☠enghis's Blog

☠enghis Commented on Persecution Politics: Nazi Fever by ☠enghis

2009-11-06T18:54:02Z

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☠enghis Commented on Persecution Politics: Nazi Fever by ☠enghis

2009-11-06T18:31:17Z

Yep, and it's getting worse. I showed the video to my girlfriend before posting it, and she responded, "I didn't know that there was so much."

I think that the most appropriate adjective for this stuff, especially those Dachau photos, is simply, "shameless." And yet, very, very few on the right, even among the moderates, have had the courage or decency to express any sense of shame.

☠enghis recommended The Great Divide by TheraP

2009-11-06T15:35:08Z

☠enghis recommended Fort Hood - Let The Sunshine In by quinn esq

2009-11-06T14:11:00Z

☠enghis recommended I'm a SciMoChristoSatanIslaJew and you must pay for my spiritual & Religious health care by William K. Wolfrum

2009-11-05T17:26:37Z

☠enghis recommended Congressman Alan Grayson Risking His Seat by Orlando

2009-11-05T17:01:24Z

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-05T03:45:15Z

Thanks. This one is already in the archive. But keep 'em coming. (For the record, I don't buy her association of Christan martyr mythology with persecution complexes. Martyrs seek suffering to demonstrate their piety. But those with persecution complexes only pretend to suffer. They seek the psychological trappings of suffering but not suffering itself.)

☠enghis recommended How the Right's Message is Self-Defeating by MBH

2009-11-04T00:49:12Z

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T21:07:53Z

I think that people are underestimating just how successful the NY-23 campaign was. An extremist no-name third party candidate beat out the Republican. That's almost unheard of. I don't expect the result to produce the emergence of a third party, but it will pressure other Republicans to tack even further to the right than they already were.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:46:35Z

Wow, just read the Donohue piece in full and added it to my archive. I can't believe that WaPo published that. It is the worst that I have seen from him and embraces every element of the classic persecution narrative, from ACLU plots against religion to Christ-hating gay pervs.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:30:40Z

PS Thanks for the Donahue link. In Kansas, Frank notes that Con dogma has created common ground for evangelicals and Catholics, once bitter enemies, and brought many traditionally Democratic Catholics over to the Republican side. There is no better example than Donahue, who is the Catholic equivalent of Robertson/Falwell/Dobson.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:25:52Z

Eloquently put

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:24:28Z

The Dems are not in any immediate trouble, and analysts are correct that Con dominance of the Republican party will probably make Republicans less electable in general. The problem is that the Republicans who do get elected will be more conservative, more partisan, and more angry. That's bad enough for the nation if they're in the legislative minority and far worse if they manage to gain a legislative majority or the presidency.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:14:44Z

It is already working everywhere. FOX has fans (short for "fanatics") in every corner of the country. Maybe not enough fans to win elections everywhere, but you don't have to win all the elections to take control of the Republican Party.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T20:12:17Z

I agree with Elvis. That said, I can't see someone as paranoid as Glenn Beck winning the presidency, but that's not how the game works exactly. The Cons will try to control the primary and select a Palin or a Huckabee rather than a McCain-type. They got their VP candidate last time around, and they may well get their P the next time. The candidate wouldn't talk about secret fascist revolutionaries, but he or she would be even more conservative than G.W. and would work aggressively against gay marriage, abortion rights, and evolution, to name a few of the Cons' favorite issues. Yes, the Con platform is out of step with the mainstream, but a charming enough Con who capitalizes on potential dissatisfaction with Democrats could win an election.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T18:14:13Z

What the election revealed came not in the final vote, but in the days before. The Hoffman-Scozzafava battle was straight out of the pages of What's the Matter with Kansas, as is Glenn Beck's paranoia and the Sarah Palin phenomenon. Cons vs. Mods, paranoid conspiracies, persecution narratives--it's all there. NY-23 is just evidence that Kansas has gone national.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T17:30:04Z

Christie may not be particularly moderate, but he isn't a Con. You won't hear him praising Beck or advocating persecution narratives. He's a Republican establishment type.

PS Growing up in Iowa, we referred to the region as the prairielands. But maybe Kansas has rejected such language as 1800-speak.

☠enghis Commented on What's the Matter with New York? What Doug Hoffman's Election Loss Means for America's Future by ☠enghis

2009-11-04T17:14:32Z

New York is not an isolated incident, just the latest example of a trend that goes back over a decade. I have been documenting it in my persecution politics posts, and if you read Frank's book, you'll see exactly how it played out in Kansas. In short, the pieces aren't missing at all. Look around.

☠enghis recommended Persecution Politics: Beck Predicts Dollar Collapse, American Land Sold to China and Russia, Polar Bears Executed by 'Ivan' by ☠enghis

2009-10-29T00:17:02Z

☠enghis Commented on Persecution Politics: Bill Kristol Says, Rage On! by ☠enghis

2009-10-27T16:50:13Z

I have many, many things to say about it, as I've been researching it lately. The short answer is that the right-wing paranoia started long before Obama came to office. Its roots lie in the John Birch Society anti-communist paranoia, but the white-Christian-persecution narrative arose from the crucible of desegregation, gun control, and Roe v. Wade in the 70's and 80's. This narrative moved from the fringe to the mainstream through talk radio and cable news. For instance, if you look closely at FOX's war on Christmas from 2004, you'll see people like Bill O'Reilly presenting wild conspiracy theories about a secret plot between George Soros, the ACLU, and MediaMatters.org to destroy Christmas in order to create "a brave new progressive world." Thus, Obama's election has only inflamed an ideology that had been quietly spreading for many years.

In contrast, modern leftist conspiracism, which tends towards fear of CIA manipulation, has been on the decline since the post-Nixon reforms. There was a resurgence during the Bush years due to the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, but the references to the "military-industrial complex" seemed almost dated. There was no living doctrine upon which to draw.