Today is Cinco de Mayo. Kick back, don’t drink and drive, have a great Margarita. (The best I’ve ever tasted are made in Tombstone.) Indulge in chips, salsa and guacamole. While you’re doing that, stop and think about the extreme anti-Hispanic bigotry of the far right, fed by the Tanton machine. John Tanton, who is the ‘genius’ behind the anti-immigration movement, thinks that Hispanics are inferior. He also thinks the same of anyone who isn’t European and Lily White. We could get into the entire terribly repulsive roots of this movement, but you don’t need to look far. Just goose-step into your history books. While you are reading about it, you will need that margarita.
In this post Donald Sterling world, there are more than a few tensions about racism. There should be. Something very nasty is happening in the GOP. There are a number of us, who, for ages, have been watching the growing influence of far right racists. For years they’ve been slightly closeted, hidden, with few of them being as in your face about their racist ties as is Michelle Malkin and Vdare. While jerks like William Gheen aren’t powerful enough to avoid scrutany, they still mange to create a heck of a lot of trouble. Now, even World Nut Daily is starting to be overt in their bigotry against anyone who isn’t lily white. For a little FYI, Lee Bright, who is running against Lindsey, has been endorsed not only by racist Hunter Wallace, but now by Gheen. Now though, while the racism has not-so-quietly been against Hispanics, they’re now all out in the open, out of the closet with their bigotry against anyone who might be of the same racial mix as the Obamas.
In the strange new world of the far right, it is now, quite strangely and fairly suddenly, acceptable for someone like Jared Taylor to be lionized by the allegedly mainstream American Thinker. (It should be noted that I don’t like American Thinker, having been banned from commenting on their site, for at least 5 years. I may have mentioned that one of their main correspondents was also a racist.) Jeff Kipkes fawning profile of Tayor, of American Renaissance, also mentions that neo-Nazis like Kevin MacDonald are not invited to the annual conference Taylor hosts in conjunction with the CofCC – Council of Conservative Citizens. Attendees must wear coats, ties, with women properly dressed, like ladies and gentlemen. Nothing is mentioned of the fact that the annual conference is promoted by the ‘sister’ organization of both groups: Stormfront. They are also BFFs with Tom Tancredo, Pat Buchannan, John Tanton, Peter Brimelow (VDare), and so forth and so on. Don Black, who runs Stormfront is a regular feature at the conferences. Ron Paul has been tight with Don Black for ages.
For some strange reason, these individuals now feel that they are quite empowered, I suspect because the grand-daddy racist organization of them all, the John Birch Society, is now basically mainstream, complete with Koch money and influence. From there, you get the influence of R. J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism. Below is a little example of what they think of anyone who dares question their political views. You see, to them, no liberal can be a Christian.
Before I go any farther, I want to make one final statement on the Sterling incident and leave it at that. I was listening to the interview of Sterling’s skanky mistress, when something caused me to listen, more carefully. She alleges that Sterling asked her to take conversations because his memory was failing. Yikes! When a person reaches his age, memory can fail because of medication. It also fails because of dementia and Alzheimer’s. When a person has Alzheimer’s Disease, they say things that aren’t politically correct, or even socially viable. Stuff comes out of a person’s mouth that may have been buried by layers of manners. Then again the brain short circuits and stuff just comes out, and there is nothing a family can do about it. Frankly, I think Sterling is a racist. But, I also noticed the remark about the memory.
My father is into Stage 5 of Alzheimer’s. He has never been a bigot. I come from a family (both sides) where racism and bigotry was not tolerated – even when it was in vogue. There were words that were never part of our vocabulary – racial slurs of any fashion were not tolerated. They still aren’t. And, yes, I’m quite proud of that part of my heritage. BUT – now that we are into Stage 5, there are times when a specific ethnic ‘slur’ comes out of his mouth (and it is not about race). He does not intend it to be a slur. He thinks it’s fine. You can’t argue with someone who has a brain being chewed up like a PAC Man game. I say this because any attempt to discipline or for someone to even try destroying him for alleged bigotry would be criminal, in itself.
There are times when someone physically, due to brain disease, impaired judgement, or illness cannot help their bigotry or racism. When this happens, to even hold them accountable is wrong. It, in itself is a form of bigotry. The way people suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease are treated is yet another form of bigotry that is only growing worse. It is something my family is only now beginning to discover. If a person has AD, they are considered sub-human, lacking in sensibilities, and completely valueless to society. They are to be locked up in senior day care centers (if they are that lucky) to be stripped of all dignity, humanity, and value as people. When they are put into homes and care centers to live without the love of a family it is even worse. The reason you put them into such a center, according to someone I know, who is quite bitter about what happened to her father, is to let them be ignored, they break a hip, and are dead in a month or so. It’s an easy way to get rid of them.
Sure, they drive you crazy. Saturday evening, driving my parents home after dinner, I wanted to stop and scream. All my father could do was complain about the direction we were driving. My mother and I made a mistake when feeding him. We did not give him coffee or dessert. When you have someone suffering from AD, when they have a meal of heavy protein and complex pastas and carbs, if you don’t tank them up on caffeine and sugar, you pay for it, later. This is completely contrary to what is advised for dealing with AD.
They say someone with AD needs to wear lose clothing, not watch television, not to do such things as go out for a meal or shopping, only deal with a few people at a time, and stay away from stimulation. This is pure, absolute bigotry of the worst order. The reason so many people with AD are so miserable, depressed, and so difficult to deal with is because they are being treated this way. I mention this because the is the single worst complaint I have against the Reagan family. The worst thing they ever did, to those suffering from AD, was to hide the former president. People now think that, as soon as someone is diagnosed with AD, they are to be locked away, like the mentally ill were treated during less enlightened days.
This now brings me to the far left. Please, don’t think that only conservatives are bigots. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Right now, they are just getting all be bad press – and deservedly so. The other day Paul Rosenberg via Salon, wrote one of the most one sided, over the top, and shall I say ‘bigoted’ articles I’ve read in ages, about the the right. Evidently someone did an extremely flawed study that makes the blanket statement that conservatives are evil, and psychopaths. One of the references is a book, by Eric A. Havelock, The Liberal Temper in Greek Politics, written in 1957! This is where I groan and state please deliver me from such academic studies! One critique after another states that Havelock based his so-called mathematical formula entirely on the works of Homer. LORD HAVE MERCY!
And so thanks to Havelock, we’re going to tar and feather, and proclaim that all conservatives are psychopaths and evil? What is rather fascinating is that, as anyone who has truly studied the problems inherent in today’s version of the far right knows, and Rosenberg even uses the piece as a reference, that we’re dealing with libertarians NOT conservatives. The references is to free-marketers such as Friedrich Hayek (a total and complete libertarian) and their lack of morality. They have none. The bias though, is in thinking that Hayek was conservative. He was libertarian, influencing the financial philosophies of both Reagan and Thatcher.
“…Hayek wrote an essay, “Why I Am Not a Conservative” (included as an appendix to The Constitution of Liberty), in which he disparaged conservatism for its inability to adapt to changing human realities or to offer a positive political program, remarking, “Conservatism is only as good as what it conserves”. Although he noted that modern day conservatism shares many opinions on economics with classical liberals, particularly a belief in the free market, he believed it’s because conservatism wants to “stand still”, whereas liberalism embraces the free market because it “wants to go somewhere”. Hayek identified himself as a classical liberal but noted that in the United States it had become almost impossible to use “liberal” in its original definition, and the term “libertarian” has been used instead….”
Without going into the article, which is fatally flawed because Rosenberg takes for granted the fact that the 2003 study is also flawed, when viewing it from today’s point of view. The study points out that classic political conservatives are resistant to change. That’s also irrelevant for today. The group now ‘targeted’ as conservative are militantly libertarian and want a tremendous amount of change to the point of being abjectly revolutionary. He also points to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. The idea is to tar all conservatives as psychopaths by using the check list.
- glib and superficial charm
- grandiosity
- need for stimulation
- pathological lying
- cunning and manipulating,
- lack of remorse
- callousness
- poor behavioral controls
- impulsiveness
- irresponsibility
- denial
- parasitic lifestyle
- sexual promiscuity
- early behavior problems
- lack of realistic long-term goals
- failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- many short-term marital relationships
- juvenile delinquency
- revocation of conditional release
- criminal versatility
Really? The very list of characteristics of psychopaths disproves Rosenberg’s truly bigoted article. The very nature of ‘conservative’ precludes many of the characteristics on the list. Business people, on the other hand – are your typical psychopaths. Picture Mitt Romney, Charles Koch, David Koch, and so forth and so on. Rosenberg further expressed his bigotry and his abject journalistic bias when he makes his article read that anyone who is a conservative is a psychopath. Had he done his homework, he would discover that 1 percent – ONE PERCENT – 1% of the population of the United States are Psychopaths. CEOs are 400% more likely to be psychopaths than other individuals. In the United States, according to Gallup in 2014, conservatives made up 38% of the population of the United States, with 34% moderate and 23% liberal. If you extend the numbers, then roughly one half of one percent of conservatives are psychopaths. Only 70% of Republicans identify themselves as conservative.
Liberal bias, bigotry? It is at work, right in this article, and in the minds of the people who commented on the piece, declaring that all conservatives are psychopaths. That would make roughly 38% of the country to be psychopaths. No, it isn’t racist, but it is extremely bigoted.
I don’t like bigots. I don’t care if they are Christian, atheist, white, black, liberal, conservative, or libertarian. They’re all the same, arrogant and incapable of comprehending that there are other ideas in the world. Case in point – global warming. They can’t conceptualize the possibility that climate change is caused, primarily by geological factors such as volcanic eruptions. In order to legitimize their argument, they say that global warming causes volcanic eruptions, which defies all known geological explanations.
Bigotry is bigotry is bigotry, no matter who are what. Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of hearing liberals damn George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and my friend, Lindsey Graham. I’m sick and tired of hearing conservatives damn Barack & Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. I’m sick of hearing nasty remarks about Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Jeb Bush. These are good and decent men and women. Instead of going after the good people, try some of the real jerks like Michele Bachmann, Ted Cruz, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and so forth and so on.
