.org/2016/1 ... to-do-now/
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:56 am

David Corn, "Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, MSNBC analyst &..." spook?

‏@DavidCornDC Followers: 255.000 Verified account

Non-college educated voters in USA are making Vladimir Putin very happy. And KKK, too.

Retweets 768 Likes 1.193
20:44 - 8. Nov. 2016

https://twitter.com/Trillburne/status/7 ... 1723611138


The sheer shameless inanity of it, and the naked class contempt. David Corn is a respected liberal thoughtleader.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby Jerky » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:02 am

All things considered, a thread like this probably doesn't need to exist in this place.

Why don't you fascist cheerleaders fuck off to Red Ice or Rense or Infowars or etc, etc, etc and leave this place as the last, tiny refuge for those "liberals" that you and Nu Perfikt Nazi Amerika seem to hate so much?

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby Jerky » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:04 am

MacCruiskeen » 09 Nov 2016 14:56 wrote:David Corn, "Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, MSNBC analyst &..." spook?

‏@DavidCornDC Followers: 255.000 Verified account

Non-college educated voters in USA are making Vladimir Putin very happy. And KKK, too.

Retweets 768 Likes 1.193
20:44 - 8. Nov. 2016

https://twitter.com/Trillburne/status/7 ... 1723611138


The sheer shameless inanity of it, and the naked class contempt. David Corn is a respected liberal thoughtleader.


Stating the obvious?

Calling people who have done an incredibly stupid thing STUPID?!

The GALL of that liberal!

Git the rope!

J.
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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby MacCruiskeen » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:07 am

Your slip is showing, Jerky. "Non-college educated" = "STUPID" (sic). You and Corn are true liberals, and spiritual peers.

Thank you. You demonstrate exactly why this thread is sorely needed and long overdue.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby Jerky » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:23 am

Corn didn't invent that demographic identifier, and if being a smug sanctimonious prick was a crime, you'd have been thrown in jail a long fucking time ago.

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Re: The Liberals Thread

Postby Rory » Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:25 am

Jerky - wind your neck in. You're running around trying to pick fights. Just stop being a dick
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