22 thoughts on “I Pulled At The Thread Of My Ideology”
Anne Applebaum, who I think has received praise here in the past, has a piece in the Atlantic which is sort of the mirror image of the National Review piece you linked to, Rand. It is about how the right wing anti-authoritarians in Poland, Hungary, and the US have unraveled into a threat to freedom.
Supposedly her books are worthwhile, but her columns are so vacuous that I tend to doubt it.
OK I got through about a third of that thing. I’ll leave aside any discussion about any pathology involved in seeing a piece inspired by 9/11 and concluding “here’s a mirror image” and linking to a sorrowful screed about Poland’s Law and Justice party revealing a return to authoritarianism. The shout out to John McCain was especially precious.
My stopping point was here: What’s more, the refugee wave that has hit other European countries has not been felt here at all. There are no migrant camps, and there is no Islamist terrorism, or terrorism of any kind.
So the polish people could be excused for electing nationalist
politicians if there were crime related to overcrowded migrant camps and Islamic terrorism, but we don’t have that! How can my fellow citizens be such stupid troglodytes as to look at other countries and conclude that if we don’t change our ways that is what we can expect! Clearly we need to change our electorate somehow.
Skipping to the end I see that she apparently blames her adopted country’s woefully misguided embrace of the idea that elected leaders should act in ways that benefit the citizens of their country first and foremost on… well, here’s another quote: Sooner or later, the losers of the competition were always going to challenge the value of the competition itself.
Too many losers!
It may be that democracy has to be bent or business corrupted or court systems wrecked in order to achieve that state. But if you believe that you are one of those deserving people, you will do it.
“Court systems wrecked”. Yeah, probably could have just skipped to there to begin with. Actually consuming a full third of that was complete overkill.
So Anne Applebaum recommends the corruption and wrecking of democracy? Sounds like a good reason to vote against those she suggests will do it. Thank you Curt for providing the context.
Bob-1
Do you have no sense whatsoever? You just read what you want that supports your worldview and spout it back as if it has some great weight. Utter nonsense.
Free press? A joke. The fascists are of the left and always have been, the modern press is their tool. Even NRO is infected, never mind The Atlantic. Conspiracy theories – far too many of those have been proved no longer theoretical.
Their democracy is a mob and the enemy of liberty. Why do you suppose the USA was made as a republic and not a democracy?
Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now. Men with the guts to stand up to your madness. Men like those in charge of Poland and Hungary, and perhaps even President Trump.
Dudes:
Liberal Equivalency
America, it’s citizens, and citizens of many other countries who were working side by side in those Towers deserved to die because Viktor Orban.
“America, it’s citizens, and citizens of many other countries who were working side by side in those Towers deserved to die because Viktor Orban.”
If you seriously think I was saying something disgusting and offensive like that, I”m really sorry, because I certainly wasn’t.
I do believe Orban’s style of governance is a nightmare for libertarians and anyone else who believes in freedom and democracy, but not in the sense that murderous scum like ISIS & Al Queda are nightmares. But I believe you know I wasn’t suggesting any sort of equivalency. I believe you know I was simply referring to the idea that just aa a radical can become a conservative, a anti-communist hero like Orban can become someone who tries to create a one-party state which, among other authoritarian sins, rigs the constitution and the justice system so that it will remain entrenched.
Well, that’s the problem with deliberately vague moral equivalence arguments. Someone might (or might not for that matter) get the wrong impression.
Orban can become someone who tries to create a one-party state which, among other authoritarian sins, rigs the constitution and the justice system so that it will remain entrenched.
So you are saying he is a Democrat? 😉
Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now. Men with the guts to stand up to your madness.
The brutal authoritarianism of reducing regulations, lowering taxes, tarnishing the law by appointing judges that respect it, and fighting against the government to reduce its power.
“The brutal authoritarianism of reducing regulations, lowering taxes, tarnishing the law by appointing judges that respect it, and fighting against the government to reduce its power.”
I can just imagine Bob-1 responding: “Yeah, that’s it! That\s the kind of authoritarianism we should be fighting!”
You know, because Bob-1 is a State fellator.
“The fascists are of the left and always have been, ”
“Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now.”
LOL
The fascists in Italy and Germany were just another flavor of Marxism. The leftists have tried to say that the NAZI were not marxists, despite the name and the ideology, because they fought with the socialists. But this was just left on left violence for control over the marxist movement in Germany.
Anyone who doubts that marxists fight with each other over control need only look at Trotsky.
And clearly you don’t understand the joke in your second quote.
I’m always wary of people trying to link the “right wing” in Europe and the USA. Aside from applying a label, I haven’t ever seen a policy analysis that goes beyond stereotypes.
“Attacks” on the free press is really rich. The press has functioned as nothing less than the mouthpiece of the Democrat party in the USA and global leftism in the EU. Freedom of the press is based on the freedom of speech and that means that we have the right to criticize the media. Our media is trash and deserves criticism.
I am extremely wary of any usage of the terms “right wing”, “Fascist”, or “Racist” these days.
“The press has functioned as nothing less than the mouthpiece of the Democrat party ”
Wow Murdoch is a democrat .. a libtard no doubt I would imagine that Rush, Hannity, Orielly, Beck, Savage, Bannon, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc must be a part of that libtard conspiracy … gosh .. just that one single democrat messenger..
you know how silly this sounds? Gosh sounds like the special victims unit here…
None of those people are “the press.”
Vladislaw is in deep denial about his fascist roots.
Congratulations for finding one cable network and a handful of radio shows.
Meanwhile there are ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Vice, Salon, Vox, TYT, ProPublica, Buzzfeed, WaPo, Time, Newsweek, ect ect ect that function as the propaganda wing of the Democrat party and collude with politicians and partisan government workers to subvert our Republic.
Then you have FB, Twitter, Google search and Youtube controlling what people are allowed to read, watch, and say.
What do they call it when the party controls business without owning the business?
Best article I have read in a long time. Thanks Rand.
One is instantly reminded of the late Tom Wolfe’s famous line to the effect that, to the American intellectual Left, “The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.”
Europe is a congeries of blood and soil nationalisms. Xenophobia and anti-semitism have very deep roots there. That they repeatedly bubble to the political surface in Europe is hardly a surprise. Nearly every nation conquered by the Nazis contributed a division of volunteer troops to the Waffen SS. More than one division in some cases.
Applebaum does her case no favors by describing even European fascism as a “right-wing” excrescence. Fascism in Italy was a form of national socialism invented by Benito Mussolini who, prior to his move to become a latter-day Caesar, was perhaps the leading light of the international socialist movement. Hitler modeled most of the non-racialist portions of Nazism on Mussolini’s brainchild. Fascism also had a lot of admirers here in the U.S., all of them Leftists. One of FDR’s agency heads even had a portrait of Mussolini hanging in his office. The American Left opposed Italian and German national socialism when both began rounding up and killing international socialists (i.e., communists). They turned on a dime and gave back nine cents in change when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. They executed another 180 – back to their original anti-fascism – when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. To the Left, “right-wing” is a catch-all for anything opposing international socialism (i.e., communism). The actual completely leftist origins of fascism are vigorously denied.
Applebaum’s pathetic attempts to indict the Trump administration as somehow “fascist” are equally risible. Especially the bit about immigrant crime being a “fabrication.”
The new Polish government may well be as authoritarian and distasteful as Applebaum says it is, but she has been a consequential player in Polish politics and has lately been a loser at same. I’m not inclined to give her opinions of those who defeated her any more credence than I do the opinions of Hillary Clinton anent Donald Trump.
Anne Applebaum, who I think has received praise here in the past, has a piece in the Atlantic which is sort of the mirror image of the National Review piece you linked to, Rand. It is about how the right wing anti-authoritarians in Poland, Hungary, and the US have unraveled into a threat to freedom.
“A Warning From Europe: The Worst Is Yet to Come
Polarization. Conspiracy theories. Attacks on the free press. An obsession with loyalty. Recent events in the United States follow a pattern Europeans know all too well.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/poland-polarization/568324/
I have never had any use for Anne Applebaum.
Supposedly her books are worthwhile, but her columns are so vacuous that I tend to doubt it.
OK I got through about a third of that thing. I’ll leave aside any discussion about any pathology involved in seeing a piece inspired by 9/11 and concluding “here’s a mirror image” and linking to a sorrowful screed about Poland’s Law and Justice party revealing a return to authoritarianism. The shout out to John McCain was especially precious.
My stopping point was here:
What’s more, the refugee wave that has hit other European countries has not been felt here at all. There are no migrant camps, and there is no Islamist terrorism, or terrorism of any kind.
So the polish people could be excused for electing nationalist
politicians if there were crime related to overcrowded migrant camps and Islamic terrorism, but we don’t have that! How can my fellow citizens be such stupid troglodytes as to look at other countries and conclude that if we don’t change our ways that is what we can expect! Clearly we need to change our electorate somehow.
Skipping to the end I see that she apparently blames her adopted country’s woefully misguided embrace of the idea that elected leaders should act in ways that benefit the citizens of their country first and foremost on… well, here’s another quote:
Sooner or later, the losers of the competition were always going to challenge the value of the competition itself.
Too many losers!
It may be that democracy has to be bent or business corrupted or court systems wrecked in order to achieve that state. But if you believe that you are one of those deserving people, you will do it.
“Court systems wrecked”. Yeah, probably could have just skipped to there to begin with. Actually consuming a full third of that was complete overkill.
So Anne Applebaum recommends the corruption and wrecking of democracy? Sounds like a good reason to vote against those she suggests will do it. Thank you Curt for providing the context.
Bob-1
Do you have no sense whatsoever? You just read what you want that supports your worldview and spout it back as if it has some great weight. Utter nonsense.
Free press? A joke. The fascists are of the left and always have been, the modern press is their tool. Even NRO is infected, never mind The Atlantic. Conspiracy theories – far too many of those have been proved no longer theoretical.
Their democracy is a mob and the enemy of liberty. Why do you suppose the USA was made as a republic and not a democracy?
Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now. Men with the guts to stand up to your madness. Men like those in charge of Poland and Hungary, and perhaps even President Trump.
Dudes:
Liberal Equivalency
America, it’s citizens, and citizens of many other countries who were working side by side in those Towers deserved to die because Viktor Orban.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovich
https://twitter.com/CalebJHull/status/1017874476653056000/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1017874476653056000&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.inquisitr.com%2F4988675%2Fcroatian-president-kolinda-grabar-kitarovics-hot-bikini-body-breaks-the-internet%2F
is as much a threat to the World order as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“America, it’s citizens, and citizens of many other countries who were working side by side in those Towers deserved to die because Viktor Orban.”
If you seriously think I was saying something disgusting and offensive like that, I”m really sorry, because I certainly wasn’t.
I do believe Orban’s style of governance is a nightmare for libertarians and anyone else who believes in freedom and democracy, but not in the sense that murderous scum like ISIS & Al Queda are nightmares. But I believe you know I wasn’t suggesting any sort of equivalency. I believe you know I was simply referring to the idea that just aa a radical can become a conservative, a anti-communist hero like Orban can become someone who tries to create a one-party state which, among other authoritarian sins, rigs the constitution and the justice system so that it will remain entrenched.
Well, that’s the problem with deliberately vague moral equivalence arguments. Someone might (or might not for that matter) get the wrong impression.
Orban can become someone who tries to create a one-party state which, among other authoritarian sins, rigs the constitution and the justice system so that it will remain entrenched.
So you are saying he is a Democrat? 😉
Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now. Men with the guts to stand up to your madness.
The brutal authoritarianism of reducing regulations, lowering taxes, tarnishing the law by appointing judges that respect it, and fighting against the government to reduce its power.
“The brutal authoritarianism of reducing regulations, lowering taxes, tarnishing the law by appointing judges that respect it, and fighting against the government to reduce its power.”
I can just imagine Bob-1 responding: “Yeah, that’s it! That\s the kind of authoritarianism we should be fighting!”
You know, because Bob-1 is a State fellator.
“The fascists are of the left and always have been, ”
“Right-wing authoritarians – another laugh. We could really benefit from a few of those about now.”
LOL
The fascists in Italy and Germany were just another flavor of Marxism. The leftists have tried to say that the NAZI were not marxists, despite the name and the ideology, because they fought with the socialists. But this was just left on left violence for control over the marxist movement in Germany.
Anyone who doubts that marxists fight with each other over control need only look at Trotsky.
And clearly you don’t understand the joke in your second quote.
I’m always wary of people trying to link the “right wing” in Europe and the USA. Aside from applying a label, I haven’t ever seen a policy analysis that goes beyond stereotypes.
“Attacks” on the free press is really rich. The press has functioned as nothing less than the mouthpiece of the Democrat party in the USA and global leftism in the EU. Freedom of the press is based on the freedom of speech and that means that we have the right to criticize the media. Our media is trash and deserves criticism.
I am extremely wary of any usage of the terms “right wing”, “Fascist”, or “Racist” these days.
“The press has functioned as nothing less than the mouthpiece of the Democrat party ”
Wow Murdoch is a democrat .. a libtard no doubt I would imagine that Rush, Hannity, Orielly, Beck, Savage, Bannon, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc must be a part of that libtard conspiracy … gosh .. just that one single democrat messenger..
you know how silly this sounds? Gosh sounds like the special victims unit here…
None of those people are “the press.”
Vladislaw is in deep denial about his fascist roots.
Congratulations for finding one cable network and a handful of radio shows.
Meanwhile there are ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Vice, Salon, Vox, TYT, ProPublica, Buzzfeed, WaPo, Time, Newsweek, ect ect ect that function as the propaganda wing of the Democrat party and collude with politicians and partisan government workers to subvert our Republic.
Then you have FB, Twitter, Google search and Youtube controlling what people are allowed to read, watch, and say.
What do they call it when the party controls business without owning the business?
Best article I have read in a long time. Thanks Rand.
One is instantly reminded of the late Tom Wolfe’s famous line to the effect that, to the American intellectual Left, “The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.”
Europe is a congeries of blood and soil nationalisms. Xenophobia and anti-semitism have very deep roots there. That they repeatedly bubble to the political surface in Europe is hardly a surprise. Nearly every nation conquered by the Nazis contributed a division of volunteer troops to the Waffen SS. More than one division in some cases.
Applebaum does her case no favors by describing even European fascism as a “right-wing” excrescence. Fascism in Italy was a form of national socialism invented by Benito Mussolini who, prior to his move to become a latter-day Caesar, was perhaps the leading light of the international socialist movement. Hitler modeled most of the non-racialist portions of Nazism on Mussolini’s brainchild. Fascism also had a lot of admirers here in the U.S., all of them Leftists. One of FDR’s agency heads even had a portrait of Mussolini hanging in his office. The American Left opposed Italian and German national socialism when both began rounding up and killing international socialists (i.e., communists). They turned on a dime and gave back nine cents in change when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. They executed another 180 – back to their original anti-fascism – when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. To the Left, “right-wing” is a catch-all for anything opposing international socialism (i.e., communism). The actual completely leftist origins of fascism are vigorously denied.
Applebaum’s pathetic attempts to indict the Trump administration as somehow “fascist” are equally risible. Especially the bit about immigrant crime being a “fabrication.”
The new Polish government may well be as authoritarian and distasteful as Applebaum says it is, but she has been a consequential player in Polish politics and has lately been a loser at same. I’m not inclined to give her opinions of those who defeated her any more credence than I do the opinions of Hillary Clinton anent Donald Trump.